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 6 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 50 51
Rank change year-on-year +3 +1 +2
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,940 1,242 1,302
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.26% 4.49% 3.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.00% 4.95% 4.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,238 861 883
10th Percentile £329 £313 £363
25th Percentile £406 £380 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £492 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.15% -6.29% -2.78%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £630
90th Percentile £663 £725 £738
UK median daily rate £475 £490 £513
% change year-on-year -3.06% -4.39% -2.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 108 31 24
10th Percentile £39.18 £40.84 £44.00
25th Percentile £60.25 £44.76 £50.94
Median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year +35.00% -11.11% -13.79%
75th Percentile £70.00 £66.00 £71.88
90th Percentile £74.00 £75.00 £81.85
UK median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +35.00% -9.09% -16.35%

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 38,782 25,081 28,761
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.18% 90.77% 85.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,156 16,055 18,761
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £405 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £625 £630 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £760
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,506 1,391 1,691
10th Percentile £14.94 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £20.31 £17.87 £18.21
Median hourly rate £44.23 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +75.86% -40.82% -
75th Percentile £68.75 £50.88 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.50 £70.16 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.33
% change year-on-year +74.79% -37.63% -5.12%

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 6 August 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 6 August 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 6 August 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 +5 863 £500 -1.96% 604
North of England +16 388 £465 +3.39% 177
Midlands +5 270 £450 +5.88% 107
West Midlands +28 252 £450 -10.00% 63
South East -32 211 £459 -8.20% 204
Yorkshire -5 155 £496 +4.47% 52
North West -12 141 £490 +16.11% 96
South West -5 112 £469 +10.29% 108
North East +15 100 £425 +1.19% 29
East of England +16 82 £450 -1.91% 62
East Midlands -37 18 £425 +25.00% 44
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
1 174 (8.97%) Confluence
2 48 (2.47%) Apache Airflow
3 43 (2.22%) Apache Spark
3 43 (2.22%) SAS
4 27 (1.39%) SharePoint
5 21 (1.08%) Apache
6 13 (0.67%) CMS
7 11 (0.57%) WebLogic
8 6 (0.31%) Microsoft Exchange
9 5 (0.26%) Camunda
9 5 (0.26%) nginx
9 5 (0.26%) Tomcat
10 4 (0.21%) Jupyter
10 4 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.15%) Kentico
11 3 (0.15%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.10%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.10%) Apache Pulsar
12 2 (0.10%) Mule
12 2 (0.10%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 19 (0.98%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.36%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.31%) Chatbot
4 6 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.26%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.21%) Simulink
7 3 (0.15%) Trello
8 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
9 1 (0.052%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 26 (1.34%) Dynamics CRM
2 16 (0.82%) Aladdin
3 12 (0.62%) Payment Gateway
4 11 (0.57%) SAP S/4HANA
5 8 (0.41%) Findur
6 7 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
7 6 (0.31%) Salesforce CRM
7 6 (0.31%) SAP ERP
7 6 (0.31%) Shopify
8 5 (0.26%) BambooHR
9 3 (0.15%) Distributed Ledger
10 2 (0.10%) Infor CloudSuite
10 2 (0.10%) Infor LN
10 2 (0.10%) Infor M3
10 2 (0.10%) Loan IQ
10 2 (0.10%) Oracle ERP
10 2 (0.10%) SAP MDG
11 1 (0.052%) Maximo
11 1 (0.052%) Summit
11 1 (0.052%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 576 (29.69%) Azure
2 573 (29.54%) AWS
3 348 (17.94%) GitHub
4 262 (13.51%) Azure DevOps
