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 2 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 43 53
Rank change year-on-year -3 +10 -7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 782 637 694
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.96% 4.81% 3.78%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.50% 5.29% 4.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 514 425 513
10th Percentile £325 £341 £381
25th Percentile £400 £410 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £675
90th Percentile £696 £770 £750
England median daily rate £488 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 5
10th Percentile £55.99 - -
25th Percentile £58.15 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £63.50 - £55.00
75th Percentile £65.88 - £65.00
90th Percentile £66.25 - £65.60
England median hourly rate £65.00 £74.00 £65.75
% change year-on-year -12.16% +12.55% +15.35%

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 14,221 12,041 16,243
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 90.23% 90.87% 88.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,548 7,833 11,601
10th Percentile £350 £350 £338
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -7.56%
75th Percentile £650 £676 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 217 158 349
10th Percentile £18.04 £20.45 £16.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £24.68 £19.38
Median hourly rate £35.00 £35.25 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.71% +17.50% -16.67%
75th Percentile £56.50 £53.75 £50.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £78.51 £72.10
England median hourly rate £28.91 £35.00 £34.21
% change year-on-year -17.40% +2.31% -3.42%

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 2 March 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 2 March 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 -1 99 £525 +0.24% 55
South London -13 21 £513 +7.89% 7
West London -16 21 £450 +31.96% 13
East London +1 8 £448 -2.72% 9
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 53 (6.78%) Confluence
2 15 (1.92%) Apache Spark
3 11 (1.41%) Apache Airflow
4 8 (1.02%) Appian
5 5 (0.64%) Apache
5 5 (0.64%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.51%) Camunda
6 4 (0.51%) CMS
7 3 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (0.38%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.26%) Magnolia
8 2 (0.26%) nginx
8 2 (0.26%) Sitecore CMS
8 2 (0.26%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.26%) WordPress
9 1 (0.13%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 20 (2.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.77%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.64%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.64%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 19 (2.43%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.64%) Loan IQ
3 4 (0.51%) SAP HR
3 4 (0.51%) Shopify
4 3 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.26%) iTrent
5 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.26%) Summit
6 1 (0.13%) Algo Collateral
6 1 (0.13%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.13%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.13%) Infor CloudSuite
6 1 (0.13%) Infor LN
6 1 (0.13%) Infor M3
6 1 (0.13%) IntelliMatch
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.13%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 248 (31.71%) Azure
2 184 (23.53%) AWS
3 118 (15.09%) GitHub
4 114 (14.58%) Azure DevOps
5 82 (10.49%) GCP
6 53 (6.78%) Serverless
7 52 (6.65%) GitHub Actions
8 29 (3.71%) Azure Data Factory
8 29 (3.71%) Power Platform
9 27 (3.45%) Snowflake
10 26 (3.32%) AWS Lambda
11 25 (3.20%) Amazon S3
12 23 (2.94%) SaaS
13 22 (2.81%) Azure AKS
13 22 (2.81%) Dynamics 365
14 18 (2.30%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 16 (2.05%) Amazon EKS
15 16 (2.05%) Power Automate
16 15 (1.92%) Apigee
