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

6 months to
12 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 45 55
Rank change year-on-year -2 +10 -13
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,575 1,160 1,365
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.64% 4.45% 3.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.30% 4.96% 4.16%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,067 769 972
10th Percentile £331 £340 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £588 £618 £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 44 3 58
10th Percentile £30.67 £73.44 £50.25
25th Percentile £48.63 £74.85 £52.50
Median hourly rate £64.25 £77.19 £70.19
Median % change year-on-year -16.76% +9.98% +23.28%
75th Percentile £67.50 £82.35 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £85.44 -
UK median hourly rate £63.50 £74.00 £69.25
% change year-on-year -14.19% +6.86% +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 29,739 23,407 32,830
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.55% 89.77% 87.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,003 14,473 21,878
10th Percentile £308 £310 £300
25th Percentile £412 £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 1,861 738 1,959
10th Percentile £15.09 £15.62 £13.39
25th Percentile £18.00 £21.05 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.37% - -
75th Percentile £60.61 £64.50 £60.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £72.90
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £33.07
% change year-on-year -22.62% -1.71% +1.74%

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 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 12 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 12 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 +1 775 £500 -4.76% 184
North of England +2 327 £496 +16.71% 123
South East -24 161 £496 -0.80% 167
Midlands +3 144 £492 +3.91% 56
Yorkshire -13 144 £525 +16.02% 31
North West +8 135 £447 +10.51% 77
West Midlands +1 114 £515 +5.97% 37
South West +1 79 £518 -7.59% 72
East of England +4 53 £570 +42.50% 53
North East +14 52 £488 +31.33% 15
East Midlands -8 30 £400 -13.51% 19
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 91 (5.78%) Confluence
2 44 (2.79%) SAS
3 18 (1.14%) Apache Spark
4 14 (0.89%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
6 8 (0.51%) Apache
6 8 (0.51%) Appian
7 6 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 6 (0.38%) Oracle Application Server
8 5 (0.32%) CMS
8 5 (0.32%) OpenStack
9 4 (0.25%) Camunda
9 4 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.19%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.13%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.13%) nginx
11 2 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.13%) WordPress
12 1 (0.063%) CICS
Applications
1 23 (1.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.70%) Microsoft Office
4 9 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.19%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.063%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.063%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.063%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (1.21%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.32%) Workday HCM
3 4 (0.25%) Loan IQ
3 4 (0.25%) Maximo
3 4 (0.25%) SAP HR
4 3 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.19%) Shopify
5 2 (0.13%) Eagle PACE
5 2 (0.13%) iTrent
5 2 (0.13%) Markit EDM
5 2 (0.13%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.13%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.13%) Summit
6 1 (0.063%) Cloudability
6 1 (0.063%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.063%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.063%) Salesforce CRM
6 1 (0.063%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 424 (26.92%) Azure
2 372 (23.62%) AWS
3 237 (15.05%) GitHub
4 173 (10.98%) Azure DevOps
5 156 (9.90%) GCP
6 123 (7.81%) GitHub Actions
7 107 (6.79%) Serverless
8 62 (3.94%) OpenShift
9 53 (3.37%) Power Platform
10 44 (2.79%) AWS Lambda
11 42 (2.67%) Azure AKS
12 39 (2.48%) Amazon S3
13 37 (2.35%) SaaS
14 33 (2.10%) Snowflake
15 31 (1.97%) Azure Functions
