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

6 months to
30 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 50 50
Rank change year-on-year +2 0 -5
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 831 570 736
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.50% 4.68% 4.21%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.08% 5.08% 4.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 540 394 511
10th Percentile £350 £352 £363
25th Percentile £413 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -10.64%
75th Percentile £593 £688 £681
90th Percentile £688 £793 £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 £79.25 £35.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +126.43% -36.36% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 - £65.75
90th Percentile - - £71.88
England median hourly rate £66.25 £55.00 £60.00
% change year-on-year +20.45% -8.33% -15.49%

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 16,373 11,226 15,458
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.63% 92.27% 88.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 10,935 7,534 11,094
10th Percentile £358 £350 £340
25th Percentile £434 £431 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -6.78%
75th Percentile £650 £688 £675
90th Percentile £760 £800 £800
England median daily rate £514 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.10% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 245 192 316
10th Percentile £18.75 £16.50 £15.50
25th Percentile £25.25 £24.09 £20.00
Median hourly rate £37.50 £32.00 £28.00
Median % change year-on-year +17.19% +14.29% -28.97%
75th Percentile £59.00 £49.56 £48.75
90th Percentile £78.13 £62.90 £66.88
England median hourly rate £47.00 £28.55 £37.18
% change year-on-year +64.62% -23.21% -0.85%

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 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 30 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 30 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 +5 109 £550 +10.00% 32
South London -2 19 £513 +13.57% 4
West London -24 14 £413 +4.43% 4
East London +3 12 £450 +18.42% 8
North London - 1 £400 - 3
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 (6.38%) Confluence
2 30 (3.61%) Apache Airflow
3 21 (2.53%) Apache Spark
4 10 (1.20%) Apache
4 10 (1.20%) CMS
5 9 (1.08%) Appian
6 6 (0.72%) Camunda
7 4 (0.48%) nginx
7 4 (0.48%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.36%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.24%) Kentico
10 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
10 1 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.12%) SAS
10 1 (0.12%) SharePoint
10 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 19 (2.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (1.20%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.60%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.48%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 19 (2.29%) Aladdin
2 12 (1.44%) 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
7 2 (0.24%) iTrent
7 2 (0.24%) Salesforce CRM
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
Cloud Services
1 246 (29.60%) Azure
2 224 (26.96%) AWS
3 141 (16.97%) GitHub
4 126 (15.16%) Azure DevOps
5 80 (9.63%) GitHub Actions
6 68 (8.18%) Serverless
7 50 (6.02%) GCP
8 47 (5.66%) AWS Lambda
9 45 (5.42%) Power Platform
10 44 (5.29%) Amazon S3
11 33 (3.97%) Snowflake
12 32 (3.85%) Azure Data Factory
13 28 (3.37%) dbt
14 26 (3.13%) Amazon ECS
15 24 (2.89%) Dynamics 365
16 23 (2.77%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 22 (2.65%) Azure AKS
18 18 (2.17%) Power Automate
19 17 (2.05%) Amazon SQS
20 16 (1.93%) Apigee
