Test Automation Contract Job Trends in London

Automated Testing
England > London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in London requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 6 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 57 48
Rank change year-on-year +5 -9 +2
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 863 618 749
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.28% 4.55% 4.61%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.81% 4.93% 5.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 588 422 512
10th Percentile £350 £340 £363
25th Percentile £425 £400 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% -8.70%
75th Percentile £614 £688 £675
90th Percentile £711 £775 £775
England median daily rate £477 £492 £525
% change year-on-year -3.15% -6.29% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 5
10th Percentile £52.35 £37.25 £51.00
25th Percentile £67.41 £40.63 £52.50
Median hourly rate £95.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +111.11% -18.18% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £56.25
% change year-on-year +35.00% -11.11% -13.79%

All Process & Methodology Skills
London

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 London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 17,950 12,547 14,456
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.04% 92.29% 88.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,820 8,389 10,191
10th Percentile £363 £325 £350
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.85% -1.82% -4.35%
75th Percentile £660 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £788 £800
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 297 247 197
10th Percentile £17.60 £16.50 £16.99
25th Percentile £19.85 £24.58 £22.00
Median hourly rate £36.00 £29.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +22.03% -15.71% -15.19%
75th Percentile £57.50 £49.13 £55.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £62.70 £71.50
England median hourly rate £44.23 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +75.86% -40.82% -

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in London

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Test Automation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in London.

Test Automation job vacancy trend in London

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Test Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in London

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in London over the 6 months to 6 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in London

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Test Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in London citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation in London over the 6 months to 6 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in London

Test Automation
Contract Job Locations in London

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 London region over the 6 months to 6 August 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
Central London +10 111 £550 +15.79% 70
South London -6 19 £535 +7.00% 7
East London +7 9 £545 +36.25% 10
West London -15 7 £525 +32.91% 9
North London -2 1 £400 -
Test Automation
England

