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

6 months to
21 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 47 45 55
Rank change year-on-year -2 +10 -7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 835 630 674
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.79% 4.96% 3.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.39% 5.39% 4.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 537 427 471
10th Percentile £325 £341 £363
25th Percentile £409 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% -5.38%
75th Percentile £588 £663 £691
90th Percentile £700 £775 £775
England median daily rate £475 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
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 £65.00 £55.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +18.18% -8.33% -2.04%

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 15,500 11,691 15,679
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.89% 91.95% 88.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,370 7,941 11,223
10th Percentile £355 £350 £338
25th Percentile £430 £438 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -6.78%
75th Percentile £650 £681 £675
90th Percentile £756 £800 £800
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 260 166 333
10th Percentile £18.75 £16.30 £15.96
25th Percentile £25.15 £23.64 £19.92
Median hourly rate £35.50 £34.58 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +2.68% +15.25% -23.08%
75th Percentile £57.50 £50.69 £48.56
90th Percentile £73.08 £63.50 £66.95
England median hourly rate £41.94 £31.64 £35.00
% change year-on-year +32.55% -9.60% -9.09%

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 21 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 21 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 +3 111 £525 +3.96% 50
West London -18 22 £450 +14.80% 4
South London -7 20 £519 +25.76% 3
East London +3 11 £445 +11.25% 15
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 53 (6.35%) Confluence
2 21 (2.51%) Apache Airflow
3 17 (2.04%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.96%) 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 17 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.56%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.60%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 23 (2.75%) Aladdin
2 7 (0.84%) Findur
2 7 (0.84%) 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 LN
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 (29.94%) Azure
2 202 (24.19%) AWS
3 134 (16.05%) GitHub
4 121 (14.49%) Azure DevOps
5 62 (7.43%) GitHub Actions
6 59 (7.07%) Serverless
7 58 (6.95%) GCP
8 37 (4.43%) Amazon S3
8 37 (4.43%) AWS Lambda
9 35 (4.19%) Snowflake
10 32 (3.83%) Power Platform
11 29 (3.47%) Azure AKS
12 28 (3.35%) Azure Data Factory
13 25 (2.99%) Amazon ECS
14 19 (2.28%) Apigee
14 19 (2.28%) Azure Monitor
14 19 (2.28%) dbt
14 19 (2.28%) Dynamics 365
15 18 (2.16%) AWS CloudFormation
15 18 (2.16%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.20%) HTTP
2 6 (0.72%) Firewall
2 6 (0.72%) FTP
3 5 (0.60%) Cisco IPT
4 4 (0.48%) Ethernet
4 4 (0.48%) SSL
4 4 (0.48%) WAN
4 4 (0.48%) WebEx
5 3 (0.36%) DNS
5 3 (0.36%) Multicast
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
6 2 (0.24%) TCP/IP
7 1 (0.12%) 5G
7 1 (0.12%) NGFW