Communications & Networking
1 9 (1.08%) HTTP
2 4 (0.48%) FTP
3 3 (0.36%) Firewall
3 3 (0.36%) OpenLDAP
3 3 (0.36%) SSL
3 3 (0.36%) WAN
4 2 (0.24%) DSL
4 2 (0.24%) Ethernet
4 2 (0.24%) Multicast
4 2 (0.24%) NaaS
4 2 (0.24%) SMS
4 2 (0.24%) WebEx
5 1 (0.12%) 5G
5 1 (0.12%) Cisco IOS
5 1 (0.12%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (0.12%) MPLS
5 1 (0.12%) Network Security
5 1 (0.12%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.12%) SNMP
5 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 57 (6.86%) SQL Server
2 56 (6.74%) PostgreSQL
3 41 (4.93%) NoSQL
4 35 (4.21%) Data Warehouse
5 34 (4.09%) MongoDB
6 32 (3.85%) Power BI
7 28 (3.37%) DynamoDB
7 28 (3.37%) Relational Database
8 23 (2.77%) Tableau
9 20 (2.41%) Amazon Athena
9 20 (2.41%) Big Data
10 18 (2.17%) BigQuery
10 18 (2.17%) Data Lake
11 17 (2.05%) Amazon Redshift
12 16 (1.93%) Amazon RDS
13 14 (1.68%) Metadata
14 11 (1.32%) Amazon Aurora
14 11 (1.32%) Oracle Database
14 11 (1.32%) Star Schema
15 9 (1.08%) Flink
Development Applications
1 131 (15.76%) JIRA
2 123 (14.80%) Git
3 109 (13.12%) Jenkins
4 105 (12.64%) Selenium
5 82 (9.87%) GitLab
6 54 (6.50%) Cucumber
7 51 (6.14%) Cypress.io
8 49 (5.90%) Postman
9 39 (4.69%) REST Assured
10 36 (4.33%) JMeter
11 30 (3.61%) JUnit
12 21 (2.53%) SpecFlow
13 18 (2.17%) MLflow
14 16 (1.93%) Mockito
15 14 (1.68%) Zephyr
16 13 (1.56%) Appium
16 13 (1.56%) Gradle
16 13 (1.56%) Maven
16 13 (1.56%) WebDriver
17 12 (1.44%) TestRail
General
1 232 (27.92%) Finance
2 213 (25.63%) Social Skills
3 114 (13.72%) Banking
4 107 (12.88%) Analytical Skills
5 104 (12.52%) Public Sector
6 27 (3.25%) Front Office
6 27 (3.25%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 16 (1.93%) Legal
9 12 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
9 12 (1.44%) Financial Institution
10 11 (1.32%) Influencing Skills
11 9 (1.08%) Back Office
11 9 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
11 9 (1.08%) Telecoms
12 8 (0.96%) Retail
13 7 (0.84%) Billing
13 7 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.84%) Publishing
14 4 (0.48%) Pharmaceutical
Job Titles
1 179 (21.54%) Developer
2 151 (18.17%) Senior
3 88 (10.59%) Tester
4 87 (10.47%) Lead
5 55 (6.62%) Test Engineer
6 52 (6.26%) QA Engineer
7 50 (6.02%) Analyst
8 46 (5.54%) Automation Tester
9 44 (5.29%) Data Engineer
10 42 (5.05%) DevOps Engineer
11 40 (4.81%) Architect
12 39 (4.69%) Automation Engineer
13 37 (4.45%) Senior Developer
14 31 (3.73%) Java Developer
15 29 (3.49%) Software Engineer
15 29 (3.49%) Test Automation Engineer
16 27 (3.25%) QA Automation Engineer
17 26 (3.13%) Test Leader
17 26 (3.13%) Test Manager
18 25 (3.01%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 101 (12.15%) Playwright
2 94 (11.31%) REST
3 91 (10.95%) React
4 79 (9.51%) RESTful
5 68 (8.18%) .NET
6 67 (8.06%) Kafka
7 58 (6.98%) Node.js
8 45 (5.42%) Spring
9 42 (5.05%) Spring Boot
10 38 (4.57%) CSS
10 38 (4.57%) HTML
11 29 (3.49%) OAuth
12 25 (3.01%) Web Services
13 24 (2.89%) pytest
14 21 (2.53%) Gherkin
15 20 (2.41%) Swagger
16 19 (2.29%) AngularJS
17 18 (2.17%) OAuth2
17 18 (2.17%) Pandas
17 18 (2.17%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 104 (12.52%) Cloud Native
2 55 (6.62%) Distributed Systems
3 52 (6.26%) Product Ownership
4 38 (4.57%) Legacy Systems
5 29 (3.49%) Data Protection Act
6 22 (2.65%) Algorithms
7 19 (2.29%) Fixed Income
7 19 (2.29%) Greenfield Project
8 18 (2.17%) Onboarding
8 18 (2.17%) Virtual Team
9 17 (2.05%) Management Information System
9 17 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
10 15 (1.81%) Data Structures
10 15 (1.81%) Equities
11 14 (1.68%) Mobile App
12 13 (1.56%) NHS
13 11 (1.32%) Derivative
