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

6 months to
16 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 53 50
Rank change year-on-year +2 -3 -5
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 837 561 749
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.43% 4.55% 4.25%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.99% 4.93% 4.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 554 384 517
10th Percentile £356 £352 £363
25th Percentile £416 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £506 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.23% -3.57% -8.70%
75th Percentile £589 £688 £675
90th Percentile £688 £800 £768
England median daily rate £475 £490 £525
% change year-on-year -3.06% -6.67% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 10
10th Percentile - £39.50 £52.25
25th Percentile £92.50 £46.25 £52.50
Median hourly rate £95.00 £57.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.22% +4.55% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £68.75 £65.75
90th Percentile - £75.50 £71.88
England median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -4.35% -22.30%

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 16,786 11,384 15,545
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.80% 92.33% 88.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,180 7,623 11,100
10th Percentile £360 £343 £342
25th Percentile £435 £425 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -6.38%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £763 £800 £800
England median daily rate £518 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -0.46% -0.98% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 257 205 314
10th Percentile £18.07 £16.50 £15.50
25th Percentile £25.15 £24.66 £20.00
Median hourly rate £37.00 £34.00 £29.25
Median % change year-on-year +8.82% +16.24% -26.18%
75th Percentile £58.92 £50.50 £48.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.75 £67.70
England median hourly rate £47.00 £27.50 £37.50
% change year-on-year +70.91% -26.67% +7.05%

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 16 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 16 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 +9 109 £550 +10.00% 39
South London +1 16 £513 +13.57% 2
West London -20 12 £413 +3.13% 7
East London +5 10 £450 +18.42% 11
North London - 1 £400 - 2
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 59 (7.05%) Confluence
2 30 (3.58%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (2.63%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.43%) CMS
5 10 (1.19%) Apache
6 9 (1.08%) Appian
7 6 (0.72%) Camunda
8 4 (0.48%) nginx
8 4 (0.48%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.48%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.36%) Kentico
9 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.24%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.24%) Mule
10 2 (0.24%) SAS
10 2 (0.24%) SharePoint
11 1 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
11 1 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 21 (2.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.84%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.60%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 18 (2.15%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.55%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.96%) Findur
4 6 (0.72%) Oracle EBS
4 6 (0.72%) Shopify
5 5 (0.60%) BambooHR
5 5 (0.60%) Loan IQ
6 3 (0.36%) Distributed Ledger
6 3 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.24%) Infor CloudSuite
7 2 (0.24%) Infor LN
7 2 (0.24%) Infor M3
7 2 (0.24%) iTrent
7 2 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.12%) IntelliMatch
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.12%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 253 (30.23%) Azure
2 239 (28.55%) AWS
3 144 (17.20%) GitHub
4 125 (14.93%) Azure DevOps
5 85 (10.16%) GitHub Actions
