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

6 months to
14 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 1,566 1,161 1,380
As % of all contract jobs in England 4.58% 4.46% 3.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.23% 4.96% 4.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,064 774 980
10th Percentile £331 £334 £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 £619 £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 43 3 58
10th Percentile £29.86 £73.44 £50.25
25th Percentile £47.25 £74.85 £52.50
Median hourly rate £63.50 £77.19 £70.19
Median % change year-on-year -17.74% +9.98% +23.28%
75th Percentile £67.50 £82.35 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £85.44 -
UK median hourly rate £63.00 £75.60 £69.25
% change year-on-year -16.66% +9.16% +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 29,953 23,398 33,216
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in England 87.52% 89.80% 87.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 19,141 14,488 22,145
10th Percentile £310 £310 £300
25th Percentile £413 £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 1,876 738 1,974
10th Percentile £15.18 £15.62 £13.31
25th Percentile £18.21 £21.00 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.77 £35.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -26.37% - -
75th Percentile £60.30 £64.50 £60.36
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.00 £73.42
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £33.50
% change year-on-year -22.62% -2.99% +2.15%

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 14 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 14 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 14 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 -1 777 £500 -4.76% 149
North of England +6 323 £490 +15.24% 113
South East -20 158 £492 -1.60% 156
Yorkshire -12 140 £520 +17.18% 33
Midlands +1 138 £493 +5.07% 61
North West +5 135 £447 +11.12% 65
West Midlands 0 108 £515 +5.97% 40
South West +4 77 £515 -12.71% 60
East of England +7 56 £585 +39.70% 57
North East +14 52 £488 +28.09% 15
East Midlands -13 30 £400 -4.48% 21
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 90 (5.75%) Confluence
2 44 (2.81%) SAS
3 17 (1.09%) Apache Spark
4 13 (0.83%) SharePoint
5 9 (0.57%) Apache Airflow
6 8 (0.51%) Appian
7 7 (0.45%) Apache
8 6 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.38%) Oracle Application Server
9 5 (0.32%) CMS
9 5 (0.32%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.26%) Camunda
10 4 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.26%) WebLogic
11 3 (0.19%) Anypoint
11 3 (0.19%) nginx
12 2 (0.13%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.13%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.13%) WordPress
13 1 (0.064%) CICS
Applications
1 25 (1.60%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.45%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.26%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.064%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.064%) SOLIDWORKS
7 1 (0.064%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (1.21%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.32%) Workday HCM
3 4 (0.26%) Loan IQ
3 4 (0.26%) Maximo
3 4 (0.26%) SAP HR
4 3 (0.19%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.19%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.19%) Shopify
5 2 (0.13%) iTrent
5 2 (0.13%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.13%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.13%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.13%) Summit
6 1 (0.064%) Algo Collateral
6 1 (0.064%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.064%) Eagle PACE
6 1 (0.064%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.064%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.064%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.064%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 422 (26.95%) Azure
2 370 (23.63%) AWS
3 242 (15.45%) GitHub
4 173 (11.05%) Azure DevOps
5 151 (9.64%) GCP
6 126 (8.05%) GitHub Actions
7 106 (6.77%) Serverless
8 63 (4.02%) OpenShift
9 54 (3.45%) Power Platform
10 45 (2.87%) AWS Lambda
11 40 (2.55%) Amazon S3
11 40 (2.55%) Azure AKS
