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 15 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
15 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 45 56
Rank change year-on-year -6 +11 -13
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,550 1,161 1,384
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.55% 4.47% 3.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.20% 4.97% 4.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,053 772 979
10th Percentile £332 £333 £376
25th Percentile £401 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £588 £619 £630
90th Percentile £688 £725 £712
UK median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 43 3 58
10th Percentile £29.86 £73.44 £50.25
25th Percentile £47.25 £74.85 £52.50
Median hourly rate £63.50 £77.19 £70.19
Median % change year-on-year -17.74% +9.98% +23.28%
75th Percentile £67.50 £82.35 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £85.44 -
UK median hourly rate £63.00 £75.60 £69.25
% change year-on-year -16.66% +9.16% +21.79%

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 29,784 23,344 33,259
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.41% 89.82% 87.36%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,034 14,461 22,141
10th Percentile £310 £309 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £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 1,874 730 1,983
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.23 £21.01 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.89 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.04% - -
75th Percentile £60.41 £64.73 £60.32
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.03 £72.90
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £33.28
% change year-on-year -22.62% -2.35% -1.12%

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 15 February 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 15 February 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 15 February 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 +3 774 £500 -4.76% 147
North of England +3 319 £496 +16.71% 110
South East -22 155 £500 - 156
Midlands -1 137 £492 +5.29% 62
Yorkshire -13 136 £525 +18.31% 32
North West +6 135 £447 +11.12% 64
West Midlands -1 107 £515 +6.52% 41
South West -3 76 £518 -12.29% 59
East of England +10 56 £585 +33.71% 54
North East +15 52 £488 +28.09% 14
East Midlands -13 30 £400 -4.48% 21
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 87 (5.61%) Confluence
2 44 (2.84%) SAS
3 17 (1.10%) Apache Spark
4 13 (0.84%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.58%) Apache Airflow
6 8 (0.52%) Appian
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
8 6 (0.39%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 5 (0.32%) CMS
9 5 (0.32%) Oracle Application Server
10 4 (0.26%) Camunda
10 4 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.26%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.26%) WebLogic
11 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.19%) nginx
12 2 (0.13%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.13%) WordPress
13 1 (0.065%) Tomcat
Applications
1 25 (1.61%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.45%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.065%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.065%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.065%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (1.23%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.32%) Workday HCM
3 4 (0.26%) Loan IQ
3 4 (0.26%) Maximo
3 4 (0.26%) SAP HR
4 3 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.19%) Shopify
5 2 (0.13%) iTrent
5 2 (0.13%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.13%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.13%) Summit
6 1 (0.065%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.065%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.065%) Markit EDM
6 1 (0.065%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.065%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.065%) SAP ERP
6 1 (0.065%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 421 (27.16%) Azure
2 367 (23.68%) AWS
3 240 (15.48%) GitHub
4 173 (11.16%) Azure DevOps
5 151 (9.74%) GCP
6 125 (8.06%) GitHub Actions
7 105 (6.77%) Serverless
8 63 (4.06%) OpenShift
9 53 (3.42%) Power Platform
10 44 (2.84%) AWS Lambda
11 40 (2.58%) Amazon S3
11 40 (2.58%) Azure AKS
