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

6 months to
17 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 43 55
Rank change year-on-year -4 +12 -7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 839 624 685
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.84% 4.93% 3.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.43% 5.36% 4.32%
Number of daily rates quoted 539 424 479
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 £588 £663 £688
90th Percentile £700 £775 £775
England median daily rate £475 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -6.67%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 1 7
10th Percentile £55.99 - -
25th Percentile £58.15 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £63.50 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +81.43% -36.36% -35.29%
75th Percentile £65.88 - £61.25
90th Percentile £66.25 - £65.40
England median hourly rate £65.50 £56.75 £57.50
% change year-on-year +15.42% -1.30% -8.00%

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 15,445 11,632 15,861
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.07% 91.83% 88.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,343 7,889 11,364
10th Percentile £353 £350 £338
25th Percentile £428 £443 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -6.78%
75th Percentile £650 £685 £675
90th Percentile £756 £800 £799
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 255 166 338
10th Percentile £18.75 £16.30 £15.98
25th Percentile £24.00 £23.64 £19.65
Median hourly rate £35.50 £35.00 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +1.43% +16.67% -22.58%
75th Percentile £57.25 £50.69 £48.75
90th Percentile £72.80 £63.50 £66.83
England median hourly rate £41.90 £31.70 £34.00
% change year-on-year +32.17% -6.76% -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 17 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 17 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 +4 112 £525 +3.96% 44
West London -16 22 £450 +26.05% 4
South London -6 20 £519 +5.87% 2
East London +3 11 £445 +11.25% 13
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 56 (6.67%) Confluence
2 21 (2.50%) Apache Airflow
3 17 (2.03%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.95%) Appian
5 5 (0.60%) Apache
5 5 (0.60%) Camunda
5 5 (0.60%) 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 (2.15%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (0.72%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 24 (2.86%) Aladdin
2 7 (0.83%) Findur
2 7 (0.83%) Shopify
3 6 (0.72%) Loan IQ
3 6 (0.72%) Oracle EBS
4 5 (0.60%) 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%) Infor M3
8 1 (0.12%) IntelliMatch
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.12%) PORTIA
8 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 248 (29.56%) Azure
2 203 (24.20%) AWS
3 134 (15.97%) GitHub
4 120 (14.30%) Azure DevOps
5 63 (7.51%) GCP
6 62 (7.39%) GitHub Actions
7 59 (7.03%) Serverless
8 38 (4.53%) Amazon S3
9 37 (4.41%) AWS Lambda
10 36 (4.29%) Snowflake
11 32 (3.81%) Power Platform
12 28 (3.34%) Azure AKS
12 28 (3.34%) Azure Data Factory
13 25 (2.98%) Amazon ECS
14 19 (2.26%) Apigee
14 19 (2.26%) dbt
14 19 (2.26%) Dynamics 365
15 18 (2.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 18 (2.15%) AWS CloudFormation
15 18 (2.15%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.19%) HTTP
2 6 (0.72%) Firewall
2 6 (0.72%) FTP
3 5 (0.60%) Cisco IPT
3 5 (0.60%) SSL
4 4 (0.48%) DNS
4 4 (0.48%) Ethernet
4 4 (0.48%) WAN
4 4 (0.48%) WebEx
