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

6 months to
3 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 57 44
Rank change year-on-year +7 -13 +3
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 903 588 782
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.50% 4.43% 4.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.05% 4.80% 5.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 613 401 520
10th Percentile £350 £350 £356
25th Percentile £425 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £650
90th Percentile £711 £775 £765
England median daily rate £475 £500 £520
% change year-on-year -5.00% -3.85% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 5
10th Percentile £44.32 £37.25 £51.00
25th Percentile £47.33 £40.63 £52.50
Median hourly rate £72.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -18.18% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £68.61 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +24.74% - -24.66%

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 17,877 12,261 14,329
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.14% 92.47% 88.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,701 8,147 9,784
10th Percentile £360 £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 £660 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 287 256 190
10th Percentile £17.46 £17.00 £17.25
25th Percentile £19.94 £24.94 £22.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £31.75 £35.75
Median % change year-on-year +11.81% -11.19% -10.63%
75th Percentile £57.25 £49.75 £54.69
90th Percentile £85.63 £63.75 £71.88
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +1.18%

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 3 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 3 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 3 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 +15 118 £550 +15.79% 53
South London -7 14 £593 +18.50% 8
East London +6 10 £590 +28.26% 15
West London -17 6 £600 +50.94% 42
North London +1 1 £400 -
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 70 (7.75%) Confluence
2 35 (3.88%) Apache Airflow
3 26 (2.88%) Apache Spark
4 23 (2.55%) SharePoint
5 14 (1.55%) Apache
6 13 (1.44%) CMS
7 7 (0.78%) Camunda
8 6 (0.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.33%) Kentico
10 3 (0.33%) nginx
10 3 (0.33%) SAS
10 3 (0.33%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.33%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.22%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.22%) Mule
12 1 (0.11%) Apache Pulsar
12 1 (0.11%) Appian
12 1 (0.11%) Ethereum
12 1 (0.11%) Solana
Applications
1 18 (1.99%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.44%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.44%) 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 (1.44%) Aladdin
1 13 (1.44%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.89%) Findur
3 7 (0.78%) SAP S/4HANA
4 6 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
5 5 (0.55%) SAP GRC
6 4 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.44%) Shopify
7 3 (0.33%) Distributed Ledger
7 3 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
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
1 309 (34.22%) Azure
2 277 (30.68%) AWS
3 192 (21.26%) GitHub
4 159 (17.61%) Azure DevOps
5 120 (13.29%) GitHub Actions
6 81 (8.97%) Serverless
7 75 (8.31%) GCP
8 66 (7.31%) AWS Lambda
8 66 (7.31%) Power Platform
9 55 (6.09%) Amazon S3
10 48 (5.32%) dbt
11 41 (4.54%) Snowflake
12 35 (3.88%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 33 (3.65%) Amazon ECS
14 30 (3.32%) GitHub Copilot
15 26 (2.88%) AWS CloudFormation
16 24 (2.66%) Amazon EC2
17 22 (2.44%) Amazon SQS
17 22 (2.44%) Azure Monitor
18 21 (2.33%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.00%) HTTP