7 1 (0.12%) Spanning Tree
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (5.99%) SQL Server
2 48 (5.75%) PostgreSQL
3 43 (5.15%) NoSQL
4 31 (3.71%) MongoDB
5 27 (3.23%) Data Warehouse
6 25 (2.99%) Relational Database
7 22 (2.63%) Tableau
8 21 (2.51%) Power BI
9 20 (2.40%) DynamoDB
10 19 (2.28%) BigQuery
11 17 (2.04%) Amazon Athena
12 15 (1.80%) Big Data
13 14 (1.68%) Metadata
14 12 (1.44%) Amazon Aurora
14 12 (1.44%) Amazon RDS
14 12 (1.44%) Amazon Redshift
15 11 (1.32%) Oracle Database
15 11 (1.32%) Redis
16 10 (1.20%) Data Lake
16 10 (1.20%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 149 (17.84%) JIRA
2 138 (16.53%) Git
3 116 (13.89%) Selenium
4 99 (11.86%) Jenkins
5 76 (9.10%) GitLab
6 56 (6.71%) Cucumber
7 54 (6.47%) Cypress.io
8 49 (5.87%) Postman
9 36 (4.31%) REST Assured
10 31 (3.71%) SpecFlow
11 27 (3.23%) JUnit
12 26 (3.11%) JMeter
13 20 (2.40%) MLflow
14 16 (1.92%) Bitbucket
15 15 (1.80%) Appium
16 14 (1.68%) TestRail
16 14 (1.68%) WebDriver
16 14 (1.68%) Zephyr
17 13 (1.56%) Maven
18 11 (1.32%) Mockito
General
1 220 (26.35%) Social Skills
2 218 (26.11%) Finance
3 109 (13.05%) Banking
3 109 (13.05%) Public Sector
4 97 (11.62%) Analytical Skills
5 27 (3.23%) Front Office
5 27 (3.23%) Investment Banking
6 18 (2.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 18 (2.16%) Legal
7 14 (1.68%) Documentation Skills
8 11 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
8 11 (1.32%) Telecoms
9 10 (1.20%) Financial Institution
9 10 (1.20%) Organisational Skills
10 9 (1.08%) Back Office
10 9 (1.08%) Pharmaceutical
10 9 (1.08%) Presentation Skills
11 7 (0.84%) Billing
11 7 (0.84%) Publishing
12 6 (0.72%) Retail
Job Titles
1 188 (22.51%) Developer
2 151 (18.08%) Senior
3 98 (11.74%) Tester
4 87 (10.42%) Lead
5 59 (7.07%) Automation Tester
5 59 (7.07%) Test Engineer
6 53 (6.35%) QA Engineer
7 51 (6.11%) Analyst
8 45 (5.39%) Architect
9 41 (4.91%) Senior Developer
10 38 (4.55%) Data Engineer
11 37 (4.43%) Automation Engineer
12 35 (4.19%) DevOps Engineer
12 35 (4.19%) Java Developer
13 29 (3.47%) Test Automation Engineer
14 27 (3.23%) Test Manager
15 25 (2.99%) Test Analyst
16 24 (2.87%) QA Automation Engineer
16 24 (2.87%) Software Engineer
17 23 (2.75%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 113 (13.53%) Playwright
2 96 (11.50%) React
3 88 (10.54%) REST
4 72 (8.62%) Node.js
4 72 (8.62%) RESTful
5 69 (8.26%) .NET
6 59 (7.07%) Kafka
7 45 (5.39%) Spring
8 43 (5.15%) Spring Boot
9 39 (4.67%) HTML
10 37 (4.43%) CSS
11 29 (3.47%) pytest
12 28 (3.35%) Web Services
13 26 (3.11%) OAuth
14 24 (2.87%) AngularJS
15 21 (2.51%) Gherkin
16 19 (2.28%) FastAPI
16 19 (2.28%) GraphQL
16 19 (2.28%) JSON
17 17 (2.04%) Lightning Web Components
Miscellaneous
1 92 (11.02%) Cloud Native
2 58 (6.95%) Product Ownership
3 45 (5.39%) Distributed Systems
4 35 (4.19%) Legacy Systems
5 26 (3.11%) Data Protection Act
6 24 (2.87%) Algorithms
7 19 (2.28%) Equities
7 19 (2.28%) Onboarding
8 18 (2.16%) Data Structures
8 18 (2.16%) Fixed Income
8 18 (2.16%) Greenfield Project
8 18 (2.16%) Management Information System
9 17 (2.04%) Virtual Team
10 15 (1.80%) Mobile App
10 15 (1.80%) Self-Motivation
11 11 (1.32%) Derivative
12 10 (1.20%) Enterprise Software
12 10 (1.20%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 9 (1.08%) Low-Code
