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 18 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 48 52
Rank change year-on-year 0 +4 -8
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 818 595 731
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.56% 4.76% 4.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.16% 5.16% 4.72%
Number of daily rates quoted 529 409 504
10th Percentile £338 £341 £363
25th Percentile £413 £406 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year - -6.98% -8.12%
75th Percentile £588 £688 £688
90th Percentile £688 £800 £775
England median daily rate £475 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 1 10
10th Percentile £56.71 - £52.25
25th Percentile £59.95 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £64.75 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +85.00% -36.36% -38.89%
75th Percentile £74.25 - £65.75
90th Percentile £88.20 - £71.88
England median hourly rate £66.75 £55.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +21.36% -8.33% -22.08%

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 15,848 11,538 15,497
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.29% 92.22% 88.67%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,602 7,808 11,112
10th Percentile £356 £350 £343
25th Percentile £431 £435 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -7.17%
75th Percentile £650 £688 £680
90th Percentile £756 £813 £800
England median daily rate £513 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.38% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 239 178 307
10th Percentile £18.75 £16.30 £15.77
25th Percentile £25.25 £23.11 £20.00
Median hourly rate £36.50 £34.00 £27.84
Median % change year-on-year +7.35% +22.13% -27.22%
75th Percentile £57.50 £50.69 £48.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £63.75 £66.85
England median hourly rate £47.00 £29.00 £36.50
% change year-on-year +62.07% -20.55% +0.69%

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 18 May 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 18 May 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 18 May 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 +8 105 £538 +7.50% 55
South London +1 20 £513 +13.57% 2
West London -21 18 £480 +22.32% 8
East London +4 12 £448 +24.31% 8
North London - 1 £400 - 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 52 (6.36%) Confluence
2 24 (2.93%) Apache Airflow
3 19 (2.32%) Apache Spark
4 9 (1.10%) Apache
5 8 (0.98%) Appian
6 5 (0.61%) Camunda
6 5 (0.61%) CMS
7 4 (0.49%) nginx
7 4 (0.49%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.37%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.37%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
9 1 (0.12%) SAS
9 1 (0.12%) SharePoint
9 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 18 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.86%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.61%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.49%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.49%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 20 (2.44%) Aladdin
2 8 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
3 7 (0.86%) Findur
4 6 (0.73%) Loan IQ
4 6 (0.73%) Shopify
5 5 (0.61%) BambooHR
5 5 (0.61%) Oracle EBS
6 3 (0.37%) Distributed Ledger
7 2 (0.24%) iTrent
7 2 (0.24%) Summit
8 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite
8 1 (0.12%) Infor LN
8 1 (0.12%) Infor M3
8 1 (0.12%) IntelliMatch
8 1 (0.12%) NetSuite
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.12%) PORTIA
8 1 (0.12%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 241 (29.46%) Azure
2 209 (25.55%) AWS
3 135 (16.50%) GitHub
4 120 (14.67%) Azure DevOps
5 74 (9.05%) GitHub Actions
6 60 (7.33%) Serverless
7 46 (5.62%) GCP
8 40 (4.89%) Amazon S3
9 39 (4.77%) AWS Lambda
9 39 (4.77%) Power Platform
10 30 (3.67%) Snowflake
11 29 (3.55%) Azure Data Factory
12 27 (3.30%) Azure AKS
13 26 (3.18%) Amazon ECS
14 23 (2.81%) dbt
15 21 (2.57%) Dynamics 365