12 37 (2.36%) SaaS
13 33 (2.11%) Snowflake
14 29 (1.85%) AWS CloudFormation
14 29 (1.85%) Azure Data Factory
15 28 (1.79%) Amazon EKS
15 28 (1.79%) Azure Functions
15 28 (1.79%) Entra ID
16 27 (1.72%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 31 (1.98%) Firewall
2 23 (1.47%) Wireshark
3 22 (1.40%) HTTPS
4 20 (1.28%) VPN
5 19 (1.21%) TCP/IP
6 17 (1.09%) SSL
7 14 (0.89%) HTTP
7 14 (0.89%) Network Security
8 13 (0.83%) SD-WAN
9 11 (0.70%) Ethernet
9 11 (0.70%) WAN
10 10 (0.64%) MPLS
11 9 (0.57%) DNS
11 9 (0.57%) Multicast
11 9 (0.57%) VLAN
12 7 (0.45%) AMQP
12 7 (0.45%) FTP
13 5 (0.32%) BGP
13 5 (0.32%) Cisco IPT
13 5 (0.32%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (5.43%) PostgreSQL
2 68 (4.34%) MongoDB
3 65 (4.15%) NoSQL
4 62 (3.96%) SQL Server
5 52 (3.32%) Relational Database
6 31 (1.98%) Data Warehouse
7 30 (1.92%) Power BI
8 25 (1.60%) Oracle Database
9 22 (1.40%) BigQuery
9 22 (1.40%) MySQL
10 21 (1.34%) Pentaho
11 18 (1.15%) DynamoDB
11 18 (1.15%) Redis
12 17 (1.09%) Tableau
13 15 (0.96%) Amazon RDS
14 13 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
14 13 (0.83%) Star Schema
15 12 (0.77%) Big Data
15 12 (0.77%) Data Lake
15 12 (0.77%) SAS Enterprise Guide
Development Applications
1 276 (17.62%) JIRA
2 275 (17.56%) Jenkins
3 264 (16.86%) Git
4 231 (14.75%) Selenium
5 230 (14.69%) GitLab
6 130 (8.30%) Postman
7 127 (8.11%) Cucumber
8 103 (6.58%) Cypress.io
9 88 (5.62%) REST Assured
10 85 (5.43%) JUnit
11 65 (4.15%) JMeter
12 40 (2.55%) SonarQube
13 34 (2.17%) Maven
14 32 (2.04%) TestRail
15 31 (1.98%) Gradle
15 31 (1.98%) Mockito
16 30 (1.92%) Gatling
17 29 (1.85%) Bitbucket
18 28 (1.79%) SpecFlow
19 25 (1.60%) WebDriver
General
1 393 (25.10%) Social Skills
2 257 (16.41%) Finance
3 219 (13.98%) Public Sector
4 179 (11.43%) Analytical Skills
5 125 (7.98%) Banking
6 29 (1.85%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 26 (1.66%) Investment Banking
8 24 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
9 22 (1.40%) Front Office
9 22 (1.40%) Pharmaceutical
10 21 (1.34%) Telecoms
11 18 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
12 15 (0.96%) Military
13 14 (0.89%) Influencing Skills
14 13 (0.83%) Financial Institution
15 11 (0.70%) Aerospace
15 11 (0.70%) Electronics
16 9 (0.57%) Legal
16 9 (0.57%) Manufacturing
17 8 (0.51%) Retail
Job Titles
1 369 (23.56%) Developer
2 270 (17.24%) Senior
3 179 (11.43%) Tester
4 171 (10.92%) Test Engineer
5 169 (10.79%) Lead
6 106 (6.77%) Java Developer
7 84 (5.36%) Automation Tester
8 82 (5.24%) Software Engineer
9 77 (4.92%) Analyst
10 72 (4.60%) Senior Developer
10 72 (4.60%) Test Automation Engineer
11 61 (3.90%) QA Engineer
12 57 (3.64%) Test Leader
13 56 (3.58%) Data Engineer
14 55 (3.51%) DevOps Engineer
15 51 (3.26%) Test Manager
16 50 (3.19%) Test Analyst
17 47 (3.00%) Automation Engineer
18 45 (2.87%) Architect
19 43 (2.75%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 210 (13.41%) REST
2 188 (12.01%) Playwright
3 140 (8.94%) React
4 123 (7.85%) .NET
5 117 (7.47%) Spring
6 116 (7.41%) Node.js
7 115 (7.34%) RESTful
8 114 (7.28%) Kafka
9 107 (6.83%) Spring Boot
10 77 (4.92%) pytest
11 53 (3.38%) HTML
12 52 (3.32%) AngularJS
12 52 (3.32%) OAuth
13 50 (3.19%) SOAP
14 49 (3.13%) CSS
14 49 (3.13%) JSON
15 48 (3.07%) Jest
16 44 (2.81%) Web Services
16 44 (2.81%) XML
17 36 (2.30%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 168 (10.73%) Cloud Native
2 94 (6.00%) Product Ownership
3 58 (3.70%) Distributed Systems
4 44 (2.81%) Mobile App
5 40 (2.55%) Algorithms
6 35 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
6 35 (2.23%) Security Posture
7 31 (1.98%) Data Protection Act
8 25 (1.60%) Onboarding
9 23 (1.47%) Data Structures
9 23 (1.47%) Enterprise Software
10 21 (1.34%) Virtual Team
11 20 (1.28%) Management Information System
11 20 (1.28%) Self-Motivation
12 19 (1.21%) Equities
12 19 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
13 18 (1.15%) Public Cloud
14 14 (0.89%) Derivative
14 14 (0.89%) Life Science
14 14 (0.89%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 152 (9.71%) Linux
2 79 (5.04%) Windows
3 50 (3.19%) Unix
4 41 (2.62%) Android
5 35 (2.23%) Apple iOS
6 24 (1.53%) Mac OS X
7 20 (1.28%) Windows Server
8 11 (0.70%) Kali Linux
