Test Automation Contract Job Trends in England

Automated Testing
UK > England

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in England requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 4 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
4 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 47 45 54
Rank change year-on-year -2 +9 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,471 1,330 1,476
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.72% 4.35% 3.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.28% 4.95% 4.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,005 894 1,068
10th Percentile £325 £338 £388
25th Percentile £400 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -6.98% -6.52%
75th Percentile £588 £603 £638
90th Percentile £688 £700 £727
UK median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -5.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 5 51
10th Percentile £42.39 £41.00 £34.75
25th Percentile £50.00 £42.50 £45.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 £50.00 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +30.00% -33.33% +25.00%
75th Percentile £67.00 £63.75 £90.00
90th Percentile - £78.00 -
UK median hourly rate £61.97 £45.00 £75.00
% change year-on-year +37.71% -40.00% +25.00%

All Process and Methodology Skills
England

Test Automation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in England.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 27,869 26,864 33,636
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 89.46% 87.86% 88.74%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,747 16,503 22,915
10th Percentile £300 £313 £313
25th Percentile £405 £417 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £545
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -3.67% -0.91%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £533
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,797 957 1,425
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.24 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.87 £20.24 £19.06
Median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
Median % change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +18.90%
75th Percentile £50.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.35 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.75 £43.63
% change year-on-year -23.21% -24.93% +24.64%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in England

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Test Automation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in England.

Test Automation job vacancy trend in England

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Test Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in England over the 6 months to 4 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in England

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in England

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Test Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in England citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram in England

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation in England over the 6 months to 4 December 2025.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in England

Test Automation
Contract Job Locations in England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Test Automation within the England region over the 6 months to 4 December 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
London -3 698 £500 -4.76% 151
North of England -2 287 £487 +8.28% 88
Midlands +18 157 £500 +2.04% 54
South East -23 148 £484 -3.30% 170
Yorkshire -2 131 £516 +14.72% 18
West Midlands +14 124 £515 -2.60% 38
North West 0 115 £402 -10.67% 56
South West +4 85 £537 -2.36% 65
East of England +6 49 £500 +25.00% 52
North East +17 43 £500 +19.76% 14
East Midlands +3 33 £360 -20.88% 16
Test Automation
UK

