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

6 months to
15 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 45 52
Rank change year-on-year -1 +7 -4
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 841 621 682
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.86% 4.90% 3.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.46% 5.34% 4.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 543 423 478
10th Percentile £325 £341 £363
25th Percentile £406 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% -6.78%
75th Percentile £594 £663 £695
90th Percentile £707 £775 £775
England median daily rate £480 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -4.00% -4.76% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 7
10th Percentile £55.99 - -
25th Percentile £58.15 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £63.50 - £55.00
75th Percentile £65.88 - £61.25
90th Percentile £66.25 - £65.40
England median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year +14.54% -5.42% -4.00%

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 15,407 11,629 15,706
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.11% 91.83% 88.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,323 7,876 11,244
10th Percentile £353 £349 £338
25th Percentile £426 £442 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -6.78%
75th Percentile £650 £686 £675
90th Percentile £754 £800 £800
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 251 166 331
10th Percentile £18.28 £16.30 £16.00
25th Percentile £22.87 £23.80 £19.57
Median hourly rate £35.50 £34.58 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.68% +15.25% -22.58%
75th Percentile £57.23 £50.69 £48.92
90th Percentile £73.00 £63.50 £66.75
England median hourly rate £41.56 £31.76 £34.00
% change year-on-year +30.84% -6.59% -9.33%

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 15 April 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
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 15 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
Central London +1 109 £525 +3.96% 56
West London -16 22 £450 +26.05% 4
South London -5 20 £519 +5.87% 1
East London +4 11 £445 +11.25% 12
North London - 1 £400 - 3
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 57 (6.78%) Confluence
2 21 (2.50%) Apache Airflow
3 16 (1.90%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.95%) Appian
5 5 (0.59%) Apache
5 5 (0.59%) Camunda
5 5 (0.59%) CMS
6 4 (0.48%) nginx
6 4 (0.48%) Tomcat
6 4 (0.48%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (0.36%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.24%) Magnolia
8 2 (0.24%) Sitecore CMS
8 2 (0.24%) WordPress
9 1 (0.12%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
9 1 (0.12%) SAS
9 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 18 (2.14%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.71%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (0.71%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 22 (2.62%) Aladdin
2 7 (0.83%) Findur
2 7 (0.83%) Shopify
3 6 (0.71%) Loan IQ
3 6 (0.71%) Oracle EBS
4 5 (0.59%) BambooHR
5 4 (0.48%) Dynamics CRM
6 3 (0.36%) Distributed Ledger
7 2 (0.24%) iTrent
7 2 (0.24%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.24%) SAP HR
7 2 (0.24%) Summit
8 1 (0.12%) Algo Collateral
8 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.12%) CODA-Financials
8 1 (0.12%) Infor M3
8 1 (0.12%) IntelliMatch
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.12%) PORTIA
8 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 250 (29.73%) Azure
2 202 (24.02%) AWS
3 134 (15.93%) GitHub
4 122 (14.51%) Azure DevOps
5 63 (7.49%) GCP
6 61 (7.25%) GitHub Actions
7 58 (6.90%) Serverless
8 35 (4.16%) Amazon S3
8 35 (4.16%) AWS Lambda
9 34 (4.04%) Snowflake
10 33 (3.92%) Power Platform
11 28 (3.33%) Azure AKS
11 28 (3.33%) Azure Data Factory
12 23 (2.73%) Amazon ECS
13 21 (2.50%) Dynamics 365
14 19 (2.26%) dbt
15 18 (2.14%) Apigee
15 18 (2.14%) AWS CloudFormation
