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

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 47 51
Rank change year-on-year +1 +4 -3
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 827 610 705
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.91% 4.83% 3.90%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.48% 5.29% 4.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 536 423 498
10th Percentile £325 £341 £375
25th Percentile £406 £406 £451
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% -7.56%
75th Percentile £600 £658 £688
90th Percentile £700 £775 £775
England median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -6.67%
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 £65.50 £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 15,087 11,541 15,943
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.56% 91.38% 88.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,132 7,833 11,413
10th Percentile £356 £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 £675 £675
90th Percentile £752 £800 £788
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 233 170 337
10th Percentile £18.11 £18.91 £15.98
25th Percentile £22.00 £24.66 £19.57
Median hourly rate £35.50 £35.00 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year +1.43% +16.05% -22.67%
75th Percentile £57.50 £51.07 £50.00
90th Percentile £72.50 £65.25 £68.75
England median hourly rate £37.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +13.85% - -13.33%

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 31 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 31 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 -1 105 £525 - 65
South London -8 21 £513 +4.59% 7
West London -16 21 £450 +19.05% 5
East London +8 11 £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 59 (7.13%) Confluence
2 15 (1.81%) Apache Airflow
3 14 (1.69%) Apache Spark
4 8 (0.97%) Appian
5 5 (0.60%) Apache
5 5 (0.60%) Camunda
6 4 (0.48%) CMS
6 4 (0.48%) nginx
6 4 (0.48%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.48%) Tomcat
6 4 (0.48%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
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 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.73%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (0.73%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 22 (2.66%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.73%) Findur
2 6 (0.73%) Loan IQ
2 6 (0.73%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.60%) Shopify
4 4 (0.48%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.36%) BambooHR
5 3 (0.36%) Distributed Ledger
5 3 (0.36%) Dynamics CRM
6 2 (0.24%) iTrent
6 2 (0.24%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.24%) Summit
7 1 (0.12%) Algo Collateral
7 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.12%) CODA-Financials
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
1 257 (31.08%) Azure
2 198 (23.94%) AWS
3 135 (16.32%) GitHub
4 125 (15.11%) Azure DevOps
5 75 (9.07%) GCP
6 60 (7.26%) GitHub Actions
7 55 (6.65%) Serverless
8 32 (3.87%) AWS Lambda
9 31 (3.75%) Power Platform
9 31 (3.75%) Snowflake
10 30 (3.63%) Amazon S3
11 28 (3.39%) Azure AKS
12 27 (3.26%) Azure Data Factory
13 20 (2.42%) SaaS
14 19 (2.30%) Dynamics 365
15 18 (2.18%) Amazon ECS
16 17 (2.06%) Apigee
16 17 (2.06%) Power Automate
17 16 (1.93%) Azure Monitor
18 15 (1.81%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.45%) HTTP
2 11 (1.33%) Firewall
3 9 (1.09%) WAN
4 7 (0.85%) DNS
4 7 (0.85%) SD-WAN
4 7 (0.85%) TCP/IP
5 6 (0.73%) SSL
5 6 (0.73%) VPN
6 5 (0.60%) Cisco IPT
6 5 (0.60%) Multicast
7 4 (0.48%) Ethernet
7 4 (0.48%) FTP
7 4 (0.48%) WebEx
