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 8 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 54 46
Rank change year-on-year +4 -8 +4
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 890 613 745
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.39% 4.51% 4.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.92% 4.89% 5.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 602 419 506
10th Percentile £351 £342 £361
25th Percentile £425 £400 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -7.89%
75th Percentile £617 £688 £675
90th Percentile £711 £778 £775
England median daily rate £477 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -4.70% -4.76% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 5
10th Percentile £52.35 £37.25 £51.00
25th Percentile £67.41 £40.63 £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 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £56.25
% change year-on-year +35.00% -11.11% -13.46%

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 18,082 12,534 14,415
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.16% 92.32% 88.89%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,899 8,375 10,138
10th Percentile £363 £325 £350
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.85% -1.82% -4.35%
75th Percentile £660 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £788 £800
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 298 249 200
10th Percentile £17.60 £16.50 £17.05
25th Percentile £19.85 £24.66 £22.00
Median hourly rate £35.61 £30.00 £35.25
Median % change year-on-year +18.68% -14.89% -15.06%
75th Percentile £56.81 £48.75 £54.06
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.05 £71.31
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -40.82% -

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 8 August 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 8 August 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 8 August 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 +10 119 £550 +10.00% 67
South London -4 20 £535 +7.00% 6
East London +5 9 £545 +36.25% 10
West London -19 7 £525 +32.91% 7
North London -2 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 61 (6.85%) Confluence
2 37 (4.16%) Apache Airflow
3 25 (2.81%) Apache Spark
4 14 (1.57%) Apache
5 13 (1.46%) CMS
6 12 (1.35%) SharePoint
7 6 (0.67%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.45%) nginx
8 4 (0.45%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.45%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.34%) Camunda
9 3 (0.34%) Kentico
10 2 (0.22%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.22%) Appian
10 2 (0.22%) Mule
10 2 (0.22%) SAS
11 1 (0.11%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.11%) ColdFusion
11 1 (0.11%) Ethereum
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 16 (1.80%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (1.12%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.67%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.56%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.45%) Chatbot
5 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
6 3 (0.34%) Trello
7 2 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
8 1 (0.11%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 15 (1.69%) Aladdin
2 12 (1.35%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.90%) Findur
4 6 (0.67%) Oracle EBS
4 6 (0.67%) Shopify
5 5 (0.56%) BambooHR
6 4 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.34%) Distributed Ledger
8 2 (0.22%) Infor CloudSuite
8 2 (0.22%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.22%) Infor M3
8 2 (0.22%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.11%) IntelliMatch
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
9 1 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
9 1 (0.11%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 317 (35.62%) Azure
2 276 (31.01%) AWS
3 197 (22.13%) GitHub
4 149 (16.74%) Azure DevOps
5 123 (13.82%) GitHub Actions
6 76 (8.54%) Serverless
7 71 (7.98%) GCP
8 68 (7.64%) Power Platform
9 57 (6.40%) AWS Lambda
10 53 (5.96%) Amazon S3
11 47 (5.28%) dbt
