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

6 months to
4 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 50 45
Rank change year-on-year +2 -5 +7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,981 1,223 1,352
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.34% 4.49% 4.15%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.11% 4.95% 4.83%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,265 838 920
10th Percentile £325 £313 £356
25th Percentile £409 £386 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.85% -5.45%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £606
90th Percentile £671 £700 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £501
% change year-on-year -5.00% -0.10% -4.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 100 34 19
10th Percentile £39.73 £41.34 £42.00
25th Percentile £59.19 £49.24 £50.63
Median hourly rate £68.61 £55.88 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +22.79% -2.83% -21.23%
75th Percentile £70.00 £67.00 £71.88
90th Percentile £74.10 £73.05 £85.00
UK median hourly rate £69.75 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +26.82% - -21.29%

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 38,742 24,707 27,973
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.90% 90.77% 85.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,892 15,711 17,811
10th Percentile £325 £300 £313
25th Percentile £425 £404 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £636 £626 £650
90th Percentile £738 £738 £751
UK median daily rate £525 £500 £525
% change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,598 1,453 1,393
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.25 £14.41
25th Percentile £18.34 £17.87 £20.00
Median hourly rate £43.56 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +73.20% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £66.50
90th Percentile £80.00 £68.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +63.02% -40.82% +2.41%

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 September 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 4 September 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 4 September 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 +4 904 £500 - 1,261
North of England +2 405 £460 +0.11% 290
Midlands +14 248 £450 -2.70% 142
West Midlands +24 233 £450 -12.62% 85
South East -18 221 £450 -10.00% 291
Yorkshire -10 160 £473 -5.50% 73
North West -6 146 £492 +15.76% 170
South West -2 112 £475 -5.00% 241
North East +16 106 £425 -4.49% 48
East of England +18 81 £450 +17.65% 155
East Midlands -47 15 £418 +17.61% 57
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
1 173 (8.73%) Confluence
2 50 (2.52%) Apache Airflow
3 38 (1.92%) SharePoint
4 37 (1.87%) Apache Spark
5 29 (1.46%) SAS
6 22 (1.11%) Apache
7 14 (0.71%) CMS
8 12 (0.61%) Camunda
9 10 (0.50%) WebLogic
10 6 (0.30%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
12 4 (0.20%) Jupyter
12 4 (0.20%) nginx
12 4 (0.20%) OpenStack
12 4 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
12 4 (0.20%) Tomcat
13 3 (0.15%) Kentico
14 2 (0.10%) Anypoint
14 2 (0.10%) Apache Pulsar
14 2 (0.10%) Mule
Applications
1 22 (1.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (0.76%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.25%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.20%) Simulink
6 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.15%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.15%) Trello
7 2 (0.10%) Mingle
7 2 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 26 (1.31%) Dynamics CRM
2 17 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
3 13 (0.66%) Payment Gateway
4 11 (0.56%) Aladdin
5 8 (0.40%) Findur
6 7 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
6 7 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
7 6 (0.30%) SAP ERP
8 5 (0.25%) SAP GRC
9 4 (0.20%) Shopify
10 3 (0.15%) Distributed Ledger
11 2 (0.10%) BambooHR
11 2 (0.10%) Oracle ERP
11 2 (0.10%) SAP MDG
12 1 (0.050%) FLEXCUBE
12 1 (0.050%) Misys Equation
12 1 (0.050%) Misys Midas
12 1 (0.050%) SAP QM
12 1 (0.050%) Summit
12 1 (0.050%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 608 (30.69%) AWS
2 591 (29.83%) Azure
3 347 (17.52%) GitHub
4 279 (14.08%) Azure DevOps
