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

6 months to
15 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 53 42
Rank change year-on-year +7 -11 +7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 988 599 755
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.82% 4.48% 4.70%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.41% 4.84% 5.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 675 415 494
10th Percentile £350 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -2.38% -7.49%
75th Percentile £616 £638 £629
90th Percentile £725 £750 £750
England median daily rate £475 £500 £507
% change year-on-year -5.00% -1.43% -7.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 4 3
10th Percentile £37.89 £37.25 £53.13
25th Percentile £44.91 £40.63 £57.81
Median hourly rate £50.00 £45.00 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -34.55% -23.61%
75th Percentile £76.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile £97.50 £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £69.25 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +25.91% -4.35% -23.33%

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 18,257 12,368 14,352
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.02% 92.44% 89.26%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,959 8,171 9,325
10th Percentile £360 £333 £350
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £540 £550
Median % change year-on-year +1.85% -1.82% -4.35%
75th Percentile £668 £663 £675
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 346 241 180
10th Percentile £15.89 £18.25 £17.48
25th Percentile £18.56 £25.04 £24.18
Median hourly rate £32.50 £30.50 £37.15
Median % change year-on-year +6.56% -17.90% -7.13%
75th Percentile £57.50 £47.50 £57.81
90th Percentile £79.38 £65.00 £78.75
England median hourly rate £38.72 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +53.96% -40.82% -5.56%

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 15 October 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 15 October 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 15 October 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 +13 123 £550 +15.79% 41
South London -5 15 £593 +18.50% 5
East London +5 8 £663 +27.40% 10
West London -22 3 £600 +50.94% 25
North London -3 1 £525 - 1
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 69 (6.98%) Confluence
2 42 (4.25%) Apache Airflow
3 25 (2.53%) SharePoint
4 24 (2.43%) Apache Spark
5 19 (1.92%) Apache
6 16 (1.62%) CMS
7 8 (0.81%) Camunda
8 7 (0.71%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 5 (0.51%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.30%) Kentico
11 2 (0.20%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.20%) Mule
11 2 (0.20%) nginx
11 2 (0.20%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.20%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.20%) SAS
11 2 (0.20%) WebLogic
12 1 (0.10%) Appian
12 1 (0.10%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.10%) ThingWorx
Applications
1 20 (2.02%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.42%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.51%) Chatbot
4 5 (0.51%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.30%) Mingle
5 3 (0.30%) Trello
6 2 (0.20%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.10%) Gliffy
7 1 (0.10%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.10%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 15 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.91%) Aladdin
