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 20 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 54 48
Rank change year-on-year +4 -6 -3
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 832 566 764
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.37% 4.53% 4.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.92% 4.90% 4.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 550 383 526
10th Percentile £356 £345 £363
25th Percentile £425 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £600 £688 £675
90th Percentile £700 £800 £768
England median daily rate £475 £484 £525
% change year-on-year -1.86% -7.81% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 10
10th Percentile - £39.50 £52.25
25th Percentile £92.50 £46.25 £52.50
Median hourly rate £95.00 £57.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.22% +4.55% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £68.75 £65.75
90th Percentile - £75.50 £71.88
England median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -4.35% -22.30%

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 16,916 11,555 15,666
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.87% 92.40% 88.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,270 7,751 11,170
10th Percentile £360 £338 £340
25th Percentile £437 £425 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% - -6.38%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £763 £800 £800
England median daily rate £520 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 259 210 314
10th Percentile £18.06 £16.50 £15.50
25th Percentile £25.22 £24.66 £20.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £33.45 £28.25
Median % change year-on-year +12.12% +18.39% -29.38%
75th Percentile £59.99 £50.50 £48.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.75 £67.70
England median hourly rate £47.50 £27.40 £37.63
% change year-on-year +73.36% -27.18% +4.81%

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 20 June 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 20 June 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 +10.00% 23
South London -1 12 £513 +13.57% 2
East London +7 10 £450 +18.42% 10
West London -26 10 £450 +12.50% 5
North London - 1 £400 - 2
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 60 (7.21%) Confluence
2 32 (3.85%) Apache Airflow
3 23 (2.76%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.44%) CMS
5 11 (1.32%) Apache
6 8 (0.96%) Appian
7 6 (0.72%) Camunda
8 4 (0.48%) nginx
8 4 (0.48%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.48%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.36%) Kentico
9 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.24%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.24%) Mule
10 2 (0.24%) SAS
10 2 (0.24%) SharePoint
11 1 (0.12%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
11 1 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 22 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.84%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.84%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.60%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 18 (2.16%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.56%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.96%) Findur
4 6 (0.72%) Oracle EBS
4 6 (0.72%) Shopify
5 5 (0.60%) BambooHR
5 5 (0.60%) Loan IQ
6 3 (0.36%) Distributed Ledger
6 3 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.24%) Infor CloudSuite
7 2 (0.24%) Infor LN
7 2 (0.24%) Infor M3
7 2 (0.24%) IntelliMatch
7 2 (0.24%) iTrent
7 2 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.24%) Summit
8 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 249 (29.93%) Azure
2 240 (28.85%) AWS
3 144 (17.31%) GitHub
4 121 (14.54%) Azure DevOps
5 89 (10.70%) GitHub Actions
6 76 (9.13%) Serverless
7 57 (6.85%) AWS Lambda
8 54 (6.49%) Power Platform
9 53 (6.37%) Amazon S3
10 49 (5.89%) GCP
11 37 (4.45%) dbt
12 32 (3.85%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 32 (3.85%) Snowflake
