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

6 months to
7 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 45 57
Rank change year-on-year -2 +12 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,654 1,162 1,336
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.54% 4.52% 3.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.23% 5.00% 4.01%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,120 783 921
10th Percentile £331 £327 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.25% -4.76% -7.08%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £638
90th Percentile £680 £725 £719
UK median daily rate £476 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -4.85% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 49 7 58
10th Percentile £34.71 £38.81 £47.10
25th Percentile £51.25 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £64.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.54% -11.33% +6.67%
75th Percentile £68.75 £76.35 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £81.31 -
UK median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £64.00
% change year-on-year +14.54% -11.33% +9.40%

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 31,633 23,246 33,278
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.88% 90.44% 87.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,235 14,775 22,032
10th Percentile £313 £308 £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 1,951 810 2,137
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.49 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.25 £16.06
Median hourly rate £29.61 £35.00 £33.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.40% +6.06% -6.46%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £58.75
90th Percentile £74.00 £76.34 £71.88
UK median hourly rate £28.00 £32.81 £32.50
% change year-on-year -14.66% +0.95% -7.14%

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 7 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 7 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 7 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 +1 807 £500 -4.76% 237
North of England +4 321 £488 +11.43% 156
Midlands +4 189 £477 +3.03% 79
South East -18 167 £500 -12.28% 197
West Midlands +11 156 £486 +0.54% 45
North West +7 140 £450 +0.56% 75
Yorkshire -12 137 £500 +5.26% 51
South West -5 83 £515 -6.36% 101
East of England +6 59 £570 +21.93% 86
North East +10 48 £488 +28.09% 30
East Midlands -24 33 £400 +8.11% 33
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
1 112 (6.77%) Confluence
2 62 (3.75%) SAS
3 28 (1.69%) Apache Spark
4 15 (0.91%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.79%) 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
11 3 (0.18%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.12%) Tomcat
12 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 27 (1.63%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.67%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.060%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 22 (1.33%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.36%) Loan IQ
3 5 (0.30%) Maximo
3 5 (0.30%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.24%) SAP HR
4 4 (0.24%) Shopify
5 3 (0.18%) BambooHR
5 3 (0.18%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.12%) iTrent
6 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.12%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.12%) Summit
7 1 (0.060%) Algo Collateral
7 1 (0.060%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.060%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.060%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.060%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 451 (27.27%) Azure
2 400 (24.18%) AWS
3 271 (16.38%) GitHub
4 191 (11.55%) Azure DevOps
5 157 (9.49%) GCP
6 145 (8.77%) GitHub Actions
7 110 (6.65%) Serverless
8 70 (4.23%) OpenShift
9 59 (3.57%) Power Platform
10 48 (2.90%) AWS Lambda
11 46 (2.78%) Azure AKS
12 45 (2.72%) Amazon S3
13 36 (2.18%) Snowflake
14 34 (2.06%) Azure Data Factory
15 30 (1.81%) Azure Functions
16 29 (1.75%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 29 (1.75%) Entra ID
