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

6 months to
13 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 56 44
Rank change year-on-year +6 -12 +1
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 919 585 782
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.54% 4.35% 4.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.11% 4.70% 5.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 621 389 514
10th Percentile £350 £343 £352
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -6.87%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £642
90th Percentile £713 £775 £759
England median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -5.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 3
10th Percentile £44.32 £37.25 £53.13
25th Percentile £47.33 £40.63 £57.81
Median hourly rate £72.00 £45.00 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -34.55% -23.61%
75th Percentile £97.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £67.86 £57.50 £57.50
% change year-on-year +18.01% - -23.33%

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 17,987 12,459 14,514
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.90% 92.61% 89.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,749 8,238 9,752
10th Percentile £359 £325 £350
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -4.35%
75th Percentile £663 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 301 256 181
10th Percentile £16.70 £17.00 £17.25
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £35.00 £31.75 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.24% -9.29% -12.50%
75th Percentile £57.00 £48.94 £55.00
90th Percentile £86.25 £63.75 £71.88
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -

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 13 September 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
Hourly Rate Histogram in London

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation in London over the 6 months to 13 September 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in London

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 13 September 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 +13 119 £550 +22.22% 79
South London -4 16 £593 +18.50% 13
East London +5 10 £590 +13.46% 20
West London -20 5 £600 +50.94% 44
North London +1 2 £463 - 1
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 69 (7.51%) Confluence
2 38 (4.13%) Apache Airflow
3 25 (2.72%) Apache Spark
4 23 (2.50%) SharePoint
5 14 (1.52%) Apache
5 14 (1.52%) CMS
6 7 (0.76%) Camunda
6 7 (0.76%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.33%) Kentico
8 3 (0.33%) nginx
8 3 (0.33%) SAS
8 3 (0.33%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.33%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.22%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.22%) Mule
10 1 (0.11%) Apache Pulsar
10 1 (0.11%) Appian
10 1 (0.11%) Ethereum
10 1 (0.11%) Solana
Applications
1 19 (2.07%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.41%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.54%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.33%) Trello
6 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.22%) Mingle
7 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (1.41%) Dynamics CRM
2 10 (1.09%) Aladdin
3 8 (0.87%) Findur
4 7 (0.76%) SAP S/4HANA
5 5 (0.54%) SAP GRC
6 4 (0.44%) Oracle EBS
6 4 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.33%) Distributed Ledger
7 3 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
7 3 (0.33%) Shopify
8 2 (0.22%) BambooHR
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
9 1 (0.11%) Infor CloudSuite
9 1 (0.11%) Infor LN
9 1 (0.11%) Infor M3
9 1 (0.11%) IntelliMatch
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
9 1 (0.11%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 316 (34.39%) Azure
2 277 (30.14%) AWS
3 192 (20.89%) GitHub
4 157 (17.08%) Azure DevOps
5 126 (13.71%) GitHub Actions
6 84 (9.14%) Serverless
7 77 (8.38%) GCP
8 69 (7.51%) Power Platform
9 67 (7.29%) AWS Lambda
10 54 (5.88%) Amazon S3
