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

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 52 53 49
Rank change year-on-year +1 -4 -4
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 832 563 764
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.38% 4.51% 4.30%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.94% 4.89% 4.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 550 383 526
10th Percentile £356 £350 £363
25th Percentile £425 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £592 £688 £675
90th Percentile £700 £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 16,854 11,524 15,681
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.83% 92.35% 88.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,217 7,730 11,175
10th Percentile £360 £340 £343
25th Percentile £437 £425 £447
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% - -6.38%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £763 £800 £800
England median daily rate £520 £518 £525
% change year-on-year +0.48% -1.43% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 256 209 315
10th Percentile £18.04 £16.50 £15.50
25th Percentile £25.15 £24.66 £20.00
Median hourly rate £37.25 £32.89 £28.50
Median % change year-on-year +13.26% +15.40% -28.60%
75th Percentile £59.18 £50.50 £48.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.75 £67.60
England median hourly rate £47.00 £27.13 £37.63
% change year-on-year +73.27% -27.91% +5.54%

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 19 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 19 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 +8 110 £550 +10.00% 23
South London -1 13 £513 +13.57% 2
East London +6 10 £450 +18.42% 10
West London -23 10 £450 +12.50% 5
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 61 (7.33%) Confluence
2 31 (3.73%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (2.64%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.44%) CMS
5 10 (1.20%) Apache
6 8 (0.96%) 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%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
11 1 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 22 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.84%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
5 5 (0.60%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 18 (2.16%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.56%) 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%) IntelliMatch
7 2 (0.24%) iTrent
7 2 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.24%) Summit
8 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 251 (30.17%) Azure
2 237 (28.49%) AWS
3 143 (17.19%) GitHub
4 122 (14.66%) Azure DevOps
5 89 (10.70%) GitHub Actions
6 75 (9.01%) Serverless
7 56 (6.73%) AWS Lambda
8 54 (6.49%) Power Platform
9 53 (6.37%) Amazon S3
10 49 (5.89%) GCP
11 36 (4.33%) dbt
12 31 (3.73%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 31 (3.73%) Snowflake
13 29 (3.49%) Amazon ECS
14 27 (3.25%) Azure Data Factory
15 22 (2.64%) Amazon EC2
15 22 (2.64%) Azure AKS
16 20 (2.40%) Azure AI
17 18 (2.16%) Dynamics 365
18 17 (2.04%) 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%) 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%) SSL
5 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.12%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 54 (6.49%) PostgreSQL
2 50 (6.01%) SQL Server
3 42 (5.05%) NoSQL
3 42 (5.05%) Power BI
4 41 (4.93%) Data Warehouse
5 36 (4.33%) MongoDB
6 29 (3.49%) DynamoDB
6 29 (3.49%) Relational Database
7 25 (3.00%) Amazon Athena
8 24 (2.88%) Amazon Redshift
9 20 (2.40%) Tableau
10 19 (2.28%) Big Data
11 18 (2.16%) Amazon RDS
11 18 (2.16%) Data Lake
12 17 (2.04%) BigQuery
13 14 (1.68%) Metadata
14 12 (1.44%) Star Schema
15 11 (1.32%) Amazon Aurora
15 11 (1.32%) Redis
16 10 (1.20%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 133 (15.99%) JIRA
2 131 (15.75%) Git
3 107 (12.86%) Jenkins
4 95 (11.42%) GitLab
4 95 (11.42%) Selenium
5 51 (6.13%) Cucumber
6 49 (5.89%) Cypress.io
7 44 (5.29%) Postman
8 43 (5.17%) REST Assured
9 38 (4.57%) JMeter
10 34 (4.09%) JUnit
11 18 (2.16%) Mockito
11 18 (2.16%) SpecFlow
12 17 (2.04%) Gradle
12 17 (2.04%) Maven
13 14 (1.68%) MLflow
14 13 (1.56%) Bitbucket
14 13 (1.56%) WebDriver
14 13 (1.56%) Zephyr
15 12 (1.44%) Gatling
General
1 239 (28.73%) Finance
2 220 (26.44%) Social Skills
3 114 (13.70%) Banking
4 106 (12.74%) Analytical Skills
5 100 (12.02%) Public Sector
6 26 (3.13%) Front Office
7 25 (3.00%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 18 (2.16%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.80%) Legal
11 12 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
12 11 (1.32%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.08%) Back Office
13 9 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (1.08%) Retail
13 9 (1.08%) Telecoms
14 7 (0.84%) Billing
14 7 (0.84%) Marketing
14 7 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (0.84%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 174 (20.91%) Developer
2 149 (17.91%) Senior
3 89 (10.70%) Lead
4 84 (10.10%) Tester
5 55 (6.61%) Test Engineer
6 51 (6.13%) Analyst
7 47 (5.65%) Data Engineer
8 46 (5.53%) DevOps Engineer