5 217 (10.95%) GitHub Actions
6 161 (8.13%) Serverless
7 152 (7.67%) GCP
8 120 (6.06%) AWS Lambda
9 91 (4.59%) Amazon S3
9 91 (4.59%) Power Platform
10 76 (3.84%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 68 (3.43%) Amazon ECS
12 66 (3.33%) OpenShift
13 56 (2.83%) Amazon EKS
14 55 (2.78%) dbt
15 52 (2.62%) GitHub Copilot
16 49 (2.47%) Snowflake
17 45 (2.27%) AWS CloudFormation
18 44 (2.22%) Amazon EC2
19 42 (2.12%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.16%) HTTP
2 20 (1.01%) DNS
2 20 (1.01%) Firewall
3 19 (0.96%) 4G
4 17 (0.86%) 5G
4 17 (0.86%) TCP/IP
5 16 (0.81%) 2G
5 16 (0.81%) 3G
5 16 (0.81%) Diameter Protocol
5 16 (0.81%) Network Security
5 16 (0.81%) SIGTRAN
5 16 (0.81%) SS7
6 14 (0.71%) WAN
7 12 (0.61%) LAN
7 12 (0.61%) Wi-Fi
8 10 (0.50%) BGP
8 10 (0.50%) DHCP
9 9 (0.45%) SAN
10 8 (0.40%) Ethernet VPN
10 8 (0.40%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (5.81%) PostgreSQL
2 111 (5.60%) Data Warehouse
3 98 (4.95%) NoSQL
4 90 (4.54%) MongoDB
5 81 (4.09%) SQL Server
6 80 (4.04%) Relational Database
7 77 (3.89%) Power BI
8 44 (2.22%) DynamoDB
9 35 (1.77%) Data Lake
10 34 (1.72%) Metadata
10 34 (1.72%) Oracle Reports
11 31 (1.56%) Amazon Athena
12 30 (1.51%) Big Data
13 28 (1.41%) Pentaho
14 27 (1.36%) Amazon RDS
14 27 (1.36%) Amazon Redshift
14 27 (1.36%) MySQL
14 27 (1.36%) Redis
15 23 (1.16%) Oracle Database
16 19 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 417 (21.05%) Git
2 341 (17.21%) JIRA
3 319 (16.10%) Jenkins
4 274 (13.83%) GitLab
5 250 (12.62%) Selenium
6 136 (6.87%) Postman
7 129 (6.51%) Cucumber
8 111 (5.60%) JUnit
9 101 (5.10%) Cypress.io
10 89 (4.49%) REST Assured
11 82 (4.14%) JMeter
12 81 (4.09%) SonarQube
13 60 (3.03%) Zephyr
14 55 (2.78%) Gatling
15 49 (2.47%) Gradle
16 47 (2.37%) WebDriver
17 46 (2.32%) Maven
18 42 (2.12%) Mockito
19 40 (2.02%) Bitbucket
20 24 (1.21%) LoadRunner
General
1 556 (28.07%) Social Skills
2 383 (19.33%) Finance
3 291 (14.69%) Analytical Skills
4 254 (12.82%) Public Sector
5 177 (8.93%) Banking
6 67 (3.38%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 39 (1.97%) Telecoms
8 34 (1.72%) Documentation Skills
8 34 (1.72%) Retail
9 31 (1.56%) Front Office
10 28 (1.41%) Influencing Skills
10 28 (1.41%) Investment Banking
11 22 (1.11%) Military
12 21 (1.06%) Financial Institution
13 18 (0.91%) Aerospace
13 18 (0.91%) Law
14 17 (0.86%) Back Office
15 16 (0.81%) Marketing
16 14 (0.71%) Automotive
16 14 (0.71%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 419 (21.15%) Developer
2 324 (16.36%) Senior
3 196 (9.89%) Lead
4 191 (9.64%) Test Engineer
5 154 (7.77%) Tester
6 131 (6.61%) Java Developer
7 122 (6.16%) Data Engineer
8 121 (6.11%) Software Engineer
9 109 (5.50%) Analyst
10 98 (4.95%) DevOps Engineer
11 93 (4.69%) Senior Developer
12 89 (4.49%) QA Engineer
13 88 (4.44%) Test Automation Engineer
14 85 (4.29%) Architect
15 71 (3.58%) Full-Stack Developer
16 69 (3.48%) Test Analyst
17 68 (3.43%) Automation Engineer
18 67 (3.38%) Test Leader
19 65 (3.28%) Java Engineer
20 58 (2.93%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 299 (15.09%) REST
2 292 (14.74%) Terraform
3 220 (11.11%) Playwright
4 205 (10.35%) Kafka
5 200 (10.10%) RESTful
6 189 (9.54%) React
7 185 (9.34%) Spring
8 156 (7.87%) Spring Boot
9 138 (6.97%) .NET
10 118 (5.96%) HTML
11 103 (5.20%) Node.js
12 100 (5.05%) CSS
13 98 (4.95%) AngularJS
14 63 (3.18%) OAuth
15 56 (2.83%) JSON
16 51 (2.57%) XML
17 50 (2.52%) pytest
17 50 (2.52%) SOAP
18 46 (2.32%) Gherkin
18 46 (2.32%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 309 (15.60%) Cloud Native
2 163 (8.23%) Product Ownership
3 145 (7.32%) Distributed Systems
4 81 (4.09%) Enterprise Software
5 57 (2.88%) Onboarding
6 49 (2.47%) Data Protection Act
7 48 (2.42%) Legacy Systems
8 46 (2.32%) AI Agents
8 46 (2.32%) Self-Motivation
9 43 (2.17%) Mobile App
10 33 (1.67%) Virtual Team
11 24 (1.21%) Security Posture
12 23 (1.16%) Data Structures
13 21 (1.06%) Embedded Systems
14 19 (0.96%) Distributed Architecture
14 19 (0.96%) Management Information System
15 16 (0.81%) Data Centre
15 16 (0.81%) Greenfield Project
16 15 (0.76%) Fixed Income
16 15 (0.76%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 132 (6.66%) Linux
2 81 (4.09%) Windows
3 80 (4.04%) Unix
4 38 (1.92%) Apple iOS
5 36 (1.82%) Android
