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

6 months to
12 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 48 55
Rank change year-on-year -1 +7 -6
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,675 1,114 1,260
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.13% 4.58% 3.43%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.87% 5.02% 3.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,098 769 832
10th Percentile £331 £338 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £638
90th Percentile £663 £738 £738
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 84 20 50
10th Percentile £36.60 £40.26 £52.38
25th Percentile £54.89 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.50 £52.50 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +24.76% -14.29% -17.23%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.52 £81.25
90th Percentile - £75.67 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £50.00 £61.25
% change year-on-year +31.00% -18.37% -11.71%

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 34,368 22,176 31,806
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 84.67% 91.22% 86.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,897 14,509 20,833
10th Percentile £319 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £505 £519 £525
% change year-on-year -2.69% -1.24% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,148 935 2,251
10th Percentile £15.38 £14.45 £12.92
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.50 £16.00
Median hourly rate £47.00 £29.07 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +61.68% -20.36% -2.67%
75th Percentile £67.84 £63.40 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK median hourly rate £42.40 £28.75 £36.50
% change year-on-year +47.48% -21.23% +0.29%

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 12 May 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 12 May 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 12 May 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 -1 809 £492 -3.05% 191
North of England +7 336 £467 +3.67% 120
Midlands +5 195 £450 - 63
West Midlands +21 170 £459 -7.27% 39
South East -42 164 £505 +0.80% 123
North West +12 146 £465 +3.39% 54
Yorkshire -6 143 £487 -3.56% 30
South West +2 90 £475 -7.32% 65
East of England +11 61 £522 +6.58% 59
North East +8 52 £425 +7.59% 36
East Midlands -40 25 £400 +13.15% 24
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
1 132 (7.88%) Confluence
2 40 (2.39%) SAS
3 32 (1.91%) Apache Spark
4 29 (1.73%) Apache Airflow
5 12 (0.72%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.66%) Apache
7 8 (0.48%) Appian
8 6 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.36%) Camunda
9 4 (0.24%) CMS
9 4 (0.24%) nginx
9 4 (0.24%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.12%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.060%) Ethereum
12 1 (0.060%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.060%) Mendix
12 1 (0.060%) Solana
Applications
1 25 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.66%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.18%) Simulink
7 1 (0.060%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.060%) Mingle
7 1 (0.060%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 20 (1.19%) Aladdin
2 11 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.42%) Findur
3 7 (0.42%) Shopify
4 6 (0.36%) Loan IQ
5 5 (0.30%) BambooHR
5 5 (0.30%) Maximo
5 5 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
5 5 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
6 3 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
6 3 (0.18%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.18%) SAP ERP
7 2 (0.12%) iTrent
7 2 (0.12%) SAP MDG
7 2 (0.12%) Summit
7 2 (0.12%) Workday HCM
8 1 (0.060%) Cloudability
8 1 (0.060%) Infor CloudSuite
8 1 (0.060%) Infor LN
8 1 (0.060%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 455 (27.16%) Azure
2 450 (26.87%) AWS
3 268 (16.00%) GitHub
4 206 (12.30%) Azure DevOps
5 155 (9.25%) GitHub Actions
6 115 (6.87%) GCP
7 112 (6.69%) Serverless
8 71 (4.24%) AWS Lambda
9 68 (4.06%) Amazon S3
10 53 (3.16%) OpenShift
10 53 (3.16%) Power Platform
11 50 (2.99%) Amazon ECS
12 43 (2.57%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 37 (2.21%) AWS CloudFormation