8 46 (5.53%) QA Engineer
9 45 (5.41%) Architect
10 40 (4.81%) Automation Tester
11 39 (4.69%) Java Developer
12 37 (4.45%) Automation Engineer
13 35 (4.21%) Senior Developer
14 31 (3.73%) Test Automation Engineer
15 30 (3.61%) Software Engineer
16 27 (3.25%) Test Leader
17 26 (3.13%) Full-Stack Developer
18 24 (2.88%) QA Automation Engineer
18 24 (2.88%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (12.38%) REST
2 100 (12.02%) React
3 94 (11.30%) Playwright
4 77 (9.25%) RESTful
5 69 (8.29%) Kafka
6 59 (7.09%) .NET
7 55 (6.61%) Spring
8 51 (6.13%) Node.js
8 51 (6.13%) Spring Boot
9 38 (4.57%) CSS
10 37 (4.45%) HTML
11 29 (3.49%) OAuth
12 24 (2.88%) PySpark
13 22 (2.64%) pytest
13 22 (2.64%) Web Services
14 21 (2.52%) AngularJS
14 21 (2.52%) Redux
15 19 (2.28%) Swagger
16 18 (2.16%) .NET Core
16 18 (2.16%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 110 (13.22%) Cloud Native
2 64 (7.69%) Distributed Systems
3 51 (6.13%) Product Ownership
4 39 (4.69%) Legacy Systems
5 29 (3.49%) Data Protection Act
6 20 (2.40%) Greenfield Project
6 20 (2.40%) Onboarding
7 19 (2.28%) Fixed Income
7 19 (2.28%) Self-Motivation
7 19 (2.28%) Virtual Team
8 18 (2.16%) Algorithms
9 16 (1.92%) Management Information System
10 14 (1.68%) AI Agents
11 13 (1.56%) Equities
11 13 (1.56%) Mobile App
12 12 (1.44%) Data Structures
12 12 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
13 11 (1.32%) Distributed Architecture
14 10 (1.20%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 10 (1.20%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 32 (3.85%) Linux
2 26 (3.13%) Windows
3 19 (2.28%) Android
4 17 (2.04%) Apple iOS
5 13 (1.56%) 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
1 479 (57.57%) CI/CD
2 334 (40.14%) Agile
3 291 (34.98%) DevOps
4 145 (17.43%) AI
5 144 (17.31%) Infrastructure as Code
6 133 (15.99%) Problem-Solving
7 129 (15.50%) Validation
8 127 (15.26%) Observability
9 124 (14.90%) Continuous Improvement
10 122 (14.66%) Microservices
11 120 (14.42%) Test Strategy
12 114 (13.70%) Containerisation
13 110 (13.22%) Software Engineering
14 109 (13.10%) Regression Testing
15 107 (12.86%) User Acceptance Testing
16 94 (11.30%) Data Modelling
17 89 (10.70%) Analytics
18 87 (10.46%) Scrum
19 86 (10.34%) Stakeholder Management
20 83 (9.98%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 256 (30.77%) Python
2 215 (25.84%) SQL
3 180 (21.63%) Java
4 126 (15.14%) TypeScript
5 119 (14.30%) JavaScript
6 99 (11.90%) C#
7 32 (3.85%) PowerShell
8 20 (2.40%) Bash
8 20 (2.40%) Kotlin
9 17 (2.04%) Bicep
10 16 (1.92%) Apex Code
11 15 (1.80%) Ruby
12 14 (1.68%) PL/SQL
13 13 (1.56%) Scala
14 12 (1.44%) Go
15 8 (0.96%) C++
15 8 (0.96%) T-SQL
16 7 (0.84%) Swift
17 6 (0.72%) Groovy
17 6 (0.72%) VBA
Qualifications
1 180 (21.63%) Security Cleared
2 157 (18.87%) SC Cleared
3 43 (5.17%) Degree
4 27 (3.25%) ISTQB
5 23 (2.76%) Computer Science Degree
6 20 (2.40%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (1.92%) DV Cleared
8 13 (1.56%) AWS Certification
9 10 (1.20%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.84%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.72%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 6 (0.72%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 5 (0.60%) Azure Certification
13 4 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 3 (0.36%) CISSP
14 3 (0.36%) TOGAF Certification
15 2 (0.24%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 2 (0.24%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.24%) CompTIA Security+
15 2 (0.24%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 197 (23.68%) QA
2 71 (8.53%) Data Quality
3 50 (6.01%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.88%) GDPR
5 18 (2.16%) WCAG
6 11 (1.32%) NIST
7 6 (0.72%) ISO 20022
8 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.60%) SLA
9 4 (0.48%) HL7
9 4 (0.48%) NCSC
10 3 (0.36%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.36%) MiFID
10 3 (0.36%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.24%) GRC
11 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) GxP
12 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 129 (15.50%) 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%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 134 (16.11%) Kubernetes
2 115 (13.82%) Terraform
3 39 (4.69%) Grafana
4 36 (4.33%) Prometheus
5 28 (3.37%) Ansible
6 8 (0.96%) HP ALM
6 8 (0.96%) Kibana
7 7 (0.84%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
9 3 (0.36%) Control-M
9 3 (0.36%) Kustomize
9 3 (0.36%) Puppet
10 2 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
10 2 (0.24%) Packer
10 2 (0.24%) Progress Chef
11 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
11 1 (0.12%) Istio
11 1 (0.12%) linkerd
11 1 (0.12%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 80 (9.62%) Microsoft
2 54 (6.49%) Salesforce
3 50 (6.01%) Oracle
4 32 (3.85%) Databricks
5 25 (3.00%) ServiceNow
6 18 (2.16%) UiPath
7 16 (1.92%) Google
8 15 (1.80%) Splunk
9 13 (1.56%) Informatica
9 13 (1.56%) OpenAI
10 11 (1.32%) IBM
11 10 (1.20%) Dynatrace
12 9 (1.08%) Guidewire
13 8 (0.96%) Apple
13 8 (0.96%) HP
13 8 (0.96%) MuleSoft
13 8 (0.96%) OpenLink
13 8 (0.96%) SAP
14 7 (0.84%) Automation Anywhere
15 6 (0.72%) Red Hat