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in England by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 84 (5.71%) Confluence
2 53 (3.60%) SAS
3 27 (1.84%) Apache Spark
4 19 (1.29%) Apache Airflow
5 15 (1.02%) Apache
6 13 (0.88%) SharePoint
7 8 (0.54%) Oracle Application Server
8 7 (0.48%) CMS
9 5 (0.34%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.27%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.20%) CICS
11 3 (0.20%) JBoss
11 3 (0.20%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.20%) nginx
11 3 (0.20%) WebLogic
12 2 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 2 (0.14%) IIS
12 2 (0.14%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.14%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.14%) WordPress
Applications
1 21 (1.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.48%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.27%) Simulink
5 4 (0.27%) Windchill
6 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.14%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.14%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (1.22%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.27%) SAP HR
3 4 (0.27%) SAP PLM
4 3 (0.20%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.14%) Eagle PACE
5 2 (0.14%) Markit EDM
5 2 (0.14%) Maximo
5 2 (0.14%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.14%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.14%) Shopify
6 1 (0.068%) Algo Collateral
6 1 (0.068%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.068%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.068%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.068%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.068%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.068%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.068%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.068%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 390 (26.51%) Azure
2 346 (23.52%) AWS
3 201 (13.66%) GitHub
4 161 (10.94%) Azure DevOps
5 134 (9.11%) GCP
6 106 (7.21%) Serverless
7 97 (6.59%) GitHub Actions
8 49 (3.33%) OpenShift
9 46 (3.13%) Power Platform
10 43 (2.92%) AWS Lambda
11 41 (2.79%) Amazon S3
12 38 (2.58%) Azure AKS
13 35 (2.38%) Snowflake
14 33 (2.24%) SaaS
15 31 (2.11%) AWS CloudFormation
16 27 (1.84%) Azure Monitor
16 27 (1.84%) Entra ID
17 25 (1.70%) Amazon EKS
18 24 (1.63%) Azure Data Factory
19 23 (1.56%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 38 (2.58%) Firewall
2 32 (2.18%) Wireshark
3 29 (1.97%) HTTP
4 22 (1.50%) HTTPS
5 20 (1.36%) SSL
6 16 (1.09%) Network Security
6 16 (1.09%) TCP/IP
6 16 (1.09%) VPN
7 15 (1.02%) SD-WAN
8 12 (0.82%) Ethernet
8 12 (0.82%) Multicast
9 11 (0.75%) DNS
9 11 (0.75%) WAN
10 7 (0.48%) AMQP
11 6 (0.41%) FTP
11 6 (0.41%) Internet
12 5 (0.34%) Bluetooth
12 5 (0.34%) Broadband
12 5 (0.34%) Cisco IPT
12 5 (0.34%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 93 (6.32%) PostgreSQL
2 81 (5.51%) NoSQL
3 68 (4.62%) MongoDB
4 64 (4.35%) Relational Database
5 54 (3.67%) SQL Server
6 40 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
7 28 (1.90%) Pentaho
8 26 (1.77%) Power BI
9 22 (1.50%) BigQuery
10 21 (1.43%) Data Lake
10 21 (1.43%) Oracle Database
11 19 (1.29%) Big Data
12 17 (1.16%) Amazon RDS
13 15 (1.02%) Redis
13 15 (1.02%) SAS Enterprise Guide
14 13 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
14 13 (0.88%) MySQL
15 12 (0.82%) DynamoDB
16 11 (0.75%) Apache Cassandra
16 11 (0.75%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 280 (19.03%) Git
2 276 (18.76%) JIRA
3 259 (17.61%) Jenkins
4 232 (15.77%) Selenium
5 184 (12.51%) GitLab
6 124 (8.43%) Cucumber
7 98 (6.66%) Postman
8 96 (6.53%) Cypress.io
9 78 (5.30%) JUnit
10 58 (3.94%) REST Assured
11 55 (3.74%) JMeter
12 50 (3.40%) Bitbucket
13 40 (2.72%) SonarQube
14 34 (2.31%) Maven
15 28 (1.90%) SpecFlow
16 26 (1.77%) Mockito
17 25 (1.70%) Sonatype Nexus
18 23 (1.56%) Gatling
19 22 (1.50%) TestRail
20 21 (1.43%) Gradle
General
1 417 (28.35%) Social Skills
2 248 (16.86%) Finance
3 166 (11.28%) Public Sector
4 160 (10.88%) Analytical Skills
5 114 (7.75%) Banking
6 27 (1.84%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (1.77%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 25 (1.70%) Telecoms
9 23 (1.56%) Front Office
10 22 (1.50%) Pharmaceutical
11 20 (1.36%) Investment Banking
12 19 (1.29%) Presentation Skills
13 17 (1.16%) Financial Institution
14 16 (1.09%) Manufacturing
15 13 (0.88%) Organisational Skills
16 11 (0.75%) Aerospace
16 11 (0.75%) Marketing
16 11 (0.75%) Military
16 11 (0.75%) Retail
17 10 (0.68%) Legal
Job Titles
1 329 (22.37%) Developer
2 232 (15.77%) Senior
3 171 (11.62%) Tester
4 142 (9.65%) Test Engineer
5 119 (8.09%) Lead
6 103 (7.00%) Java Developer
7 88 (5.98%) Automation Tester
8 77 (5.23%) Analyst
9 76 (5.17%) Software Engineer
10 64 (4.35%) Data Engineer
11 60 (4.08%) Test Analyst
12 56 (3.81%) QA Engineer
12 56 (3.81%) Senior Developer
13 54 (3.67%) Test Automation Engineer
14 47 (3.20%) Automation Engineer
14 47 (3.20%) DevOps Engineer
15 44 (2.99%) Test Leader
16 41 (2.79%) Test Manager
17 34 (2.31%) Full-Stack Developer
18 32 (2.18%) Senior Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 179 (12.17%) REST
2 139 (9.45%) Playwright
3 130 (8.84%) React
4 109 (7.41%) .NET
5 107 (7.27%) RESTful
6 103 (7.00%) Node.js
7 101 (6.87%) Kafka