2 9 (0.91%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.51%) SAP GRC
4 4 (0.40%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.40%) Salesforce CRM
5 2 (0.20%) Oracle ERP
5 2 (0.20%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.20%) SAP MDG
5 2 (0.20%) SimCorp Dimension
6 1 (0.10%) FLEXCUBE
6 1 (0.10%) Infor M3
6 1 (0.10%) IntelliMatch
6 1 (0.10%) Maximo
6 1 (0.10%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.10%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.10%) NEC Housing
6 1 (0.10%) Siebel CRM
6 1 (0.10%) Summit
6 1 (0.10%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 358 (36.23%) Azure
2 309 (31.28%) AWS
3 198 (20.04%) GitHub
4 171 (17.31%) Azure DevOps
5 130 (13.16%) GitHub Actions
6 94 (9.51%) GCP
7 88 (8.91%) Serverless
8 76 (7.69%) Power Platform
9 64 (6.48%) AWS Lambda
10 60 (6.07%) Amazon S3
11 49 (4.96%) dbt
12 41 (4.15%) Snowflake
13 39 (3.95%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 35 (3.54%) GitHub Copilot
15 34 (3.44%) AWS CloudFormation
16 31 (3.14%) Amazon EC2
16 31 (3.14%) Amazon EKS
17 30 (3.04%) Microsoft Copilot
18 29 (2.94%) Amazon ECS
19 27 (2.73%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 16 (1.62%) DNS
2 12 (1.21%) TCP/IP
3 10 (1.01%) Firewall
4 9 (0.91%) BGP
4 9 (0.91%) HTTP
5 8 (0.81%) Network Security
5 8 (0.81%) WAN
6 7 (0.71%) DHCP
6 7 (0.71%) Wi-Fi
7 6 (0.61%) Internet
7 6 (0.61%) LAN
8 5 (0.51%) VPN
9 4 (0.40%) Ethernet VPN
9 4 (0.40%) NX-OS
9 4 (0.40%) SD-WAN
9 4 (0.40%) SSL
9 4 (0.40%) TACACS
9 4 (0.40%) VXLAN
10 3 (0.30%) OpenLDAP
10 3 (0.30%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 74 (7.49%) PostgreSQL
2 57 (5.77%) Power BI
2 57 (5.77%) SQL Server
3 51 (5.16%) Data Warehouse
4 45 (4.55%) NoSQL
4 45 (4.55%) Relational Database
5 37 (3.74%) MongoDB
6 24 (2.43%) Amazon Redshift
7 23 (2.33%) Amazon RDS
7 23 (2.33%) Data Lake
8 20 (2.02%) Amazon Athena
8 20 (2.02%) Metadata
8 20 (2.02%) MySQL
9 19 (1.92%) Oracle Database
9 19 (1.92%) Redis
10 18 (1.82%) DynamoDB
11 15 (1.52%) Delta Lake
12 13 (1.32%) BigQuery
12 13 (1.32%) Tableau
13 12 (1.21%) Data Vault
Development Applications
1 205 (20.75%) Git
2 189 (19.13%) Jenkins
3 135 (13.66%) Selenium
4 132 (13.36%) JIRA
5 115 (11.64%) GitLab
6 65 (6.58%) Cucumber
6 65 (6.58%) Cypress.io
7 64 (6.48%) JUnit
8 62 (6.28%) Postman
9 58 (5.87%) JMeter
10 48 (4.86%) REST Assured
11 29 (2.94%) Gradle
12 26 (2.63%) Maven
13 24 (2.43%) Gatling
14 23 (2.33%) LoadRunner
15 22 (2.23%) Mockito
16 21 (2.13%) SonarQube
17 20 (2.02%) TestNG
18 18 (1.82%) Appium
19 16 (1.62%) Bitbucket
General
1 292 (29.55%) Finance
2 283 (28.64%) Social Skills
3 162 (16.40%) Analytical Skills
4 161 (16.30%) Banking
5 86 (8.70%) Public Sector
6 34 (3.44%) Front Office
7 30 (3.04%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 18 (1.82%) Financial Institution
10 17 (1.72%) Marketing
11 16 (1.62%) Back Office
12 13 (1.32%) Telecoms
13 12 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
14 11 (1.11%) Documentation Skills
14 11 (1.11%) Law
14 11 (1.11%) Local Government
14 11 (1.11%) Retail
15 8 (0.81%) Military
16 6 (0.61%) Games
16 6 (0.61%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 216 (21.86%) Developer
2 186 (18.83%) Senior
3 107 (10.83%) Lead
4 68 (6.88%) Test Engineer
5 65 (6.58%) Data Engineer
6 60 (6.07%) Tester
7 57 (5.77%) Java Developer
8 55 (5.57%) Automation Engineer
8 55 (5.57%) QA Engineer
9 53 (5.36%) Software Engineer
10 52 (5.26%) DevOps Engineer
11 47 (4.76%) Architect