15 18 (2.14%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 18 (2.14%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.31%) HTTP
2 6 (0.71%) Firewall
2 6 (0.71%) FTP
3 5 (0.59%) Cisco IPT
3 5 (0.59%) DNS
3 5 (0.59%) SSL
4 4 (0.48%) Ethernet
4 4 (0.48%) Multicast
4 4 (0.48%) TCP/IP
4 4 (0.48%) WAN
4 4 (0.48%) WebEx
5 3 (0.36%) DHCP
6 2 (0.24%) Cisco IOS
6 2 (0.24%) DSL
6 2 (0.24%) HTTPS
6 2 (0.24%) NaaS
6 2 (0.24%) SD-WAN
6 2 (0.24%) SNMP
7 1 (0.12%) 5G
7 1 (0.12%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (5.95%) SQL Server
2 47 (5.59%) PostgreSQL
3 42 (4.99%) NoSQL
4 31 (3.69%) MongoDB
5 27 (3.21%) Data Warehouse
6 26 (3.09%) Relational Database
7 24 (2.85%) BigQuery
8 21 (2.50%) Tableau
9 20 (2.38%) Power BI
10 19 (2.26%) DynamoDB
11 15 (1.78%) Big Data
12 14 (1.66%) Amazon Athena
12 14 (1.66%) Metadata
13 12 (1.43%) Amazon RDS
14 11 (1.31%) Amazon Aurora
14 11 (1.31%) Amazon Redshift
14 11 (1.31%) Oracle Database
14 11 (1.31%) Redis
15 10 (1.19%) Data Lake
16 9 (1.07%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 150 (17.84%) JIRA
2 140 (16.65%) Git
3 116 (13.79%) Selenium
4 100 (11.89%) Jenkins
5 75 (8.92%) GitLab
6 57 (6.78%) Cucumber
7 54 (6.42%) Cypress.io
8 50 (5.95%) Postman
9 38 (4.52%) REST Assured
10 30 (3.57%) SpecFlow
11 29 (3.45%) JUnit
12 27 (3.21%) JMeter
13 20 (2.38%) MLflow
14 17 (2.02%) Bitbucket
15 15 (1.78%) Appium
16 14 (1.66%) Maven
16 14 (1.66%) TestRail
16 14 (1.66%) Zephyr
17 13 (1.55%) WebDriver
18 12 (1.43%) Mockito
General
1 221 (26.28%) Social Skills
2 216 (25.68%) Finance
3 112 (13.32%) Banking
4 108 (12.84%) Public Sector
5 93 (11.06%) Analytical Skills
6 29 (3.45%) Front Office
7 28 (3.33%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.14%) Legal
9 16 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (1.31%) Documentation Skills
10 11 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
10 11 (1.31%) Telecoms
11 10 (1.19%) Financial Institution
11 10 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.07%) Back Office
12 9 (1.07%) Pharmaceutical
12 9 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.83%) Billing
13 7 (0.83%) Publishing
14 6 (0.71%) Retail
Job Titles
1 188 (22.35%) Developer
2 160 (19.02%) Senior
3 94 (11.18%) Tester
4 88 (10.46%) Lead
5 62 (7.37%) Test Engineer
6 60 (7.13%) Automation Tester
7 56 (6.66%) Analyst
8 52 (6.18%) QA Engineer
9 45 (5.35%) Architect
10 42 (4.99%) Senior Developer
11 38 (4.52%) Automation Engineer
11 38 (4.52%) Data Engineer
12 36 (4.28%) Java Developer
13 34 (4.04%) DevOps Engineer
14 31 (3.69%) Test Automation Engineer
15 29 (3.45%) Test Analyst
16 27 (3.21%) Test Manager
17 25 (2.97%) Software Engineer
18 24 (2.85%) QA Automation Engineer
19 23 (2.73%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 113 (13.44%) Playwright
2 94 (11.18%) React
3 89 (10.58%) REST
4 74 (8.80%) Node.js
4 74 (8.80%) RESTful
5 65 (7.73%) .NET
6 58 (6.90%) Kafka
7 47 (5.59%) Spring
8 43 (5.11%) Spring Boot
9 38 (4.52%) HTML
10 36 (4.28%) CSS
11 31 (3.69%) Web Services
12 29 (3.45%) pytest
13 26 (3.09%) OAuth
14 25 (2.97%) AngularJS
15 21 (2.50%) Gherkin
15 21 (2.50%) GraphQL
16 20 (2.38%) SOAP
17 19 (2.26%) JSON
17 19 (2.26%) Middleware
Miscellaneous
1 91 (10.82%) Cloud Native
2 56 (6.66%) Product Ownership
3 44 (5.23%) Distributed Systems
4 34 (4.04%) Legacy Systems
5 26 (3.09%) Algorithms
6 25 (2.97%) Data Protection Act
7 20 (2.38%) Data Structures
7 20 (2.38%) Equities
7 20 (2.38%) Onboarding
8 18 (2.14%) Fixed Income
8 18 (2.14%) Greenfield Project
8 18 (2.14%) Management Information System
8 18 (2.14%) Virtual Team
9 16 (1.90%) Mobile App
10 14 (1.66%) Self-Motivation
11 11 (1.31%) Derivative
11 11 (1.31%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 10 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
13 9 (1.07%) Low-Code
13 9 (1.07%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 46 (5.47%) Linux
2 36 (4.28%) Windows
3 20 (2.38%) Android
4 18 (2.14%) Apple iOS
5 11 (1.31%) Unix