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in London 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 61 (7.07%) Confluence
2 36 (4.17%) Apache Airflow
3 24 (2.78%) Apache Spark
4 13 (1.51%) Apache
4 13 (1.51%) CMS
5 10 (1.16%) SharePoint
6 6 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
7 4 (0.46%) nginx
7 4 (0.46%) Tomcat
7 4 (0.46%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.35%) Camunda
8 3 (0.35%) Kentico
9 2 (0.23%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.23%) Appian
9 2 (0.23%) Mule
9 2 (0.23%) SAS
10 1 (0.12%) Apache Solr
10 1 (0.12%) ColdFusion
10 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 16 (1.85%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (1.16%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.70%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.58%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.46%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.46%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.35%) Trello
7 2 (0.23%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 15 (1.74%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.51%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.93%) Findur
4 6 (0.70%) Oracle EBS
4 6 (0.70%) Shopify
5 5 (0.58%) BambooHR
6 4 (0.46%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.35%) Distributed Ledger
8 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite
8 2 (0.23%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.23%) Infor M3
8 2 (0.23%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.12%) IntelliMatch
9 1 (0.12%) Misys Equation
9 1 (0.12%) Misys Midas
9 1 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
9 1 (0.12%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 305 (35.34%) Azure
2 268 (31.05%) AWS
3 188 (21.78%) GitHub
4 146 (16.92%) Azure DevOps
5 119 (13.79%) GitHub Actions
6 76 (8.81%) Serverless
7 68 (7.88%) GCP
7 68 (7.88%) Power Platform
8 57 (6.60%) AWS Lambda
9 53 (6.14%) Amazon S3
10 47 (5.45%) dbt
11 37 (4.29%) Snowflake
12 32 (3.71%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 31 (3.59%) Amazon ECS
14 28 (3.24%) GitHub Copilot
15 26 (3.01%) Amazon EC2
16 22 (2.55%) Azure AKS
17 21 (2.43%) Azure Data Factory
18 19 (2.20%) Dynamics 365
19 18 (2.09%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.93%) HTTP
2 7 (0.81%) Network Security
3 6 (0.70%) Firewall
3 6 (0.70%) WAN
4 5 (0.58%) TCP/IP
5 4 (0.46%) DHCP
5 4 (0.46%) DNS
5 4 (0.46%) LAN
5 4 (0.46%) Wi-Fi
6 3 (0.35%) FTP
6 3 (0.35%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (0.35%) SMS
7 2 (0.23%) Multicast
7 2 (0.23%) NaaS
7 2 (0.23%) SSL
8 1 (0.12%) BGP
8 1 (0.12%) Bluetooth
8 1 (0.12%) Ethernet
8 1 (0.12%) NGFW
8 1 (0.12%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (6.60%) PostgreSQL
1 57 (6.60%) Power BI
2 53 (6.14%) Data Warehouse
3 49 (5.68%) NoSQL
4 45 (5.21%) SQL Server
5 41 (4.75%) MongoDB
6 31 (3.59%) Relational Database
7 30 (3.48%) DynamoDB
8 24 (2.78%) Amazon Athena
9 23 (2.67%) Amazon Redshift
10 22 (2.55%) Data Lake
11 19 (2.20%) Amazon RDS
11 19 (2.20%) Big Data
12 16 (1.85%) BigQuery
12 16 (1.85%) Tableau
13 14 (1.62%) Metadata
14 12 (1.39%) MySQL
15 11 (1.27%) Elasticsearch
15 11 (1.27%) Redis
16 8 (0.93%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 149 (17.27%) Git
2 136 (15.76%) Jenkins
3 132 (15.30%) JIRA
4 102 (11.82%) GitLab
5 97 (11.24%) Selenium
6 56 (6.49%) Cypress.io
7 47 (5.45%) Cucumber
8 41 (4.75%) JUnit
8 41 (4.75%) REST Assured
9 40 (4.63%) JMeter
10 37 (4.29%) Postman
11 20 (2.32%) Maven
12 19 (2.20%) Gradle
13 18 (2.09%) Gatling
13 18 (2.09%) Zephyr
14 17 (1.97%) Appium
14 17 (1.97%) Bitbucket
15 15 (1.74%) Mockito
16 14 (1.62%) SpecFlow
17 12 (1.39%) LoadRunner
General
1 254 (29.43%) Finance
2 227 (26.30%) Social Skills
3 118 (13.67%) Analytical Skills
4 114 (13.21%) Banking
5 94 (10.89%) Public Sector
6 24 (2.78%) Front Office
7 22 (2.55%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.32%) Financial Institution
8 20 (2.32%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (1.97%) Influencing Skills
10 14 (1.62%) Legal
11 13 (1.51%) Telecoms
12 12 (1.39%) Back Office
12 12 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.04%) Marketing
13 9 (1.04%) Retail
14 6 (0.70%) Law
14 6 (0.70%) Local Government
14 6 (0.70%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.58%) Games
Job Titles
1 186 (21.55%) Developer
2 151 (17.50%) Senior
3 90 (10.43%) Lead
4 70 (8.11%) Tester
5 56 (6.49%) Data Engineer
5 56 (6.49%) Test Engineer
6 51 (5.91%) QA Engineer
7 49 (5.68%) DevOps Engineer
8 46 (5.33%) Analyst
8 46 (5.33%) Architect
8 46 (5.33%) Java Developer
9 42 (4.87%) Software Engineer
10 38 (4.40%) Full-Stack Developer
11 37 (4.29%) Senior Developer
12 36 (4.17%) Automation Engineer
13 31 (3.59%) Test Automation Engineer
14 29 (3.36%) Test Leader
15 28 (3.24%) Automation Tester
16 27 (3.13%) Test Manager
17 24 (2.78%) React Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 120 (13.90%) REST
2 112 (12.98%) Playwright
3 97 (11.24%) React
4 90 (10.43%) RESTful
5 82 (9.50%) Kafka
6 67 (7.76%) .NET
7 65 (7.53%) Spring
