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 22 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 45 57
Rank change year-on-year -3 +12 -11
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,668 1,147 1,319
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.45% 4.65% 3.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.15% 5.12% 4.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,121 792 892
10th Percentile £331 £338 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £484 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.20% -4.76% -7.08%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £640
90th Percentile £688 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 55 7 56
10th Percentile £26.53 £38.81 £46.50
25th Percentile £51.88 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +14.54% -7.35% +2.08%
75th Percentile £70.00 £70.01 £84.38
90th Percentile - £76.18 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £61.25
% change year-on-year +14.54% -7.35% +2.08%

All Process & 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 32,413 22,389 32,764
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.42% 90.76% 86.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,785 14,611 21,658
10th Percentile £313 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £615 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,991 834 2,145
10th Percentile £15.50 £15.00 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.87 £21.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £32.50 £34.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.41% +4.62% -13.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.69
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.41 £71.87
UK median hourly rate £30.50 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -6.15% - -7.29%

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 22 March 2026.

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 22 March 2026.

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 22 March 2026. 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 +2 825 £500 -0.50% 193
North of England +5 321 £484 +8.16% 160
Midlands +14 191 £475 +0.32% 76
South East -30 170 £500 -13.04% 164
West Midlands +9 162 £480 -3.52% 47
North West +12 150 £463 +2.78% 82
Yorkshire -14 136 £509 +7.11% 42
South West -11 79 £500 -4.76% 78
East of England +6 60 £570 +19.06% 69
North East +3 38 £425 +11.67% 36
East Midlands -25 29 £400 +8.55% 29
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
1 116 (6.95%) Confluence
2 58 (3.48%) SAS
3 26 (1.56%) Apache Spark
4 15 (0.90%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.78%) SharePoint
6 9 (0.54%) Apache
7 8 (0.48%) Appian
8 6 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 5 (0.30%) CMS
9 5 (0.30%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.24%) Camunda
10 4 (0.24%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.24%) Oracle Application Server
11 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.18%) nginx
12 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 27 (1.62%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.84%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.66%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.12%) Simulink
8 1 (0.060%) Mingle
8 1 (0.060%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 24 (1.44%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.36%) Findur
2 6 (0.36%) Loan IQ
2 6 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.30%) Maximo
3 5 (0.30%) Shopify
3 5 (0.30%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.24%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.18%) BambooHR
6 2 (0.12%) iTrent
6 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.12%) Summit
7 1 (0.060%) CODA-Financials
7 1 (0.060%) Infor M3
7 1 (0.060%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.060%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.060%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 458 (27.46%) Azure
2 414 (24.82%) AWS
3 286 (17.15%) GitHub
4 208 (12.47%) Azure DevOps
5 157 (9.41%) GitHub Actions
6 151 (9.05%) GCP
7 119 (7.13%) Serverless
8 66 (3.96%) OpenShift
9 59 (3.54%) AWS Lambda
10 57 (3.42%) Power Platform
11 56 (3.36%) Amazon S3
12 41 (2.46%) Azure AKS