5 218 (11.24%) GitHub Actions
6 152 (7.84%) Serverless
7 145 (7.47%) GCP
8 106 (5.46%) AWS Lambda
9 88 (4.54%) Power Platform
10 87 (4.48%) Amazon S3
11 68 (3.51%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 66 (3.40%) Amazon ECS
13 61 (3.14%) OpenShift
14 52 (2.68%) dbt
15 48 (2.47%) Amazon EKS
16 46 (2.37%) GitHub Copilot
17 45 (2.32%) Amazon EC2
17 45 (2.32%) Snowflake
18 41 (2.11%) Azure Data Factory
19 38 (1.96%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.13%) Firewall
2 19 (0.98%) HTTP
3 16 (0.82%) 4G
3 16 (0.82%) Network Security
4 15 (0.77%) 5G
5 14 (0.72%) 2G
5 14 (0.72%) 3G
5 14 (0.72%) Diameter Protocol
5 14 (0.72%) SIGTRAN
5 14 (0.72%) SS7
6 13 (0.67%) WAN
7 12 (0.62%) DNS
7 12 (0.62%) SAN
8 11 (0.57%) TCP/IP
9 10 (0.52%) LAN
10 8 (0.41%) Wi-Fi
11 6 (0.31%) HTTPS
12 5 (0.26%) BGP
12 5 (0.26%) Broadband
12 5 (0.26%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 117 (6.03%) Data Warehouse
1 117 (6.03%) PostgreSQL
2 101 (5.21%) NoSQL
3 94 (4.85%) MongoDB
4 79 (4.07%) SQL Server
5 74 (3.81%) Power BI
6 56 (2.89%) Relational Database
7 48 (2.47%) DynamoDB
8 40 (2.06%) Oracle Reports
9 38 (1.96%) Pentaho
10 35 (1.80%) Data Lake
11 31 (1.60%) Metadata
12 30 (1.55%) Amazon Athena
13 28 (1.44%) Big Data
14 26 (1.34%) Amazon RDS
14 26 (1.34%) MySQL
15 25 (1.29%) Redis
16 24 (1.24%) Amazon Redshift
17 17 (0.88%) BigQuery
17 17 (0.88%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 385 (19.85%) Git
2 362 (18.66%) JIRA
3 318 (16.39%) Jenkins
4 261 (13.45%) GitLab
5 234 (12.06%) Selenium
6 135 (6.96%) Cucumber
7 131 (6.75%) Postman
8 102 (5.26%) JUnit
9 96 (4.95%) Cypress.io
10 87 (4.48%) REST Assured
11 75 (3.87%) JMeter
12 67 (3.45%) Zephyr
13 60 (3.09%) SonarQube
14 53 (2.73%) WebDriver
15 48 (2.47%) Gatling
16 43 (2.22%) Gradle
17 41 (2.11%) Bitbucket
18 36 (1.86%) Mockito
19 34 (1.75%) Maven
20 25 (1.29%) SpecFlow
General
1 531 (27.37%) Social Skills
2 368 (18.97%) Finance
3 262 (13.51%) Analytical Skills
4 252 (12.99%) Public Sector
5 158 (8.14%) Banking
6 61 (3.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 39 (2.01%) Documentation Skills
8 34 (1.75%) Telecoms
9 32 (1.65%) Influencing Skills
9 32 (1.65%) Retail
10 27 (1.39%) Investment Banking
11 25 (1.29%) Front Office
12 23 (1.19%) Financial Institution
13 21 (1.08%) Military
14 19 (0.98%) Aerospace
15 15 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
16 14 (0.72%) Automotive
16 14 (0.72%) Back Office
16 14 (0.72%) Legal
17 13 (0.67%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 393 (20.26%) Developer
2 318 (16.39%) Senior
3 205 (10.57%) Lead
4 189 (9.74%) Test Engineer
5 170 (8.76%) Tester
6 139 (7.16%) Data Engineer
7 125 (6.44%) Java Developer
8 113 (5.82%) Software Engineer
9 101 (5.21%) Analyst
10 91 (4.69%) Senior Developer
11 90 (4.64%) DevOps Engineer
12 88 (4.54%) Architect
13 85 (4.38%) QA Engineer
14 82 (4.23%) Test Automation Engineer
15 69 (3.56%) Test Leader
16 67 (3.45%) Full-Stack Developer
17 63 (3.25%) Test Analyst
18 61 (3.14%) Automation Tester
19 58 (2.99%) Automation Engineer
20 51 (2.63%) Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 255 (13.14%) REST
2 217 (11.19%) Playwright
3 177 (9.12%) RESTful
4 174 (8.97%) React
5 163 (8.40%) Kafka
6 156 (8.04%) Spring
7 139 (7.16%) .NET
8 121 (6.24%) Spring Boot
9 105 (5.41%) Node.js
10 89 (4.59%) AngularJS
11 80 (4.12%) HTML
12 78 (4.02%) CSS
13 56 (2.89%) OAuth
14 47 (2.42%) Jest
15 46 (2.37%) .NET Framework
16 45 (2.32%) JSON
16 45 (2.32%) pytest
16 45 (2.32%) Quarkus
17 43 (2.22%) Gherkin
17 43 (2.22%) HTML5
Miscellaneous
1 282 (14.54%) Cloud Native
2 142 (7.32%) Distributed Systems
3 139 (7.16%) Product Ownership
4 65 (3.35%) Enterprise Software
5 52 (2.68%) Data Protection Act
5 52 (2.68%) Legacy Systems
6 49 (2.53%) Onboarding
7 46 (2.37%) Self-Motivation
8 38 (1.96%) Mobile App
9 33 (1.70%) AI Agents
10 32 (1.65%) Virtual Team
11 29 (1.49%) Distributed Architecture
12 27 (1.39%) Embedded Systems
13 26 (1.34%) Security Posture
14 21 (1.08%) Management Information System
15 19 (0.98%) Fixed Income
16 18 (0.93%) Data Structures
17 17 (0.88%) Algorithms
17 17 (0.88%) NHS
18 16 (0.82%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 127 (6.55%) Linux
2 80 (4.12%) Windows
3 66 (3.40%) Unix
4 39 (2.01%) Apple iOS
5 37 (1.91%) Android
