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

6 months to
15 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 55 48
Rank change year-on-year +6 -7 +2
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 874 627 776
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.43% 4.63% 4.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.98% 5.03% 5.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 586 420 534
10th Percentile £350 £338 £363
25th Percentile £425 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £614 £675 £675
90th Percentile £708 £775 £768
England median daily rate £475 £486 £525
% change year-on-year -2.31% -7.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 10
10th Percentile - £37.25 £52.25
25th Percentile £92.50 £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 £65.75
90th Percentile - £70.25 £71.88
England median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +35.00% -9.09% -24.66%

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 17,566 12,468 15,436
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.96% 92.16% 88.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,659 8,340 10,970
10th Percentile £360 £331 £350
25th Percentile £444 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.18% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £763 £788 £800
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 272 235 285
10th Percentile £17.60 £16.50 £16.24
25th Percentile £22.16 £24.66 £20.22
Median hourly rate £36.25 £32.50 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year +11.54% +7.76% -27.33%
75th Percentile £58.75 £50.50 £50.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.55 £69.20
England median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +88.87% -34.02% -6.09%

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 July 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 July 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 +21 116 £550 +22.22% 27
South London -7 15 £535 +7.00% 4
West London -12 11 £523 +30.63% 5
East London +7 8 £545 +18.48% 13
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 60 (6.86%) Confluence
2 32 (3.66%) Apache Airflow
3 24 (2.75%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.37%) Apache
4 12 (1.37%) CMS
5 5 (0.57%) Appian
6 4 (0.46%) Camunda
6 4 (0.46%) nginx
6 4 (0.46%) Tomcat
6 4 (0.46%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.34%) Kentico
7 3 (0.34%) SharePoint
8 2 (0.23%) Anypoint
8 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.23%) Mule
8 2 (0.23%) SAS
9 1 (0.11%) Apache Pulsar
9 1 (0.11%) Ethereum
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle Workflow
9 1 (0.11%) Solana
Applications
1 21 (2.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.80%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.80%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.57%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
6 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.11%) Mingle
7 1 (0.11%) Trello
Business Applications
1 16 (1.83%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.49%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.92%) Findur
3 8 (0.92%) Oracle EBS
4 6 (0.69%) Shopify
5 5 (0.57%) BambooHR
5 5 (0.57%) Loan IQ
6 4 (0.46%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.34%) Distributed Ledger
8 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite
8 2 (0.23%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.23%) Infor M3
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.23%) Summit
9 1 (0.11%) iTrent
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 281 (32.15%) Azure
2 261 (29.86%) AWS
3 171 (19.57%) GitHub
4 136 (15.56%) Azure DevOps
5 107 (12.24%) GitHub Actions
6 76 (8.70%) Serverless
7 62 (7.09%) Power Platform
8 59 (6.75%) GCP
9 57 (6.52%) AWS Lambda
10 55 (6.29%) Amazon S3
11 39 (4.46%) dbt
12 31 (3.55%) Snowflake
13 30 (3.43%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 30 (3.43%) Amazon ECS
