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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 45 55
Rank change year-on-year -1 +10 -9
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,652 1,150 1,313
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.55% 4.53% 3.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.23% 5.01% 4.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,122 778 910
10th Percentile £331 £329 £375
25th Percentile £400 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.00% -4.76% -7.89%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £636
90th Percentile £680 £725 £719
UK median daily rate £477 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -4.70% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 44 6 56
10th Percentile £38.01 £44.51 £46.50
25th Percentile £50.94 £45.63 £52.50
Median hourly rate £64.25 £65.38 £65.75
Median % change year-on-year -1.72% -0.57% +9.58%
75th Percentile £68.75 £76.77 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £82.35 -
UK median hourly rate £64.25 £56.75 £65.75
% change year-on-year +13.22% -13.69% +12.39%

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 31,583 22,934 32,620
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 86.97% 90.41% 87.09%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,210 14,556 21,603
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 £618 £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 1,944 784 2,086
10th Percentile £15.25 £15.50 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £29.32 £35.00 £33.78
Median % change year-on-year -16.23% +3.63% -5.26%
75th Percentile £63.81 £65.00 £59.33
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.18 £71.90
UK median hourly rate £28.00 £32.50 £32.85
% change year-on-year -13.85% -1.05% -6.16%

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 5 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 5 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 5 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 -1 806 £500 -4.76% 223
North of England +7 322 £494 +12.86% 149
Midlands +6 191 £477 +3.03% 82
South East -19 166 £500 -13.04% 165
West Midlands +9 158 £490 +1.45% 49
North West +5 140 £450 +0.56% 78
Yorkshire -16 138 £500 +10.50% 46
South West -2 81 £515 -6.36% 95
East of England 0 58 £570 +21.93% 74
North East +13 48 £488 +28.09% 25
East Midlands -22 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 (6.78%) Confluence
2 62 (3.75%) SAS
3 28 (1.69%) Apache Spark
4 14 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
5 11 (0.67%) 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 28 (1.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.85%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.73%) Microsoft Office
4 11 (0.67%) MS Visio
5 7 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.061%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 19 (1.15%) 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%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.12%) BambooHR
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 (0.061%) Algo Collateral
7 1 (0.061%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.061%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.061%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.061%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 453 (27.42%) Azure
2 397 (24.03%) AWS
3 271 (16.40%) GitHub
4 192 (11.62%) Azure DevOps
5 158 (9.56%) GCP
6 145 (8.78%) GitHub Actions
7 111 (6.72%) Serverless
8 69 (4.18%) OpenShift
9 57 (3.45%) Power Platform
10 47 (2.85%) AWS Lambda
11 46 (2.78%) Azure AKS
12 44 (2.66%) Amazon S3
13 34 (2.06%) Azure Data Factory
14 33 (2.00%) Azure Functions
15 32 (1.94%) Snowflake
16 30 (1.82%) SaaS
17 29 (1.76%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 29 (1.76%) AWS CloudFormation
17 29 (1.76%) Entra ID
18 27 (1.63%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 33 (2.00%) Firewall
2 20 (1.21%) Wireshark
