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

6 months to
19 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 47 50
Rank change year-on-year +3 +3 -2
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 814 610 711
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.95% 4.77% 3.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.52% 5.23% 4.43%
Number of daily rates quoted 529 420 515
10th Percentile £325 £341 £377
25th Percentile £400 £406 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% -8.33%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £688
90th Percentile £700 £775 £750
England median daily rate £482 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -3.58% -4.76% -7.08%
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 £62.50
% change year-on-year +14.54% -9.20% +4.17%

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 14,757 11,654 16,064
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.76% 91.18% 88.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,899 7,809 11,494
10th Percentile £350 £350 £340
25th Percentile £425 £450 £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 £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £504 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.05% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 234 162 342
10th Percentile £18.13 £20.05 £16.00
25th Percentile £22.00 £24.66 £19.93
Median hourly rate £35.50 £35.70 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year -0.55% +18.35% -18.49%
75th Percentile £56.85 £53.75 £49.97
90th Percentile £71.75 £77.25 £69.43
England median hourly rate £31.45 £33.40 £32.50
% change year-on-year -5.84% +2.77% -10.41%

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 19 March 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 19 March 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 -1 107 £525 - 69
West London -14 21 £450 +23.63% 6
South London -9 20 £513 +6.22% 5
East London +2 7 £445 +11.25% 8
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 54 (6.63%) Confluence
2 16 (1.97%) Apache Airflow
2 16 (1.97%) Apache Spark
3 8 (0.98%) Appian
4 5 (0.61%) Apache
5 4 (0.49%) Camunda
5 4 (0.49%) CMS
5 4 (0.49%) SharePoint
6 3 (0.37%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
6 3 (0.37%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.25%) Magnolia
7 2 (0.25%) nginx
7 2 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
7 2 (0.25%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.25%) WordPress
8 1 (0.12%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 20 (2.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.74%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (0.74%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 24 (2.95%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.74%) Loan IQ
2 6 (0.74%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.61%) Shopify
4 4 (0.49%) Findur
4 4 (0.49%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.37%) BambooHR
5 3 (0.37%) Dynamics CRM
6 2 (0.25%) iTrent
6 2 (0.25%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.25%) Summit
7 1 (0.12%) Algo Collateral
7 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.12%) CODA-Financials
7 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite
7 1 (0.12%) Infor M3
7 1 (0.12%) IntelliMatch
7 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
7 1 (0.12%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 259 (31.82%) Azure
2 198 (24.32%) AWS
3 133 (16.34%) GitHub
4 125 (15.36%) Azure DevOps
5 76 (9.34%) GCP
6 59 (7.25%) GitHub Actions
7 58 (7.13%) Serverless
8 33 (4.05%) Power Platform
8 33 (4.05%) Snowflake
9 32 (3.93%) AWS Lambda
10 30 (3.69%) Amazon S3
11 27 (3.32%) Azure Data Factory
12 26 (3.19%) Azure AKS
13 20 (2.46%) Dynamics 365
13 20 (2.46%) SaaS
14 17 (2.09%) Amazon ECS
14 17 (2.09%) Apigee
14 17 (2.09%) Power Automate
15 16 (1.97%) Amazon EKS
15 16 (1.97%) Azure Cosmos DB