13 29 (3.49%) Amazon ECS
14 27 (3.25%) Azure Data Factory
15 23 (2.76%) Amazon EC2
16 22 (2.64%) Azure AKS
17 20 (2.40%) Azure AI
18 17 (2.04%) Amazon SQS
19 16 (1.92%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.96%) HTTP
2 3 (0.36%) FTP
2 3 (0.36%) Network Security
2 3 (0.36%) OpenLDAP
2 3 (0.36%) SMS
2 3 (0.36%) WAN
3 2 (0.24%) Ethernet
3 2 (0.24%) Firewall
3 2 (0.24%) Multicast
3 2 (0.24%) NaaS
4 1 (0.12%) 5G
4 1 (0.12%) Cisco IOS
4 1 (0.12%) Cisco Nexus
4 1 (0.12%) DSL
4 1 (0.12%) MPLS
4 1 (0.12%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.12%) SNMP
4 1 (0.12%) SSL
4 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.12%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (6.61%) PostgreSQL
2 50 (6.01%) SQL Server
3 45 (5.41%) NoSQL
4 42 (5.05%) Data Warehouse
4 42 (5.05%) Power BI
5 37 (4.45%) MongoDB
6 30 (3.61%) DynamoDB
6 30 (3.61%) Relational Database
7 26 (3.13%) Amazon Athena
8 24 (2.88%) Amazon Redshift
9 20 (2.40%) Tableau
10 19 (2.28%) Amazon RDS
10 19 (2.28%) Big Data
10 19 (2.28%) Data Lake
11 16 (1.92%) BigQuery
12 14 (1.68%) Metadata
13 12 (1.44%) Star Schema
14 11 (1.32%) Amazon Aurora
14 11 (1.32%) Redis
15 10 (1.20%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 133 (15.99%) JIRA
2 131 (15.75%) Git
3 108 (12.98%) Jenkins
4 96 (11.54%) GitLab
5 95 (11.42%) Selenium
6 52 (6.25%) Cucumber
7 49 (5.89%) Cypress.io
8 45 (5.41%) Postman
9 43 (5.17%) REST Assured
10 38 (4.57%) JMeter
11 35 (4.21%) JUnit
12 19 (2.28%) Mockito
13 18 (2.16%) SpecFlow
14 17 (2.04%) Gradle
14 17 (2.04%) Maven
15 14 (1.68%) MLflow
16 13 (1.56%) Bitbucket
16 13 (1.56%) WebDriver
17 12 (1.44%) Gatling
17 12 (1.44%) Zephyr
General
1 242 (29.09%) Finance
2 218 (26.20%) Social Skills
3 115 (13.82%) Banking
4 108 (12.98%) Analytical Skills
5 98 (11.78%) Public Sector
6 26 (3.13%) Front Office
7 25 (3.00%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 18 (2.16%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.80%) Legal
11 12 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
12 10 (1.20%) Back Office
12 10 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (1.08%) Telecoms
14 8 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
14 8 (0.96%) Retail
15 7 (0.84%) Billing
15 7 (0.84%) Marketing
15 7 (0.84%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 174 (20.91%) Developer
2 148 (17.79%) Senior
3 89 (10.70%) Lead
4 84 (10.10%) Tester
5 54 (6.49%) Test Engineer
6 50 (6.01%) Analyst
7 48 (5.77%) Data Engineer
8 47 (5.65%) QA Engineer
9 45 (5.41%) Architect
10 44 (5.29%) DevOps Engineer
11 40 (4.81%) Automation Tester
12 39 (4.69%) Java Developer
13 37 (4.45%) Automation Engineer
14 35 (4.21%) Senior Developer
15 31 (3.73%) Software Engineer
15 31 (3.73%) Test Automation Engineer
16 27 (3.25%) Test Leader
17 26 (3.13%) Full-Stack Developer
18 24 (2.88%) QA Automation Engineer
18 24 (2.88%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (12.26%) REST
2 100 (12.02%) React
3 94 (11.30%) Playwright
4 77 (9.25%) RESTful
5 70 (8.41%) Kafka
6 58 (6.97%) .NET
7 57 (6.85%) Spring
8 53 (6.37%) Spring Boot
9 51 (6.13%) Node.js
10 38 (4.57%) CSS
11 37 (4.45%) HTML
12 29 (3.49%) OAuth
13 24 (2.88%) PySpark
14 22 (2.64%) pytest
14 22 (2.64%) Web Services
15 21 (2.52%) AngularJS
15 21 (2.52%) Redux
16 19 (2.28%) Gherkin
16 19 (2.28%) Swagger
17 18 (2.16%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 109 (13.10%) Cloud Native
2 62 (7.45%) Distributed Systems
3 51 (6.13%) Product Ownership
4 39 (4.69%) Legacy Systems
5 29 (3.49%) Data Protection Act
6 20 (2.40%) Greenfield Project
6 20 (2.40%) Onboarding
7 19 (2.28%) Fixed Income
7 19 (2.28%) Self-Motivation
7 19 (2.28%) Virtual Team
8 18 (2.16%) Algorithms
9 16 (1.92%) Management Information System
10 14 (1.68%) AI Agents
10 14 (1.68%) Mobile App
11 13 (1.56%) Equities
12 12 (1.44%) Data Structures
12 12 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (1.20%) Distributed Architecture