14 25 (2.86%) Amazon EC2
15 23 (2.63%) Azure Data Factory
16 22 (2.52%) Azure AKS
17 20 (2.29%) Dynamics 365
18 19 (2.17%) Azure AI
19 18 (2.06%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.92%) HTTP
2 3 (0.34%) FTP
2 3 (0.34%) Network Security
2 3 (0.34%) OpenLDAP
2 3 (0.34%) SMS
2 3 (0.34%) WAN
3 2 (0.23%) Ethernet
3 2 (0.23%) Firewall
3 2 (0.23%) Multicast
3 2 (0.23%) NaaS
4 1 (0.11%) Bluetooth
4 1 (0.11%) Cisco IOS
4 1 (0.11%) DSL
4 1 (0.11%) MPLS
4 1 (0.11%) NFC
4 1 (0.11%) NGFW
4 1 (0.11%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.11%) SNMP
4 1 (0.11%) SSL
4 1 (0.11%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (6.06%) PostgreSQL
2 50 (5.72%) Power BI
3 47 (5.38%) NoSQL
4 46 (5.26%) Data Warehouse
4 46 (5.26%) SQL Server
5 37 (4.23%) MongoDB
6 31 (3.55%) DynamoDB
7 28 (3.20%) Relational Database
8 24 (2.75%) Amazon Athena
9 22 (2.52%) Amazon Redshift
10 20 (2.29%) Amazon RDS
10 20 (2.29%) Big Data
11 18 (2.06%) Data Lake
12 17 (1.95%) Tableau
13 16 (1.83%) Metadata
14 15 (1.72%) BigQuery
15 11 (1.26%) Redis
16 10 (1.14%) Oracle Database
17 9 (1.03%) Elasticsearch
18 8 (0.92%) Amazon Aurora
Development Applications
1 141 (16.13%) Git
2 135 (15.45%) JIRA
3 122 (13.96%) Jenkins
4 105 (12.01%) Selenium
5 96 (10.98%) GitLab
6 56 (6.41%) Cypress.io
7 53 (6.06%) Cucumber
8 49 (5.61%) REST Assured
9 44 (5.03%) Postman
10 39 (4.46%) JUnit
11 38 (4.35%) JMeter
12 17 (1.95%) Gatling
12 17 (1.95%) Mockito
13 16 (1.83%) Appium
13 16 (1.83%) Gradle
13 16 (1.83%) Maven
13 16 (1.83%) SpecFlow
14 15 (1.72%) Bitbucket
15 14 (1.60%) WebDriver
15 14 (1.60%) Zephyr
General
1 256 (29.29%) Finance
2 233 (26.66%) Social Skills
3 123 (14.07%) Analytical Skills
4 117 (13.39%) Banking
5 95 (10.87%) Public Sector
6 25 (2.86%) Front Office
6 25 (2.86%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 20 (2.29%) Financial Institution
9 15 (1.72%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (1.72%) Legal
10 13 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
11 12 (1.37%) Back Office
12 9 (1.03%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.03%) Retail
12 9 (1.03%) Telecoms
13 7 (0.80%) Marketing
13 7 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
14 6 (0.69%) Local Government
15 5 (0.57%) Games
Job Titles
1 185 (21.17%) Developer
2 147 (16.82%) Senior
3 94 (10.76%) Lead
4 81 (9.27%) Tester
5 57 (6.52%) Test Engineer
6 54 (6.18%) Data Engineer
7 53 (6.06%) Analyst
8 52 (5.95%) QA Engineer
9 49 (5.61%) DevOps Engineer
10 48 (5.49%) Architect
11 46 (5.26%) Java Developer
12 40 (4.58%) Automation Engineer
13 37 (4.23%) Software Engineer
14 34 (3.89%) Automation Tester
14 34 (3.89%) Senior Developer
15 33 (3.78%) Full-Stack Developer
16 31 (3.55%) Test Automation Engineer
16 31 (3.55%) Test Leader
17 25 (2.86%) Test Manager
18 24 (2.75%) QA Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 113 (12.93%) Playwright
2 106 (12.13%) REST
3 101 (11.56%) React
4 82 (9.38%) RESTful
5 72 (8.24%) Kafka
6 65 (7.44%) .NET
7 63 (7.21%) Spring
8 59 (6.75%) Node.js
9 56 (6.41%) Spring Boot
10 44 (5.03%) CSS
11 42 (4.81%) HTML
12 26 (2.97%) OAuth
13 25 (2.86%) PySpark
14 23 (2.63%) HTML5
15 22 (2.52%) Redux
16 21 (2.40%) AngularJS
17 20 (2.29%) Next.js
18 19 (2.17%) CSS3
18 19 (2.17%) GraphQL
18 19 (2.17%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 132 (15.10%) Cloud Native
2 75 (8.58%) Distributed Systems
3 54 (6.18%) Product Ownership
4 33 (3.78%) Legacy Systems
5 28 (3.20%) Data Protection Act
6 25 (2.86%) Onboarding
7 21 (2.40%) Self-Motivation
8 20 (2.29%) Virtual Team
9 19 (2.17%) Fixed Income
10 18 (2.06%) AI Agents
10 18 (2.06%) Greenfield Project
11 17 (1.95%) Algorithms
11 17 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
12 16 (1.83%) Management Information System
13 15 (1.72%) Mobile App
14 12 (1.37%) Data Structures
14 12 (1.37%) Equities
15 10 (1.14%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 10 (1.14%) NHS