2 7 (0.78%) DNS
2 7 (0.78%) Network Security
2 7 (0.78%) TCP/IP
2 7 (0.78%) WAN
2 7 (0.78%) Wi-Fi
3 6 (0.66%) BGP
3 6 (0.66%) DHCP
3 6 (0.66%) Firewall
3 6 (0.66%) LAN
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%) OpenLDAP
5 3 (0.33%) SMS
6 2 (0.22%) Bluetooth
6 2 (0.22%) SSH
6 2 (0.22%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (6.53%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (6.09%) Data Warehouse
2 55 (6.09%) Power BI
3 50 (5.54%) NoSQL
4 48 (5.32%) SQL Server
5 39 (4.32%) MongoDB
6 35 (3.88%) Relational Database
7 27 (2.99%) DynamoDB
8 24 (2.66%) Amazon Athena
9 23 (2.55%) Amazon Redshift
10 21 (2.33%) Amazon RDS
10 21 (2.33%) Data Lake
11 19 (2.10%) Big Data
12 16 (1.77%) BigQuery
12 16 (1.77%) Tableau
13 14 (1.55%) Metadata
14 12 (1.33%) MySQL
14 12 (1.33%) Oracle Database
15 11 (1.22%) Amazon Aurora
15 11 (1.22%) Redis
Development Applications
1 171 (18.94%) Git
2 155 (17.17%) Jenkins
3 132 (14.62%) JIRA
4 116 (12.85%) Selenium
5 108 (11.96%) GitLab
6 62 (6.87%) Cypress.io
7 53 (5.87%) JMeter
8 48 (5.32%) JUnit
9 46 (5.09%) Postman
10 41 (4.54%) REST Assured
11 40 (4.43%) Cucumber
12 21 (2.33%) Gatling
12 21 (2.33%) Gradle
13 20 (2.21%) LoadRunner
13 20 (2.21%) Maven
13 20 (2.21%) Mockito
14 19 (2.10%) SonarQube
15 17 (1.88%) Appium
15 17 (1.88%) Bitbucket
16 15 (1.66%) WebDriver
General
1 276 (30.56%) Finance
2 248 (27.46%) Social Skills
3 142 (15.73%) Analytical Skills
4 135 (14.95%) Banking
5 89 (9.86%) Public Sector
6 32 (3.54%) Front Office
7 26 (2.88%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.21%) Financial Institution
8 20 (2.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 15 (1.66%) Back Office
9 15 (1.66%) Influencing Skills
9 15 (1.66%) Telecoms
10 12 (1.33%) Legal
10 12 (1.33%) Marketing
11 11 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
12 10 (1.11%) Law
13 9 (1.00%) Retail
14 8 (0.89%) Local Government
15 6 (0.66%) Organisational Skills
16 5 (0.55%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 204 (22.59%) Developer
2 158 (17.50%) Senior
3 90 (9.97%) Lead
4 65 (7.20%) Tester
5 58 (6.42%) Test Engineer
6 56 (6.20%) Java Developer
7 55 (6.09%) Data Engineer
7 55 (6.09%) DevOps Engineer
8 53 (5.87%) QA Engineer
9 48 (5.32%) Analyst
10 47 (5.20%) Automation Engineer
10 47 (5.20%) Software Engineer
11 43 (4.76%) Full-Stack Developer
12 42 (4.65%) Architect
13 41 (4.54%) Senior Developer
14 36 (3.99%) Test Manager
15 35 (3.88%) Test Automation Engineer
16 33 (3.65%) Test Leader
17 27 (2.99%) Automation Tester
18 25 (2.77%) QA Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 143 (15.84%) Terraform
2 136 (15.06%) REST
3 110 (12.18%) Playwright
4 106 (11.74%) Kafka
5 99 (10.96%) RESTful
6 95 (10.52%) React
7 80 (8.86%) Spring
8 69 (7.64%) .NET
8 69 (7.64%) Spring Boot
9 59 (6.53%) HTML
10 51 (5.65%) CSS
11 47 (5.20%) Node.js
12 33 (3.65%) PySpark
13 30 (3.32%) AngularJS
13 30 (3.32%) Middleware
14 28 (3.10%) JSON
14 28 (3.10%) XML
15 27 (2.99%) SOAP
16 23 (2.55%) HTML5
17 22 (2.44%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 146 (16.17%) Cloud Native
2 87 (9.63%) Distributed Systems
3 75 (8.31%) Product Ownership
4 34 (3.77%) Onboarding
5 29 (3.21%) AI Agents
6 27 (2.99%) Enterprise Software
7 25 (2.77%) Data Protection Act
8 18 (1.99%) Legacy Systems
8 18 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
9 17 (1.88%) Data Structures
9 17 (1.88%) Fixed Income
9 17 (1.88%) Virtual Team
10 14 (1.55%) Mobile App
11 12 (1.33%) Algorithms
12 11 (1.22%) Greenfield Project
13 10 (1.11%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 10 (1.11%) Security Posture
14 9 (1.00%) Equities
14 9 (1.00%) SWIFT Messaging Network
15 8 (0.89%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 61 (6.76%) Linux
2 44 (4.87%) Unix
3 33 (3.65%) Windows
