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

6 months to
22 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 44 43 51
Rank change year-on-year -1 +8 -5
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 773 647 715
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.97% 4.79% 3.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.50% 5.28% 4.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 510 430 527
10th Percentile £325 £341 £381
25th Percentile £400 £406 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £524 £563
Median % change year-on-year -4.53% -6.89% -6.25%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £675
90th Percentile £688 £750 £750
England median daily rate £493 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -1.50% -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 £75.60 £69.25
% change year-on-year -14.02% +9.16% +18.38%

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 14,060 12,254 16,339
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 90.32% 90.76% 88.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,407 7,894 11,682
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% - -7.82%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 218 155 348
10th Percentile £17.85 £21.10 £16.00
25th Percentile £23.00 £26.13 £19.34
Median hourly rate £35.00 £37.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +25.00% -16.67%
75th Percentile £56.38 £55.25 £51.94
90th Percentile £70.00 £78.61 £72.50
England median hourly rate £27.21 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -22.26% - -

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 22 February 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 22 February 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 96 £525 +0.24% 55
West London -14 22 £450 +31.96% 9
South London -11 19 £513 +7.89% 3
East London +2 8 £448 +5.29% 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 50 (6.47%) Confluence
2 14 (1.81%) Apache Spark
3 8 (1.03%) Apache Airflow
3 8 (1.03%) Appian
4 5 (0.65%) Apache
4 5 (0.65%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.52%) Camunda
5 4 (0.52%) CMS
6 3 (0.39%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 3 (0.39%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.26%) Magnolia
7 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.26%) nginx
7 2 (0.26%) Sitecore CMS
7 2 (0.26%) Tomcat
7 2 (0.26%) WordPress
8 1 (0.13%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 20 (2.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.55%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
4 5 (0.65%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.52%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.13%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (2.33%) Aladdin
2 5 (0.65%) Loan IQ
3 4 (0.52%) SAP HR
3 4 (0.52%) Shopify
4 3 (0.39%) 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%) Dynamics CRM
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
1 243 (31.44%) Azure
2 177 (22.90%) AWS
3 117 (15.14%) GitHub
4 108 (13.97%) Azure DevOps
5 83 (10.74%) GCP
6 54 (6.99%) GitHub Actions
7 51 (6.60%) Serverless
8 29 (3.75%) Power Platform
9 28 (3.62%) Azure Data Factory
10 27 (3.49%) SaaS
10 27 (3.49%) Snowflake
11 24 (3.10%) Amazon S3
11 24 (3.10%) AWS Lambda
12 22 (2.85%) Azure AKS
13 20 (2.59%) Dynamics 365
14 19 (2.46%) Azure Cosmos DB
15 17 (2.20%) Amazon EKS
16 16 (2.07%) Power Automate
17 15 (1.94%) Apigee
18 14 (1.81%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.55%) Firewall
2 11 (1.42%) HTTP
3 9 (1.16%) SSL
4 8 (1.03%) HTTPS
4 8 (1.03%) VPN
5 7 (0.91%) DNS
5 7 (0.91%) SD-WAN
5 7 (0.91%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.91%) WAN