16 15 (1.92%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.41%) Firewall
1 11 (1.41%) HTTP
2 8 (1.02%) SSL
2 8 (1.02%) VPN
2 8 (1.02%) WAN
3 7 (0.90%) DNS
3 7 (0.90%) SD-WAN
3 7 (0.90%) TCP/IP
4 5 (0.64%) Cisco IPT
4 5 (0.64%) HTTPS
5 4 (0.51%) FTP
5 4 (0.51%) Multicast
6 3 (0.38%) DHCP
6 3 (0.38%) Ethernet
6 3 (0.38%) WebEx
6 3 (0.38%) Wireshark
7 2 (0.26%) Cisco IOS
7 2 (0.26%) SNMP
7 2 (0.26%) VLAN
8 1 (0.13%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (6.39%) PostgreSQL
2 43 (5.50%) SQL Server
3 30 (3.84%) NoSQL
4 26 (3.32%) Relational Database
5 21 (2.69%) Data Warehouse
6 19 (2.43%) BigQuery
6 19 (2.43%) MongoDB
7 15 (1.92%) Power BI
8 12 (1.53%) Data Lake
8 12 (1.53%) Tableau
9 11 (1.41%) Redis
10 10 (1.28%) Big Data
10 10 (1.28%) Oracle Database
11 9 (1.15%) Azure SQL Database
11 9 (1.15%) DynamoDB
11 9 (1.15%) Pinecone
12 8 (1.02%) Amazon Athena
12 8 (1.02%) Amazon Aurora
12 8 (1.02%) Amazon RDS
12 8 (1.02%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 137 (17.52%) JIRA
2 128 (16.37%) Git
3 107 (13.68%) Jenkins
4 104 (13.30%) Selenium
5 86 (11.00%) GitLab
6 61 (7.80%) Cucumber
7 56 (7.16%) Postman
8 52 (6.65%) Cypress.io
9 33 (4.22%) REST Assured
10 32 (4.09%) JMeter
10 32 (4.09%) SpecFlow
11 29 (3.71%) JUnit
12 19 (2.43%) MLflow
13 16 (2.05%) Bitbucket
14 15 (1.92%) WebDriver
15 14 (1.79%) TestRail
16 13 (1.66%) Appium
17 12 (1.53%) Maven
18 10 (1.28%) Gatling
18 10 (1.28%) Gradle
General
1 199 (25.45%) Social Skills
2 176 (22.51%) Finance
3 94 (12.02%) Banking
4 84 (10.74%) Public Sector
5 80 (10.23%) Analytical Skills
6 24 (3.07%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.81%) Front Office
8 16 (2.05%) Pharmaceutical
9 14 (1.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 9 (1.15%) Documentation Skills
11 8 (1.02%) Legal
11 8 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
12 6 (0.77%) Billing
12 6 (0.77%) Financial Institution
12 6 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
13 5 (0.64%) Influencing Skills
13 5 (0.64%) Telecoms
14 4 (0.51%) Back Office
14 4 (0.51%) Electronics
14 4 (0.51%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 168 (21.48%) Developer
2 155 (19.82%) Senior
3 97 (12.40%) Tester
4 86 (11.00%) Lead
5 61 (7.80%) Test Engineer
6 57 (7.29%) Automation Tester
7 52 (6.65%) Analyst
8 42 (5.37%) QA Engineer
9 39 (4.99%) Senior Developer
10 37 (4.73%) Architect
11 35 (4.48%) Automation Engineer
12 32 (4.09%) Data Engineer
13 31 (3.96%) Java Developer
14 30 (3.84%) Software Engineer
14 30 (3.84%) Test Analyst
14 30 (3.84%) Test Automation Engineer
15 27 (3.45%) DevOps Engineer
16 24 (3.07%) Python Developer
17 23 (2.94%) Consultant
17 23 (2.94%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 126 (16.11%) Playwright
2 83 (10.61%) React
2 83 (10.61%) REST
3 71 (9.08%) .NET
4 70 (8.95%) Node.js
5 68 (8.70%) RESTful
6 61 (7.80%) Kafka
7 41 (5.24%) Spring
8 38 (4.86%) pytest
9 37 (4.73%) Web Services
10 36 (4.60%) Spring Boot
11 33 (4.22%) HTML
12 32 (4.09%) CSS
13 27 (3.45%) OAuth
14 25 (3.20%) FastAPI
15 24 (3.07%) GraphQL
16 20 (2.56%) Middleware
17 19 (2.43%) AngularJS
17 19 (2.43%) JSON
17 19 (2.43%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 93 (11.89%) Cloud Native
2 47 (6.01%) Product Ownership
3 34 (4.35%) Legacy Systems
4 32 (4.09%) Distributed Systems
5 26 (3.32%) Algorithms
6 23 (2.94%) Data Structures
7 20 (2.56%) Equities
7 20 (2.56%) Mobile App
8 19 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
9 18 (2.30%) Virtual Team
10 17 (2.17%) Greenfield Project
11 16 (2.05%) Onboarding
12 14 (1.79%) Genomics
12 14 (1.79%) Life Science
12 14 (1.79%) Management Information System
13 13 (1.66%) Derivative
13 13 (1.66%) Fixed Income
14 11 (1.41%) Security Posture
15 10 (1.28%) Public Cloud
16 9 (1.15%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 49 (6.27%) Linux
2 29 (3.71%) Windows
3 21 (2.69%) Android
3 21 (2.69%) Apple iOS
4 9 (1.15%) Unix
5 5 (0.64%) Mac OS
6 4 (0.51%) Windows Server
7 2 (0.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 2 (0.26%) Solaris