8 3 (0.36%) DHCP
8 3 (0.36%) HTTPS
9 2 (0.24%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (0.24%) DSL
9 2 (0.24%) Network Security
9 2 (0.24%) SNMP
9 2 (0.24%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 47 (5.68%) SQL Server
2 42 (5.08%) PostgreSQL
3 32 (3.87%) NoSQL
4 26 (3.14%) Relational Database
5 25 (3.02%) MongoDB
6 24 (2.90%) Data Warehouse
7 23 (2.78%) BigQuery
8 18 (2.18%) Tableau
9 17 (2.06%) Power BI
10 16 (1.93%) DynamoDB
11 12 (1.45%) Amazon Athena
11 12 (1.45%) Metadata
11 12 (1.45%) Redis
12 11 (1.33%) Big Data
12 11 (1.33%) Oracle Database
13 10 (1.21%) Amazon RDS
13 10 (1.21%) Data Lake
14 9 (1.09%) Pinecone
15 8 (0.97%) Amazon Aurora
15 8 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 150 (18.14%) JIRA
2 138 (16.69%) Git
3 112 (13.54%) Selenium
4 103 (12.45%) Jenkins
5 83 (10.04%) GitLab
6 60 (7.26%) Cucumber
7 51 (6.17%) Cypress.io
7 51 (6.17%) Postman
8 38 (4.59%) REST Assured
9 33 (3.99%) SpecFlow
10 32 (3.87%) JMeter
11 28 (3.39%) JUnit
12 21 (2.54%) MLflow
13 19 (2.30%) Bitbucket
14 16 (1.93%) Appium
15 14 (1.69%) TestRail
16 13 (1.57%) Maven
16 13 (1.57%) WebDriver
16 13 (1.57%) Zephyr
17 11 (1.33%) Mockito
General
1 215 (26.00%) Social Skills
2 202 (24.43%) Finance
3 110 (13.30%) Banking
4 106 (12.82%) Public Sector
5 88 (10.64%) Analytical Skills
6 30 (3.63%) Investment Banking
7 28 (3.39%) Front Office
8 15 (1.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 14 (1.69%) Legal
10 11 (1.33%) Documentation Skills
10 11 (1.33%) Influencing Skills
10 11 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
11 10 (1.21%) Organisational Skills
12 9 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
12 9 (1.09%) Telecoms
13 8 (0.97%) Back Office
14 7 (0.85%) Billing
14 7 (0.85%) Financial Institution
14 7 (0.85%) Publishing
15 5 (0.60%) Retail
Job Titles
1 183 (22.13%) Developer
2 158 (19.11%) Senior
3 94 (11.37%) Tester
4 88 (10.64%) Lead
5 71 (8.59%) Test Engineer
6 62 (7.50%) Automation Tester
7 55 (6.65%) Analyst
8 49 (5.93%) QA Engineer
9 41 (4.96%) Architect
10 40 (4.84%) Senior Developer
11 38 (4.59%) Automation Engineer
11 38 (4.59%) Test Automation Engineer
12 33 (3.99%) DevOps Engineer
12 33 (3.99%) Java Developer
13 31 (3.75%) Data Engineer
14 29 (3.51%) Test Analyst
15 25 (3.02%) Software Engineer
16 24 (2.90%) Python Developer
16 24 (2.90%) Test Leader
16 24 (2.90%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 119 (14.39%) Playwright
2 91 (11.00%) REST
3 86 (10.40%) React
4 73 (8.83%) Node.js
5 68 (8.22%) RESTful
6 65 (7.86%) .NET
7 61 (7.38%) Kafka
8 44 (5.32%) Spring
9 41 (4.96%) Spring Boot
10 34 (4.11%) HTML
11 33 (3.99%) pytest
11 33 (3.99%) Web Services
12 32 (3.87%) CSS
13 28 (3.39%) OAuth
14 26 (3.14%) AngularJS
15 23 (2.78%) GraphQL
16 22 (2.66%) FastAPI
17 21 (2.54%) Middleware
18 20 (2.42%) Gherkin
18 20 (2.42%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 93 (11.25%) Cloud Native
2 51 (6.17%) Product Ownership
3 43 (5.20%) Distributed Systems
4 31 (3.75%) Legacy Systems
5 27 (3.26%) Algorithms
6 24 (2.90%) Data Protection Act
7 21 (2.54%) Equities
8 20 (2.42%) Data Structures
9 19 (2.30%) Virtual Team
10 18 (2.18%) Onboarding
11 17 (2.06%) Greenfield Project
12 16 (1.93%) Management Information System
12 16 (1.93%) Mobile App
13 15 (1.81%) Fixed Income
14 13 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
15 12 (1.45%) Derivative
16 11 (1.33%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 10 (1.21%) Life Science
17 10 (1.21%) Public Cloud
18 9 (1.09%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 45 (5.44%) Linux
2 35 (4.23%) Windows
3 20 (2.42%) Android
4 18 (2.18%) Apple iOS
5 8 (0.97%) Unix