15 10 (1.14%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 32 (3.66%) Linux
2 23 (2.63%) Windows
3 18 (2.06%) Android
4 16 (1.83%) Apple iOS
5 14 (1.60%) Unix
6 6 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.46%) Solaris
7 4 (0.46%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.46%) Windows Server 2008
8 3 (0.34%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.23%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 540 (61.78%) CI/CD
2 365 (41.76%) Agile
3 326 (37.30%) DevOps
4 169 (19.34%) AI
5 158 (18.08%) Infrastructure as Code
6 149 (17.05%) Problem-Solving
7 141 (16.13%) Microservices
8 138 (15.79%) Continuous Improvement
8 138 (15.79%) Validation
9 137 (15.68%) Test Strategy
10 129 (14.76%) Containerisation
11 128 (14.65%) Software Engineering
12 123 (14.07%) Observability
13 118 (13.50%) Regression Testing
14 111 (12.70%) User Acceptance Testing
15 102 (11.67%) Scrum
16 94 (10.76%) TDD
17 93 (10.64%) Full-Stack Development
18 87 (9.95%) Analytics
18 87 (9.95%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 266 (30.43%) Python
2 220 (25.17%) SQL
3 205 (23.46%) Java
4 135 (15.45%) TypeScript
5 127 (14.53%) JavaScript
6 93 (10.64%) C#
7 35 (4.00%) PowerShell
8 25 (2.86%) Bash
9 23 (2.63%) Kotlin
10 18 (2.06%) Ruby
11 17 (1.95%) Bicep
12 16 (1.83%) Apex Code
13 15 (1.72%) Scala
14 14 (1.60%) Go
15 13 (1.49%) PL/SQL
16 8 (0.92%) Swift
17 7 (0.80%) T-SQL
18 6 (0.69%) C++
18 6 (0.69%) Groovy
18 6 (0.69%) VBA
Qualifications
1 206 (23.57%) Security Cleared
2 182 (20.82%) SC Cleared
3 54 (6.18%) Degree
4 33 (3.78%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (2.75%) BPSS Clearance
6 20 (2.29%) ISTQB
7 16 (1.83%) AWS Certification
7 16 (1.83%) DV Cleared
8 11 (1.26%) Master's Degree
9 8 (0.92%) Azure Certification
10 7 (0.80%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.69%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 5 (0.57%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 4 (0.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 4 (0.46%) CISSP
14 3 (0.34%) TOGAF Certification
15 2 (0.23%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.23%) CompTIA Security+
15 2 (0.23%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 2 (0.23%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 222 (25.40%) QA
2 72 (8.24%) Data Quality
3 55 (6.29%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.75%) GDPR
5 21 (2.40%) WCAG
6 9 (1.03%) NIST
7 6 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 4 (0.46%) HL7
8 4 (0.46%) ISO 20022
9 3 (0.34%) EU AI Act
9 3 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.34%) MiFID
9 3 (0.34%) Software Quality Assurance
10 2 (0.23%) GRC
10 2 (0.23%) NCSC
10 2 (0.23%) SLA
11 1 (0.11%) EMIR
11 1 (0.11%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 42001
11 1 (0.11%) SEPA
System Software
1 145 (16.59%) Docker
2 7 (0.80%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.46%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.46%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 150 (17.16%) Kubernetes
2 124 (14.19%) Terraform
3 43 (4.92%) Grafana
4 37 (4.23%) Prometheus
5 32 (3.66%) Ansible
6 8 (0.92%) HP ALM
6 8 (0.92%) Kibana
6 8 (0.92%) Single Sign-On
7 5 (0.57%) Progress Chef
7 5 (0.57%) Puppet
8 4 (0.46%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (0.34%) Control-M
9 3 (0.34%) Kustomize
9 3 (0.34%) Packer
10 2 (0.23%) Amdocs OSS
11 1 (0.11%) HP Quality Center
11 1 (0.11%) Istio
11 1 (0.11%) linkerd
11 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 91 (10.41%) Microsoft
2 56 (6.41%) Salesforce
3 51 (5.84%) Oracle
4 31 (3.55%) Databricks
5 20 (2.29%) ServiceNow
6 19 (2.17%) Google
6 19 (2.17%) UiPath
7 16 (1.83%) Splunk
8 14 (1.60%) Informatica
9 12 (1.37%) IBM
10 9 (1.03%) Dynatrace
10 9 (1.03%) OpenAI
11 8 (0.92%) HP
11 8 (0.92%) OpenLink
11 8 (0.92%) SAP
12 7 (0.80%) MuleSoft
13 6 (0.69%) Charles River
13 6 (0.69%) Foundry
13 6 (0.69%) Guidewire
13 6 (0.69%) Workday