16 29 (1.75%) SaaS
17 28 (1.69%) AWS CloudFormation
18 27 (1.63%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 32 (1.93%) Firewall
2 19 (1.15%) VPN
2 19 (1.15%) Wireshark
3 18 (1.09%) TCP/IP
4 14 (0.85%) HTTP
5 13 (0.79%) SD-WAN
5 13 (0.79%) SSL
6 12 (0.73%) HTTPS
6 12 (0.73%) WAN
7 10 (0.60%) Network Security
8 9 (0.54%) DNS
8 9 (0.54%) Ethernet
8 9 (0.54%) MPLS
9 8 (0.48%) Multicast
9 8 (0.48%) VLAN
10 7 (0.42%) AMQP
10 7 (0.42%) FTP
10 7 (0.42%) SAN
11 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
12 4 (0.24%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 99 (5.99%) PostgreSQL
2 70 (4.23%) NoSQL
3 68 (4.11%) SQL Server
4 61 (3.69%) MongoDB
5 52 (3.14%) Relational Database
6 47 (2.84%) Data Warehouse
7 34 (2.06%) Pentaho
8 33 (2.00%) Power BI
9 26 (1.57%) Oracle Database
10 24 (1.45%) BigQuery
11 23 (1.39%) Tableau
12 22 (1.33%) DynamoDB
12 22 (1.33%) MySQL
13 19 (1.15%) Redis
14 18 (1.09%) Oracle Reports
15 17 (1.03%) Azure SQL Database
16 15 (0.91%) Data Lake
17 14 (0.85%) Amazon RDS
18 13 (0.79%) SAS Enterprise Guide
19 12 (0.73%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 316 (19.11%) JIRA
2 310 (18.74%) Git
3 308 (18.62%) Jenkins
4 249 (15.05%) GitLab
5 245 (14.81%) Selenium
6 144 (8.71%) Cucumber
7 138 (8.34%) Postman
8 103 (6.23%) JUnit
9 101 (6.11%) Cypress.io
10 86 (5.20%) REST Assured
11 74 (4.47%) JMeter
12 36 (2.18%) SonarQube
12 36 (2.18%) WebDriver
13 35 (2.12%) Maven
13 35 (2.12%) SpecFlow
14 31 (1.87%) Gatling
15 30 (1.81%) Gradle
16 29 (1.75%) Zephyr
17 28 (1.69%) TestRail
18 25 (1.51%) Bitbucket
General
1 448 (27.09%) Social Skills
2 277 (16.75%) Finance
3 226 (13.66%) Public Sector
4 182 (11.00%) Analytical Skills
5 138 (8.34%) Banking
6 28 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
7 26 (1.57%) Investment Banking
8 23 (1.39%) Front Office
9 21 (1.27%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 21 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
10 20 (1.21%) Pharmaceutical
10 20 (1.21%) Telecoms
11 17 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
12 16 (0.97%) Military
13 15 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (0.79%) Financial Institution
15 12 (0.73%) Aerospace
16 11 (0.67%) Legal
17 10 (0.60%) Electronics
18 8 (0.48%) Retail
Job Titles
1 342 (20.68%) Developer
2 268 (16.20%) Senior
3 200 (12.09%) Lead
4 194 (11.73%) Tester
5 177 (10.70%) Test Engineer
6 89 (5.38%) Java Developer
7 88 (5.32%) Data Engineer
8 85 (5.14%) Automation Tester
9 82 (4.96%) Analyst
10 78 (4.72%) Software Engineer
11 73 (4.41%) Test Automation Engineer
12 68 (4.11%) Test Leader
13 62 (3.75%) QA Engineer
14 60 (3.63%) Senior Developer
15 56 (3.39%) DevOps Engineer
16 55 (3.33%) Architect
17 53 (3.20%) Test Manager
18 50 (3.02%) Test Analyst
19 47 (2.84%) Automation Engineer
20 39 (2.36%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 204 (12.33%) REST
2 199 (12.03%) Playwright
3 143 (8.65%) React
4 129 (7.80%) Spring
5 128 (7.74%) .NET
6 120 (7.26%) RESTful
7 116 (7.01%) Node.js
8 111 (6.71%) Kafka
9 105 (6.35%) Spring Boot
10 83 (5.02%) pytest
11 55 (3.33%) HTML
12 53 (3.20%) CSS
13 52 (3.14%) AngularJS
14 49 (2.96%) Jest
15 48 (2.90%) OAuth
16 43 (2.60%) Web Services
17 38 (2.30%) GraphQL
18 37 (2.24%) JSON
19 35 (2.12%) SOAP
19 35 (2.12%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 183 (11.06%) Cloud Native
2 97 (5.86%) Product Ownership
3 69 (4.17%) Distributed Systems
4 44 (2.66%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.48%) Algorithms
6 37 (2.24%) Legacy Systems
7 35 (2.12%) Security Posture
8 33 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.51%) Data Structures
9 25 (1.51%) Onboarding
10 24 (1.45%) Self-Motivation
11 23 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (1.39%) Virtual Team
12 22 (1.33%) Equities
13 21 (1.27%) Management Information System
14 20 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
15 18 (1.09%) Distributed Architecture
15 18 (1.09%) Public Cloud
16 16 (0.97%) Derivative
16 16 (0.97%) Fixed Income
Operating Systems
1 141 (8.52%) Linux
2 85 (5.14%) Windows
3 42 (2.54%) Android
4 38 (2.30%) Unix