12 38 (4.27%) Snowflake
13 32 (3.60%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 32 (3.60%) Amazon ECS
14 28 (3.15%) GitHub Copilot
15 26 (2.92%) Amazon EC2
16 24 (2.70%) Azure AKS
17 23 (2.58%) Azure Data Factory
18 20 (2.25%) Azure Monitor
19 19 (2.13%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.90%) HTTP
2 7 (0.79%) Network Security
3 6 (0.67%) Firewall
3 6 (0.67%) TCP/IP
3 6 (0.67%) WAN
4 5 (0.56%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (0.45%) DHCP
5 4 (0.45%) DNS
5 4 (0.45%) LAN
6 3 (0.34%) BGP
6 3 (0.34%) FTP
6 3 (0.34%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (0.34%) SMS
7 2 (0.22%) Bluetooth
7 2 (0.22%) Multicast
7 2 (0.22%) NaaS
7 2 (0.22%) NX-OS
7 2 (0.22%) SSL
7 2 (0.22%) TACACS
7 2 (0.22%) VXLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 60 (6.74%) PostgreSQL
2 57 (6.40%) Power BI
3 55 (6.18%) Data Warehouse
4 50 (5.62%) NoSQL
5 47 (5.28%) SQL Server
6 41 (4.61%) MongoDB
7 31 (3.48%) Relational Database
8 30 (3.37%) DynamoDB
9 24 (2.70%) Amazon Athena
10 23 (2.58%) Amazon Redshift
10 23 (2.58%) Data Lake
11 19 (2.13%) Amazon RDS
11 19 (2.13%) Big Data
12 16 (1.80%) BigQuery
12 16 (1.80%) Tableau
13 14 (1.57%) Metadata
14 12 (1.35%) MySQL
15 11 (1.24%) Elasticsearch
15 11 (1.24%) Redis
16 8 (0.90%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 156 (17.53%) Git
2 142 (15.96%) Jenkins
3 133 (14.94%) JIRA
4 107 (12.02%) GitLab
5 105 (11.80%) Selenium
6 58 (6.52%) Cypress.io
7 48 (5.39%) Cucumber
8 41 (4.61%) JMeter
8 41 (4.61%) JUnit
8 41 (4.61%) REST Assured
9 40 (4.49%) Postman
10 20 (2.25%) Maven
11 19 (2.13%) Appium
11 19 (2.13%) Gradle
12 18 (2.02%) Gatling
12 18 (2.02%) Zephyr
13 17 (1.91%) Bitbucket
14 15 (1.69%) Mockito
15 14 (1.57%) SpecFlow
16 13 (1.46%) WebDriver
General
1 260 (29.21%) Finance
2 236 (26.52%) Social Skills
3 123 (13.82%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (13.71%) Banking
5 95 (10.67%) Public Sector
6 26 (2.92%) Front Office
7 24 (2.70%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.25%) Financial Institution
8 20 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (1.69%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.57%) Back Office
11 14 (1.57%) Legal
12 12 (1.35%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.01%) Marketing
13 9 (1.01%) Retail
14 7 (0.79%) Local Government
14 7 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
15 6 (0.67%) Law
16 5 (0.56%) Games
Job Titles
1 192 (21.57%) Developer
2 154 (17.30%) Senior
3 94 (10.56%) Lead
4 71 (7.98%) Tester
5 58 (6.52%) Data Engineer
6 56 (6.29%) Test Engineer
7 51 (5.73%) DevOps Engineer
7 51 (5.73%) QA Engineer
8 48 (5.39%) Architect
8 48 (5.39%) Java Developer
9 45 (5.06%) Analyst
10 44 (4.94%) Software Engineer
11 38 (4.27%) Automation Engineer
11 38 (4.27%) Full-Stack Developer
12 37 (4.16%) Senior Developer
13 31 (3.48%) Test Automation Engineer
13 31 (3.48%) Test Leader
14 30 (3.37%) Automation Tester
15 29 (3.26%) Test Manager
16 25 (2.81%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (14.16%) REST
2 114 (12.81%) Playwright
3 101 (11.35%) React
4 93 (10.45%) RESTful
5 92 (10.34%) Kafka
6 69 (7.75%) Spring
7 68 (7.64%) .NET
8 58 (6.52%) Spring Boot
9 55 (6.18%) Node.js
10 51 (5.73%) CSS
11 50 (5.62%) HTML
12 29 (3.26%) PySpark
13 26 (2.92%) AngularJS
13 26 (2.92%) HTML5
14 25 (2.81%) OAuth
15 24 (2.70%) CSS3
16 22 (2.47%) Jest
16 22 (2.47%) JSON
16 22 (2.47%) Redux
17 20 (2.25%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 145 (16.29%) Cloud Native
2 81 (9.10%) Distributed Systems
3 63 (7.08%) Product Ownership
4 30 (3.37%) Onboarding
5 28 (3.15%) Data Protection Act
6 24 (2.70%) Legacy Systems
7 23 (2.58%) AI Agents
7 23 (2.58%) Self-Motivation
8 19 (2.13%) Enterprise Software
9 18 (2.02%) Fixed Income
10 17 (1.91%) Virtual Team
11 14 (1.57%) Algorithms
11 14 (1.57%) Data Structures
12 13 (1.46%) Greenfield Project
12 13 (1.46%) Mobile App
13 12 (1.35%) Management Information System
14 11 (1.24%) Equities
14 11 (1.24%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 9 (1.01%) Derivative
15 9 (1.01%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 47 (5.28%) Linux