8 97 (6.59%) Spring
9 94 (6.39%) Spring Boot
10 68 (4.62%) HTML
11 66 (4.49%) CSS
12 62 (4.21%) SOAP
13 61 (4.15%) pytest
14 60 (4.08%) JSON
15 59 (4.01%) XML
16 58 (3.94%) AngularJS
17 44 (2.99%) Jest
18 40 (2.72%) JMS
19 36 (2.45%) Gherkin
20 35 (2.38%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 149 (10.13%) Cloud Native
2 99 (6.73%) Product Ownership
3 51 (3.47%) Mobile App
4 43 (2.92%) Distributed Systems
5 41 (2.79%) Security Posture
6 29 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
7 27 (1.84%) Algorithms
8 23 (1.56%) Enterprise Software
9 22 (1.50%) Data Protection Act
10 20 (1.36%) Public Cloud
11 19 (1.29%) Data Structures
11 19 (1.29%) Onboarding
12 18 (1.22%) Management Information System
13 17 (1.16%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 16 (1.09%) Genomics
14 16 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
14 16 (1.09%) Legacy Systems
14 16 (1.09%) Virtual Team
15 15 (1.02%) Life Science
16 14 (0.95%) Reinsurance
Operating Systems
1 153 (10.40%) Linux
2 70 (4.76%) Windows
3 51 (3.47%) Unix
4 45 (3.06%) Android
5 35 (2.38%) Apple iOS
6 19 (1.29%) Mac OS X
7 17 (1.16%) Windows Server
8 12 (0.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 10 (0.68%) Kali Linux
10 8 (0.54%) CentOS
11 3 (0.20%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.20%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.14%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.14%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.068%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.068%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.068%) VMS
13 1 (0.068%) Windows Embedded Compact
13 1 (0.068%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 725 (49.29%) CI/CD
2 724 (49.22%) Agile
3 555 (37.73%) DevOps
4 388 (26.38%) Problem-Solving
5 235 (15.98%) Microservices
6 223 (15.16%) Scrum
7 217 (14.75%) Containerisation
8 215 (14.62%) Test Strategy
9 204 (13.87%) Continuous Improvement
9 204 (13.87%) TDD
10 188 (12.78%) Test Scripting
11 185 (12.58%) Software Engineering
12 179 (12.17%) Infrastructure as Code
13 157 (10.67%) Software Testing
14 152 (10.33%) SDLC
15 148 (10.06%) Validation
16 147 (9.99%) AI
16 147 (9.99%) BDD
17 144 (9.79%) Analytics
18 126 (8.57%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 430 (29.23%) Python
2 340 (23.11%) Java
3 282 (19.17%) SQL
4 205 (13.94%) JavaScript
5 168 (11.42%) TypeScript
6 150 (10.20%) C#
7 90 (6.12%) Bash
8 59 (4.01%) PowerShell
9 37 (2.52%) C++
10 36 (2.45%) Go
11 24 (1.63%) Kotlin
12 23 (1.56%) Bicep
13 13 (0.88%) PL/SQL
14 12 (0.82%) Perl
15 11 (0.75%) Groovy
16 10 (0.68%) PHP
16 10 (0.68%) Ruby
16 10 (0.68%) Swift
17 9 (0.61%) C
17 9 (0.61%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 361 (24.54%) Security Cleared
2 282 (19.17%) SC Cleared
3 96 (6.53%) Degree
4 56 (3.81%) ISTQB
5 51 (3.47%) Computer Science Degree
6 45 (3.06%) DV Cleared
7 38 (2.58%) BPSS Clearance
8 23 (1.56%) Master's Degree
9 21 (1.43%) AWS Certification
10 18 (1.22%) CISSP
10 18 (1.22%) OSCP
11 16 (1.09%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 14 (0.95%) Azure Certification
12 14 (0.95%) MCP
13 13 (0.88%) CEH
13 13 (0.88%) Cisco Certification
14 12 (0.82%) GPEN
14 12 (0.82%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 10 (0.68%) ISEB
15 10 (0.68%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 326 (22.16%) QA
2 108 (7.34%) Accessibility
3 66 (4.49%) Data Quality
4 36 (2.45%) NIST
5 32 (2.18%) GDPR
6 26 (1.77%) WCAG
7 23 (1.56%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 18 (1.22%) EU AI Act
9 17 (1.16%) NCSC
10 14 (0.95%) PSD2
11 12 (0.82%) PCI DSS
12 11 (0.75%) NIST 800
13 10 (0.68%) SEPA
14 9 (0.61%) ISO 20022
15 8 (0.54%) SLA
16 7 (0.48%) COBIT
16 7 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 6 (0.41%) Actionable Recommendations
17 6 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
18 5 (0.34%) PERC
System Software
1 306 (20.80%) Docker
2 28 (1.90%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.48%) Firmware
4 6 (0.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
6 4 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
7 3 (0.20%) QEMU
7 3 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.20%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (0.20%) zsh
8 2 (0.14%) ISA Server
9 1 (0.068%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.068%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.068%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 274 (18.63%) Kubernetes
2 180 (12.24%) Terraform
3 118 (8.02%) Ansible
4 67 (4.55%) Grafana
5 41 (2.79%) Prometheus
6 16 (1.09%) Nmap
7 15 (1.02%) HP ALM
8 14 (0.95%) CSIRT
8 14 (0.95%) Progress Chef
9 13 (0.88%) NetBackup
10 12 (0.82%) Argo
11 10 (0.68%) Puppet
11 10 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
12 7 (0.48%) Kibana
12 7 (0.48%) Nessus
13 5 (0.34%) Podman
13 5 (0.34%) RSA Archer
14 4 (0.27%) Rancher
14 4 (0.27%) SCCM
15 3 (0.20%) Iperf
Vendors
1 159 (10.81%) Microsoft
2 144 (9.79%) Oracle
3 61 (4.15%) Splunk
4 56 (3.81%) Databricks
4 56 (3.81%) ServiceNow
5 46 (3.13%) Salesforce
5 46 (3.13%) SAP
6 45 (3.06%) Google
7 30 (2.04%) Talend
8 28 (1.90%) Denodo
9 23 (1.56%) VMware
10 21 (1.43%) Cisco
11 20 (1.36%) F5
12 19 (1.29%) webMethods
13 18 (1.22%) Red Hat
14 17 (1.16%) IBM
15 16 (1.09%) Atlassian
15 16 (1.09%) HP
16 15 (1.02%) UiPath
17 14 (0.95%) Workday