11 49 (5.33%) dbt
12 39 (4.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 39 (4.24%) Snowflake
13 33 (3.59%) Amazon ECS
14 32 (3.48%) GitHub Copilot
15 27 (2.94%) AWS CloudFormation
16 26 (2.83%) Amazon EC2
17 24 (2.61%) Amazon EKS
17 24 (2.61%) Azure Monitor
18 23 (2.50%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (0.98%) HTTP
2 7 (0.76%) DNS
2 7 (0.76%) Network Security
2 7 (0.76%) TCP/IP
2 7 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
3 6 (0.65%) BGP
3 6 (0.65%) DHCP
3 6 (0.65%) Firewall
3 6 (0.65%) LAN
3 6 (0.65%) WAN
4 4 (0.44%) Ethernet VPN
4 4 (0.44%) NX-OS
4 4 (0.44%) TACACS
4 4 (0.44%) VXLAN
5 3 (0.33%) FTP
5 3 (0.33%) Internet
5 3 (0.33%) OpenLDAP
5 3 (0.33%) SMS
6 2 (0.22%) Bluetooth
6 2 (0.22%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (6.64%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (5.98%) Data Warehouse
2 55 (5.98%) Power BI
3 50 (5.44%) NoSQL
3 50 (5.44%) SQL Server
4 39 (4.24%) Relational Database
5 38 (4.13%) MongoDB
6 25 (2.72%) DynamoDB
7 24 (2.61%) Amazon Redshift
8 23 (2.50%) Amazon Athena
9 22 (2.39%) Data Lake
10 21 (2.29%) Amazon RDS
11 19 (2.07%) Big Data
12 16 (1.74%) Tableau
13 15 (1.63%) BigQuery
14 14 (1.52%) Metadata
15 13 (1.41%) Redis
16 12 (1.31%) Amazon Aurora
16 12 (1.31%) MySQL
16 12 (1.31%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 181 (19.70%) Git
2 164 (17.85%) Jenkins
3 132 (14.36%) JIRA
4 116 (12.62%) Selenium
5 107 (11.64%) GitLab
6 62 (6.75%) Cypress.io
7 52 (5.66%) JMeter
8 51 (5.55%) JUnit
9 47 (5.11%) Postman
10 45 (4.90%) Cucumber
10 45 (4.90%) REST Assured
11 23 (2.50%) Gradle
12 22 (2.39%) Gatling
12 22 (2.39%) Maven
13 21 (2.29%) SonarQube
14 20 (2.18%) LoadRunner
14 20 (2.18%) Mockito
15 17 (1.85%) Appium
16 15 (1.63%) Bitbucket
16 15 (1.63%) WebDriver
General
1 280 (30.47%) Finance
2 246 (26.77%) Social Skills
3 146 (15.89%) Analytical Skills
4 136 (14.80%) Banking
5 85 (9.25%) Public Sector
6 34 (3.70%) Front Office
7 21 (2.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 21 (2.29%) Investment Banking
8 18 (1.96%) Financial Institution
9 15 (1.63%) Back Office
10 14 (1.52%) Telecoms
11 13 (1.41%) Marketing
12 11 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
12 11 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (1.20%) Legal
13 10 (1.09%) Law
13 10 (1.09%) Retail
14 8 (0.87%) Local Government
15 5 (0.54%) Publishing
15 5 (0.54%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 212 (23.07%) Developer
2 160 (17.41%) Senior
3 92 (10.01%) Lead
4 66 (7.18%) Tester
5 58 (6.31%) Java Developer
5 58 (6.31%) Test Engineer
6 56 (6.09%) Data Engineer
7 55 (5.98%) DevOps Engineer
7 55 (5.98%) QA Engineer
8 48 (5.22%) Software Engineer
9 47 (5.11%) Analyst
9 47 (5.11%) Automation Engineer
10 44 (4.79%) Senior Developer
11 43 (4.68%) Full-Stack Developer
12 42 (4.57%) Architect
13 35 (3.81%) Test Manager
14 33 (3.59%) Test Automation Engineer
14 33 (3.59%) Test Leader
15 26 (2.83%) QA Automation Engineer
16 25 (2.72%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 145 (15.78%) Terraform
2 142 (15.45%) REST
3 115 (12.51%) Playwright
4 107 (11.64%) Kafka
5 105 (11.43%) RESTful
6 94 (10.23%) React
7 86 (9.36%) Spring
8 75 (8.16%) Spring Boot
9 72 (7.83%) .NET
10 62 (6.75%) HTML
11 54 (5.88%) CSS
12 49 (5.33%) Node.js
13 36 (3.92%) PySpark
14 32 (3.48%) AngularJS
15 29 (3.16%) XML
16 28 (3.05%) JSON
16 28 (3.05%) Middleware
16 28 (3.05%) SOAP
17 23 (2.50%) HTML5
18 22 (2.39%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 150 (16.32%) Cloud Native
2 88 (9.58%) Distributed Systems
3 78 (8.49%) Product Ownership
4 34 (3.70%) Onboarding
5 32 (3.48%) AI Agents
6 26 (2.83%) Enterprise Software
7 25 (2.72%) Data Protection Act
8 20 (2.18%) Legacy Systems
9 19 (2.07%) Data Structures
9 19 (2.07%) Self-Motivation
10 18 (1.96%) Virtual Team
11 15 (1.63%) Fixed Income
11 15 (1.63%) Mobile App
12 12 (1.31%) Algorithms
13 11 (1.20%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 11 (1.20%) Security Posture
14 10 (1.09%) Private Cloud
15 9 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