6 28 (1.41%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 18 (0.91%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.30%) Solaris
9 5 (0.25%) Embedded Linux
9 5 (0.25%) Windows 10
9 5 (0.25%) Windows 7
9 5 (0.25%) Windows Server 2003
10 4 (0.20%) Mac OS X
10 4 (0.20%) Ubuntu
10 4 (0.20%) VMS
10 4 (0.20%) Windows Server 2008
11 3 (0.15%) AIX
11 3 (0.15%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.15%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,178 (59.46%) CI/CD
2 948 (47.85%) Agile
3 747 (37.71%) DevOps
4 392 (19.79%) Continuous Improvement
4 392 (19.79%) Problem-Solving
5 387 (19.54%) Microservices
6 380 (19.18%) Software Engineering
7 339 (17.11%) Infrastructure as Code
8 337 (17.01%) Validation
9 336 (16.96%) Scrum
10 308 (15.55%) AI
11 304 (15.35%) Test Strategy
12 280 (14.13%) Containerisation
13 265 (13.38%) Observability
14 252 (12.72%) SDLC
15 246 (12.42%) TDD
16 233 (11.76%) Software Testing
17 221 (11.16%) Stakeholder Management
18 214 (10.80%) End-to-End Testing
19 197 (9.94%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 544 (27.46%) Python
2 532 (26.86%) Java
3 487 (24.58%) SQL
4 284 (14.34%) JavaScript
5 221 (11.16%) TypeScript
6 163 (8.23%) C#
7 91 (4.59%) PowerShell
8 77 (3.89%) Bash
9 48 (2.42%) Kotlin
10 45 (2.27%) Bicep
11 33 (1.67%) C++
12 28 (1.41%) Scala
13 26 (1.31%) Go
14 25 (1.26%) PL/SQL
15 23 (1.16%) Apex Code
16 22 (1.11%) C
17 18 (0.91%) Shell Script
18 17 (0.86%) Groovy
18 17 (0.86%) Ruby
18 17 (0.86%) Swift
Qualifications
1 639 (32.26%) Security Cleared
2 535 (27.01%) SC Cleared
3 109 (5.50%) Degree
4 94 (4.75%) ISTQB
5 70 (3.53%) DV Cleared
6 68 (3.43%) BPSS Clearance
7 59 (2.98%) Computer Science Degree
8 36 (1.82%) AWS Certification
9 27 (1.36%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 21 (1.06%) Azure Certification
11 17 (0.86%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 13 (0.66%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 13 (0.66%) Master's Degree
13 12 (0.61%) ISEB
14 11 (0.56%) SAFe Agilist
15 10 (0.50%) Microsoft Certification
16 9 (0.45%) Cisco Certification
16 9 (0.45%) CISSP
17 8 (0.40%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
18 7 (0.35%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 531 (26.80%) QA
2 155 (7.82%) Accessibility
3 133 (6.71%) Data Quality
4 87 (4.39%) WCAG
5 36 (1.82%) GDPR
6 16 (0.81%) ISO 20022
7 14 (0.71%) NCSC
8 13 (0.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 13 (0.66%) SLA
9 11 (0.56%) GRC
9 11 (0.56%) NIST
10 7 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
11 6 (0.30%) Software Quality Assurance
12 5 (0.25%) FATCA
12 5 (0.25%) HL7
12 5 (0.25%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.20%) Def Stans
13 4 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 3 (0.15%) EU AI Act
14 3 (0.15%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 391 (19.74%) Docker
2 31 (1.56%) Active Directory
3 27 (1.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (0.91%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (0.50%) Firmware
6 5 (0.25%) VMware NSX
7 4 (0.20%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.15%) Oracle RAC
9 2 (0.10%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.10%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.050%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 390 (19.69%) Kubernetes
2 108 (5.45%) Ansible
3 105 (5.30%) Grafana
4 84 (4.24%) Prometheus
5 40 (2.02%) Argo
6 20 (1.01%) Progress Chef
6 20 (1.01%) Puppet
7 12 (0.61%) HP ALM
7 12 (0.61%) Kibana
8 10 (0.50%) Control-M
8 10 (0.50%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (0.35%) Kustomize
9 7 (0.35%) Microsoft Intune
10 6 (0.30%) Dell DRAC
11 5 (0.25%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.25%) HP Quality Center
11 5 (0.25%) Istio
11 5 (0.25%) Packer
11 5 (0.25%) SCCM
12 4 (0.20%) WMI
Vendors
1 202 (10.20%) Microsoft
2 153 (7.72%) Oracle
3 80 (4.04%) Databricks
4 69 (3.48%) Salesforce
5 64 (3.23%) Google
6 60 (3.03%) Red Hat
7 49 (2.47%) IBM
8 47 (2.37%) Splunk
8 47 (2.37%) Talend
9 44 (2.22%) ServiceNow
10 40 (2.02%) SAP
11 37 (1.87%) Dynatrace
12 34 (1.72%) Denodo
13 33 (1.67%) Informatica
13 33 (1.67%) VMware
14 30 (1.51%) Cisco
15 27 (1.36%) UiPath
16 17 (0.86%) HP
17 12 (0.61%) MuleSoft
18 11 (0.56%) Veracode