4 18 (1.99%) Android
5 17 (1.88%) Apple iOS
6 14 (1.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (0.78%) 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
Processes & Methodologies
1 569 (63.01%) CI/CD
2 397 (43.96%) Agile
3 367 (40.64%) DevOps
4 190 (21.04%) AI
5 175 (19.38%) Infrastructure as Code
6 174 (19.27%) Problem-Solving
7 167 (18.49%) Microservices
8 162 (17.94%) Software Engineering
8 162 (17.94%) Validation
9 157 (17.39%) Continuous Improvement
10 144 (15.95%) Test Strategy
11 142 (15.73%) Containerisation
12 137 (15.17%) Observability
13 126 (13.95%) Scrum
14 115 (12.74%) TDD
15 112 (12.40%) Stakeholder Management
16 110 (12.18%) Regression Testing
17 107 (11.85%) User Acceptance Testing
18 101 (11.18%) Event-Driven
19 97 (10.74%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 309 (34.22%) Python
2 244 (27.02%) Java
2 244 (27.02%) SQL
3 141 (15.61%) JavaScript
4 121 (13.40%) TypeScript
5 82 (9.08%) C#
6 43 (4.76%) PowerShell
7 36 (3.99%) Bash
8 24 (2.66%) Bicep
9 22 (2.44%) Kotlin
10 16 (1.77%) Ruby
10 16 (1.77%) Scala
11 12 (1.33%) C++
11 12 (1.33%) PL/SQL
12 11 (1.22%) Apex Code
12 11 (1.22%) Go
13 9 (1.00%) Shell Script
13 9 (1.00%) VB.NET
14 7 (0.78%) Perl
14 7 (0.78%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 242 (26.80%) Security Cleared
2 215 (23.81%) SC Cleared
3 65 (7.20%) Degree
4 40 (4.43%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (3.54%) ISTQB
6 25 (2.77%) DV Cleared
7 21 (2.33%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.10%) BPSS Clearance
9 12 (1.33%) Azure Certification
10 9 (1.00%) ISEB
11 8 (0.89%) Master's Degree
12 7 (0.78%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 7 (0.78%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 6 (0.66%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 6 (0.66%) DBS Check
14 4 (0.44%) CISSP
15 3 (0.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 3 (0.33%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 3 (0.33%) PhD
16 2 (0.22%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 250 (27.69%) QA
2 71 (7.86%) Data Quality
3 43 (4.76%) Accessibility
4 20 (2.21%) GDPR
5 18 (1.99%) WCAG
6 12 (1.33%) ISO 20022
7 11 (1.22%) SLA
8 9 (1.00%) GRC
8 9 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (1.00%) NIST
9 3 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.33%) EU AI Act
9 3 (0.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
9 3 (0.33%) Software Quality Assurance
10 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.22%) MiFID
10 2 (0.22%) NCSC
10 2 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 1 (0.11%) GxP
11 1 (0.11%) HL7
System Software
1 167 (18.49%) Docker
2 11 (1.22%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.78%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.66%) 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
6 1 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 163 (18.05%) Kubernetes
2 52 (5.76%) Grafana
3 43 (4.76%) Ansible
3 43 (4.76%) Prometheus
4 16 (1.77%) Puppet
5 14 (1.55%) Progress Chef
6 10 (1.11%) Kibana
7 9 (1.00%) Control-M
8 7 (0.78%) HP ALM
9 5 (0.55%) HP Fortify
10 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
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
13 1 (0.11%) Amdocs OSS
13 1 (0.11%) Rancher
13 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 103 (11.41%) Microsoft
2 58 (6.42%) Oracle
3 41 (4.54%) Salesforce
4 37 (4.10%) Databricks
5 34 (3.77%) Google
6 29 (3.21%) ServiceNow
7 28 (3.10%) IBM
8 21 (2.33%) SAP
9 19 (2.10%) Splunk
10 18 (1.99%) UiPath
11 17 (1.88%) Informatica
12 15 (1.66%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.55%) Cisco
14 12 (1.33%) VMware
15 11 (1.22%) Dynatrace
15 11 (1.22%) HP
16 10 (1.11%) OpenAI
17 9 (1.00%) Foundry
17 9 (1.00%) SaltStack
18 8 (0.89%) OpenLink