7 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
7 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
7 2 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
8 1 (0.13%) Kali Linux
8 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 424 (54.22%) CI/CD
2 351 (44.88%) Agile
3 303 (38.75%) DevOps
4 166 (21.23%) Problem-Solving
5 135 (17.26%) AI
6 117 (14.96%) Containerisation
7 108 (13.81%) Test Scripting
8 104 (13.30%) Observability
8 104 (13.30%) Test Strategy
9 103 (13.17%) Infrastructure as Code
9 103 (13.17%) Microservices
10 100 (12.79%) Continuous Improvement
10 100 (12.79%) Software Engineering
11 98 (12.53%) Validation
12 92 (11.76%) Software Testing
13 80 (10.23%) Scrum
14 79 (10.10%) API Testing
14 79 (10.10%) Regression Testing
15 77 (9.85%) SDLC
16 75 (9.59%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 274 (35.04%) Python
2 183 (23.40%) SQL
3 155 (19.82%) Java
4 152 (19.44%) TypeScript
5 140 (17.90%) JavaScript
6 109 (13.94%) C#
7 20 (2.56%) Bash
7 20 (2.56%) C++
8 19 (2.43%) PowerShell
9 14 (1.79%) Kotlin
10 13 (1.66%) Bicep
11 12 (1.53%) PL/SQL
12 11 (1.41%) Apex Code
12 11 (1.41%) Go
13 9 (1.15%) Ruby
14 8 (1.02%) Rust
14 8 (1.02%) Swift
15 7 (0.90%) T-SQL
16 5 (0.64%) Shell Script
17 4 (0.51%) C
Qualifications
1 150 (19.18%) Security Cleared
2 126 (16.11%) SC Cleared
3 54 (6.91%) Degree
4 37 (4.73%) ISTQB
5 23 (2.94%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (2.81%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (2.05%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.53%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 9 (1.15%) OSCP
10 7 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (0.77%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 6 (0.77%) SANS
12 5 (0.64%) Azure Certification
12 5 (0.64%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.64%) GPEN
12 5 (0.64%) ISEB
13 4 (0.51%) CEH
13 4 (0.51%) DV Cleared
14 3 (0.38%) CREST Certified
14 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 193 (24.68%) QA
2 48 (6.14%) Accessibility
3 39 (4.99%) Data Quality
4 18 (2.30%) GDPR
5 15 (1.92%) WCAG
6 12 (1.53%) NIST
7 8 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.77%) NCSC
9 5 (0.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.64%) MiFID
9 5 (0.64%) PERC
10 4 (0.51%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.51%) SLA
10 4 (0.51%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.38%) EU AI Act
11 3 (0.38%) GMP
11 3 (0.38%) HL7
11 3 (0.38%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.38%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.13%) HIPAA
System Software
1 167 (21.36%) Docker
2 10 (1.28%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.38%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.26%) Oracle RAC
5 2 (0.26%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) Squid
6 1 (0.13%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.13%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 135 (17.26%) Kubernetes
2 84 (10.74%) Terraform
3 28 (3.58%) Ansible
4 27 (3.45%) Grafana
5 24 (3.07%) Prometheus
6 8 (1.02%) HP ALM
7 6 (0.77%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.64%) Nmap
9 4 (0.51%) Nessus
10 3 (0.38%) Kibana
10 3 (0.38%) Progress Chef
10 3 (0.38%) Puppet
10 3 (0.38%) Rancher
11 2 (0.26%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
11 2 (0.26%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.26%) SCCM
12 1 (0.13%) Amdocs OSS
12 1 (0.13%) CloudHub
12 1 (0.13%) vRealize
Vendors
1 75 (9.59%) Microsoft
2 50 (6.39%) Oracle
3 44 (5.63%) Databricks
4 42 (5.37%) Salesforce
5 36 (4.60%) Google
6 28 (3.58%) ServiceNow
7 15 (1.92%) SAP
8 14 (1.79%) OpenAI
8 14 (1.79%) Splunk
9 11 (1.41%) Guidewire
9 11 (1.41%) UiPath
10 10 (1.28%) Apple
10 10 (1.28%) Dynatrace
10 10 (1.28%) MuleSoft
11 8 (1.02%) Automation Anywhere
11 8 (1.02%) HP
11 8 (1.02%) VMware
12 7 (0.90%) Charles River
12 7 (0.90%) Cisco
12 7 (0.90%) IBM