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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 45 59
Rank change year-on-year -3 +14 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,684 1,121 1,278
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.39% 4.62% 3.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.11% 5.09% 3.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,122 771 853
10th Percentile £332 £337 £363
25th Percentile £402 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £638
90th Percentile £688 £725 £725
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £510
% change year-on-year -5.00% -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 72 9 54
10th Percentile £34.35 £41.66 £39.75
25th Percentile £54.89 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.50 £56.75 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.42% -1.30% -8.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.50 £81.25
90th Percentile - £75.84 £90.00
UK median hourly rate £65.50 £53.38 £57.50
% change year-on-year +22.72% -7.17% -8.00%

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 32,977 22,016 32,582
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 85.99% 90.82% 86.69%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,149 14,501 21,512
10th Percentile £313 £310 £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 £614 £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 2,015 852 2,158
10th Percentile £15.38 £15.00 £12.92
25th Percentile £19.34 £19.96 £15.78
Median hourly rate £37.50 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.38% - -13.33%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.64 £58.69
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £70.66
UK median hourly rate £35.77 £31.76 £32.50
% change year-on-year +12.61% -2.28% -10.41%

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 3 April 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 3 April 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 3 April 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 -1 822 £500 - 183
North of England +9 330 £477 +5.89% 162
Midlands +5 197 £472 -1.67% 83
South East -26 178 £500 -6.10% 145
West Midlands +13 169 £477 -6.10% 57
North West +5 144 £464 +3.06% 82
Yorkshire -9 141 £500 +3.90% 41
South West -3 82 £475 -9.52% 72
East of England -6 56 £620 +26.53% 65
North East +7 48 £425 +8.97% 39
East Midlands -23 28 £400 +8.11% 26
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
1 109 (6.47%) Confluence
2 66 (3.92%) SAS
3 25 (1.48%) Apache Spark
4 20 (1.19%) Apache Airflow
5 14 (0.83%) SharePoint
6 9 (0.53%) Apache
7 8 (0.48%) Appian
8 6 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.36%) Camunda
8 6 (0.36%) WebLogic
9 5 (0.30%) CMS
9 5 (0.30%) nginx
10 4 (0.24%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
12 2 (0.12%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 27 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.65%) MS Visio
4 7 (0.42%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.18%) Simulink
7 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.059%) Mingle
8 1 (0.059%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 22 (1.31%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.36%) Findur
2 6 (0.36%) Loan IQ
2 6 (0.36%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.30%) Maximo
3 5 (0.30%) Shopify
4 4 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.24%) SAP HR
4 4 (0.24%) Workday HCM
5 3 (0.18%) BambooHR
5 3 (0.18%) Distributed Ledger
6 2 (0.12%) iTrent
6 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.12%) Summit
7 1 (0.059%) CODA-Financials
7 1 (0.059%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.059%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.059%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 457 (27.14%) Azure
2 411 (24.41%) AWS
3 279 (16.57%) GitHub
4 209 (12.41%) Azure DevOps
5 154 (9.14%) GitHub Actions
6 141 (8.37%) GCP
7 110 (6.53%) Serverless
8 77 (4.57%) OpenShift
9 58 (3.44%) AWS Lambda
10 53 (3.15%) Amazon S3
10 53 (3.15%) Power Platform
11 38 (2.26%) Azure AKS
12 34 (2.02%) Snowflake
13 33 (1.96%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 33 (1.96%) Amazon ECS
13 33 (1.96%) Azure Data Factory