13 10 (1.20%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 10 (1.20%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 32 (3.85%) Linux
2 25 (3.00%) Windows
3 19 (2.28%) Android
4 17 (2.04%) Apple iOS
5 13 (1.56%) Unix
6 4 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.48%) Solaris
6 4 (0.48%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
7 3 (0.36%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 482 (57.93%) CI/CD
2 336 (40.38%) Agile
3 287 (34.50%) DevOps
4 146 (17.55%) AI
5 143 (17.19%) Infrastructure as Code
6 135 (16.23%) Problem-Solving
7 129 (15.50%) Observability
7 129 (15.50%) Validation
8 123 (14.78%) Continuous Improvement
9 121 (14.54%) Microservices
10 120 (14.42%) Test Strategy
11 114 (13.70%) Containerisation
12 111 (13.34%) Software Engineering
13 108 (12.98%) Regression Testing
14 107 (12.86%) User Acceptance Testing
15 94 (11.30%) Data Modelling
16 89 (10.70%) Analytics
17 86 (10.34%) Scrum
17 86 (10.34%) Stakeholder Management
18 83 (9.98%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 255 (30.65%) Python
2 215 (25.84%) SQL
3 181 (21.75%) Java
4 126 (15.14%) TypeScript
5 119 (14.30%) JavaScript
6 97 (11.66%) C#
7 30 (3.61%) PowerShell
8 20 (2.40%) Bash
8 20 (2.40%) Kotlin
9 17 (2.04%) Bicep
10 16 (1.92%) Apex Code
11 15 (1.80%) Ruby
12 14 (1.68%) Go
12 14 (1.68%) PL/SQL
12 14 (1.68%) Scala
13 8 (0.96%) C++
13 8 (0.96%) T-SQL
14 7 (0.84%) Swift
15 6 (0.72%) Groovy
15 6 (0.72%) VBA
Qualifications
1 178 (21.39%) Security Cleared
2 155 (18.63%) SC Cleared
3 45 (5.41%) Degree
4 27 (3.25%) ISTQB
5 25 (3.00%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (2.40%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (1.92%) DV Cleared
8 13 (1.56%) AWS Certification
9 10 (1.20%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.84%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.72%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 6 (0.72%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 5 (0.60%) Azure Certification
13 4 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 3 (0.36%) CISSP
14 3 (0.36%) TOGAF Certification
15 2 (0.24%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 2 (0.24%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.24%) CompTIA Security+
15 2 (0.24%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 198 (23.80%) QA
2 72 (8.65%) Data Quality
3 49 (5.89%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.88%) GDPR
5 18 (2.16%) WCAG
6 11 (1.32%) NIST
7 6 (0.72%) ISO 20022
8 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.60%) SLA
9 4 (0.48%) HL7
9 4 (0.48%) NCSC
10 3 (0.36%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.36%) MiFID
10 3 (0.36%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.24%) GRC
11 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) GxP
12 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 130 (15.63%) Docker
2 6 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.36%) Active Directory
5 3 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 135 (16.23%) Kubernetes
2 115 (13.82%) Terraform
3 39 (4.69%) Grafana
4 36 (4.33%) Prometheus
5 28 (3.37%) Ansible
6 8 (0.96%) HP ALM
6 8 (0.96%) Kibana
7 7 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (0.36%) Control-M
9 3 (0.36%) Kustomize
9 3 (0.36%) Puppet
10 2 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
10 2 (0.24%) Packer
10 2 (0.24%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
11 1 (0.12%) Istio
11 1 (0.12%) linkerd
11 1 (0.12%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 79 (9.50%) Microsoft
2 54 (6.49%) Salesforce
3 49 (5.89%) Oracle
4 32 (3.85%) Databricks
5 25 (3.00%) ServiceNow
6 18 (2.16%) UiPath
7 16 (1.92%) Google
8 15 (1.80%) Splunk
9 14 (1.68%) Informatica
10 13 (1.56%) OpenAI
11 11 (1.32%) IBM
12 10 (1.20%) Dynatrace
13 9 (1.08%) Guidewire
14 8 (0.96%) Apple
14 8 (0.96%) HP
14 8 (0.96%) MuleSoft
14 8 (0.96%) OpenLink
14 8 (0.96%) SAP
15 7 (0.84%) Automation Anywhere
16 6 (0.72%) Red Hat