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.35%) Firewall
2 9 (1.11%) WAN
3 8 (0.98%) HTTP
4 7 (0.86%) DNS
4 7 (0.86%) SD-WAN
4 7 (0.86%) SSL
4 7 (0.86%) TCP/IP
5 6 (0.74%) VPN
6 5 (0.61%) Cisco IPT
7 4 (0.49%) FTP
7 4 (0.49%) HTTPS
7 4 (0.49%) Multicast
7 4 (0.49%) WebEx
8 3 (0.37%) DHCP
8 3 (0.37%) Ethernet
9 2 (0.25%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (0.25%) DSL
9 2 (0.25%) Network Security
9 2 (0.25%) SNMP
9 2 (0.25%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (5.65%) PostgreSQL
2 45 (5.53%) SQL Server
3 31 (3.81%) NoSQL
4 26 (3.19%) Data Warehouse
4 26 (3.19%) Relational Database
5 23 (2.83%) BigQuery
5 23 (2.83%) MongoDB
6 19 (2.33%) Power BI
7 18 (2.21%) Tableau
8 13 (1.60%) DynamoDB
9 12 (1.47%) Data Lake
10 11 (1.35%) Amazon RDS
10 11 (1.35%) Oracle Database
10 11 (1.35%) Redis
11 10 (1.23%) Amazon Athena
11 10 (1.23%) Big Data
11 10 (1.23%) Metadata
12 9 (1.11%) Pinecone
13 8 (0.98%) Amazon Aurora
13 8 (0.98%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 142 (17.44%) JIRA
2 131 (16.09%) Git
3 112 (13.76%) Selenium
4 103 (12.65%) Jenkins
5 86 (10.57%) GitLab
6 62 (7.62%) Cucumber
7 52 (6.39%) Postman
8 51 (6.27%) Cypress.io
9 37 (4.55%) REST Assured
10 34 (4.18%) JMeter
11 33 (4.05%) SpecFlow
12 29 (3.56%) JUnit
13 21 (2.58%) MLflow
14 19 (2.33%) Bitbucket
15 15 (1.84%) Appium
16 14 (1.72%) TestRail
16 14 (1.72%) WebDriver
17 13 (1.60%) Zephyr
18 12 (1.47%) Maven
19 11 (1.35%) Mockito
General
1 217 (26.66%) Social Skills
2 195 (23.96%) Finance
3 106 (13.02%) Banking
4 98 (12.04%) Public Sector
5 85 (10.44%) Analytical Skills
6 29 (3.56%) Investment Banking
7 26 (3.19%) Front Office
8 14 (1.72%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 13 (1.60%) Pharmaceutical
10 12 (1.47%) Legal
11 10 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
11 10 (1.23%) Influencing Skills
12 9 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.11%) Presentation Skills
13 8 (0.98%) Telecoms
14 7 (0.86%) Billing
14 7 (0.86%) Financial Institution
15 6 (0.74%) Back Office
16 5 (0.61%) Retail
17 4 (0.49%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 176 (21.62%) Developer
2 157 (19.29%) Senior
3 90 (11.06%) Lead
3 90 (11.06%) Tester
4 69 (8.48%) Test Engineer
5 57 (7.00%) Automation Tester
6 55 (6.76%) Analyst
7 49 (6.02%) QA Engineer
8 40 (4.91%) Architect
9 39 (4.79%) Senior Developer
10 37 (4.55%) Automation Engineer
10 37 (4.55%) Test Automation Engineer
11 35 (4.30%) Data Engineer
12 29 (3.56%) Java Developer
12 29 (3.56%) Test Analyst
13 28 (3.44%) DevOps Engineer
14 26 (3.19%) Test Manager
15 25 (3.07%) Python Developer
16 24 (2.95%) Software Engineer
17 23 (2.83%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 122 (14.99%) Playwright
2 87 (10.69%) REST
3 86 (10.57%) React
4 72 (8.85%) .NET
5 67 (8.23%) Node.js
5 67 (8.23%) RESTful
6 64 (7.86%) Kafka
7 39 (4.79%) Spring
8 36 (4.42%) pytest
8 36 (4.42%) Spring Boot
9 35 (4.30%) Web Services
10 34 (4.18%) HTML
11 33 (4.05%) CSS
12 29 (3.56%) OAuth
13 23 (2.83%) AngularJS
13 23 (2.83%) FastAPI
14 22 (2.70%) GraphQL
14 22 (2.70%) Middleware
15 21 (2.58%) JSON
16 20 (2.46%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 95 (11.67%) Cloud Native
2 54 (6.63%) Product Ownership
3 37 (4.55%) Distributed Systems
4 34 (4.18%) Legacy Systems
5 27 (3.32%) Algorithms
6 23 (2.83%) Data Protection Act
7 22 (2.70%) Data Structures
7 22 (2.70%) Equities
8 18 (2.21%) Greenfield Project
8 18 (2.21%) Virtual Team
9 17 (2.09%) Mobile App
10 16 (1.97%) Fixed Income
10 16 (1.97%) Management Information System
10 16 (1.97%) Onboarding
11 14 (1.72%) Derivative
12 12 (1.47%) Self-Motivation
13 11 (1.35%) Genomics
13 11 (1.35%) Life Science
14 10 (1.23%) Public Cloud
15 9 (1.11%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 47 (5.77%) Linux
2 33 (4.05%) Windows
3 20 (2.46%) Android
4 18 (2.21%) Apple iOS
5 9 (1.11%) Unix
6 5 (0.61%) Mac OS