14 32 (1.90%) AWS CloudFormation
15 27 (1.60%) Azure Monitor
15 27 (1.60%) SaaS
16 26 (1.54%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.37%) Firewall
2 15 (0.89%) HTTP
3 13 (0.77%) TCP/IP
4 11 (0.65%) VPN
5 10 (0.59%) Network Security
5 10 (0.59%) SSL
5 10 (0.59%) Wireshark
6 9 (0.53%) Ethernet
6 9 (0.53%) SAN
7 8 (0.48%) MPLS
7 8 (0.48%) Multicast
7 8 (0.48%) SD-WAN
7 8 (0.48%) WAN
8 7 (0.42%) FTP
8 7 (0.42%) HTTPS
9 6 (0.36%) 5G
9 6 (0.36%) DNS
10 5 (0.30%) AMQP
10 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
10 5 (0.30%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 94 (5.58%) PostgreSQL
2 73 (4.33%) SQL Server
3 69 (4.10%) NoSQL
4 59 (3.50%) MongoDB
5 52 (3.09%) Relational Database
6 49 (2.91%) Data Warehouse
7 35 (2.08%) DynamoDB
8 32 (1.90%) Pentaho
9 28 (1.66%) Power BI
10 25 (1.48%) BigQuery
11 24 (1.43%) Oracle Database
12 23 (1.37%) MySQL
12 23 (1.37%) Tableau
13 21 (1.25%) Redis
14 19 (1.13%) Oracle Reports
15 17 (1.01%) Amazon RDS
16 15 (0.89%) Metadata
17 14 (0.83%) SAS Enterprise Guide
18 13 (0.77%) Amazon Athena
18 13 (0.77%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 332 (19.71%) Git
2 319 (18.94%) JIRA
3 299 (17.76%) Jenkins
4 251 (14.90%) Selenium
5 231 (13.72%) GitLab
6 136 (8.08%) Cucumber
7 135 (8.02%) Postman
8 109 (6.47%) JUnit
9 90 (5.34%) Cypress.io
10 86 (5.11%) REST Assured
11 75 (4.45%) JMeter
12 42 (2.49%) SonarQube
12 42 (2.49%) WebDriver
13 37 (2.20%) Maven
14 35 (2.08%) Zephyr
15 34 (2.02%) SpecFlow
16 32 (1.90%) Gradle
17 30 (1.78%) TestRail
18 29 (1.72%) Mockito
19 27 (1.60%) Bitbucket
General
1 473 (28.09%) Social Skills
2 299 (17.76%) Finance
3 238 (14.13%) Public Sector
4 178 (10.57%) Analytical Skills
5 146 (8.67%) Banking
6 35 (2.08%) Documentation Skills
7 30 (1.78%) Front Office
8 29 (1.72%) Investment Banking
9 26 (1.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 23 (1.37%) Telecoms
11 21 (1.25%) Presentation Skills
12 19 (1.13%) Organisational Skills
13 16 (0.95%) Financial Institution
13 16 (0.95%) Influencing Skills
14 15 (0.89%) Aerospace
15 14 (0.83%) Legal
15 14 (0.83%) Pharmaceutical
16 11 (0.65%) Military
17 10 (0.59%) Publishing
17 10 (0.59%) Retail
Job Titles
1 351 (20.84%) Developer
2 269 (15.97%) Senior
3 187 (11.10%) Lead
4 186 (11.05%) Tester
5 176 (10.45%) Test Engineer
6 94 (5.58%) Java Developer
7 91 (5.40%) Analyst
8 85 (5.05%) Automation Tester
8 85 (5.05%) Data Engineer
9 81 (4.81%) Test Automation Engineer
10 78 (4.63%) Software Engineer
11 69 (4.10%) QA Engineer
12 68 (4.04%) Test Leader
13 67 (3.98%) Senior Developer
14 62 (3.68%) DevOps Engineer
15 60 (3.56%) Architect
16 55 (3.27%) Test Analyst
17 52 (3.09%) Test Manager
18 51 (3.03%) Automation Engineer
19 45 (2.67%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 216 (12.83%) REST
2 188 (11.16%) Playwright
3 146 (8.67%) React
4 136 (8.08%) Spring
5 127 (7.54%) RESTful
6 117 (6.95%) Kafka
7 114 (6.77%) .NET
8 113 (6.71%) Node.js
9 107 (6.35%) Spring Boot
10 79 (4.69%) pytest
11 70 (4.16%) AngularJS
12 51 (3.03%) OAuth
13 49 (2.91%) HTML
13 49 (2.91%) Jest
14 45 (2.67%) CSS
15 38 (2.26%) Web Services
16 34 (2.02%) GraphQL
16 34 (2.02%) WireMock
17 33 (1.96%) JSON
17 33 (1.96%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 176 (10.45%) Cloud Native
2 110 (6.53%) Product Ownership
3 89 (5.29%) Distributed Systems
4 46 (2.73%) Mobile App
5 38 (2.26%) Legacy Systems
6 37 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
7 35 (2.08%) Algorithms
8 30 (1.78%) Self-Motivation
9 29 (1.72%) Onboarding
9 29 (1.72%) Virtual Team
10 27 (1.60%) Security Posture
11 26 (1.54%) Enterprise Software
12 22 (1.31%) Data Structures
12 22 (1.31%) Management Information System
13 21 (1.25%) Equities
14 19 (1.13%) Distributed Architecture
14 19 (1.13%) NHS
15 18 (1.07%) Greenfield Project
16 17 (1.01%) Fixed Income
17 15 (0.89%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 129 (7.66%) Linux
2 83 (4.93%) Windows
3 45 (2.67%) Android
4 37 (2.20%) Apple iOS
5 34 (2.02%) Unix
6 19 (1.13%) Windows Server
7 15 (0.89%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 13 (0.77%) Mac OS X
9 7 (0.42%) Kali Linux
9 7 (0.42%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.30%) Solaris
11 4 (0.24%) CentOS