3 19 (1.15%) VPN
4 18 (1.09%) TCP/IP
5 15 (0.91%) HTTP
6 13 (0.79%) SD-WAN
6 13 (0.79%) SSL
7 12 (0.73%) HTTPS
7 12 (0.73%) WAN
8 10 (0.61%) Network Security
9 9 (0.54%) DNS
9 9 (0.54%) Ethernet
9 9 (0.54%) MPLS
10 8 (0.48%) Multicast
10 8 (0.48%) VLAN
11 7 (0.42%) AMQP
11 7 (0.42%) FTP
12 6 (0.36%) SAN
13 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
14 4 (0.24%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 98 (5.93%) PostgreSQL
2 72 (4.36%) NoSQL
3 69 (4.18%) SQL Server
4 65 (3.93%) MongoDB
5 53 (3.21%) Relational Database
6 47 (2.85%) Data Warehouse
7 34 (2.06%) Pentaho
8 31 (1.88%) Power BI
9 26 (1.57%) Oracle Database
10 23 (1.39%) BigQuery
11 22 (1.33%) DynamoDB
11 22 (1.33%) MySQL
12 21 (1.27%) Tableau
13 18 (1.09%) Oracle Reports
13 18 (1.09%) Redis
14 17 (1.03%) Azure SQL Database
15 15 (0.91%) Data Lake
16 13 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
16 13 (0.79%) Big Data
16 13 (0.79%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 317 (19.19%) JIRA
2 312 (18.89%) Git
3 306 (18.52%) Jenkins
4 250 (15.13%) GitLab
5 245 (14.83%) Selenium
6 143 (8.66%) Cucumber
7 142 (8.60%) Postman
8 104 (6.30%) JUnit
9 101 (6.11%) Cypress.io
10 86 (5.21%) REST Assured
11 76 (4.60%) JMeter
12 37 (2.24%) Maven
12 37 (2.24%) SonarQube
13 36 (2.18%) WebDriver
14 35 (2.12%) SpecFlow
15 31 (1.88%) Gatling
15 31 (1.88%) Gradle
16 29 (1.76%) TestRail
16 29 (1.76%) Zephyr
17 25 (1.51%) Bitbucket
General
1 439 (26.57%) Social Skills
2 274 (16.59%) Finance
3 226 (13.68%) Public Sector
4 185 (11.20%) Analytical Skills
5 137 (8.29%) Banking
6 28 (1.69%) Documentation Skills
7 25 (1.51%) Investment Banking
8 24 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 22 (1.33%) Front Office
10 21 (1.27%) Presentation Skills
11 20 (1.21%) Pharmaceutical
11 20 (1.21%) Telecoms
12 17 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
13 16 (0.97%) Military
14 13 (0.79%) Financial Institution
14 13 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
15 11 (0.67%) Aerospace
16 10 (0.61%) Legal
17 9 (0.54%) Electronics
18 8 (0.48%) Retail
Job Titles
1 347 (21.00%) Developer
2 269 (16.28%) Senior
3 196 (11.86%) Lead
4 195 (11.80%) Tester
5 174 (10.53%) Test Engineer
6 92 (5.57%) Java Developer
7 88 (5.33%) Data Engineer
8 86 (5.21%) Automation Tester
9 82 (4.96%) Analyst
10 78 (4.72%) Software Engineer
11 72 (4.36%) Test Automation Engineer
12 65 (3.93%) Test Leader
13 61 (3.69%) QA Engineer
13 61 (3.69%) Senior Developer
14 58 (3.51%) DevOps Engineer
15 54 (3.27%) Architect
16 53 (3.21%) Test Manager
17 51 (3.09%) Test Analyst
18 48 (2.91%) Automation Engineer
19 39 (2.36%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 204 (12.35%) REST
2 199 (12.05%) Playwright
3 144 (8.72%) React
4 131 (7.93%) Spring
5 128 (7.75%) .NET
6 120 (7.26%) RESTful
7 115 (6.96%) Node.js
8 114 (6.90%) Kafka
9 106 (6.42%) Spring Boot
10 84 (5.08%) pytest
11 55 (3.33%) HTML
12 53 (3.21%) AngularJS
12 53 (3.21%) CSS
13 49 (2.97%) Jest
14 48 (2.91%) OAuth
15 43 (2.60%) Web Services
16 38 (2.30%) JSON
17 37 (2.24%) GraphQL
18 35 (2.12%) SOAP
18 35 (2.12%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 181 (10.96%) Cloud Native
2 96 (5.81%) Product Ownership
3 71 (4.30%) Distributed Systems
4 45 (2.72%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.48%) Algorithms
6 38 (2.30%) Legacy Systems
7 35 (2.12%) Security Posture
8 33 (2.00%) Data Protection Act
9 26 (1.57%) Data Structures
10 25 (1.51%) Onboarding
10 25 (1.51%) Self-Motivation
11 23 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (1.39%) Virtual Team
12 22 (1.33%) Management Information System
13 20 (1.21%) Equities
13 20 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
14 18 (1.09%) Distributed Architecture
14 18 (1.09%) Public Cloud
15 15 (0.91%) Derivative
16 14 (0.85%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 135 (8.17%) Linux
2 83 (5.02%) Windows
3 43 (2.60%) Android
4 38 (2.30%) Apple iOS
4 38 (2.30%) Unix