16 19 (2.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 18 (2.20%) Azure Cosmos DB
17 18 (2.20%) Azure Monitor
17 18 (2.20%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.10%) HTTP
2 6 (0.73%) FTP
3 4 (0.49%) Ethernet
3 4 (0.49%) SSL
3 4 (0.49%) WAN
3 4 (0.49%) WebEx
4 3 (0.37%) Firewall
5 2 (0.24%) Cisco IOS
5 2 (0.24%) DSL
5 2 (0.24%) Multicast
5 2 (0.24%) NaaS
5 2 (0.24%) OpenLDAP
5 2 (0.24%) SD-WAN
5 2 (0.24%) SNMP
5 2 (0.24%) TCP/IP
6 1 (0.12%) DHCP
6 1 (0.12%) DNS
6 1 (0.12%) NGFW
6 1 (0.12%) SMS
6 1 (0.12%) Spanning Tree
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (7.09%) SQL Server
2 55 (6.72%) PostgreSQL
3 44 (5.38%) NoSQL
4 35 (4.28%) MongoDB
5 32 (3.91%) Data Warehouse
6 28 (3.42%) Power BI
6 28 (3.42%) Relational Database
7 22 (2.69%) DynamoDB
7 22 (2.69%) Tableau
8 19 (2.32%) Big Data
9 18 (2.20%) Amazon Athena
9 18 (2.20%) BigQuery
10 16 (1.96%) Data Lake
11 14 (1.71%) Amazon RDS
11 14 (1.71%) Amazon Redshift
11 14 (1.71%) Metadata
12 12 (1.47%) Amazon Aurora
13 11 (1.34%) Star Schema
14 10 (1.22%) Oracle Database
14 10 (1.22%) Redis
Development Applications
1 136 (16.63%) JIRA
2 125 (15.28%) Git
3 106 (12.96%) Jenkins
3 106 (12.96%) Selenium
4 77 (9.41%) GitLab
5 50 (6.11%) Cypress.io
5 50 (6.11%) Postman
6 49 (5.99%) Cucumber
7 34 (4.16%) JMeter
7 34 (4.16%) REST Assured
8 28 (3.42%) JUnit
9 24 (2.93%) SpecFlow
10 20 (2.44%) MLflow
11 14 (1.71%) Appium
12 13 (1.59%) WebDriver
13 12 (1.47%) Maven
13 12 (1.47%) Mockito
13 12 (1.47%) Zephyr
14 11 (1.34%) Gradle
14 11 (1.34%) TestRail
General
1 216 (26.41%) Finance
2 209 (25.55%) Social Skills
3 109 (13.33%) Public Sector
4 108 (13.20%) Analytical Skills
5 105 (12.84%) Banking
6 27 (3.30%) Front Office
7 25 (3.06%) Investment Banking
8 18 (2.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 15 (1.83%) Legal
10 13 (1.59%) Documentation Skills
11 11 (1.34%) Financial Institution
11 11 (1.34%) Influencing Skills
11 11 (1.34%) Telecoms
12 10 (1.22%) Organisational Skills
13 8 (0.98%) Back Office
13 8 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
13 8 (0.98%) Retail
14 7 (0.86%) Billing
14 7 (0.86%) Publishing
15 4 (0.49%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 178 (21.76%) Developer
2 155 (18.95%) Senior
3 92 (11.25%) Tester
4 84 (10.27%) Lead
5 55 (6.72%) Test Engineer
6 51 (6.23%) Analyst
7 50 (6.11%) Automation Tester
8 49 (5.99%) QA Engineer
9 42 (5.13%) Senior Developer
10 41 (5.01%) Data Engineer
11 39 (4.77%) Architect
12 38 (4.65%) DevOps Engineer
13 34 (4.16%) Automation Engineer
13 34 (4.16%) Java Developer
14 29 (3.55%) Software Engineer
15 27 (3.30%) Test Automation Engineer
16 26 (3.18%) Full-Stack Developer
16 26 (3.18%) Test Manager
17 25 (3.06%) Test Leader
18 23 (2.81%) QA Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (12.47%) Playwright
2 94 (11.49%) REST
3 90 (11.00%) React
4 79 (9.66%) RESTful
5 72 (8.80%) .NET
6 67 (8.19%) Kafka
7 60 (7.33%) Node.js
8 44 (5.38%) Spring
9 41 (5.01%) Spring Boot
10 39 (4.77%) HTML
11 38 (4.65%) CSS
12 29 (3.55%) OAuth
13 26 (3.18%) Web Services
14 24 (2.93%) pytest
15 22 (2.69%) AngularJS
16 20 (2.44%) Gherkin
17 19 (2.32%) .NET Core
18 18 (2.20%) GraphQL
18 18 (2.20%) OAuth2
18 18 (2.20%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 102 (12.47%) Cloud Native
2 55 (6.72%) Product Ownership
3 53 (6.48%) Distributed Systems
4 37 (4.52%) Legacy Systems
5 28 (3.42%) Data Protection Act
6 23 (2.81%) Algorithms
7 19 (2.32%) Greenfield Project
8 18 (2.20%) Fixed Income
8 18 (2.20%) Management Information System
8 18 (2.20%) Virtual Team
9 17 (2.08%) Onboarding
10 16 (1.96%) Self-Motivation
11 15 (1.83%) Data Structures
11 15 (1.83%) Equities
11 15 (1.83%) Mobile App
12 13 (1.59%) NHS
13 11 (1.34%) Derivative
14 10 (1.22%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 9 (1.10%) Enterprise Software
15 9 (1.10%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 40 (4.89%) Linux
2 28 (3.42%) Windows
3 20 (2.44%) Android
4 16 (1.96%) Apple iOS
5 12 (1.47%) Unix