15 9 (0.98%) Market Risk
15 9 (0.98%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 64 (6.96%) Linux
2 46 (5.01%) Unix
3 32 (3.48%) Windows
4 18 (1.96%) Android
5 17 (1.85%) Apple iOS
6 14 (1.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (0.76%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.44%) VMS
9 3 (0.33%) Solaris
9 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.22%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.11%) CentOS
11 1 (0.11%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 586 (63.76%) CI/CD
2 403 (43.85%) Agile
3 371 (40.37%) DevOps
4 201 (21.87%) AI
5 178 (19.37%) Infrastructure as Code
5 178 (19.37%) Problem-Solving
6 175 (19.04%) Microservices
7 171 (18.61%) Software Engineering
8 162 (17.63%) Validation
9 160 (17.41%) Continuous Improvement
10 149 (16.21%) Containerisation
11 148 (16.10%) Test Strategy
12 143 (15.56%) Observability
13 128 (13.93%) Scrum
14 121 (13.17%) TDD
15 115 (12.51%) Stakeholder Management
16 107 (11.64%) Regression Testing
16 107 (11.64%) User Acceptance Testing
17 105 (11.43%) Event-Driven
18 100 (10.88%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 310 (33.73%) Python
2 255 (27.75%) Java
3 250 (27.20%) SQL
4 142 (15.45%) JavaScript
5 125 (13.60%) TypeScript
6 84 (9.14%) C#
7 40 (4.35%) PowerShell
8 37 (4.03%) Bash
9 25 (2.72%) Bicep
10 23 (2.50%) Kotlin
11 16 (1.74%) Scala
12 14 (1.52%) Ruby
13 12 (1.31%) C++
13 12 (1.31%) PL/SQL
14 11 (1.20%) Go
15 10 (1.09%) Apex Code
16 9 (0.98%) C
16 9 (0.98%) Shell Script
16 9 (0.98%) VB.NET
17 8 (0.87%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 248 (26.99%) Security Cleared
2 221 (24.05%) SC Cleared
3 63 (6.86%) Degree
4 38 (4.13%) Computer Science Degree
5 31 (3.37%) ISTQB
6 29 (3.16%) DV Cleared
7 23 (2.50%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.07%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (1.52%) Azure Certification
10 9 (0.98%) ISEB
11 8 (0.87%) Master's Degree
12 7 (0.76%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 7 (0.76%) DBS Check
12 7 (0.76%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 6 (0.65%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 4 (0.44%) CISSP
14 4 (0.44%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 3 (0.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 3 (0.33%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 262 (28.51%) QA
2 72 (7.83%) Data Quality
3 48 (5.22%) Accessibility
4 22 (2.39%) GDPR
5 18 (1.96%) WCAG
6 12 (1.31%) ISO 20022
7 10 (1.09%) SLA
8 9 (0.98%) GRC
8 9 (0.98%) NIST
9 7 (0.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.33%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.33%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.22%) MiFID
11 2 (0.22%) NCSC
11 2 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.11%) GxP
12 1 (0.11%) SEPA
System Software
1 178 (19.37%) Docker
2 11 (1.20%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.65%) Active Directory
5 3 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.33%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.11%) Firmware
6 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 173 (18.82%) Kubernetes
2 54 (5.88%) Grafana
3 45 (4.90%) Ansible
4 44 (4.79%) Prometheus
5 17 (1.85%) Puppet
6 15 (1.63%) Progress Chef
7 10 (1.09%) Control-M
7 10 (1.09%) Kibana
8 6 (0.65%) HP ALM
9 5 (0.54%) HP Fortify
9 5 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.33%) Argo
11 3 (0.33%) Kustomize
11 3 (0.33%) Oracle RMAN
11 3 (0.33%) Packer
12 2 (0.22%) Istio
12 2 (0.22%) Rancher
13 1 (0.11%) systemd
13 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 106 (11.53%) Microsoft
2 56 (6.09%) Oracle
3 43 (4.68%) Databricks
4 40 (4.35%) Salesforce
5 35 (3.81%) Google
6 29 (3.16%) ServiceNow
7 27 (2.94%) IBM
8 21 (2.29%) SAP
9 20 (2.18%) Splunk
10 19 (2.07%) UiPath
11 17 (1.85%) Informatica
12 15 (1.63%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.52%) Cisco
14 13 (1.41%) Dynatrace
14 13 (1.41%) VMware
15 12 (1.31%) OpenAI
16 11 (1.20%) Foundry
17 10 (1.09%) HP
17 10 (1.09%) SaltStack
18 8 (0.87%) OpenLink