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 30 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
30 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 55 49
Rank change year-on-year +4 -6 -1
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 852 577 761
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.42% 4.50% 4.35%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.97% 4.87% 4.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 566 389 525
10th Percentile £356 £340 £363
25th Percentile £425 £404 £430
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £600 £675 £675
90th Percentile £709 £800 £775
England median daily rate £475 £488 £525
% change year-on-year -2.56% -7.14% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 10
10th Percentile - £36.50 £52.25
25th Percentile £92.50 £38.75 £52.50
Median hourly rate £95.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +111.11% -18.18% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £63.75 £65.75
90th Percentile - £73.50 £71.88
England median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -4.35% -15.75%

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 17,127 11,843 15,478
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.91% 92.34% 88.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,395 7,916 11,030
10th Percentile £360 £336 £343
25th Percentile £438 £425 £447
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £536 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.64% - -5.98%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £687
90th Percentile £763 £800 £800
England median daily rate £520 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +0.97% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 264 223 303
10th Percentile £17.60 £16.50 £15.59
25th Percentile £25.18 £24.66 £20.01
Median hourly rate £37.50 £32.89 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +14.02% +9.63% -25.93%
75th Percentile £59.18 £49.88 £48.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.20 £68.60
England median hourly rate £47.00 £25.23 £38.12
% change year-on-year +86.32% -33.83% +1.65%

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 30 June 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 30 June 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 +15 114 £550 +10.00% 21
South London -2 12 £513 +4.59% 3
West London -13 12 £486 +21.56% 6
East London +6 8 £475 +25.00% 12
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 60 (7.04%) Confluence
2 33 (3.87%) Apache Airflow
3 23 (2.70%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.41%) CMS
5 10 (1.17%) Apache
6 7 (0.82%) Appian
7 5 (0.59%) Camunda
8 4 (0.47%) nginx
8 4 (0.47%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.47%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.35%) Kentico
9 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.23%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.23%) Mule
10 2 (0.23%) SAS
10 2 (0.23%) SharePoint
11 1 (0.12%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
11 1 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 22 (2.58%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.29%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.59%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.59%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 16 (1.88%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.53%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.94%) Findur
4 7 (0.82%) Oracle EBS
5 6 (0.70%) Shopify
6 5 (0.59%) BambooHR
6 5 (0.59%) Loan IQ
7 3 (0.35%) Distributed Ledger
7 3 (0.35%) Salesforce CRM
8 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite
8 2 (0.23%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.23%) Infor M3
8 2 (0.23%) IntelliMatch
8 2 (0.23%) iTrent
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.23%) Summit
9 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
9 1 (0.12%) Misys Equation
9 1 (0.12%) Misys Midas
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
Cloud Services
1 259 (30.40%) Azure
2 248 (29.11%) AWS
3 153 (17.96%) GitHub
4 123 (14.44%) Azure DevOps