6 5 (0.61%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.49%) Solaris
7 4 (0.49%) Windows Server 2008
8 3 (0.37%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.37%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.37%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.37%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
9 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 453 (55.38%) CI/CD
2 324 (39.61%) Agile
3 283 (34.60%) DevOps
4 154 (18.83%) Problem-Solving
5 131 (16.01%) AI
5 131 (16.01%) Infrastructure as Code
6 123 (15.04%) Containerisation
7 122 (14.91%) Observability
7 122 (14.91%) Validation
8 115 (14.06%) Continuous Improvement
8 115 (14.06%) Test Strategy
9 109 (13.33%) Microservices
9 109 (13.33%) Regression Testing
10 103 (12.59%) User Acceptance Testing
11 93 (11.37%) Software Engineering
12 92 (11.25%) Test Scripting
13 90 (11.00%) Data Modelling
14 88 (10.76%) Software Testing
15 87 (10.64%) Analytics
16 84 (10.27%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 259 (31.66%) Python
2 209 (25.55%) SQL
3 165 (20.17%) Java
4 132 (16.14%) TypeScript
5 124 (15.16%) JavaScript
6 109 (13.33%) C#
7 34 (4.16%) PowerShell
8 22 (2.69%) Bash
9 19 (2.32%) Apex Code
10 17 (2.08%) PL/SQL
11 16 (1.96%) Kotlin
11 16 (1.96%) Ruby
12 15 (1.83%) Bicep
13 13 (1.59%) C++
14 9 (1.10%) Scala
15 8 (0.98%) Go
15 8 (0.98%) T-SQL
16 7 (0.86%) Rust
17 6 (0.73%) Swift
18 5 (0.61%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 180 (22.00%) Security Cleared
2 153 (18.70%) SC Cleared
3 42 (5.13%) Degree
4 30 (3.67%) ISTQB
5 25 (3.06%) BPSS Clearance
6 23 (2.81%) Computer Science Degree
7 9 (1.10%) DV Cleared
8 8 (0.98%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.86%) DBS Check
10 5 (0.61%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 4 (0.49%) AWS Certification
11 4 (0.49%) Azure Certification
12 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.24%) CISSP
13 2 (0.24%) ISEB
13 2 (0.24%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 2 (0.24%) PhD
13 2 (0.24%) SAFe Agilist
13 2 (0.24%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 199 (24.33%) QA
2 58 (7.09%) Data Quality
3 47 (5.75%) Accessibility
4 23 (2.81%) GDPR
5 20 (2.44%) WCAG
6 7 (0.86%) NIST
7 6 (0.73%) ISO 20022
8 5 (0.61%) SLA
9 4 (0.49%) HL7
9 4 (0.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 4 (0.49%) MiFID
9 4 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.37%) NCSC
10 3 (0.37%) Software Quality Assurance
11 1 (0.12%) EMIR
11 1 (0.12%) GRC
11 1 (0.12%) HIPAA
11 1 (0.12%) ISO 8583
11 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 141 (17.24%) Docker
2 6 (0.73%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.61%) VMware ESXi
3 5 (0.61%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.49%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.49%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.49%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.12%) Firmware
5 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
5 1 (0.12%) Squid
5 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 134 (16.38%) Kubernetes
2 101 (12.35%) Terraform
3 41 (5.01%) Grafana
4 37 (4.52%) Prometheus
5 22 (2.69%) Ansible
6 11 (1.34%) HP ALM
7 9 (1.10%) Single Sign-On
8 8 (0.98%) Kibana
9 4 (0.49%) Oracle RMAN
9 4 (0.49%) Puppet
10 2 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
10 2 (0.24%) Kustomize
10 2 (0.24%) Packer
10 2 (0.24%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.12%) Control-M
11 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
11 1 (0.12%) Istio
11 1 (0.12%) linkerd
11 1 (0.12%) Rancher
Vendors
1 79 (9.66%) Microsoft
2 54 (6.60%) Oracle
3 51 (6.23%) Salesforce
4 41 (5.01%) Databricks
5 20 (2.44%) ServiceNow
6 16 (1.96%) Google
6 16 (1.96%) UiPath
7 15 (1.83%) Splunk
8 13 (1.59%) OpenAI
9 11 (1.34%) HP
10 10 (1.22%) MuleSoft
10 10 (1.22%) SAP
11 9 (1.10%) Dynatrace
11 9 (1.10%) Guidewire
11 9 (1.10%) IBM
12 8 (0.98%) Apple
12 8 (0.98%) Automation Anywhere
12 8 (0.98%) Citrix
13 7 (0.86%) OpenLink
13 7 (0.86%) Workday