6 6 (0.73%) 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%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 446 (53.93%) CI/CD
2 347 (41.96%) Agile
3 303 (36.64%) DevOps
4 167 (20.19%) Problem-Solving
5 136 (16.44%) AI
6 119 (14.39%) Containerisation
7 116 (14.03%) Observability
8 114 (13.78%) Infrastructure as Code
9 110 (13.30%) Continuous Improvement
9 110 (13.30%) Microservices
10 105 (12.70%) Test Strategy
11 104 (12.58%) Test Scripting
12 101 (12.21%) Validation
13 98 (11.85%) Software Testing
14 95 (11.49%) Regression Testing
14 95 (11.49%) Software Engineering
15 85 (10.28%) Analytics
16 84 (10.16%) User Acceptance Testing
17 81 (9.79%) API Testing
17 81 (9.79%) Data Modelling
Programming Languages
1 282 (34.10%) Python
2 203 (24.55%) SQL
3 169 (20.44%) Java
4 150 (18.14%) TypeScript
5 136 (16.44%) JavaScript
6 117 (14.15%) C#
7 26 (3.14%) PowerShell
8 18 (2.18%) Apex Code
8 18 (2.18%) Bash
8 18 (2.18%) C++
9 16 (1.93%) Ruby
10 13 (1.57%) Bicep
10 13 (1.57%) PL/SQL
11 12 (1.45%) Kotlin
12 8 (0.97%) Go
12 8 (0.97%) T-SQL
13 7 (0.85%) Swift
14 6 (0.73%) Rust
14 6 (0.73%) Shell Script
15 4 (0.48%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 178 (21.52%) Security Cleared
2 152 (18.38%) SC Cleared
3 51 (6.17%) Degree
4 38 (4.59%) ISTQB
5 26 (3.14%) BPSS Clearance
5 26 (3.14%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (1.33%) Master's Degree
7 9 (1.09%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 6 (0.73%) DBS Check
9 5 (0.60%) DV Cleared
9 5 (0.60%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 5 (0.60%) OSCP
10 4 (0.48%) Azure Certification
10 4 (0.48%) CEH
10 4 (0.48%) ISEB
10 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Certification
10 4 (0.48%) SANS
11 3 (0.36%) AWS Certification
11 3 (0.36%) CREST Certified
12 2 (0.24%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 201 (24.30%) QA
2 46 (5.56%) Data Quality
3 45 (5.44%) Accessibility
4 19 (2.30%) GDPR
5 18 (2.18%) WCAG
6 9 (1.09%) NIST
7 8 (0.97%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 7 (0.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
9 6 (0.73%) NCSC
10 5 (0.60%) MiFID
10 5 (0.60%) PERC
10 5 (0.60%) SLA
11 4 (0.48%) HL7
11 4 (0.48%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 4 (0.48%) ISO 20022
11 4 (0.48%) Software Quality Assurance
12 3 (0.36%) NIST 800
12 3 (0.36%) PCI DSS
13 1 (0.12%) HIPAA
13 1 (0.12%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 154 (18.62%) Docker
2 6 (0.73%) Active Directory
2 6 (0.73%) VMware ESXi
3 5 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.48%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.24%) 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 (16.20%) Kubernetes
2 94 (11.37%) Terraform
3 33 (3.99%) Grafana
4 30 (3.63%) Prometheus
5 20 (2.42%) Ansible
6 11 (1.33%) HP ALM
7 6 (0.73%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
8 4 (0.48%) Puppet
9 3 (0.36%) Kibana
9 3 (0.36%) Rancher
10 2 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
10 2 (0.24%) Istio
10 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.24%) Nmap
10 2 (0.24%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.24%) SCCM
11 1 (0.12%) CloudHub
11 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
11 1 (0.12%) Packer
Vendors
1 75 (9.07%) Microsoft
2 55 (6.65%) Oracle
3 50 (6.05%) Salesforce
4 43 (5.20%) Databricks
5 31 (3.75%) Google
6 23 (2.78%) ServiceNow
7 16 (1.93%) SAP
8 13 (1.57%) OpenAI
9 12 (1.45%) Dynatrace
9 12 (1.45%) MuleSoft
9 12 (1.45%) Splunk
10 11 (1.33%) HP
10 11 (1.33%) IBM
10 11 (1.33%) UiPath
11 9 (1.09%) Apple
11 9 (1.09%) Guidewire
11 9 (1.09%) Workday
12 8 (0.97%) Automation Anywhere
12 8 (0.97%) Citrix
12 8 (0.97%) VMware