16 29 (1.84%) Azure Data Factory
17 28 (1.78%) Amazon EKS
17 28 (1.78%) AWS CloudFormation
17 28 (1.78%) Entra ID
18 27 (1.71%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 36 (2.29%) Firewall
2 29 (1.84%) Wireshark
3 21 (1.33%) HTTPS
4 20 (1.27%) VPN
5 19 (1.21%) TCP/IP
6 17 (1.08%) SSL
7 14 (0.89%) HTTP
7 14 (0.89%) Network Security
8 13 (0.83%) SD-WAN
9 11 (0.70%) WAN
10 10 (0.63%) MPLS
11 9 (0.57%) DNS
11 9 (0.57%) Ethernet
11 9 (0.57%) Multicast
11 9 (0.57%) VLAN
12 7 (0.44%) AMQP
12 7 (0.44%) FTP
13 5 (0.32%) BGP
13 5 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
13 5 (0.32%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 86 (5.46%) PostgreSQL
2 74 (4.70%) MongoDB
3 69 (4.38%) NoSQL
4 64 (4.06%) SQL Server
5 53 (3.37%) Relational Database
6 30 (1.90%) Data Warehouse
7 29 (1.84%) Power BI
8 24 (1.52%) Oracle Database
9 22 (1.40%) BigQuery
9 22 (1.40%) MySQL
10 21 (1.33%) Pentaho
11 18 (1.14%) Redis
12 17 (1.08%) DynamoDB
12 17 (1.08%) Tableau
13 15 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
14 13 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
14 13 (0.83%) Big Data
14 13 (0.83%) Data Lake
14 13 (0.83%) Star Schema
15 12 (0.76%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 277 (17.59%) JIRA
2 274 (17.40%) Jenkins
3 264 (16.76%) Git
4 231 (14.67%) Selenium
5 230 (14.60%) GitLab
6 132 (8.38%) Postman
7 128 (8.13%) Cucumber
8 101 (6.41%) Cypress.io
9 87 (5.52%) REST Assured
10 84 (5.33%) JUnit
11 65 (4.13%) JMeter
12 40 (2.54%) SonarQube
13 34 (2.16%) Maven
14 33 (2.10%) Mockito
14 33 (2.10%) TestRail
15 31 (1.97%) Bitbucket
15 31 (1.97%) Gradle
16 29 (1.84%) Gatling
17 26 (1.65%) SpecFlow
17 26 (1.65%) WebDriver
General
1 403 (25.59%) Social Skills
2 260 (16.51%) Finance
3 217 (13.78%) Public Sector
4 184 (11.68%) Analytical Skills
5 127 (8.06%) Banking
6 28 (1.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 25 (1.59%) Investment Banking
8 24 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
9 23 (1.46%) Front Office
10 22 (1.40%) Pharmaceutical
10 22 (1.40%) Telecoms
11 18 (1.14%) Presentation Skills
12 15 (0.95%) Military
13 13 (0.83%) Financial Institution
13 13 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
14 11 (0.70%) Aerospace
15 10 (0.63%) Manufacturing
16 9 (0.57%) Electronics
16 9 (0.57%) Legal
16 9 (0.57%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 376 (23.87%) Developer
2 268 (17.02%) Senior
3 179 (11.37%) Tester
4 169 (10.73%) Test Engineer
5 168 (10.67%) Lead
6 111 (7.05%) Java Developer
7 84 (5.33%) Automation Tester
8 80 (5.08%) Software Engineer
9 76 (4.83%) Analyst
10 73 (4.63%) Senior Developer
11 71 (4.51%) Test Automation Engineer
12 60 (3.81%) QA Engineer
12 60 (3.81%) Test Leader
13 56 (3.56%) Data Engineer
13 56 (3.56%) DevOps Engineer
14 50 (3.17%) Test Analyst
14 50 (3.17%) Test Manager
15 49 (3.11%) Automation Engineer
16 44 (2.79%) Architect
17 43 (2.73%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 211 (13.40%) REST
2 183 (11.62%) Playwright
3 140 (8.89%) React
4 124 (7.87%) .NET
5 120 (7.62%) Node.js
6 117 (7.43%) Kafka
6 117 (7.43%) RESTful
7 116 (7.37%) Spring
8 107 (6.79%) Spring Boot
9 76 (4.83%) pytest
10 55 (3.49%) HTML
11 52 (3.30%) AngularJS
12 51 (3.24%) OAuth
13 50 (3.17%) CSS
13 50 (3.17%) JSON
13 50 (3.17%) SOAP
14 46 (2.92%) Jest
15 45 (2.86%) Web Services
15 45 (2.86%) XML
16 36 (2.29%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 168 (10.67%) Cloud Native
2 97 (6.16%) Product Ownership
3 59 (3.75%) Distributed Systems
4 45 (2.86%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.60%) Security Posture
6 39 (2.48%) Algorithms
7 33 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
8 30 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
9 24 (1.52%) Onboarding
10 23 (1.46%) Data Structures
11 22 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
12 21 (1.33%) Greenfield Project
12 21 (1.33%) Virtual Team
13 20 (1.27%) Management Information System
14 18 (1.14%) Equities
14 18 (1.14%) Public Cloud
14 18 (1.14%) Self-Motivation
15 14 (0.89%) Genomics
15 14 (0.89%) Life Science
15 14 (0.89%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 154 (9.78%) Linux
2 77 (4.89%) Windows
3 52 (3.30%) Unix
4 42 (2.67%) Android