13 36 (2.16%) Snowflake
14 35 (2.10%) Amazon ECS
15 33 (1.98%) Azure Data Factory
16 32 (1.92%) AWS CloudFormation
17 30 (1.80%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 29 (1.74%) SaaS
19 27 (1.62%) Amazon EKS
19 27 (1.62%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.68%) Firewall
2 16 (0.96%) VPN
2 16 (0.96%) Wireshark
3 15 (0.90%) TCP/IP
4 13 (0.78%) SD-WAN
4 13 (0.78%) WAN
5 12 (0.72%) HTTP
6 11 (0.66%) Network Security
6 11 (0.66%) SSL
7 10 (0.60%) HTTPS
8 8 (0.48%) DNS
8 8 (0.48%) Ethernet
8 8 (0.48%) MPLS
8 8 (0.48%) Multicast
9 7 (0.42%) FTP
9 7 (0.42%) SAN
10 5 (0.30%) AMQP
10 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
10 5 (0.30%) VLAN
11 4 (0.24%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (6.00%) PostgreSQL
2 72 (4.32%) NoSQL
3 69 (4.14%) SQL Server
4 58 (3.48%) MongoDB
5 50 (3.00%) Relational Database
6 49 (2.94%) Data Warehouse
7 32 (1.92%) Power BI
8 31 (1.86%) DynamoDB
9 29 (1.74%) Pentaho
10 24 (1.44%) BigQuery
10 24 (1.44%) Oracle Database
11 23 (1.38%) Tableau
12 21 (1.26%) MySQL
12 21 (1.26%) Redis
13 18 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
13 18 (1.08%) Oracle Reports
14 14 (0.84%) Azure SQL Database
15 13 (0.78%) Amazon Athena
15 13 (0.78%) Data Lake
16 12 (0.72%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 318 (19.06%) JIRA
2 311 (18.65%) Git
3 310 (18.59%) Jenkins
4 246 (14.75%) GitLab
5 242 (14.51%) Selenium
6 142 (8.51%) Cucumber
7 126 (7.55%) Postman
8 104 (6.24%) JUnit
9 95 (5.70%) Cypress.io
10 84 (5.04%) REST Assured
11 77 (4.62%) JMeter
12 40 (2.40%) WebDriver
13 36 (2.16%) SpecFlow
14 34 (2.04%) Maven
15 33 (1.98%) SonarQube
16 31 (1.86%) Gradle
16 31 (1.86%) Zephyr
17 30 (1.80%) Gatling
17 30 (1.80%) TestRail
18 29 (1.74%) Bitbucket
General
1 471 (28.24%) Social Skills
2 301 (18.05%) Finance
3 235 (14.09%) Public Sector
4 193 (11.57%) Analytical Skills
5 145 (8.69%) Banking
6 32 (1.92%) Documentation Skills
7 29 (1.74%) Investment Banking
8 27 (1.62%) Front Office
9 26 (1.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 21 (1.26%) Presentation Skills
10 21 (1.26%) Telecoms
11 19 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
12 16 (0.96%) Pharmaceutical
13 15 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
14 14 (0.84%) Financial Institution
14 14 (0.84%) Military
15 13 (0.78%) Aerospace
16 12 (0.72%) Legal
17 10 (0.60%) Electronics
18 9 (0.54%) Retail
Job Titles
1 350 (20.98%) Developer
2 275 (16.49%) Senior
3 193 (11.57%) Lead
4 185 (11.09%) Tester
5 178 (10.67%) Test Engineer
6 88 (5.28%) Analyst
7 86 (5.16%) Data Engineer
8 85 (5.10%) Automation Tester
9 84 (5.04%) Java Developer
10 80 (4.80%) Test Automation Engineer
11 72 (4.32%) QA Engineer
11 72 (4.32%) Software Engineer
11 72 (4.32%) Test Leader
12 66 (3.96%) Senior Developer
13 61 (3.66%) DevOps Engineer
14 59 (3.54%) Architect
15 54 (3.24%) Test Analyst
16 53 (3.18%) Automation Engineer
16 53 (3.18%) Test Manager
17 41 (2.46%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 207 (12.41%) REST
2 192 (11.51%) Playwright
3 142 (8.51%) React
4 132 (7.91%) Spring
5 121 (7.25%) RESTful
6 119 (7.13%) .NET
7 117 (7.01%) Kafka
8 113 (6.77%) Node.js
9 105 (6.29%) Spring Boot
10 78 (4.68%) pytest
11 58 (3.48%) AngularJS
12 53 (3.18%) OAuth
13 52 (3.12%) HTML
14 50 (3.00%) CSS
15 47 (2.82%) Jest
16 39 (2.34%) Web Services
17 36 (2.16%) WireMock
18 35 (2.10%) GraphQL
19 34 (2.04%) JSON
19 34 (2.04%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 172 (10.31%) Cloud Native
2 105 (6.29%) Product Ownership
3 86 (5.16%) Distributed Systems
4 46 (2.76%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.46%) Algorithms
6 39 (2.34%) Legacy Systems
7 37 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
8 27 (1.62%) Onboarding
8 27 (1.62%) Security Posture
9 25 (1.50%) Self-Motivation
9 25 (1.50%) Virtual Team
10 24 (1.44%) Data Structures
11 23 (1.38%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (1.38%) Equities
12 21 (1.26%) Distributed Architecture
12 21 (1.26%) Greenfield Project
12 21 (1.26%) Management Information System
13 19 (1.14%) Public Cloud
14 16 (0.96%) Fixed Income
14 16 (0.96%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 125 (7.49%) Linux
2 79 (4.74%) Windows
3 43 (2.58%) Android
4 36 (2.16%) Apple iOS
5 31 (1.86%) Unix