5 93 (10.92%) GitHub Actions
6 76 (8.92%) Serverless
7 57 (6.69%) Power Platform
8 56 (6.57%) AWS Lambda
9 53 (6.22%) Amazon S3
10 51 (5.99%) GCP
11 39 (4.58%) dbt
12 31 (3.64%) Snowflake
13 30 (3.52%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 28 (3.29%) Amazon ECS
15 24 (2.82%) Azure Data Factory
16 23 (2.70%) Amazon EC2
16 23 (2.70%) Azure AKS
17 20 (2.35%) Azure AI
18 18 (2.11%) Dynamics 365
19 17 (2.00%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.94%) HTTP
2 3 (0.35%) FTP
2 3 (0.35%) Network Security
2 3 (0.35%) OpenLDAP
2 3 (0.35%) SMS
2 3 (0.35%) WAN
3 2 (0.23%) Ethernet
3 2 (0.23%) Firewall
3 2 (0.23%) Multicast
3 2 (0.23%) NaaS
4 1 (0.12%) 5G
4 1 (0.12%) Cisco IOS
4 1 (0.12%) Cisco Nexus
4 1 (0.12%) DSL
4 1 (0.12%) MPLS
4 1 (0.12%) SD-WAN
4 1 (0.12%) SNMP
4 1 (0.12%) SSL
4 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.12%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (6.69%) PostgreSQL
2 51 (5.99%) SQL Server
3 48 (5.63%) NoSQL
4 45 (5.28%) Power BI
5 44 (5.16%) Data Warehouse
6 39 (4.58%) MongoDB
7 32 (3.76%) Relational Database
8 30 (3.52%) DynamoDB
9 26 (3.05%) Amazon Athena
10 24 (2.82%) Amazon Redshift
11 19 (2.23%) Amazon RDS
11 19 (2.23%) Big Data
11 19 (2.23%) Tableau
12 18 (2.11%) Data Lake
13 15 (1.76%) BigQuery
14 14 (1.64%) Metadata
15 11 (1.29%) Redis
16 10 (1.17%) Amazon Aurora
16 10 (1.17%) Oracle Database
17 9 (1.06%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 135 (15.85%) JIRA
2 132 (15.49%) Git
3 114 (13.38%) Jenkins
4 100 (11.74%) Selenium
5 94 (11.03%) GitLab
6 52 (6.10%) Cucumber
7 49 (5.75%) Cypress.io
8 48 (5.63%) REST Assured
9 45 (5.28%) Postman
10 39 (4.58%) JUnit
11 37 (4.34%) JMeter
12 18 (2.11%) Maven
12 18 (2.11%) Mockito
13 17 (2.00%) Gradle
14 16 (1.88%) SpecFlow
15 14 (1.64%) Bitbucket
15 14 (1.64%) Gatling
15 14 (1.64%) WebDriver
15 14 (1.64%) Zephyr
16 13 (1.53%) Appium
General
1 251 (29.46%) Finance
2 230 (27.00%) Social Skills
3 121 (14.20%) Banking
4 114 (13.38%) Analytical Skills
5 98 (11.50%) Public Sector
6 28 (3.29%) Investment Banking
7 26 (3.05%) Front Office
8 23 (2.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 20 (2.35%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.76%) Legal
11 13 (1.53%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
13 10 (1.17%) Back Office
14 9 (1.06%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (1.06%) Retail
14 9 (1.06%) Telecoms
15 8 (0.94%) Presentation Skills
16 7 (0.82%) Marketing
17 6 (0.70%) Publishing
18 5 (0.59%) Games
Job Titles
1 184 (21.60%) Developer
2 150 (17.61%) Senior
3 86 (10.09%) Lead
4 83 (9.74%) Tester
5 53 (6.22%) Test Engineer
6 52 (6.10%) Analyst
7 50 (5.87%) Data Engineer
7 50 (5.87%) QA Engineer
8 45 (5.28%) Java Developer
9 44 (5.16%) Architect
9 44 (5.16%) DevOps Engineer
10 40 (4.69%) Automation Engineer
11 37 (4.34%) Automation Tester
12 36 (4.23%) Senior Developer
13 34 (3.99%) Software Engineer
14 31 (3.64%) Test Automation Engineer
15 29 (3.40%) Full-Stack Developer
16 26 (3.05%) QA Automation Engineer
16 26 (3.05%) Test Leader
17 23 (2.70%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 102 (11.97%) Playwright
1 102 (11.97%) React
2 101 (11.85%) REST
3 76 (8.92%) RESTful
4 71 (8.33%) Kafka
5 63 (7.39%) .NET
5 63 (7.39%) Spring
6 56 (6.57%) Spring Boot
7 54 (6.34%) Node.js
8 41 (4.81%) CSS
9 39 (4.58%) HTML
10 29 (3.40%) OAuth
11 24 (2.82%) PySpark
12 22 (2.58%) AngularJS
12 22 (2.58%) pytest
13 21 (2.46%) Redux
14 18 (2.11%) .NET Core
14 18 (2.11%) GraphQL
14 18 (2.11%) OAuth2
14 18 (2.11%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 118 (13.85%) Cloud Native
2 68 (7.98%) Distributed Systems
3 51 (5.99%) Product Ownership
4 38 (4.46%) Legacy Systems
5 26 (3.05%) Data Protection Act
6 21 (2.46%) Onboarding
6 21 (2.46%) Self-Motivation
7 19 (2.23%) Fixed Income
7 19 (2.23%) Greenfield Project
7 19 (2.23%) Virtual Team
8 17 (2.00%) Algorithms
9 16 (1.88%) Management Information System
10 15 (1.76%) AI Agents
11 14 (1.64%) Enterprise Software
11 14 (1.64%) Mobile App
12 12 (1.41%) Data Structures
12 12 (1.41%) Equities
13 10 (1.17%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 10 (1.17%) NHS