12 37 (2.39%) SaaS
13 32 (2.06%) Snowflake
14 29 (1.87%) Azure Data Factory
15 28 (1.81%) AWS CloudFormation
15 28 (1.81%) Azure Functions
15 28 (1.81%) Entra ID
16 27 (1.74%) Amazon EKS
16 27 (1.74%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 31 (2.00%) Firewall
2 23 (1.48%) Wireshark
3 21 (1.35%) HTTPS
4 20 (1.29%) VPN
5 19 (1.23%) TCP/IP
6 17 (1.10%) SSL
7 14 (0.90%) HTTP
7 14 (0.90%) Network Security
8 13 (0.84%) SD-WAN
9 11 (0.71%) WAN
10 10 (0.65%) Ethernet
10 10 (0.65%) MPLS
11 9 (0.58%) DNS
11 9 (0.58%) Multicast
11 9 (0.58%) VLAN
12 7 (0.45%) AMQP
12 7 (0.45%) FTP
13 5 (0.32%) BGP
13 5 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
13 5 (0.32%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 82 (5.29%) PostgreSQL
2 67 (4.32%) MongoDB
3 65 (4.19%) NoSQL
4 62 (4.00%) SQL Server
5 52 (3.35%) Relational Database
6 30 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
7 29 (1.87%) Power BI
8 25 (1.61%) Oracle Database
9 22 (1.42%) BigQuery
9 22 (1.42%) MySQL
10 21 (1.35%) Pentaho
11 18 (1.16%) DynamoDB
12 17 (1.10%) Redis
12 17 (1.10%) Tableau
13 14 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
14 13 (0.84%) Azure SQL Database
15 12 (0.77%) Big Data
15 12 (0.77%) Data Lake
15 12 (0.77%) SAS Enterprise Guide
15 12 (0.77%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 273 (17.61%) JIRA
2 270 (17.42%) Jenkins
3 261 (16.84%) Git
4 229 (14.77%) GitLab
5 226 (14.58%) Selenium
6 130 (8.39%) Postman
7 124 (8.00%) Cucumber
8 103 (6.65%) Cypress.io
9 85 (5.48%) JUnit
9 85 (5.48%) REST Assured
10 65 (4.19%) JMeter
11 40 (2.58%) SonarQube
12 34 (2.19%) Maven
13 32 (2.06%) TestRail
14 31 (2.00%) Gradle
15 30 (1.94%) Gatling
15 30 (1.94%) Mockito
16 28 (1.81%) SpecFlow
17 26 (1.68%) Bitbucket
18 25 (1.61%) WebDriver
General
1 391 (25.23%) Social Skills
2 253 (16.32%) Finance
3 216 (13.94%) Public Sector
4 176 (11.35%) Analytical Skills
5 125 (8.06%) Banking
6 28 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 26 (1.68%) Investment Banking
8 24 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
9 22 (1.42%) Front Office
9 22 (1.42%) Pharmaceutical
10 20 (1.29%) Telecoms
11 18 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
12 15 (0.97%) Military
13 14 (0.90%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (0.84%) Financial Institution
15 11 (0.71%) Aerospace
16 10 (0.65%) Electronics
17 9 (0.58%) Legal
18 8 (0.52%) Manufacturing
18 8 (0.52%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 365 (23.55%) Developer
2 267 (17.23%) Senior
3 174 (11.23%) Tester
4 170 (10.97%) Test Engineer
5 169 (10.90%) Lead
6 105 (6.77%) Java Developer
7 81 (5.23%) Software Engineer
8 79 (5.10%) Automation Tester
9 77 (4.97%) Analyst
10 72 (4.65%) Test Automation Engineer
11 71 (4.58%) Senior Developer
12 61 (3.94%) QA Engineer
13 57 (3.68%) Test Leader
14 55 (3.55%) Data Engineer
14 55 (3.55%) DevOps Engineer
15 51 (3.29%) Test Manager
16 50 (3.23%) Test Analyst
17 47 (3.03%) Automation Engineer
18 45 (2.90%) Architect
19 42 (2.71%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 207 (13.35%) REST
2 186 (12.00%) Playwright
3 139 (8.97%) React
4 119 (7.68%) .NET
5 117 (7.55%) Spring
6 115 (7.42%) Node.js
7 111 (7.16%) Kafka
7 111 (7.16%) RESTful
8 107 (6.90%) Spring Boot
9 77 (4.97%) pytest
10 53 (3.42%) HTML
11 52 (3.35%) AngularJS
11 52 (3.35%) OAuth
12 49 (3.16%) CSS
13 48 (3.10%) Jest
13 48 (3.10%) JSON
14 47 (3.03%) SOAP
15 44 (2.84%) Web Services
16 43 (2.77%) XML
17 36 (2.32%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 168 (10.84%) Cloud Native
2 94 (6.06%) Product Ownership
3 58 (3.74%) Distributed Systems
4 44 (2.84%) Mobile App
5 40 (2.58%) Algorithms
6 35 (2.26%) Legacy Systems
7 33 (2.13%) Security Posture
8 31 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
9 25 (1.61%) Onboarding
10 23 (1.48%) Data Structures
10 23 (1.48%) Enterprise Software
11 21 (1.35%) Virtual Team
12 20 (1.29%) Management Information System
12 20 (1.29%) Self-Motivation
13 19 (1.23%) Equities
13 19 (1.23%) Greenfield Project
14 18 (1.16%) Public Cloud
15 14 (0.90%) Derivative
15 14 (0.90%) Genomics
15 14 (0.90%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 149 (9.61%) Linux
2 77 (4.97%) Windows
3 48 (3.10%) Unix
4 41 (2.65%) Android
5 35 (2.26%) Apple iOS
6 23 (1.48%) Mac OS X
7 20 (1.29%) Windows Server
8 11 (0.71%) Kali Linux
9 7 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (0.39%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.26%) CentOS