14 10 (1.20%) AI Agents
14 10 (1.20%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 10 (1.20%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 41 (4.93%) Linux
2 25 (3.01%) Windows
3 21 (2.53%) Android
4 16 (1.93%) Apple iOS
5 14 (1.68%) Unix
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%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 462 (55.60%) CI/CD
2 326 (39.23%) Agile
3 286 (34.42%) DevOps
4 141 (16.97%) AI
5 140 (16.85%) Problem-Solving
6 132 (15.88%) Infrastructure as Code
7 128 (15.40%) Validation
8 124 (14.92%) Observability
8 124 (14.92%) Test Strategy
9 119 (14.32%) Continuous Improvement
10 116 (13.96%) Containerisation
11 109 (13.12%) Microservices
12 105 (12.64%) Regression Testing
13 102 (12.27%) User Acceptance Testing
14 99 (11.91%) Software Engineering
15 92 (11.07%) Data Modelling
15 92 (11.07%) Software Testing
16 87 (10.47%) Analytics
17 82 (9.87%) Full-Stack Development
17 82 (9.87%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 264 (31.77%) Python
2 215 (25.87%) SQL
3 174 (20.94%) Java
4 124 (14.92%) TypeScript
5 121 (14.56%) JavaScript
6 104 (12.52%) C#
7 32 (3.85%) PowerShell
8 21 (2.53%) Bash
9 19 (2.29%) Apex Code
10 18 (2.17%) Kotlin
11 17 (2.05%) PL/SQL
11 17 (2.05%) Ruby
12 15 (1.81%) Bicep
13 13 (1.56%) Scala
14 11 (1.32%) C++
15 10 (1.20%) Go
16 7 (0.84%) T-SQL
17 6 (0.72%) Rust
17 6 (0.72%) Swift
18 5 (0.60%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 177 (21.30%) Security Cleared
2 152 (18.29%) SC Cleared
3 41 (4.93%) Degree
4 29 (3.49%) ISTQB
5 24 (2.89%) BPSS Clearance
6 22 (2.65%) Computer Science Degree
7 13 (1.56%) DV Cleared
8 9 (1.08%) DBS Check
8 9 (1.08%) Master's Degree
9 6 (0.72%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 5 (0.60%) AWS Certification
11 4 (0.48%) Azure Certification
12 3 (0.36%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 2 (0.24%) CISSP
13 2 (0.24%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 2 (0.24%) Microsoft Certification
13 2 (0.24%) PhD
13 2 (0.24%) TOGAF Certification
14 1 (0.12%) PMI Certification
14 1 (0.12%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 202 (24.31%) QA
2 63 (7.58%) Data Quality
3 47 (5.66%) Accessibility
4 26 (3.13%) GDPR
5 19 (2.29%) WCAG
6 9 (1.08%) NIST
7 6 (0.72%) ISO 20022
7 6 (0.72%) SLA
8 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 4 (0.48%) HL7
9 4 (0.48%) MiFID
9 4 (0.48%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.36%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.24%) EU AI Act
11 2 (0.24%) GRC
11 2 (0.24%) NCSC
12 1 (0.12%) EMIR
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 138 (16.61%) Docker
2 6 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.36%) Active Directory
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
1 139 (16.73%) Kubernetes
2 101 (12.15%) Terraform
3 40 (4.81%) Grafana
4 37 (4.45%) Prometheus
5 23 (2.77%) 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
7 4 (0.48%) Puppet
8 3 (0.36%) Kustomize
9 2 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.24%) Packer
9 2 (0.24%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.12%) Control-M
10 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.12%) Istio
10 1 (0.12%) linkerd
Vendors
1 82 (9.87%) Microsoft
2 55 (6.62%) Oracle
3 52 (6.26%) Salesforce
4 40 (4.81%) Databricks
5 20 (2.41%) ServiceNow
6 18 (2.17%) UiPath
7 16 (1.93%) Google
8 15 (1.81%) Splunk
9 13 (1.56%) OpenAI
10 11 (1.32%) IBM
11 10 (1.20%) MuleSoft
12 9 (1.08%) Guidewire
12 9 (1.08%) SAP
13 8 (0.96%) Apple
13 8 (0.96%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (0.96%) Dynatrace
13 8 (0.96%) HP
13 8 (0.96%) OpenLink
14 7 (0.84%) Workday
15 6 (0.72%) Red Hat