5 3 (0.36%) Multicast
5 3 (0.36%) TCP/IP
6 2 (0.24%) Cisco IOS
6 2 (0.24%) DHCP
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%) Network Security
7 1 (0.12%) NGFW
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (5.96%) SQL Server
2 48 (5.72%) PostgreSQL
3 42 (5.01%) NoSQL
4 31 (3.69%) MongoDB
5 27 (3.22%) Data Warehouse
6 26 (3.10%) Relational Database
7 24 (2.86%) BigQuery
8 22 (2.62%) Tableau
9 21 (2.50%) Power BI
10 20 (2.38%) DynamoDB
11 17 (2.03%) Amazon Athena
12 15 (1.79%) Big Data
13 14 (1.67%) Metadata
14 12 (1.43%) Amazon Aurora
14 12 (1.43%) Amazon RDS
14 12 (1.43%) Amazon Redshift
15 11 (1.31%) Oracle Database
15 11 (1.31%) Redis
16 10 (1.19%) Data Lake
16 10 (1.19%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 150 (17.88%) JIRA
2 140 (16.69%) Git
3 115 (13.71%) Selenium
4 101 (12.04%) Jenkins
5 76 (9.06%) GitLab
6 56 (6.67%) Cucumber
7 54 (6.44%) Cypress.io
8 50 (5.96%) Postman
9 37 (4.41%) REST Assured
10 32 (3.81%) SpecFlow
11 27 (3.22%) JUnit
12 26 (3.10%) JMeter
13 20 (2.38%) MLflow
14 17 (2.03%) Bitbucket
15 15 (1.79%) Appium
16 14 (1.67%) TestRail
16 14 (1.67%) WebDriver
16 14 (1.67%) Zephyr
17 13 (1.55%) Maven
18 12 (1.43%) Mockito
General
1 220 (26.22%) Social Skills
2 215 (25.63%) Finance
3 109 (12.99%) Public Sector
4 108 (12.87%) Banking
5 97 (11.56%) Analytical Skills
6 27 (3.22%) Front Office
6 27 (3.22%) Investment Banking
7 18 (2.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 18 (2.15%) Legal
8 14 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
9 11 (1.31%) Influencing Skills
9 11 (1.31%) Telecoms
10 10 (1.19%) Financial Institution
10 10 (1.19%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.07%) Back Office
11 9 (1.07%) Pharmaceutical
11 9 (1.07%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (0.83%) Billing
12 7 (0.83%) Publishing
13 6 (0.72%) Retail
Job Titles
1 189 (22.53%) Developer
2 156 (18.59%) Senior
3 97 (11.56%) Tester
4 89 (10.61%) Lead
5 61 (7.27%) Test Engineer
6 59 (7.03%) Automation Tester
7 56 (6.67%) Analyst
8 53 (6.32%) QA Engineer
9 45 (5.36%) Architect
10 41 (4.89%) Senior Developer
11 38 (4.53%) Data Engineer
12 37 (4.41%) Automation Engineer
13 35 (4.17%) Java Developer
14 34 (4.05%) DevOps Engineer
15 31 (3.69%) Test Automation Engineer
16 29 (3.46%) Test Analyst
17 27 (3.22%) Test Manager
18 25 (2.98%) QA Automation Engineer
19 24 (2.86%) Software Engineer
20 23 (2.74%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 113 (13.47%) Playwright
2 96 (11.44%) React
3 88 (10.49%) REST
4 75 (8.94%) RESTful
5 72 (8.58%) Node.js
6 68 (8.10%) .NET
7 59 (7.03%) Kafka
8 45 (5.36%) Spring
9 43 (5.13%) Spring Boot
10 39 (4.65%) HTML
11 37 (4.41%) CSS
12 29 (3.46%) pytest
12 29 (3.46%) Web Services
13 26 (3.10%) OAuth
14 25 (2.98%) AngularJS
15 21 (2.50%) Gherkin
15 21 (2.50%) GraphQL
16 19 (2.26%) FastAPI
17 18 (2.15%) JSON
17 18 (2.15%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 91 (10.85%) Cloud Native
2 58 (6.91%) Product Ownership
3 44 (5.24%) Distributed Systems
4 35 (4.17%) Legacy Systems
5 27 (3.22%) Data Protection Act
6 25 (2.98%) Algorithms
7 20 (2.38%) Equities
8 19 (2.26%) Data Structures
8 19 (2.26%) Onboarding
9 18 (2.15%) Fixed Income
9 18 (2.15%) Greenfield Project
9 18 (2.15%) Management Information System
9 18 (2.15%) Virtual Team
10 16 (1.91%) Mobile App
11 14 (1.67%) Self-Motivation
12 11 (1.31%) Derivative
13 10 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (1.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 9 (1.07%) Low-Code
14 9 (1.07%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 42 (5.01%) Linux