6 18 (1.08%) Windows Server
7 13 (0.78%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (0.66%) Kali Linux
8 11 (0.66%) Mac OS X
9 6 (0.36%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.24%) CentOS
11 3 (0.18%) Solaris
12 2 (0.12%) Embedded Linux
12 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.060%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.060%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.060%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 863 (51.74%) CI/CD
2 780 (46.76%) Agile
3 622 (37.29%) DevOps
4 413 (24.76%) Problem-Solving
5 271 (16.25%) Continuous Improvement
6 266 (15.95%) Microservices
7 256 (15.35%) Test Strategy
8 232 (13.91%) Containerisation
8 232 (13.91%) Scrum
9 217 (13.01%) AI
10 207 (12.41%) Test Scripting
11 206 (12.35%) Validation
12 201 (12.05%) Infrastructure as Code
12 201 (12.05%) Software Engineering
13 195 (11.69%) TDD
14 187 (11.21%) Analytics
14 187 (11.21%) Observability
15 182 (10.91%) Software Testing
16 177 (10.61%) Regression Testing
17 162 (9.71%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 519 (31.12%) Python
2 404 (24.22%) Java
3 369 (22.12%) SQL
4 243 (14.57%) JavaScript
5 236 (14.15%) TypeScript
6 167 (10.01%) C#
7 74 (4.44%) PowerShell
8 64 (3.84%) Bash
9 47 (2.82%) C++
10 29 (1.74%) C
10 29 (1.74%) Kotlin
11 27 (1.62%) Go
12 24 (1.44%) Bicep
13 22 (1.32%) PL/SQL
14 21 (1.26%) Apex Code
15 18 (1.08%) Scala
16 17 (1.02%) Ruby
16 17 (1.02%) Swift
17 14 (0.84%) Groovy
18 12 (0.72%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 484 (29.02%) Security Cleared
2 368 (22.06%) SC Cleared
3 87 (5.22%) Degree
4 79 (4.74%) ISTQB
5 58 (3.48%) BPSS Clearance
6 54 (3.24%) Computer Science Degree
6 54 (3.24%) DV Cleared
7 24 (1.44%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 23 (1.38%) Master's Degree
9 14 (0.84%) Cisco Certification
9 14 (0.84%) OSCP
10 12 (0.72%) Azure Certification
10 12 (0.72%) CEH
11 11 (0.66%) AWS Certification
12 10 (0.60%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 9 (0.54%) CCNP
13 9 (0.54%) GPEN
13 9 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (0.48%) CISSP
14 8 (0.48%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 381 (22.84%) QA
2 115 (6.89%) Accessibility
3 95 (5.70%) Data Quality
4 40 (2.40%) WCAG
5 30 (1.80%) GDPR
6 22 (1.32%) NIST
7 15 (0.90%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (0.90%) NCSC
8 12 (0.72%) EU AI Act
9 10 (0.60%) Def Stans
9 10 (0.60%) ISO 20022
9 10 (0.60%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 10 (0.60%) SLA
10 8 (0.48%) PSD2
11 6 (0.36%) SEPA
11 6 (0.36%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.30%) HL7
12 5 (0.30%) MiFID
12 5 (0.30%) PCI DSS
12 5 (0.30%) PERC
System Software
1 329 (19.72%) Docker
2 26 (1.56%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.48%) Firmware
4 7 (0.42%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 7 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
5 5 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
6 4 (0.24%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
8 2 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.12%) SRDF
9 1 (0.060%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.060%) KVM
9 1 (0.060%) Squid
9 1 (0.060%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.060%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 324 (19.42%) Kubernetes
2 190 (11.39%) Terraform
3 103 (6.18%) Grafana
4 91 (5.46%) Ansible
5 79 (4.74%) Prometheus
6 20 (1.20%) Puppet
7 19 (1.14%) HP ALM
8 18 (1.08%) Argo
9 14 (0.84%) Nmap
9 14 (0.84%) Progress Chef
10 11 (0.66%) HP Quality Center
10 11 (0.66%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.66%) Single Sign-On
11 8 (0.48%) Forefront Identity Manager
11 8 (0.48%) NetIQ Identity Manager
12 7 (0.42%) Kibana
13 6 (0.36%) Rancher
14 5 (0.30%) Podman
15 4 (0.24%) Dell DRAC
15 4 (0.24%) Istio
Vendors
1 145 (8.69%) Microsoft
2 135 (8.09%) Oracle
3 64 (3.84%) Databricks
4 58 (3.48%) Splunk
5 55 (3.30%) Salesforce
6 52 (3.12%) Google
7 51 (3.06%) ServiceNow
8 40 (2.40%) SAP
9 38 (2.28%) Red Hat
10 33 (1.98%) Talend
11 25 (1.50%) Denodo
12 22 (1.32%) HP
13 21 (1.26%) IBM
14 20 (1.20%) Cisco
14 20 (1.20%) VMware
15 18 (1.08%) Dynatrace
16 16 (0.96%) MuleSoft
17 15 (0.90%) Workday
18 14 (0.84%) Atlassian
18 14 (0.84%) OpenAI