2 32 (3.60%) Windows
3 27 (3.03%) Unix
4 17 (1.91%) Android
5 16 (1.80%) Apple iOS
6 10 (1.12%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.90%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.45%) Solaris
8 4 (0.45%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.22%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.22%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.11%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 570 (64.04%) CI/CD
2 378 (42.47%) Agile
3 358 (40.22%) DevOps
4 181 (20.34%) AI
5 175 (19.66%) Infrastructure as Code
6 163 (18.31%) Microservices
7 159 (17.87%) Problem-Solving
8 152 (17.08%) Continuous Improvement
9 147 (16.52%) Software Engineering
10 145 (16.29%) Validation
11 142 (15.96%) Containerisation
12 139 (15.62%) Test Strategy
13 138 (15.51%) Observability
14 109 (12.25%) Regression Testing
14 109 (12.25%) Scrum
15 107 (12.02%) TDD
16 101 (11.35%) Full-Stack Development
17 98 (11.01%) User Acceptance Testing
18 94 (10.56%) Stakeholder Management
19 92 (10.34%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 286 (32.13%) Python
2 225 (25.28%) SQL
3 224 (25.17%) Java
4 136 (15.28%) JavaScript
5 127 (14.27%) TypeScript
6 96 (10.79%) C#
7 42 (4.72%) PowerShell
8 27 (3.03%) Bash
9 23 (2.58%) Kotlin
10 22 (2.47%) Bicep
11 18 (2.02%) Ruby
12 16 (1.80%) Scala
13 14 (1.57%) Apex Code
13 14 (1.57%) PL/SQL
14 12 (1.35%) Go
15 10 (1.12%) C++
16 7 (0.79%) Shell Script
17 6 (0.67%) Groovy
17 6 (0.67%) Swift
17 6 (0.67%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 218 (24.49%) Security Cleared
2 190 (21.35%) SC Cleared
3 56 (6.29%) Degree
4 35 (3.93%) Computer Science Degree
5 24 (2.70%) ISTQB
6 18 (2.02%) AWS Certification
6 18 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
6 18 (2.02%) DV Cleared
7 10 (1.12%) Azure Certification
8 7 (0.79%) DBS Check
9 6 (0.67%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 6 (0.67%) Master's Degree
10 5 (0.56%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 4 (0.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 4 (0.45%) CISSP
12 3 (0.34%) PhD
12 3 (0.34%) TOGAF Certification
13 2 (0.22%) Cisco Certification
13 2 (0.22%) ISEB
13 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 240 (26.97%) QA
2 72 (8.09%) Data Quality
3 53 (5.96%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.70%) GDPR
5 23 (2.58%) WCAG
6 9 (1.01%) SLA
7 8 (0.90%) ISO 20022
8 7 (0.79%) NIST
9 6 (0.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.34%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.34%) MiFID
10 3 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.34%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.22%) GRC
11 2 (0.22%) HL7
11 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.22%) NCSC
12 1 (0.11%) GxP
12 1 (0.11%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 159 (17.87%) Docker
2 11 (1.24%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.79%) Active Directory
4 6 (0.67%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
5 4 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
7 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
7 1 (0.11%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 158 (17.75%) Kubernetes
2 139 (15.62%) Terraform
3 47 (5.28%) Grafana
4 41 (4.61%) Prometheus
5 37 (4.16%) Ansible
6 11 (1.24%) Puppet
7 10 (1.12%) Progress Chef
8 8 (0.90%) Kibana
9 7 (0.79%) HP ALM
9 7 (0.79%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.45%) Control-M
10 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
10 4 (0.45%) Oracle RMAN
10 4 (0.45%) Packer
11 3 (0.34%) Kustomize
12 2 (0.22%) Amdocs OSS
12 2 (0.22%) Istio
13 1 (0.11%) Argo
13 1 (0.11%) linkerd
13 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 94 (10.56%) Microsoft
2 52 (5.84%) Salesforce
3 49 (5.51%) Oracle
4 37 (4.16%) Databricks
5 27 (3.03%) Google
5 27 (3.03%) ServiceNow
6 19 (2.13%) IBM
7 16 (1.80%) Informatica
7 16 (1.80%) Splunk
7 16 (1.80%) UiPath
8 11 (1.24%) HP
8 11 (1.24%) VMware
9 10 (1.12%) Dynatrace
9 10 (1.12%) OpenAI
9 10 (1.12%) Red Hat
10 9 (1.01%) SAP
11 8 (0.90%) Cisco
11 8 (0.90%) OpenLink
12 7 (0.79%) Charles River
12 7 (0.79%) Guidewire