6 5 (0.65%) Cisco IPT
7 4 (0.52%) FTP
7 4 (0.52%) Multicast
8 3 (0.39%) DHCP
8 3 (0.39%) Ethernet
8 3 (0.39%) Network Security
8 3 (0.39%) WebEx
8 3 (0.39%) Wireshark
9 2 (0.26%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (0.26%) SNMP
9 2 (0.26%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 45 (5.82%) PostgreSQL
2 43 (5.56%) SQL Server
3 30 (3.88%) NoSQL
4 25 (3.23%) Relational Database
5 20 (2.59%) Data Warehouse
6 19 (2.46%) BigQuery
6 19 (2.46%) MongoDB
7 15 (1.94%) Power BI
8 12 (1.55%) Tableau
9 11 (1.42%) Data Lake
10 10 (1.29%) Big Data
10 10 (1.29%) Oracle Database
10 10 (1.29%) Redis
11 9 (1.16%) Azure SQL Database
11 9 (1.16%) Pinecone
12 8 (1.03%) Amazon Aurora
12 8 (1.03%) DynamoDB
12 8 (1.03%) Metadata
12 8 (1.03%) Star Schema
13 7 (0.91%) Amazon RDS
Development Applications
1 134 (17.34%) JIRA
2 123 (15.91%) Git
3 105 (13.58%) Selenium
4 104 (13.45%) Jenkins
5 84 (10.87%) GitLab
6 58 (7.50%) Postman
7 57 (7.37%) Cucumber
8 52 (6.73%) Cypress.io
9 34 (4.40%) REST Assured
10 33 (4.27%) JMeter
11 29 (3.75%) SpecFlow
12 27 (3.49%) JUnit
13 19 (2.46%) MLflow
14 17 (2.20%) Bitbucket
15 15 (1.94%) TestRail
15 15 (1.94%) WebDriver
16 12 (1.55%) Appium
16 12 (1.55%) Zephyr
17 11 (1.42%) Maven
18 10 (1.29%) Gradle
General
1 200 (25.87%) Social Skills
2 169 (21.86%) Finance
3 90 (11.64%) Banking
4 84 (10.87%) Public Sector
5 83 (10.74%) Analytical Skills
6 25 (3.23%) Investment Banking
7 21 (2.72%) Front Office
8 16 (2.07%) Pharmaceutical
9 15 (1.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 10 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (1.16%) Presentation Skills
12 8 (1.03%) Legal
13 7 (0.91%) Financial Institution
13 7 (0.91%) Organisational Skills
14 6 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.65%) Marketing
15 5 (0.65%) Retail
15 5 (0.65%) Telecoms
16 4 (0.52%) International Banking
16 4 (0.52%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 172 (22.25%) Developer
2 153 (19.79%) Senior
3 92 (11.90%) Tester
4 77 (9.96%) Lead
5 61 (7.89%) Test Engineer
6 54 (6.99%) Automation Tester
7 53 (6.86%) Analyst
8 41 (5.30%) QA Engineer
9 38 (4.92%) Senior Developer
10 35 (4.53%) Architect
11 34 (4.40%) Automation Engineer
12 32 (4.14%) Software Engineer
13 31 (4.01%) Java Developer
13 31 (4.01%) Test Analyst
13 31 (4.01%) Test Automation Engineer
14 28 (3.62%) Data Engineer
15 26 (3.36%) DevOps Engineer
16 25 (3.23%) Python Developer
17 24 (3.10%) Consultant
18 23 (2.98%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 121 (15.65%) Playwright
2 84 (10.87%) React
2 84 (10.87%) REST
3 70 (9.06%) .NET
3 70 (9.06%) Node.js
4 63 (8.15%) RESTful
5 55 (7.12%) Kafka
6 39 (5.05%) pytest
6 39 (5.05%) Spring
7 37 (4.79%) Web Services
8 36 (4.66%) Spring Boot
9 33 (4.27%) HTML
10 31 (4.01%) CSS
11 29 (3.75%) OAuth
12 25 (3.23%) FastAPI
13 24 (3.10%) GraphQL
14 23 (2.98%) JSON
15 21 (2.72%) AngularJS
15 21 (2.72%) SOAP
16 20 (2.59%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 92 (11.90%) Cloud Native
2 47 (6.08%) Product Ownership
3 32 (4.14%) Legacy Systems
4 31 (4.01%) Distributed Systems
5 25 (3.23%) Algorithms
6 22 (2.85%) Data Structures
7 19 (2.46%) Data Protection Act
7 19 (2.46%) Equities
7 19 (2.46%) Mobile App
8 18 (2.33%) Virtual Team
9 17 (2.20%) Greenfield Project
10 16 (2.07%) Onboarding
11 15 (1.94%) Management Information System
12 14 (1.81%) Genomics
12 14 (1.81%) Life Science
13 12 (1.55%) Derivative
13 12 (1.55%) Fixed Income
14 11 (1.42%) Security Posture
15 10 (1.29%) Public Cloud
16 9 (1.16%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 50 (6.47%) Linux
2 30 (3.88%) Windows
3 21 (2.72%) Android
3 21 (2.72%) Apple iOS