14 35 (2.09%) Amazon EKS
14 35 (2.09%) Azure AKS
14 35 (2.09%) Azure Data Factory
14 35 (2.09%) Snowflake
15 27 (1.61%) Dynamics 365
16 26 (1.55%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 20 (1.19%) Firewall
2 13 (0.78%) HTTP
2 13 (0.78%) SAN
3 11 (0.66%) TCP/IP
4 9 (0.54%) Ethernet
4 9 (0.54%) VPN
5 8 (0.48%) FTP
5 8 (0.48%) WAN
6 7 (0.42%) MPLS
6 7 (0.42%) SD-WAN
6 7 (0.42%) SSL
6 7 (0.42%) Wireshark
7 6 (0.36%) Multicast
7 6 (0.36%) VLAN
7 6 (0.36%) Wi-Fi
8 5 (0.30%) Network Security
9 4 (0.24%) Cisco IOS
9 4 (0.24%) Modbus
9 4 (0.24%) NAS
9 4 (0.24%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 95 (5.67%) PostgreSQL
2 81 (4.84%) SQL Server
3 78 (4.66%) NoSQL
4 70 (4.18%) MongoDB
5 68 (4.06%) Data Warehouse
6 52 (3.10%) Relational Database
7 41 (2.45%) DynamoDB
8 38 (2.27%) Power BI
9 34 (2.03%) Pentaho
10 26 (1.55%) Oracle Reports
11 24 (1.43%) Tableau
12 23 (1.37%) Redis
13 22 (1.31%) Big Data
13 22 (1.31%) MySQL
14 20 (1.19%) Amazon Athena
15 19 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
15 19 (1.13%) BigQuery
15 19 (1.13%) Data Lake
16 18 (1.07%) Metadata
17 17 (1.01%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 327 (19.52%) JIRA
2 304 (18.15%) Git
3 278 (16.60%) Jenkins
4 237 (14.15%) GitLab
5 224 (13.37%) Selenium
6 130 (7.76%) Postman
7 118 (7.04%) Cucumber
8 89 (5.31%) JUnit
9 77 (4.60%) Cypress.io
10 71 (4.24%) JMeter
10 71 (4.24%) REST Assured
11 45 (2.69%) WebDriver
12 42 (2.51%) SonarQube
12 42 (2.51%) Zephyr
13 32 (1.91%) Gradle
14 30 (1.79%) Maven
14 30 (1.79%) SpecFlow
15 29 (1.73%) Bitbucket
16 27 (1.61%) Mockito
17 26 (1.55%) Gatling
General
1 443 (26.45%) Social Skills
2 306 (18.27%) Finance
3 228 (13.61%) Public Sector
4 205 (12.24%) Analytical Skills
5 145 (8.66%) Banking
6 38 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
7 34 (2.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 29 (1.73%) Investment Banking
9 26 (1.55%) Front Office
10 23 (1.37%) Telecoms
11 20 (1.19%) Presentation Skills
12 19 (1.13%) Influencing Skills
13 17 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
14 14 (0.84%) Aerospace
14 14 (0.84%) Legal
14 14 (0.84%) Retail
15 12 (0.72%) Financial Institution
16 10 (0.60%) Back Office
16 10 (0.60%) Military
17 8 (0.48%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 349 (20.84%) Developer
2 255 (15.22%) Senior
3 184 (10.99%) Tester
4 174 (10.39%) Lead
5 173 (10.33%) Test Engineer
6 102 (6.09%) Data Engineer
7 99 (5.91%) Java Developer
8 90 (5.37%) Analyst
9 87 (5.19%) Test Automation Engineer
10 83 (4.96%) Software Engineer
11 81 (4.84%) Automation Tester
12 71 (4.24%) Architect
12 71 (4.24%) QA Engineer
13 68 (4.06%) Senior Developer
14 65 (3.88%) DevOps Engineer
14 65 (3.88%) Test Leader
15 54 (3.22%) Full-Stack Developer
16 51 (3.04%) Test Analyst
17 49 (2.93%) Automation Engineer
18 48 (2.87%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 186 (11.10%) Playwright
1 186 (11.10%) REST
2 150 (8.96%) React
3 133 (7.94%) Spring
4 123 (7.34%) RESTful
5 122 (7.28%) Kafka
6 118 (7.04%) .NET
7 109 (6.51%) Node.js
7 109 (6.51%) Spring Boot
8 73 (4.36%) AngularJS
9 62 (3.70%) HTML
10 55 (3.28%) CSS
11 53 (3.16%) pytest
12 48 (2.87%) OAuth
13 47 (2.81%) Jest
14 32 (1.91%) Gherkin
14 32 (1.91%) OpenID
14 32 (1.91%) Swagger
15 31 (1.85%) OAuth2
15 31 (1.85%) SailPoint
Miscellaneous
1 185 (11.04%) Cloud Native
2 117 (6.99%) Product Ownership
3 91 (5.43%) Distributed Systems
4 45 (2.69%) Data Protection Act
5 44 (2.63%) Mobile App
6 41 (2.45%) Legacy Systems
7 32 (1.91%) Virtual Team
8 29 (1.73%) Self-Motivation
9 26 (1.55%) Onboarding
10 25 (1.49%) Enterprise Software
11 24 (1.43%) Algorithms
12 23 (1.37%) Management Information System
13 21 (1.25%) Distributed Architecture
14 19 (1.13%) Fixed Income
15 18 (1.07%) Data Centre
15 18 (1.07%) Data Structures
15 18 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
15 18 (1.07%) Security Posture
16 17 (1.01%) NHS
17 16 (0.96%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 112 (6.69%) Linux
2 75 (4.48%) Windows
3 44 (2.63%) Unix
4 38 (2.27%) Android
5 35 (2.09%) Apple iOS
6 18 (1.07%) Windows Server
7 16 (0.96%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 13 (0.78%) Mac OS X
9 7 (0.42%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.30%) Solaris