6 6 (0.71%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.59%) Mac OS
8 4 (0.48%) Solaris
8 4 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
10 1 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
10 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 449 (53.39%) CI/CD
2 348 (41.38%) Agile
3 293 (34.84%) DevOps
4 165 (19.62%) Problem-Solving
5 139 (16.53%) AI
6 120 (14.27%) Infrastructure as Code
7 119 (14.15%) Containerisation
8 115 (13.67%) Observability
9 113 (13.44%) Continuous Improvement
10 110 (13.08%) Microservices
11 109 (12.96%) Validation
12 107 (12.72%) Test Strategy
13 105 (12.49%) Regression Testing
14 103 (12.25%) Test Scripting
15 97 (11.53%) Software Testing
16 94 (11.18%) User Acceptance Testing
17 92 (10.94%) Analytics
17 92 (10.94%) Software Engineering
18 84 (9.99%) Data Modelling
19 82 (9.75%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 277 (32.94%) Python
2 212 (25.21%) SQL
3 172 (20.45%) Java
4 151 (17.95%) TypeScript
5 137 (16.29%) JavaScript
6 117 (13.91%) C#
7 27 (3.21%) PowerShell
8 20 (2.38%) Apex Code
8 20 (2.38%) Bash
9 17 (2.02%) C++
9 17 (2.02%) Ruby
10 13 (1.55%) Bicep
10 13 (1.55%) Kotlin
10 13 (1.55%) PL/SQL
11 9 (1.07%) Go
11 9 (1.07%) Scala
12 7 (0.83%) T-SQL
13 6 (0.71%) Rust
13 6 (0.71%) Swift
14 4 (0.48%) C
Qualifications
1 180 (21.40%) Security Cleared
2 154 (18.31%) SC Cleared
3 50 (5.95%) Degree
4 38 (4.52%) ISTQB
5 29 (3.45%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (3.09%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (1.31%) Master's Degree
8 9 (1.07%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 8 (0.95%) DV Cleared
10 7 (0.83%) DBS Check
11 4 (0.48%) Azure Certification
11 4 (0.48%) ISEB
11 4 (0.48%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 3 (0.36%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
12 3 (0.36%) OSCP
12 3 (0.36%) SANS
13 2 (0.24%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (0.24%) CREST Certified
13 2 (0.24%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 204 (24.26%) QA
2 52 (6.18%) Data Quality
3 46 (5.47%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.85%) GDPR
5 19 (2.26%) WCAG
6 8 (0.95%) NIST
7 7 (0.83%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 7 (0.83%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.71%) NCSC
9 5 (0.59%) ISO 20022
9 5 (0.59%) PERC
9 5 (0.59%) SLA
10 4 (0.48%) HL7
10 4 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 4 (0.48%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.36%) MiFID
11 3 (0.36%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.24%) GRC
12 2 (0.24%) NIST 800
13 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 152 (18.07%) Docker
2 6 (0.71%) Active Directory
2 6 (0.71%) VMware ESXi
2 6 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
3 4 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
4 1 (0.12%) Firmware
4 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
4 1 (0.12%) Squid
4 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 130 (15.46%) Kubernetes
2 98 (11.65%) Terraform
3 36 (4.28%) Grafana
4 31 (3.69%) Prometheus
5 16 (1.90%) Ansible
6 13 (1.55%) HP ALM
7 8 (0.95%) Kibana
7 8 (0.95%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
8 4 (0.48%) Puppet
9 2 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.24%) Istio
9 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.24%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.24%) Rancher
9 2 (0.24%) SCCM
10 1 (0.12%) CloudHub
10 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.12%) linkerd
10 1 (0.12%) Packer
Vendors
1 79 (9.39%) Microsoft
2 58 (6.90%) Oracle
3 51 (6.06%) Salesforce
4 45 (5.35%) Databricks
5 26 (3.09%) Google
6 24 (2.85%) ServiceNow
7 17 (2.02%) SAP
8 16 (1.90%) Splunk
9 13 (1.55%) HP
9 13 (1.55%) OpenAI
10 12 (1.43%) MuleSoft
11 11 (1.31%) Dynatrace
11 11 (1.31%) IBM
12 10 (1.19%) Workday
13 9 (1.07%) Apple
13 9 (1.07%) Guidewire
13 9 (1.07%) UiPath
13 9 (1.07%) VMware
14 8 (0.95%) Automation Anywhere
14 8 (0.95%) Citrix