8 56 (6.49%) Spring Boot
9 55 (6.37%) Node.js
10 48 (5.56%) CSS
11 44 (5.10%) HTML
12 28 (3.24%) PySpark
13 26 (3.01%) HTML5
14 25 (2.90%) AngularJS
15 24 (2.78%) CSS3
15 24 (2.78%) OAuth
16 22 (2.55%) Jest
16 22 (2.55%) Redux
17 19 (2.20%) JSON
17 19 (2.20%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 140 (16.22%) Cloud Native
2 82 (9.50%) Distributed Systems
3 59 (6.84%) Product Ownership
4 29 (3.36%) Data Protection Act
5 27 (3.13%) Onboarding
6 24 (2.78%) Legacy Systems
7 22 (2.55%) AI Agents
8 20 (2.32%) Self-Motivation
9 18 (2.09%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (2.09%) Fixed Income
10 17 (1.97%) Virtual Team
11 15 (1.74%) Algorithms
12 14 (1.62%) Data Structures
13 13 (1.51%) Greenfield Project
13 13 (1.51%) Mobile App
14 12 (1.39%) Management Information System
15 11 (1.27%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
16 10 (1.16%) Security Posture
17 9 (1.04%) Distributed Architecture
17 9 (1.04%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 41 (4.75%) Linux
2 30 (3.48%) Windows
3 22 (2.55%) Unix
4 19 (2.20%) Android
5 17 (1.97%) Apple iOS
6 10 (1.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.93%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.46%) Solaris
8 4 (0.46%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (0.35%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.23%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 549 (63.62%) CI/CD
2 365 (42.29%) Agile
3 345 (39.98%) DevOps
4 176 (20.39%) AI
5 167 (19.35%) Infrastructure as Code
6 156 (18.08%) Microservices
7 150 (17.38%) Problem-Solving
8 143 (16.57%) Continuous Improvement
9 140 (16.22%) Software Engineering
10 138 (15.99%) Containerisation
11 137 (15.87%) Validation
12 135 (15.64%) Test Strategy
13 133 (15.41%) Observability
14 110 (12.75%) Regression Testing
15 105 (12.17%) Scrum
15 105 (12.17%) TDD
16 100 (11.59%) Full-Stack Development
17 99 (11.47%) User Acceptance Testing
18 93 (10.78%) Stakeholder Management
19 90 (10.43%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 265 (30.71%) Python
2 215 (24.91%) SQL
3 208 (24.10%) Java
4 125 (14.48%) TypeScript
5 124 (14.37%) JavaScript
6 91 (10.54%) C#
7 37 (4.29%) PowerShell
8 25 (2.90%) Bash
8 25 (2.90%) Kotlin
9 22 (2.55%) Bicep
10 18 (2.09%) Ruby
11 15 (1.74%) Scala
12 14 (1.62%) Apex Code
13 12 (1.39%) Go
13 12 (1.39%) PL/SQL
14 9 (1.04%) C++
15 7 (0.81%) Shell Script
15 7 (0.81%) Swift
16 6 (0.70%) Groovy
16 6 (0.70%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 205 (23.75%) Security Cleared
2 178 (20.63%) SC Cleared
3 51 (5.91%) Degree
4 32 (3.71%) Computer Science Degree
5 22 (2.55%) ISTQB
6 18 (2.09%) AWS Certification
6 18 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
6 18 (2.09%) DV Cleared
7 10 (1.16%) Azure Certification
8 7 (0.81%) DBS Check
9 6 (0.70%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 6 (0.70%) Master's Degree
10 5 (0.58%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 4 (0.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (0.46%) CISSP
12 3 (0.35%) PhD
12 3 (0.35%) TOGAF Certification
13 2 (0.23%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (0.23%) ISEB
13 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 236 (27.35%) QA
2 72 (8.34%) Data Quality
3 53 (6.14%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.78%) GDPR
5 23 (2.67%) WCAG
6 8 (0.93%) NIST
6 8 (0.93%) SLA
7 6 (0.70%) ISO 20022
7 6 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 3 (0.35%) EU AI Act
8 3 (0.35%) HMG Security Policy Framework
8 3 (0.35%) MiFID
8 3 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 3 (0.35%) Software Quality Assurance
9 2 (0.23%) GRC
9 2 (0.23%) HL7
9 2 (0.23%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.23%) NCSC
10 1 (0.12%) GxP
10 1 (0.12%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 148 (17.15%) Docker
2 9 (1.04%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.81%) Active Directory
4 5 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.46%) Oracle RAC
5 4 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 150 (17.38%) Kubernetes
2 131 (15.18%) Terraform
3 45 (5.21%) Grafana
4 39 (4.52%) Prometheus
5 35 (4.06%) Ansible
6 10 (1.16%) Progress Chef
6 10 (1.16%) Puppet
7 7 (0.81%) HP ALM
7 7 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
8 6 (0.70%) Kibana
9 4 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
9 4 (0.46%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.35%) Control-M
10 3 (0.35%) Kustomize
10 3 (0.35%) Packer
11 2 (0.23%) Amdocs OSS
11 2 (0.23%) Istio
12 1 (0.12%) Argo
12 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
12 1 (0.12%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 91 (10.54%) Microsoft
2 52 (6.03%) Salesforce
3 47 (5.45%) Oracle
4 35 (4.06%) Databricks
5 25 (2.90%) Google
6 23 (2.67%) ServiceNow
7 16 (1.85%) Splunk
7 16 (1.85%) UiPath
8 15 (1.74%) IBM
8 15 (1.74%) Informatica
9 11 (1.27%) HP
10 10 (1.16%) Dynatrace
10 10 (1.16%) OpenAI
10 10 (1.16%) VMware
11 8 (0.93%) OpenLink
11 8 (0.93%) Red Hat
11 8 (0.93%) SAP
12 7 (0.81%) Charles River
12 7 (0.81%) Guidewire
13 6 (0.70%) MuleSoft