9 7 (0.45%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 6 (0.38%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.26%) CentOS
12 2 (0.13%) VMS
12 2 (0.13%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.064%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.064%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.064%) Solaris
13 1 (0.064%) Windows Embedded Compact
13 1 (0.064%) Windows Server 2008
13 1 (0.064%) Windows Server 2016
13 1 (0.064%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 779 (49.74%) CI/CD
2 768 (49.04%) Agile
3 572 (36.53%) DevOps
4 402 (25.67%) Problem-Solving
5 262 (16.73%) Microservices
6 233 (14.88%) Test Strategy
7 228 (14.56%) Containerisation
8 226 (14.43%) Continuous Improvement
9 202 (12.90%) Scrum
9 202 (12.90%) Software Engineering
10 201 (12.84%) AI
11 200 (12.77%) TDD
11 200 (12.77%) Test Scripting
12 195 (12.45%) Infrastructure as Code
13 181 (11.56%) Validation
14 179 (11.43%) Software Testing
15 152 (9.71%) Observability
16 150 (9.58%) API Testing
17 149 (9.51%) BDD
18 148 (9.45%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 480 (30.65%) Python
2 405 (25.86%) Java
3 307 (19.60%) SQL
4 244 (15.58%) JavaScript
5 230 (14.69%) TypeScript
6 152 (9.71%) C#
7 67 (4.28%) Bash
8 59 (3.77%) PowerShell
9 40 (2.55%) C++
10 35 (2.23%) Go
11 24 (1.53%) Bicep
12 22 (1.40%) Kotlin
12 22 (1.40%) PL/SQL
13 18 (1.15%) C
14 16 (1.02%) Apex Code
14 16 (1.02%) Scala
15 13 (0.83%) Swift
16 11 (0.70%) Groovy
16 11 (0.70%) PHP
16 11 (0.70%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 439 (28.03%) Security Cleared
2 333 (21.26%) SC Cleared
3 96 (6.13%) Degree
4 67 (4.28%) ISTQB
5 60 (3.83%) BPSS Clearance
6 56 (3.58%) DV Cleared
7 54 (3.45%) Computer Science Degree
8 30 (1.92%) Master's Degree
9 21 (1.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 18 (1.15%) OSCP
11 15 (0.96%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 13 (0.83%) Cisco Certification
12 13 (0.83%) GPEN
12 13 (0.83%) Microsoft Certified Professional
13 12 (0.77%) CEH
14 11 (0.70%) AWS Certification
14 11 (0.70%) Azure Certification
14 11 (0.70%) Oracle Certification
15 10 (0.64%) CISSP
15 10 (0.64%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 338 (21.58%) QA
2 117 (7.47%) Accessibility
3 72 (4.60%) Data Quality
4 39 (2.49%) WCAG
5 31 (1.98%) NIST
6 30 (1.92%) GDPR
7 19 (1.21%) NCSC
8 18 (1.15%) EU AI Act
9 14 (0.89%) ISO 20022
9 14 (0.89%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 12 (0.77%) PSD2
11 10 (0.64%) SEPA
12 9 (0.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 9 (0.57%) SLA
13 6 (0.38%) NIST 800
13 6 (0.38%) PCI DSS
13 6 (0.38%) SOC 2
14 5 (0.32%) Def Stans
14 5 (0.32%) PERC
15 4 (0.26%) HL7
System Software
1 326 (20.82%) Docker
2 30 (1.92%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.45%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 5 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
4 5 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (0.26%) Firmware
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 (0.064%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.064%) KVM
8 1 (0.064%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.064%) Squid
8 1 (0.064%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.064%) Virtual Desktop
8 1 (0.064%) zsh
Systems Management
1 296 (18.90%) Kubernetes
2 182 (11.62%) Terraform
3 91 (5.81%) Ansible
4 82 (5.24%) Grafana
5 55 (3.51%) Prometheus
6 19 (1.21%) Nmap
7 17 (1.09%) HP ALM
8 14 (0.89%) Progress Chef
8 14 (0.89%) Puppet
9 13 (0.83%) Argo
10 12 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
11 9 (0.57%) HP Quality Center
12 8 (0.51%) NetBackup
13 7 (0.45%) CSIRT
13 7 (0.45%) Kibana
13 7 (0.45%) Nessus
14 6 (0.38%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 6 (0.38%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 5 (0.32%) Podman
16 4 (0.26%) Iperf
Vendors
1 141 (9.00%) Microsoft
2 130 (8.30%) Oracle
3 57 (3.64%) Databricks
3 57 (3.64%) ServiceNow
4 55 (3.51%) Splunk
5 50 (3.19%) Salesforce
6 49 (3.13%) Google
7 44 (2.81%) SAP
8 24 (1.53%) Red Hat
9 22 (1.40%) Talend
10 21 (1.34%) Denodo
11 19 (1.21%) Cisco
11 19 (1.21%) VMware
12 18 (1.15%) IBM
12 18 (1.15%) webMethods
13 17 (1.09%) HP
13 17 (1.09%) MuleSoft
14 16 (1.02%) OpenAI
15 15 (0.96%) Workday
16 14 (0.89%) Foundry