13 9 (1.08%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 41 (4.91%) Linux
2 31 (3.71%) Windows
3 18 (2.16%) Android
4 16 (1.92%) Apple iOS
5 10 (1.20%) Unix
6 5 (0.60%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.60%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.48%) Solaris
7 4 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
8 3 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 451 (54.01%) CI/CD
2 340 (40.72%) Agile
3 292 (34.97%) DevOps
4 160 (19.16%) Problem-Solving
5 135 (16.17%) AI
6 124 (14.85%) Infrastructure as Code
7 119 (14.25%) Containerisation
8 115 (13.77%) Observability
9 114 (13.65%) Continuous Improvement
10 110 (13.17%) Validation
11 109 (13.05%) Microservices
11 109 (13.05%) Regression Testing
12 106 (12.69%) Test Strategy
13 103 (12.34%) Test Scripting
14 98 (11.74%) User Acceptance Testing
15 96 (11.50%) Software Testing
16 91 (10.90%) Software Engineering
17 89 (10.66%) Analytics
18 84 (10.06%) Data Modelling
18 84 (10.06%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 276 (33.05%) Python
2 214 (25.63%) SQL
3 169 (20.24%) Java
4 154 (18.44%) TypeScript
5 137 (16.41%) JavaScript
6 119 (14.25%) C#
7 28 (3.35%) PowerShell
8 20 (2.40%) Apex Code
9 19 (2.28%) Bash
10 17 (2.04%) Ruby
11 15 (1.80%) C++
12 14 (1.68%) Bicep
13 13 (1.56%) PL/SQL
14 12 (1.44%) Kotlin
15 9 (1.08%) Go
15 9 (1.08%) Scala
16 6 (0.72%) Rust
16 6 (0.72%) T-SQL
17 5 (0.60%) Swift
18 4 (0.48%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 177 (21.20%) Security Cleared
2 152 (18.20%) SC Cleared
3 49 (5.87%) Degree
4 36 (4.31%) ISTQB
5 29 (3.47%) BPSS Clearance
6 26 (3.11%) Computer Science Degree
7 11 (1.32%) Master's Degree
8 7 (0.84%) DBS Check
8 7 (0.84%) DV Cleared
8 7 (0.84%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 4 (0.48%) Azure Certification
9 4 (0.48%) ISEB
9 4 (0.48%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 3 (0.36%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Certification
10 3 (0.36%) OSCP
10 3 (0.36%) SANS
11 2 (0.24%) CEH
11 2 (0.24%) Cisco Certification
11 2 (0.24%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 202 (24.19%) QA
2 52 (6.23%) Data Quality
3 46 (5.51%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.87%) GDPR
5 19 (2.28%) WCAG
6 8 (0.96%) NIST
7 7 (0.84%) 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
1 147 (17.60%) Docker
2 5 (0.60%) Active Directory
2 5 (0.60%) Virtual Machines
2 5 (0.60%) VMware ESXi
2 5 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 4 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
3 4 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
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 (15.57%) Kubernetes
2 102 (12.22%) Terraform
3 37 (4.43%) Grafana
4 32 (3.83%) Prometheus
5 15 (1.80%) Ansible
6 13 (1.56%) HP ALM
7 8 (0.96%) Kibana
7 8 (0.96%) 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 78 (9.34%) Microsoft
2 58 (6.95%) Oracle
3 51 (6.11%) Salesforce
4 46 (5.51%) Databricks
5 25 (2.99%) Google
6 22 (2.63%) ServiceNow
7 17 (2.04%) Splunk
8 16 (1.92%) SAP
9 13 (1.56%) HP
9 13 (1.56%) OpenAI
10 12 (1.44%) MuleSoft
10 12 (1.44%) UiPath
11 11 (1.32%) Dynatrace
11 11 (1.32%) IBM
12 10 (1.20%) Workday
13 9 (1.08%) Guidewire
14 8 (0.96%) Apple
14 8 (0.96%) Automation Anywhere
14 8 (0.96%) Citrix
15 7 (0.84%) Confluent