5 36 (2.29%) Apple iOS
6 26 (1.65%) Mac OS X
7 19 (1.21%) Windows Server
8 11 (0.70%) Kali Linux
9 6 (0.38%) Mac OS
9 6 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 4 (0.25%) CentOS
11 2 (0.13%) VMS
11 2 (0.13%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.063%) FreeRTOS
12 1 (0.063%) Robot Operating System
12 1 (0.063%) Windows Embedded Compact
12 1 (0.063%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 780 (49.52%) CI/CD
2 768 (48.76%) Agile
3 570 (36.19%) DevOps
4 408 (25.90%) Problem-Solving
5 263 (16.70%) Microservices
6 233 (14.79%) Test Strategy
7 226 (14.35%) Containerisation
8 224 (14.22%) Continuous Improvement
9 203 (12.89%) Scrum
10 202 (12.83%) Test Scripting
11 198 (12.57%) Software Engineering
12 197 (12.51%) TDD
13 195 (12.38%) AI
14 191 (12.13%) Infrastructure as Code
15 183 (11.62%) Validation
16 175 (11.11%) Software Testing
17 153 (9.71%) BDD
18 152 (9.65%) API Testing
19 150 (9.52%) Observability
20 144 (9.14%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 476 (30.22%) Python
2 408 (25.90%) Java
3 310 (19.68%) SQL
4 244 (15.49%) JavaScript
5 226 (14.35%) TypeScript
6 147 (9.33%) C#
7 69 (4.38%) Bash
8 60 (3.81%) PowerShell
9 37 (2.35%) C++
9 37 (2.35%) Go
10 24 (1.52%) Bicep
11 23 (1.46%) Kotlin
12 21 (1.33%) PL/SQL
13 16 (1.02%) Apex Code
13 16 (1.02%) Scala
14 14 (0.89%) C
14 14 (0.89%) Swift
15 11 (0.70%) PHP
15 11 (0.70%) Ruby
15 11 (0.70%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 440 (27.94%) Security Cleared
2 336 (21.33%) SC Cleared
3 94 (5.97%) Degree
4 69 (4.38%) ISTQB
5 58 (3.68%) BPSS Clearance
5 58 (3.68%) DV Cleared
6 53 (3.37%) Computer Science Degree
7 30 (1.90%) Master's Degree
8 21 (1.33%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 18 (1.14%) OSCP
10 15 (0.95%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 14 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (0.83%) CEH
12 13 (0.83%) GPEN
12 13 (0.83%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 12 (0.76%) AWS Certification
14 11 (0.70%) Azure Certification
14 11 (0.70%) CISSP
14 11 (0.70%) Oracle Certification
15 10 (0.63%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 339 (21.52%) QA
2 116 (7.37%) Accessibility
3 71 (4.51%) Data Quality
4 36 (2.29%) WCAG
5 32 (2.03%) NIST
6 30 (1.90%) GDPR
7 20 (1.27%) NCSC
8 18 (1.14%) EU AI Act
9 15 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 14 (0.89%) ISO 20022
11 12 (0.76%) PSD2
12 10 (0.63%) SEPA
12 10 (0.63%) SLA
13 9 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 6 (0.38%) NIST 800
14 6 (0.38%) PCI DSS
14 6 (0.38%) SOC 2
15 5 (0.32%) Def Stans
15 5 (0.32%) PERC
16 4 (0.25%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 325 (20.63%) Docker
2 30 (1.90%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.44%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 5 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
5 4 (0.25%) Firmware
5 4 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.19%) ISA Server
6 3 (0.19%) QEMU
6 3 (0.19%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
8 1 (0.063%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.063%) KVM
8 1 (0.063%) Squid
8 1 (0.063%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.063%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.063%) zsh
Systems Management
1 298 (18.92%) Kubernetes
2 181 (11.49%) Terraform
3 92 (5.84%) Ansible
4 82 (5.21%) Grafana
5 55 (3.49%) Prometheus
6 19 (1.21%) Nmap
7 18 (1.14%) HP ALM
8 14 (0.89%) Progress Chef
9 13 (0.83%) Argo
9 13 (0.83%) CSIRT
10 12 (0.76%) Puppet
11 11 (0.70%) Single Sign-On
12 9 (0.57%) HP Quality Center
13 8 (0.51%) NetBackup
14 7 (0.44%) Kibana
14 7 (0.44%) Nessus
15 6 (0.38%) Forefront Identity Manager
15 6 (0.38%) NetIQ Identity Manager
16 5 (0.32%) Podman
17 4 (0.25%) Rancher
Vendors
1 141 (8.95%) Microsoft
2 130 (8.25%) Oracle
3 62 (3.94%) Splunk
4 56 (3.56%) Databricks
4 56 (3.56%) ServiceNow
5 49 (3.11%) Google
5 49 (3.11%) Salesforce
6 45 (2.86%) SAP
7 23 (1.46%) Red Hat
8 22 (1.40%) Talend
9 21 (1.33%) Denodo
10 20 (1.27%) Cisco
11 19 (1.21%) VMware
12 18 (1.14%) HP
12 18 (1.14%) webMethods
13 17 (1.08%) F5
13 17 (1.08%) IBM
13 17 (1.08%) MuleSoft
13 17 (1.08%) OpenAI
14 15 (0.95%) Workday