6 5 (0.61%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.25%) Solaris
7 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
7 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.12%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 440 (54.05%) CI/CD
2 351 (43.12%) Agile
3 306 (37.59%) DevOps
4 167 (20.52%) Problem-Solving
5 135 (16.58%) AI
6 114 (14.00%) Containerisation
7 113 (13.88%) Continuous Improvement
7 113 (13.88%) Observability
8 110 (13.51%) Test Strategy
9 105 (12.90%) Test Scripting
10 103 (12.65%) Microservices
11 102 (12.53%) Infrastructure as Code
11 102 (12.53%) Validation
12 101 (12.41%) Software Testing
13 99 (12.16%) Software Engineering
14 93 (11.43%) Regression Testing
15 82 (10.07%) Analytics
15 82 (10.07%) API Testing
15 82 (10.07%) Data Modelling
15 82 (10.07%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 288 (35.38%) Python
2 207 (25.43%) SQL
3 163 (20.02%) Java
4 153 (18.80%) TypeScript
5 135 (16.58%) JavaScript
6 120 (14.74%) C#
7 25 (3.07%) PowerShell
8 21 (2.58%) C++
9 18 (2.21%) Bash
10 15 (1.84%) Apex Code
11 13 (1.60%) Kotlin
11 13 (1.60%) Ruby
12 12 (1.47%) Bicep
12 12 (1.47%) PL/SQL
13 8 (0.98%) Go
13 8 (0.98%) Rust
13 8 (0.98%) T-SQL
14 7 (0.86%) Swift
15 6 (0.74%) Shell Script
16 4 (0.49%) C
Qualifications
1 164 (20.15%) Security Cleared
2 139 (17.08%) SC Cleared
3 52 (6.39%) Degree
4 38 (4.67%) ISTQB
5 26 (3.19%) Computer Science Degree
6 25 (3.07%) BPSS Clearance
7 12 (1.47%) Master's Degree
8 10 (1.23%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 6 (0.74%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.61%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 5 (0.61%) OSCP
11 4 (0.49%) CEH
11 4 (0.49%) DV Cleared
11 4 (0.49%) ISEB
11 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Certification
11 4 (0.49%) SANS
12 3 (0.37%) AWS Certification
12 3 (0.37%) Azure Certification
12 3 (0.37%) CREST Certified
13 2 (0.25%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 203 (24.94%) QA
2 47 (5.77%) Data Quality
3 46 (5.65%) Accessibility
4 19 (2.33%) GDPR
5 15 (1.84%) WCAG
6 12 (1.47%) NIST
7 8 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 8 (0.98%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.74%) NCSC
9 5 (0.61%) MiFID
9 5 (0.61%) PERC
9 5 (0.61%) SLA
10 4 (0.49%) HL7
10 4 (0.49%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 4 (0.49%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.49%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.37%) EU AI Act
11 3 (0.37%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.37%) PCI DSS
12 2 (0.25%) GMP
System Software
1 157 (19.29%) Docker
2 6 (0.74%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
3 4 (0.49%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
5 2 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.12%) Firmware
6 1 (0.12%) Squid
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 134 (16.46%) Kubernetes
2 89 (10.93%) Terraform
3 30 (3.69%) Grafana
4 26 (3.19%) Prometheus
5 22 (2.70%) Ansible
6 10 (1.23%) HP ALM
7 6 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
8 3 (0.37%) Kibana
8 3 (0.37%) Puppet
8 3 (0.37%) Rancher
9 2 (0.25%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.25%) HP Quality Center
9 2 (0.25%) Istio
9 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Intune
9 2 (0.25%) Nmap
9 2 (0.25%) Oracle RMAN
9 2 (0.25%) Progress Chef
9 2 (0.25%) SCCM
10 1 (0.12%) linkerd
10 1 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 76 (9.34%) Microsoft
2 52 (6.39%) Oracle
3 46 (5.65%) Databricks
4 44 (5.41%) Salesforce
5 31 (3.81%) Google
6 22 (2.70%) ServiceNow
7 16 (1.97%) SAP
8 13 (1.60%) OpenAI
9 12 (1.47%) MuleSoft
10 11 (1.35%) Dynatrace
10 11 (1.35%) Guidewire
10 11 (1.35%) UiPath
11 10 (1.23%) HP
11 10 (1.23%) Splunk
12 9 (1.11%) Apple
12 9 (1.11%) Charles River
12 9 (1.11%) Workday
13 8 (0.98%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (0.98%) Citrix
13 8 (0.98%) IBM