5 20 (1.21%) Windows Server
6 17 (1.03%) Mac OS X
7 12 (0.73%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (0.67%) Kali Linux
9 7 (0.42%) Mac OS
10 6 (0.36%) CentOS
11 2 (0.12%) Solaris
11 2 (0.12%) VMS
11 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2008
11 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.061%) FreeRTOS
12 1 (0.061%) Robot Operating System
12 1 (0.061%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 857 (51.88%) CI/CD
2 794 (48.06%) Agile
3 613 (37.11%) DevOps
4 422 (25.54%) Problem-Solving
5 271 (16.40%) Microservices
6 268 (16.22%) Continuous Improvement
7 256 (15.50%) Test Strategy
8 237 (14.35%) Containerisation
9 235 (14.23%) Scrum
10 225 (13.62%) AI
11 219 (13.26%) Test Scripting
12 204 (12.35%) Infrastructure as Code
13 203 (12.29%) Validation
14 202 (12.23%) Software Engineering
15 194 (11.74%) TDD
16 186 (11.26%) Analytics
17 181 (10.96%) Software Testing
18 174 (10.53%) Observability
19 157 (9.50%) API Testing
20 155 (9.38%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 509 (30.81%) Python
2 400 (24.21%) Java
3 358 (21.67%) SQL
4 249 (15.07%) JavaScript
5 238 (14.41%) TypeScript
6 159 (9.62%) C#
7 68 (4.12%) PowerShell
8 66 (4.00%) Bash
9 41 (2.48%) C++
10 31 (1.88%) Go
11 24 (1.45%) Bicep
11 24 (1.45%) Kotlin
12 23 (1.39%) PL/SQL
13 19 (1.15%) Apex Code
13 19 (1.15%) C
14 16 (0.97%) Swift
15 15 (0.91%) Scala
16 12 (0.73%) Ruby
16 12 (0.73%) T-SQL
17 11 (0.67%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 481 (29.12%) Security Cleared
2 369 (22.34%) SC Cleared
3 94 (5.69%) Degree
4 78 (4.72%) ISTQB
5 56 (3.39%) DV Cleared
6 55 (3.33%) BPSS Clearance
7 53 (3.21%) Computer Science Degree
8 28 (1.69%) Master's Degree
9 25 (1.51%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 18 (1.09%) OSCP
11 15 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (0.85%) Azure Certification
12 14 (0.85%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 13 (0.79%) GPEN
13 13 (0.79%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 12 (0.73%) AWS Certification
14 12 (0.73%) CEH
15 11 (0.67%) CISSP
15 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Certification
16 10 (0.61%) CCNP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 372 (22.52%) QA
2 120 (7.26%) Accessibility
3 93 (5.63%) Data Quality
4 39 (2.36%) WCAG
5 30 (1.82%) NIST
6 29 (1.76%) 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%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 7 (0.42%) Def Stans
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 (20.94%) Docker
2 32 (1.94%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.42%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
3 7 (0.42%) Firmware
3 7 (0.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.36%) VMware ESXi
5 5 (0.30%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
7 2 (0.12%) Oracle RAC
7 2 (0.12%) SRDF
7 2 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.061%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.061%) KVM
8 1 (0.061%) QEMU
8 1 (0.061%) Squid
8 1 (0.061%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.061%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 330 (19.98%) Kubernetes
2 188 (11.38%) Terraform
3 100 (6.05%) Ansible
4 98 (5.93%) Grafana
5 70 (4.24%) Prometheus
6 18 (1.09%) Nmap
7 17 (1.03%) HP ALM
7 17 (1.03%) Puppet
8 16 (0.97%) Argo
9 15 (0.91%) Progress Chef
10 11 (0.67%) Single Sign-On
11 10 (0.61%) HP Quality Center
11 10 (0.61%) NetBackup
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%) CSIRT
14 4 (0.24%) Rancher
Vendors
1 147 (8.90%) Microsoft
2 146 (8.84%) Oracle
3 65 (3.93%) Databricks
4 62 (3.75%) Splunk
5 61 (3.69%) ServiceNow
6 55 (3.33%) Salesforce
7 54 (3.27%) Google
8 38 (2.30%) Talend
9 36 (2.18%) SAP
10 31 (1.88%) Red Hat
11 30 (1.82%) Denodo
12 23 (1.39%) VMware
13 21 (1.27%) Cisco
14 20 (1.21%) IBM
15 19 (1.15%) HP
16 17 (1.03%) Workday
17 15 (0.91%) MuleSoft
17 15 (0.91%) OpenAI
18 14 (0.85%) Atlassian
18 14 (0.85%) Foundry