6 74 (8.84%) Serverless
7 55 (6.57%) AWS Lambda
7 55 (6.57%) Power Platform
8 52 (6.21%) Amazon S3
9 47 (5.62%) GCP
10 34 (4.06%) dbt
11 31 (3.70%) Snowflake
12 30 (3.58%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 29 (3.46%) Amazon ECS
14 28 (3.35%) Azure Data Factory
15 22 (2.63%) Azure AKS
16 21 (2.51%) Amazon EC2
16 21 (2.51%) Azure AI
17 20 (2.39%) Dynamics 365
18 17 (2.03%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.96%) HTTP
2 4 (0.48%) FTP
3 3 (0.36%) Network Security
3 3 (0.36%) OpenLDAP
3 3 (0.36%) SMS
3 3 (0.36%) SSL
3 3 (0.36%) WAN
4 2 (0.24%) Ethernet
4 2 (0.24%) Firewall
4 2 (0.24%) Multicast
4 2 (0.24%) NaaS
5 1 (0.12%) 5G
5 1 (0.12%) Cisco IOS
5 1 (0.12%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (0.12%) DSL
5 1 (0.12%) MPLS
5 1 (0.12%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.12%) SNMP
5 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.12%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (7.29%) PostgreSQL
2 57 (6.81%) SQL Server
3 41 (4.90%) NoSQL
3 41 (4.90%) Power BI
4 40 (4.78%) Data Warehouse
5 37 (4.42%) MongoDB
6 29 (3.46%) DynamoDB
6 29 (3.46%) Relational Database
7 26 (3.11%) Amazon Athena
8 23 (2.75%) Amazon Redshift
9 21 (2.51%) Tableau
10 19 (2.27%) Big Data
11 18 (2.15%) Data Lake
12 17 (2.03%) Amazon RDS
13 16 (1.91%) BigQuery
14 14 (1.67%) Metadata
15 13 (1.55%) Star Schema
16 12 (1.43%) Amazon Aurora
17 11 (1.31%) Redis
18 10 (1.19%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 132 (15.77%) JIRA
2 129 (15.41%) Git
3 106 (12.66%) Jenkins
4 97 (11.59%) Selenium
5 93 (11.11%) GitLab
6 51 (6.09%) Cucumber
7 49 (5.85%) Cypress.io
8 43 (5.14%) Postman
8 43 (5.14%) REST Assured
9 37 (4.42%) JMeter
10 32 (3.82%) JUnit
11 18 (2.15%) SpecFlow
12 17 (2.03%) Gradle
12 17 (2.03%) Mockito
13 16 (1.91%) Maven
13 16 (1.91%) MLflow
14 14 (1.67%) WebDriver
15 13 (1.55%) Zephyr
16 12 (1.43%) Bitbucket
16 12 (1.43%) Gatling
General
1 234 (27.96%) Finance
2 217 (25.93%) Social Skills
3 112 (13.38%) Banking
4 105 (12.54%) Analytical Skills
4 105 (12.54%) Public Sector
5 26 (3.11%) Front Office
5 26 (3.11%) Investment Banking
6 21 (2.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 17 (2.03%) Financial Institution
8 15 (1.79%) Legal
9 13 (1.55%) Documentation Skills
10 12 (1.43%) Influencing Skills
11 9 (1.08%) Back Office
11 9 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.08%) Retail
11 9 (1.08%) Telecoms
12 7 (0.84%) Billing
12 7 (0.84%) Marketing
12 7 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
12 7 (0.84%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 180 (21.51%) Developer
2 151 (18.04%) Senior
3 88 (10.51%) Lead
4 82 (9.80%) Tester
5 57 (6.81%) Test Engineer
6 51 (6.09%) Analyst
7 48 (5.73%) QA Engineer
8 47 (5.62%) DevOps Engineer
9 46 (5.50%) Data Engineer
10 45 (5.38%) Architect
11 40 (4.78%) Automation Tester
12 38 (4.54%) Automation Engineer
13 37 (4.42%) Senior Developer
14 36 (4.30%) Java Developer
15 31 (3.70%) Test Automation Engineer
16 28 (3.35%) Software Engineer
17 27 (3.23%) Test Leader
18 26 (3.11%) Full-Stack Developer
19 25 (2.99%) Test Manager
20 24 (2.87%) QA Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (12.31%) REST
2 96 (11.47%) Playwright
2 96 (11.47%) React
3 76 (9.08%) RESTful
4 69 (8.24%) Kafka
5 64 (7.65%) .NET
6 54 (6.45%) Node.js
7 51 (6.09%) Spring
8 47 (5.62%) Spring Boot
9 39 (4.66%) HTML
10 38 (4.54%) CSS
11 31 (3.70%) OAuth
12 23 (2.75%) pytest
12 23 (2.75%) Web Services
13 22 (2.63%) PySpark
14 21 (2.51%) Redux
15 20 (2.39%) AngularJS
15 20 (2.39%) Swagger
16 19 (2.27%) .NET Core
16 19 (2.27%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 110 (13.14%) Cloud Native
2 61 (7.29%) Distributed Systems
3 49 (5.85%) Product Ownership
4 41 (4.90%) Legacy Systems
5 29 (3.46%) Data Protection Act
6 21 (2.51%) Algorithms
7 20 (2.39%) Fixed Income
7 20 (2.39%) Onboarding
8 19 (2.27%) Greenfield Project
8 19 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