13 10 (1.17%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 33 (3.87%) Linux
2 25 (2.93%) Windows
3 18 (2.11%) Android
4 16 (1.88%) Apple iOS
5 14 (1.64%) Unix
6 5 (0.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 4 (0.47%) Solaris
7 4 (0.47%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.47%) Windows Server 2008
8 3 (0.35%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.23%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 502 (58.92%) CI/CD
2 347 (40.73%) Agile
3 301 (35.33%) DevOps
4 157 (18.43%) AI
5 148 (17.37%) Infrastructure as Code
6 139 (16.31%) Problem-Solving
7 133 (15.61%) Continuous Improvement
8 132 (15.49%) Validation
9 128 (15.02%) Microservices
10 126 (14.79%) Observability
11 125 (14.67%) Test Strategy
12 118 (13.85%) Containerisation
12 118 (13.85%) Software Engineering
13 111 (13.03%) Regression Testing
14 108 (12.68%) User Acceptance Testing
15 95 (11.15%) Scrum
16 91 (10.68%) TDD
17 89 (10.45%) Analytics
17 89 (10.45%) Data Modelling
17 89 (10.45%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 256 (30.05%) Python
2 217 (25.47%) SQL
3 194 (22.77%) Java
4 131 (15.38%) TypeScript
5 118 (13.85%) JavaScript
6 98 (11.50%) C#
7 31 (3.64%) PowerShell
8 21 (2.46%) Bash
8 21 (2.46%) Kotlin
9 16 (1.88%) Bicep
9 16 (1.88%) Ruby
10 15 (1.76%) Apex Code
11 14 (1.64%) PL/SQL
11 14 (1.64%) Scala
12 13 (1.53%) Go
13 8 (0.94%) T-SQL
14 7 (0.82%) C++
14 7 (0.82%) Swift
15 6 (0.70%) Groovy
15 6 (0.70%) VBA
Qualifications
1 191 (22.42%) Security Cleared
2 167 (19.60%) SC Cleared
3 51 (5.99%) Degree
4 30 (3.52%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (2.82%) ISTQB
6 21 (2.46%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (1.88%) DV Cleared
8 13 (1.53%) AWS Certification
9 10 (1.17%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.82%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.70%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 5 (0.59%) Azure Certification
13 4 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 4 (0.47%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
14 3 (0.35%) CISSP
14 3 (0.35%) TOGAF Certification
15 2 (0.23%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 2 (0.23%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.23%) PMI Certification
15 2 (0.23%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 208 (24.41%) QA
2 73 (8.57%) Data Quality
3 50 (5.87%) Accessibility
4 25 (2.93%) GDPR
5 19 (2.23%) WCAG
6 9 (1.06%) NIST
7 6 (0.70%) ISO 20022
8 5 (0.59%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.59%) SLA
9 4 (0.47%) HL7
10 3 (0.35%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.35%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.35%) MiFID
10 3 (0.35%) NCSC
10 3 (0.35%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.23%) GRC
11 2 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) GxP
12 1 (0.12%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 136 (15.96%) Docker
2 7 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.47%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.35%) Active Directory
5 3 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 143 (16.78%) Kubernetes
2 118 (13.85%) Terraform
3 38 (4.46%) Grafana
4 33 (3.87%) Prometheus
5 28 (3.29%) Ansible
6 8 (0.94%) HP ALM
6 8 (0.94%) Kibana
6 8 (0.94%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
8 3 (0.35%) Control-M
8 3 (0.35%) Kustomize
8 3 (0.35%) Puppet
9 2 (0.23%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.23%) Packer
9 2 (0.23%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.12%) Istio
10 1 (0.12%) linkerd
10 1 (0.12%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 81 (9.51%) Microsoft
2 53 (6.22%) Salesforce
3 48 (5.63%) Oracle
4 30 (3.52%) Databricks
5 23 (2.70%) ServiceNow
6 19 (2.23%) UiPath
7 15 (1.76%) Informatica
7 15 (1.76%) Splunk
8 14 (1.64%) Google
9 12 (1.41%) IBM
9 12 (1.41%) OpenAI
10 9 (1.06%) Dynatrace
11 8 (0.94%) HP
11 8 (0.94%) OpenLink
11 8 (0.94%) SAP
12 7 (0.82%) MuleSoft
13 6 (0.70%) Apple
13 6 (0.70%) Automation Anywhere
13 6 (0.70%) Guidewire
13 6 (0.70%) Workday