2 36 (4.29%) Windows
3 20 (2.38%) Android
4 18 (2.15%) Apple iOS
5 10 (1.19%) Unix
6 6 (0.72%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.60%) 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 (53.52%) CI/CD
2 345 (41.12%) Agile
3 290 (34.56%) DevOps
4 164 (19.55%) Problem-Solving
5 135 (16.09%) AI
6 122 (14.54%) Infrastructure as Code
7 119 (14.18%) Containerisation
8 115 (13.71%) Observability
9 113 (13.47%) Continuous Improvement
10 111 (13.23%) Validation
11 110 (13.11%) Regression Testing
12 109 (12.99%) Test Scripting
13 108 (12.87%) Microservices
14 106 (12.63%) Test Strategy
15 100 (11.92%) Software Testing
16 98 (11.68%) User Acceptance Testing
17 93 (11.08%) Analytics
18 91 (10.85%) Software Engineering
19 84 (10.01%) Data Modelling
19 84 (10.01%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 280 (33.37%) Python
2 214 (25.51%) SQL
3 169 (20.14%) Java
4 154 (18.36%) TypeScript
5 139 (16.57%) JavaScript
6 118 (14.06%) C#
7 27 (3.22%) PowerShell
8 20 (2.38%) Apex Code
9 19 (2.26%) Bash
10 17 (2.03%) Ruby
11 16 (1.91%) C++
12 13 (1.55%) Bicep
12 13 (1.55%) Kotlin
12 13 (1.55%) PL/SQL
13 9 (1.07%) Go
13 9 (1.07%) Scala
14 7 (0.83%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.72%) Rust
15 6 (0.72%) Swift
16 4 (0.48%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 177 (21.10%) Security Cleared
2 152 (18.12%) SC Cleared
3 49 (5.84%) Degree
4 36 (4.29%) ISTQB
5 29 (3.46%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (3.10%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (1.31%) Master's Degree
8 8 (0.95%) DV Cleared
9 7 (0.83%) DBS Check
9 7 (0.83%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 4 (0.48%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.48%) ISEB
10 4 (0.48%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 3 (0.36%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (0.36%) OSCP
11 3 (0.36%) SANS
12 2 (0.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 2 (0.24%) CREST Certified
12 2 (0.24%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 204 (24.31%) QA
2 52 (6.20%) Data Quality
3 46 (5.48%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.86%) GDPR
5 19 (2.26%) WCAG
6 8 (0.95%) NIST
7 7 (0.83%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.72%) ISO 20022
8 6 (0.72%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.72%) NCSC
9 5 (0.60%) PERC
9 5 (0.60%) SLA
10 4 (0.48%) HL7
10 4 (0.48%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
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
1 148 (17.64%) Docker
2 6 (0.72%) Active Directory
2 6 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
3 5 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
4 4 (0.48%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.12%) Firmware
5 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.12%) Squid
5 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 129 (15.38%) Kubernetes
2 100 (11.92%) Terraform
3 37 (4.41%) Grafana
4 32 (3.81%) Prometheus
5 15 (1.79%) 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 80 (9.54%) Microsoft
2 58 (6.91%) Oracle
3 51 (6.08%) Salesforce
4 47 (5.60%) Databricks
5 26 (3.10%) Google
6 22 (2.62%) ServiceNow
7 17 (2.03%) SAP
7 17 (2.03%) Splunk
8 13 (1.55%) HP
8 13 (1.55%) OpenAI
9 12 (1.43%) MuleSoft
10 11 (1.31%) Dynatrace
10 11 (1.31%) IBM
11 10 (1.19%) UiPath
11 10 (1.19%) Workday
12 9 (1.07%) Apple
12 9 (1.07%) Guidewire
13 8 (0.95%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (0.95%) Citrix
14 7 (0.83%) Confluent