11 4 (0.24%) Embedded Linux
11 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
11 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
12 3 (0.18%) AIX
12 3 (0.18%) CentOS
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
13 2 (0.12%) Kali Linux
14 1 (0.060%) FreeRTOS
14 1 (0.060%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 874 (52.18%) CI/CD
2 777 (46.39%) Agile
3 598 (35.70%) DevOps
4 354 (21.13%) Problem-Solving
5 280 (16.72%) Microservices
6 270 (16.12%) Continuous Improvement
7 244 (14.57%) Scrum
8 239 (14.27%) Test Strategy
9 222 (13.25%) Software Engineering
10 221 (13.19%) Infrastructure as Code
11 220 (13.13%) Containerisation
12 218 (13.01%) Validation
13 197 (11.76%) Observability
14 194 (11.58%) AI
14 194 (11.58%) TDD
15 180 (10.75%) Test Scripting
16 168 (10.03%) ETL
16 168 (10.03%) Software Testing
17 165 (9.85%) Regression Testing
18 164 (9.79%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 442 (26.39%) Python
2 419 (25.01%) Java
3 398 (23.76%) SQL
4 231 (13.79%) JavaScript
5 220 (13.13%) TypeScript
6 175 (10.45%) C#
7 68 (4.06%) PowerShell
8 54 (3.22%) Bash
9 42 (2.51%) C++
10 37 (2.21%) Kotlin
11 32 (1.91%) C
12 30 (1.79%) PL/SQL
13 26 (1.55%) Scala
14 24 (1.43%) Apex Code
15 23 (1.37%) Bicep
15 23 (1.37%) Go
16 18 (1.07%) Ruby
17 17 (1.01%) Swift
18 13 (0.78%) Groovy
19 11 (0.66%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 523 (31.22%) Security Cleared
2 406 (24.24%) SC Cleared
3 75 (4.48%) ISTQB
4 71 (4.24%) Degree
5 63 (3.76%) DV Cleared
6 59 (3.52%) BPSS Clearance
7 41 (2.45%) Computer Science Degree
8 14 (0.84%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 13 (0.78%) Master's Degree
10 12 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
11 10 (0.60%) Azure Certification
11 10 (0.60%) CCNP
11 10 (0.60%) SAFe Agilist
12 9 (0.54%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 8 (0.48%) AWS Certification
13 8 (0.48%) DBS Check
13 8 (0.48%) Microsoft Certification
14 7 (0.42%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
15 6 (0.36%) CISSP
16 5 (0.30%) CCIE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 366 (21.85%) QA
2 114 (6.81%) Accessibility
3 98 (5.85%) Data Quality
4 50 (2.99%) WCAG
5 28 (1.67%) GDPR
6 14 (0.84%) ISO 20022
7 10 (0.60%) Def Stans
7 10 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 10 (0.60%) NCSC
8 8 (0.48%) SLA
9 7 (0.42%) NIST
9 7 (0.42%) SEPA
10 6 (0.36%) PSD2
10 6 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 5 (0.30%) FATCA
12 4 (0.24%) HL7
12 4 (0.24%) MiFID
12 4 (0.24%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.24%) Software Quality Assurance
13 3 (0.18%) GRC
System Software
1 292 (17.43%) Docker
2 20 (1.19%) Active Directory
3 18 (1.07%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (0.78%) Firmware
5 11 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
6 7 (0.42%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 6 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
8 5 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
9 4 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
10 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
11 2 (0.12%) SRDF
12 1 (0.060%) Embedded Firmware
12 1 (0.060%) Hyper-V
12 1 (0.060%) KVM
12 1 (0.060%) Squid
12 1 (0.060%) Virtual Servers
12 1 (0.060%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 296 (17.67%) Kubernetes
2 201 (12.00%) Terraform
3 97 (5.79%) Grafana
4 80 (4.78%) Prometheus
5 78 (4.66%) Ansible
6 26 (1.55%) Argo
7 16 (0.96%) HP ALM
8 15 (0.90%) Puppet
9 12 (0.72%) Kibana
9 12 (0.72%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.60%) Forefront Identity Manager
10 10 (0.60%) HP Quality Center
10 10 (0.60%) NetIQ Identity Manager
11 8 (0.48%) Dell DRAC
12 7 (0.42%) Progress Chef
13 6 (0.36%) NetBackup
14 5 (0.30%) Rancher
15 4 (0.24%) Nmap
15 4 (0.24%) Oracle RMAN
16 3 (0.18%) Nagios
Vendors
1 150 (8.96%) Oracle
2 142 (8.48%) Microsoft
3 58 (3.46%) Databricks
4 57 (3.40%) Salesforce
5 55 (3.28%) ServiceNow
6 53 (3.16%) Splunk
7 49 (2.93%) Talend
8 45 (2.69%) Red Hat
9 43 (2.57%) Google
10 33 (1.97%) Denodo
11 26 (1.55%) SAP
12 24 (1.43%) VMware
13 20 (1.19%) Cisco
13 20 (1.19%) Dynatrace
13 20 (1.19%) Informatica
14 19 (1.13%) HP
14 19 (1.13%) IBM
15 17 (1.01%) UiPath
16 15 (0.90%) MuleSoft
16 15 (0.90%) OpenAI