5 37 (2.24%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.21%) Windows Server
7 16 (0.97%) Mac OS X
8 12 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 11 (0.67%) Kali Linux
10 7 (0.42%) Mac OS
11 6 (0.36%) CentOS
12 2 (0.12%) Solaris
12 2 (0.12%) VMS
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%) Embedded Linux
13 1 (0.060%) Windows Embedded Compact
13 1 (0.060%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 860 (52.00%) CI/CD
2 787 (47.58%) Agile
3 613 (37.06%) DevOps
4 420 (25.39%) Problem-Solving
5 270 (16.32%) Continuous Improvement
6 267 (16.14%) Microservices
7 259 (15.66%) Test Strategy
8 237 (14.33%) Containerisation
9 235 (14.21%) Scrum
10 225 (13.60%) AI
11 215 (13.00%) Test Scripting
12 203 (12.27%) Software Engineering
12 203 (12.27%) Validation
13 200 (12.09%) Infrastructure as Code
14 196 (11.85%) TDD
15 187 (11.31%) Analytics
16 182 (11.00%) Software Testing
17 175 (10.58%) Observability
18 157 (9.49%) Regression Testing
19 156 (9.43%) API Testing
Programming Languages
1 512 (30.96%) Python
2 399 (24.12%) Java
3 359 (21.70%) SQL
4 246 (14.87%) JavaScript
5 238 (14.39%) TypeScript
6 157 (9.49%) C#
7 68 (4.11%) PowerShell
8 67 (4.05%) Bash
9 46 (2.78%) C++
10 31 (1.87%) Go
11 25 (1.51%) C
12 24 (1.45%) Bicep
13 23 (1.39%) Kotlin
13 23 (1.39%) PL/SQL
14 19 (1.15%) Apex Code
15 15 (0.91%) Scala
15 15 (0.91%) Swift
16 13 (0.79%) Ruby
17 12 (0.73%) Shell Script
17 12 (0.73%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 482 (29.14%) Security Cleared
2 369 (22.31%) SC Cleared
3 95 (5.74%) Degree
4 74 (4.47%) ISTQB
5 57 (3.45%) DV Cleared
6 56 (3.39%) BPSS Clearance
6 56 (3.39%) Computer Science Degree
7 27 (1.63%) Master's Degree
8 23 (1.39%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 18 (1.09%) OSCP
10 15 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
11 14 (0.85%) Azure Certification
12 13 (0.79%) GPEN
12 13 (0.79%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 13 (0.79%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 12 (0.73%) CEH
14 11 (0.67%) AWS Certification
14 11 (0.67%) CISSP
14 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
15 10 (0.60%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 373 (22.55%) QA
2 118 (7.13%) Accessibility
3 95 (5.74%) Data Quality
4 38 (2.30%) WCAG
5 30 (1.81%) NIST
6 28 (1.69%) GDPR
7 18 (1.09%) EU AI Act
8 16 (0.97%) NCSC
9 12 (0.73%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 11 (0.67%) ISO 20022
11 9 (0.54%) PSD2
11 9 (0.54%) SLA
12 8 (0.48%) Def Stans
12 8 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 7 (0.42%) SEPA
14 6 (0.36%) SOC 2
15 5 (0.30%) MiFID
15 5 (0.30%) NIST 800
15 5 (0.30%) PCI DSS
15 5 (0.30%) PERC
System Software
1 346 (20.92%) Docker
2 32 (1.93%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.48%) Firmware
4 7 (0.42%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 7 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
5 6 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
7 3 (0.18%) Virtual Desktop
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%) QEMU
9 1 (0.060%) Squid
9 1 (0.060%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.060%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 331 (20.01%) Kubernetes
2 187 (11.31%) Terraform
3 102 (6.17%) Ansible
4 98 (5.93%) Grafana
5 70 (4.23%) Prometheus
6 18 (1.09%) Nmap
6 18 (1.09%) Puppet
7 17 (1.03%) HP ALM
8 16 (0.97%) Argo
9 15 (0.91%) Progress Chef
10 11 (0.67%) NetBackup
10 11 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
11 10 (0.60%) HP Quality Center
12 7 (0.42%) Forefront Identity Manager
12 7 (0.42%) Kibana
12 7 (0.42%) Nessus
12 7 (0.42%) NetIQ Identity Manager
13 5 (0.30%) Podman
14 4 (0.24%) Istio
14 4 (0.24%) Rancher
Vendors
1 147 (8.89%) Microsoft
2 144 (8.71%) Oracle
3 66 (3.99%) Databricks
4 61 (3.69%) ServiceNow
5 60 (3.63%) Splunk
6 54 (3.26%) Google
7 52 (3.14%) Salesforce
8 38 (2.30%) Talend
9 37 (2.24%) SAP
10 32 (1.93%) Red Hat
11 30 (1.81%) Denodo
12 23 (1.39%) VMware
13 21 (1.27%) Cisco
14 20 (1.21%) IBM
15 19 (1.15%) HP
16 18 (1.09%) Workday
17 15 (0.91%) MuleSoft
17 15 (0.91%) OpenAI
18 14 (0.85%) Atlassian
18 14 (0.85%) Foundry