12 2 (0.13%) VMS
12 2 (0.13%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.065%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.065%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.065%) Solaris
13 1 (0.065%) Windows Embedded Compact
13 1 (0.065%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.065%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.065%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 774 (49.94%) CI/CD
2 761 (49.10%) Agile
3 569 (36.71%) DevOps
4 399 (25.74%) Problem-Solving
5 260 (16.77%) Microservices
6 233 (15.03%) Test Strategy
7 227 (14.65%) Containerisation
8 225 (14.52%) Continuous Improvement
9 202 (13.03%) Scrum
10 201 (12.97%) AI
11 200 (12.90%) Software Engineering
11 200 (12.90%) Test Scripting
12 196 (12.65%) TDD
13 193 (12.45%) Infrastructure as Code
14 179 (11.55%) Software Testing
14 179 (11.55%) Validation
15 151 (9.74%) Observability
16 150 (9.68%) API Testing
17 148 (9.55%) BDD
18 147 (9.48%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 472 (30.45%) Python
2 403 (26.00%) Java
3 304 (19.61%) SQL
4 243 (15.68%) JavaScript
5 230 (14.84%) TypeScript
6 146 (9.42%) C#
7 64 (4.13%) Bash
8 58 (3.74%) PowerShell
9 40 (2.58%) C++
10 35 (2.26%) Go
11 24 (1.55%) Bicep
12 22 (1.42%) Kotlin
12 22 (1.42%) PL/SQL
13 17 (1.10%) C
14 16 (1.03%) Apex Code
14 16 (1.03%) Scala
15 13 (0.84%) Swift
16 11 (0.71%) PHP
16 11 (0.71%) Ruby
16 11 (0.71%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 435 (28.06%) Security Cleared
2 331 (21.35%) SC Cleared
3 96 (6.19%) Degree
4 67 (4.32%) ISTQB
5 59 (3.81%) BPSS Clearance
6 55 (3.55%) DV Cleared
7 54 (3.48%) Computer Science Degree
8 30 (1.94%) Master's Degree
9 21 (1.35%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 18 (1.16%) OSCP
11 15 (0.97%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 13 (0.84%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (0.84%) GPEN
12 13 (0.84%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 12 (0.77%) CEH
14 11 (0.71%) AWS Certification
14 11 (0.71%) Azure Certification
14 11 (0.71%) Oracle Certification
15 10 (0.65%) CISSP
15 10 (0.65%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 338 (21.81%) QA
2 117 (7.55%) Accessibility
3 71 (4.58%) Data Quality
4 39 (2.52%) WCAG
5 30 (1.94%) NIST
6 29 (1.87%) GDPR
7 19 (1.23%) NCSC
8 18 (1.16%) EU AI Act
9 14 (0.90%) ISO 20022
10 13 (0.84%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 12 (0.77%) PSD2
12 10 (0.65%) SEPA
13 9 (0.58%) SLA
14 8 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 6 (0.39%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.32%) Def Stans
16 5 (0.32%) NIST 800
16 5 (0.32%) PCI DSS
16 5 (0.32%) PERC
17 4 (0.26%) HL7
System Software
1 323 (20.84%) Docker
2 30 (1.94%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.45%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 5 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (0.26%) Firmware
6 3 (0.19%) ISA Server
6 3 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.13%) QEMU
7 2 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
8 1 (0.065%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.065%) KVM
8 1 (0.065%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.065%) Squid
8 1 (0.065%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.065%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.065%) zsh
Systems Management
1 293 (18.90%) Kubernetes
2 180 (11.61%) Terraform
3 90 (5.81%) Ansible
4 80 (5.16%) Grafana
5 53 (3.42%) Prometheus
6 19 (1.23%) Nmap
7 17 (1.10%) HP ALM
8 14 (0.90%) Progress Chef
8 14 (0.90%) Puppet
9 13 (0.84%) Argo
10 12 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
11 9 (0.58%) HP Quality Center
12 8 (0.52%) NetBackup
13 7 (0.45%) CSIRT
13 7 (0.45%) Kibana
13 7 (0.45%) Nessus
14 6 (0.39%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 6 (0.39%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 5 (0.32%) Podman
16 4 (0.26%) Iperf
Vendors
1 140 (9.03%) Microsoft
2 127 (8.19%) Oracle
3 57 (3.68%) Databricks
4 56 (3.61%) ServiceNow
5 54 (3.48%) Splunk
6 50 (3.23%) Salesforce
7 49 (3.16%) Google
8 42 (2.71%) SAP
9 24 (1.55%) Red Hat
10 22 (1.42%) Talend
11 21 (1.35%) Denodo
12 19 (1.23%) Cisco
13 18 (1.16%) VMware
14 17 (1.10%) HP
14 17 (1.10%) IBM
14 17 (1.10%) MuleSoft
14 17 (1.10%) webMethods
15 16 (1.03%) OpenAI
16 15 (0.97%) Workday
17 14 (0.90%) Foundry