11 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.18%) Embedded Linux
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2016
12 3 (0.18%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.059%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.059%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.059%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.059%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 872 (51.78%) CI/CD
2 792 (47.03%) Agile
3 621 (36.88%) DevOps
4 398 (23.63%) Problem-Solving
5 273 (16.21%) Continuous Improvement
6 267 (15.86%) Microservices
7 256 (15.20%) Test Strategy
8 238 (14.13%) Scrum
9 236 (14.01%) Containerisation
10 217 (12.89%) Validation
11 209 (12.41%) AI
12 207 (12.29%) Infrastructure as Code
13 205 (12.17%) Software Engineering
14 203 (12.05%) Test Scripting
15 194 (11.52%) TDD
16 193 (11.46%) Observability
17 192 (11.40%) Analytics
18 175 (10.39%) Software Testing
19 174 (10.33%) SDLC
20 173 (10.27%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 496 (29.45%) Python
2 417 (24.76%) Java
3 375 (22.27%) SQL
4 233 (13.84%) JavaScript
5 225 (13.36%) TypeScript
6 170 (10.10%) C#
7 71 (4.22%) PowerShell
8 58 (3.44%) Bash
9 46 (2.73%) C++
10 32 (1.90%) C
11 28 (1.66%) Kotlin
12 25 (1.48%) Apex Code
13 24 (1.43%) Bicep
13 24 (1.43%) Go
14 23 (1.37%) PL/SQL
15 19 (1.13%) Ruby
16 18 (1.07%) Scala
16 18 (1.07%) Swift
17 14 (0.83%) Groovy
18 12 (0.71%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 516 (30.64%) Security Cleared
2 397 (23.57%) SC Cleared
3 86 (5.11%) Degree
4 85 (5.05%) ISTQB
5 61 (3.62%) BPSS Clearance
6 60 (3.56%) DV Cleared
7 50 (2.97%) Computer Science Degree
8 25 (1.48%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 22 (1.31%) Master's Degree
10 15 (0.89%) Cisco Certification
11 12 (0.71%) Azure Certification
12 10 (0.59%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 10 (0.59%) OSCP
13 9 (0.53%) AWS Certification
13 9 (0.53%) CCNP
13 9 (0.53%) Microsoft Certification
14 8 (0.48%) CEH
14 8 (0.48%) CISSP
14 8 (0.48%) ISEB
15 7 (0.42%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 378 (22.45%) QA
2 100 (5.94%) Accessibility
3 99 (5.88%) Data Quality
4 42 (2.49%) WCAG
5 31 (1.84%) GDPR
6 16 (0.95%) NIST
7 15 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.83%) NCSC
9 12 (0.71%) ISO 20022
10 10 (0.59%) Def Stans
10 10 (0.59%) SLA
11 9 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 8 (0.48%) PSD2
13 7 (0.42%) SEPA
14 6 (0.36%) SOC 2
15 5 (0.30%) EU AI Act
15 5 (0.30%) HL7
15 5 (0.30%) MiFID
15 5 (0.30%) PCI DSS
15 5 (0.30%) PERC
System Software
1 334 (19.83%) Docker
2 25 (1.48%) Active Directory
3 11 (0.65%) Firmware
4 10 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
5 7 (0.42%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 7 (0.42%) VMware ESXi
6 5 (0.30%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.24%) Oracle RAC
7 4 (0.24%) Virtual Machines
8 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
9 2 (0.12%) SRDF
10 1 (0.059%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.059%) KVM
10 1 (0.059%) Squid
10 1 (0.059%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.059%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.059%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 331 (19.66%) Kubernetes
2 196 (11.64%) Terraform
3 98 (5.82%) Grafana
4 80 (4.75%) Ansible
5 78 (4.63%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.54%) Argo
7 19 (1.13%) HP ALM
8 18 (1.07%) Puppet
9 13 (0.77%) Progress Chef
10 11 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
11 10 (0.59%) Forefront Identity Manager
11 10 (0.59%) HP Quality Center
11 10 (0.59%) NetIQ Identity Manager
11 10 (0.59%) Nmap
12 9 (0.53%) NetBackup
13 6 (0.36%) Kibana
13 6 (0.36%) Rancher
14 5 (0.30%) Dell DRAC
14 5 (0.30%) Podman
15 4 (0.24%) Istio
Vendors
1 149 (8.85%) Oracle
2 143 (8.49%) Microsoft
3 62 (3.68%) Databricks
4 61 (3.62%) Salesforce
5 54 (3.21%) Splunk
6 52 (3.09%) Google
7 51 (3.03%) ServiceNow
8 46 (2.73%) Red Hat
9 40 (2.38%) SAP
10 37 (2.20%) Talend
11 31 (1.84%) Denodo
12 23 (1.37%) IBM
12 23 (1.37%) VMware
13 22 (1.31%) HP
14 18 (1.07%) Dynatrace
15 17 (1.01%) Cisco
16 16 (0.95%) MuleSoft
17 15 (0.89%) Workday
18 14 (0.83%) OpenAI
19 13 (0.77%) Informatica