6 26 (1.34%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 18 (0.93%) Windows Server
8 13 (0.67%) Mac OS X
9 7 (0.36%) Mac OS
9 7 (0.36%) Solaris
10 6 (0.31%) Embedded Linux
11 5 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
12 4 (0.21%) Ubuntu
12 4 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
13 3 (0.15%) AIX
13 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2016
14 2 (0.10%) CentOS
15 1 (0.052%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,134 (58.45%) CI/CD
2 919 (47.37%) Agile
3 739 (38.09%) DevOps
4 377 (19.43%) Problem-Solving
5 373 (19.23%) Microservices
6 372 (19.18%) Continuous Improvement
7 339 (17.47%) Software Engineering
8 324 (16.70%) Scrum
9 312 (16.08%) Infrastructure as Code
10 299 (15.41%) Validation
11 290 (14.95%) Test Strategy
12 282 (14.54%) AI
13 262 (13.51%) Containerisation
14 256 (13.20%) TDD
15 252 (12.99%) Observability
16 224 (11.55%) ETL
17 217 (11.19%) SDLC
18 210 (10.82%) Data Pipeline
19 207 (10.67%) Software Testing
20 199 (10.26%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 494 (25.46%) Python
2 479 (24.69%) Java
3 462 (23.81%) SQL
4 238 (12.27%) JavaScript
5 207 (10.67%) TypeScript
6 181 (9.33%) C#
7 79 (4.07%) PowerShell
8 68 (3.51%) Bash
9 51 (2.63%) Kotlin
10 45 (2.32%) Bicep
11 42 (2.16%) C++
12 31 (1.60%) C
13 26 (1.34%) Go
13 26 (1.34%) Scala
14 25 (1.29%) PL/SQL
15 23 (1.19%) Apex Code
16 22 (1.13%) Swift
17 18 (0.93%) Ruby
18 17 (0.88%) Groovy
19 16 (0.82%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 615 (31.70%) Security Cleared
2 509 (26.24%) SC Cleared
3 89 (4.59%) ISTQB
4 88 (4.54%) Degree
5 58 (2.99%) BPSS Clearance
5 58 (2.99%) DV Cleared
6 45 (2.32%) Computer Science Degree
7 32 (1.65%) AWS Certification
8 22 (1.13%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 18 (0.93%) Azure Certification
10 15 (0.77%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 11 (0.57%) Cisco Certification
11 11 (0.57%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 11 (0.57%) SAFe Agilist
12 10 (0.52%) CISSP
13 9 (0.46%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (0.41%) CCNP
14 8 (0.41%) Master's Degree
15 7 (0.36%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 7 (0.36%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 496 (25.57%) QA
2 147 (7.58%) Accessibility
3 139 (7.16%) Data Quality
4 78 (4.02%) WCAG
5 40 (2.06%) GDPR
6 14 (0.72%) NCSC
7 10 (0.52%) ISO 20022
7 10 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 10 (0.52%) NIST
7 10 (0.52%) SLA
8 7 (0.36%) Def Stans
9 6 (0.31%) Software Quality Assurance
10 5 (0.26%) FATCA
10 5 (0.26%) PCI DSS
10 5 (0.26%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 4 (0.21%) GRC
12 3 (0.15%) Actionable Recommendations
12 3 (0.15%) EU AI Act
12 3 (0.15%) HL7
12 3 (0.15%) MiFID
System Software
1 368 (18.97%) Docker
2 27 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (1.24%) Active Directory
4 14 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (0.67%) Firmware
6 5 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
7 4 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
7 4 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
8 2 (0.10%) SRDF
8 2 (0.10%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.052%) Hyper-V
9 1 (0.052%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 377 (19.43%) Kubernetes
2 273 (14.07%) Terraform
3 108 (5.57%) Ansible
4 100 (5.15%) Grafana
5 87 (4.48%) Prometheus
6 42 (2.16%) Argo
7 21 (1.08%) Puppet
8 17 (0.88%) Progress Chef
9 12 (0.62%) Single Sign-On
10 11 (0.57%) HP ALM
11 10 (0.52%) Dell DRAC
12 7 (0.36%) Kibana
12 7 (0.36%) Kustomize
13 6 (0.31%) NetBackup
14 5 (0.26%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 5 (0.26%) HP Quality Center
14 5 (0.26%) Istio
14 5 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
14 5 (0.26%) NetIQ Identity Manager
14 5 (0.26%) Packer
Vendors
1 190 (9.79%) Microsoft
2 154 (7.94%) Oracle
3 75 (3.87%) Salesforce
4 73 (3.76%) Databricks
5 62 (3.20%) Red Hat
6 56 (2.89%) Google
6 56 (2.89%) Talend
7 50 (2.58%) Splunk
8 41 (2.11%) Denodo
9 39 (2.01%) ServiceNow
10 33 (1.70%) Informatica
10 33 (1.70%) VMware
11 31 (1.60%) Dynatrace
11 31 (1.60%) IBM
12 27 (1.39%) SAP
13 25 (1.29%) UiPath
14 24 (1.24%) Cisco
15 18 (0.93%) HP
16 11 (0.57%) Fortinet
16 11 (0.57%) OpenAI