8 19 (2.27%) Virtual Team
9 16 (1.91%) Management Information System
10 14 (1.67%) Equities
10 14 (1.67%) Mobile App
11 13 (1.55%) AI Agents
11 13 (1.55%) Data Structures
11 13 (1.55%) NHS
12 11 (1.31%) Distributed Architecture
13 10 (1.19%) Enterprise Software
13 10 (1.19%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 39 (4.66%) Linux
2 25 (2.99%) Windows
3 21 (2.51%) Android
4 17 (2.03%) Apple iOS
5 13 (1.55%) Unix
6 4 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.48%) Solaris
6 4 (0.48%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
7 3 (0.36%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 473 (56.51%) CI/CD
2 330 (39.43%) Agile
3 290 (34.65%) DevOps
4 149 (17.80%) AI
5 143 (17.08%) Infrastructure as Code
6 132 (15.77%) Problem-Solving
7 130 (15.53%) Validation
8 129 (15.41%) Observability
9 124 (14.81%) Continuous Improvement
10 123 (14.70%) Test Strategy
11 118 (14.10%) Containerisation
12 117 (13.98%) Microservices
13 108 (12.90%) Regression Testing
14 106 (12.66%) User Acceptance Testing
15 104 (12.43%) Software Engineering
16 94 (11.23%) Data Modelling
17 89 (10.63%) Analytics
17 89 (10.63%) Scrum
18 85 (10.16%) Software Testing
19 82 (9.80%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 261 (31.18%) Python
2 216 (25.81%) SQL
3 178 (21.27%) Java
4 125 (14.93%) TypeScript
5 118 (14.10%) JavaScript
6 99 (11.83%) C#
7 35 (4.18%) PowerShell
8 21 (2.51%) Bash
8 21 (2.51%) Kotlin
9 17 (2.03%) PL/SQL
10 16 (1.91%) Apex Code
10 16 (1.91%) Bicep
11 15 (1.79%) Ruby
12 13 (1.55%) Scala
13 11 (1.31%) Go
14 9 (1.08%) C++
15 8 (0.96%) T-SQL
16 7 (0.84%) Swift
17 6 (0.72%) Groovy
18 5 (0.60%) VBA
Qualifications
1 184 (21.98%) Security Cleared
2 159 (19.00%) SC Cleared
3 42 (5.02%) Degree
4 26 (3.11%) BPSS Clearance
4 26 (3.11%) ISTQB
5 23 (2.75%) Computer Science Degree
6 16 (1.91%) DV Cleared
7 13 (1.55%) AWS Certification
8 10 (1.19%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.84%) DBS Check
10 6 (0.72%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 6 (0.72%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 5 (0.60%) Azure Certification
12 4 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.36%) CISSP
13 3 (0.36%) TOGAF Certification
14 2 (0.24%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 2 (0.24%) Cisco Certification
14 2 (0.24%) CompTIA Security+
14 2 (0.24%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 196 (23.42%) QA
2 70 (8.36%) Data Quality
3 50 (5.97%) Accessibility
4 25 (2.99%) GDPR
5 18 (2.15%) WCAG
6 10 (1.19%) NIST
7 7 (0.84%) ISO 20022
8 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.60%) SLA
9 4 (0.48%) HL7
9 4 (0.48%) NCSC
9 4 (0.48%) Software Quality Assurance
10 3 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.24%) EU AI Act
11 2 (0.24%) GRC
11 2 (0.24%) MiFID
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) HIPAA
12 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 136 (16.25%) Docker
2 6 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.48%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.12%) Squid
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 140 (16.73%) Kubernetes
2 113 (13.50%) Terraform
3 39 (4.66%) Grafana
4 36 (4.30%) Prometheus
5 28 (3.35%) Ansible
6 8 (0.96%) HP ALM
6 8 (0.96%) Kibana
6 8 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
8 3 (0.36%) Control-M
8 3 (0.36%) Kustomize
8 3 (0.36%) Puppet
9 2 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.24%) Packer
9 2 (0.24%) 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 79 (9.44%) Microsoft
2 55 (6.57%) Oracle
3 54 (6.45%) Salesforce
4 34 (4.06%) Databricks
5 22 (2.63%) ServiceNow
6 19 (2.27%) UiPath
7 16 (1.91%) Google
8 15 (1.79%) Splunk
9 14 (1.67%) OpenAI
10 11 (1.31%) IBM
10 11 (1.31%) Informatica
11 9 (1.08%) Apple
11 9 (1.08%) Dynatrace
11 9 (1.08%) Guidewire
11 9 (1.08%) MuleSoft
12 8 (0.96%) Automation Anywhere
12 8 (0.96%) HP
12 8 (0.96%) OpenLink
12 8 (0.96%) SAP
13 6 (0.72%) Confluent