4 9 (1.16%) Unix
5 6 (0.78%) Windows Server
6 5 (0.65%) Mac OS
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
1 411 (53.17%) CI/CD
2 352 (45.54%) Agile
3 297 (38.42%) DevOps
4 166 (21.47%) Problem-Solving
5 132 (17.08%) AI
6 114 (14.75%) Containerisation
7 109 (14.10%) Test Scripting
8 104 (13.45%) Test Strategy
9 103 (13.32%) Microservices
10 102 (13.20%) Observability
11 100 (12.94%) Software Engineering
12 99 (12.81%) Infrastructure as Code
12 99 (12.81%) Validation
13 95 (12.29%) Continuous Improvement
14 94 (12.16%) Software Testing
15 82 (10.61%) API Testing
15 82 (10.61%) Scrum
16 76 (9.83%) TDD
17 75 (9.70%) Regression Testing
17 75 (9.70%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 268 (34.67%) Python
2 177 (22.90%) SQL
3 154 (19.92%) Java
4 150 (19.40%) TypeScript
5 139 (17.98%) JavaScript
6 104 (13.45%) C#
7 20 (2.59%) PowerShell
8 19 (2.46%) Bash
8 19 (2.46%) C++
9 14 (1.81%) Bicep
10 13 (1.68%) Kotlin
11 11 (1.42%) Go
12 10 (1.29%) Apex Code
12 10 (1.29%) PL/SQL
13 8 (1.03%) Ruby
13 8 (1.03%) Swift
14 7 (0.91%) Rust
14 7 (0.91%) T-SQL
15 5 (0.65%) Shell Script
16 4 (0.52%) C
Qualifications
1 153 (19.79%) Security Cleared
2 130 (16.82%) SC Cleared
3 56 (7.24%) Degree
4 37 (4.79%) ISTQB
5 24 (3.10%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (2.85%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (2.07%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.55%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 9 (1.16%) OSCP
10 7 (0.91%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (0.78%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 6 (0.78%) SANS
12 5 (0.65%) Azure Certification
12 5 (0.65%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.65%) GPEN
12 5 (0.65%) ISEB
13 4 (0.52%) CEH
13 4 (0.52%) DV Cleared
14 3 (0.39%) CREST Certified
14 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 177 (22.90%) QA
2 47 (6.08%) Accessibility
3 38 (4.92%) Data Quality
4 19 (2.46%) GDPR
5 15 (1.94%) WCAG
6 12 (1.55%) NIST
7 9 (1.16%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.78%) NCSC
9 5 (0.65%) PERC
10 4 (0.52%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.52%) MiFID
10 4 (0.52%) SLA
10 4 (0.52%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.39%) EU AI Act
11 3 (0.39%) GMP
11 3 (0.39%) HL7
11 3 (0.39%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.39%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 164 (21.22%) Docker
2 11 (1.42%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.52%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.39%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.26%) Oracle RAC
5 2 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
6 1 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) Squid
6 1 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 132 (17.08%) Kubernetes
2 83 (10.74%) Terraform
3 27 (3.49%) Ansible
4 24 (3.10%) Grafana
5 21 (2.72%) Prometheus
6 8 (1.03%) HP ALM
7 6 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.65%) Nmap
9 4 (0.52%) Nessus
10 3 (0.39%) Kibana
10 3 (0.39%) Progress Chef
10 3 (0.39%) Puppet
10 3 (0.39%) 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
11 2 (0.26%) vRealize
12 1 (0.13%) CloudHub
12 1 (0.13%) Istio
Vendors
1 75 (9.70%) Microsoft
2 48 (6.21%) Oracle
3 41 (5.30%) Databricks
3 41 (5.30%) Salesforce
4 35 (4.53%) Google
5 26 (3.36%) ServiceNow
6 17 (2.20%) SAP
7 14 (1.81%) OpenAI
8 13 (1.68%) MuleSoft
8 13 (1.68%) Splunk
9 12 (1.55%) Guidewire
10 11 (1.42%) UiPath
11 9 (1.16%) Apple
12 8 (1.03%) Automation Anywhere
12 8 (1.03%) Dynatrace
12 8 (1.03%) HP
12 8 (1.03%) IBM
12 8 (1.03%) VMware
13 7 (0.91%) Cisco
14 6 (0.78%) webMethods