11 47 (4.76%) Senior Developer
12 40 (4.05%) Analyst
13 39 (3.95%) Full-Stack Developer
14 38 (3.85%) Test Leader
15 34 (3.44%) Test Automation Engineer
16 33 (3.34%) Test Manager
17 30 (3.04%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
18 29 (2.94%) Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 178 (18.02%) REST
2 170 (17.21%) Terraform
3 136 (13.77%) Kafka
4 124 (12.55%) Playwright
5 113 (11.44%) RESTful
6 93 (9.41%) Spring
7 86 (8.70%) React
8 83 (8.40%) .NET
9 82 (8.30%) Spring Boot
10 63 (6.38%) HTML
11 53 (5.36%) CSS
12 45 (4.55%) Node.js
13 38 (3.85%) Middleware
14 37 (3.74%) OAuth
14 37 (3.74%) PySpark
15 36 (3.64%) SOAP
16 33 (3.34%) AngularJS
17 31 (3.14%) XML
18 30 (3.04%) JSON
18 30 (3.04%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 168 (17.00%) Cloud Native
2 95 (9.62%) Product Ownership
3 94 (9.51%) Distributed Systems
4 41 (4.15%) AI Agents
5 40 (4.05%) Enterprise Software
6 38 (3.85%) Onboarding
7 27 (2.73%) Data Structures
8 24 (2.43%) Self-Motivation
9 23 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
9 23 (2.33%) Mobile App
10 20 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
11 16 (1.62%) Algorithms
12 15 (1.52%) Security Posture
12 15 (1.52%) Virtual Team
13 13 (1.32%) Fixed Income
14 12 (1.21%) Distributed Architecture
14 12 (1.21%) Private Cloud
15 11 (1.11%) Market Risk
16 10 (1.01%) Legacy Applications
16 10 (1.01%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 74 (7.49%) Linux
2 46 (4.66%) Unix
3 34 (3.44%) Windows
4 24 (2.43%) Apple iOS
5 23 (2.33%) Android
6 16 (1.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (0.71%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.40%) macOS
8 4 (0.40%) Ubuntu
8 4 (0.40%) VMS
9 1 (0.10%) CentOS
9 1 (0.10%) Solaris
9 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2008
9 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2016
9 1 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
9 1 (0.10%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 662 (67.00%) CI/CD
2 463 (46.86%) Agile
3 423 (42.81%) DevOps
4 224 (22.67%) AI
5 204 (20.65%) Problem-Solving
6 201 (20.34%) Continuous Improvement
7 196 (19.84%) Infrastructure as Code
8 195 (19.74%) Software Engineering
9 186 (18.83%) Microservices
10 184 (18.62%) Validation
11 164 (16.60%) Containerisation
12 159 (16.09%) Test Strategy
13 158 (15.99%) Observability
14 149 (15.08%) Stakeholder Management
15 143 (14.47%) Scrum
16 125 (12.65%) TDD
17 119 (12.04%) SDLC
18 117 (11.84%) Event-Driven
19 107 (10.83%) Data Pipeline
19 107 (10.83%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 352 (35.63%) Python
2 284 (28.74%) SQL
3 280 (28.34%) Java
4 158 (15.99%) JavaScript
5 131 (13.26%) TypeScript
6 96 (9.72%) C#
7 45 (4.55%) PowerShell
8 42 (4.25%) Bash
9 34 (3.44%) Bicep
10 26 (2.63%) Kotlin
11 21 (2.13%) Scala
12 18 (1.82%) C++
13 17 (1.72%) Go
14 14 (1.42%) Shell Script
15 11 (1.11%) Ruby
16 10 (1.01%) C
16 10 (1.01%) Groovy
16 10 (1.01%) PL/SQL
17 9 (0.91%) VB.NET
18 8 (0.81%) Perl
Qualifications
1 276 (27.94%) Security Cleared
2 245 (24.80%) SC Cleared
3 72 (7.29%) Degree
4 44 (4.45%) Computer Science Degree
5 38 (3.85%) ISTQB
6 34 (3.44%) DV Cleared
7 32 (3.24%) AWS Certification
8 20 (2.02%) Azure Certification
8 20 (2.02%) BPSS Clearance
9 10 (1.01%) ISEB
10 9 (0.91%) CISSP
11 8 (0.81%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 8 (0.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 8 (0.81%) Master's Degree
12 7 (0.71%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
13 6 (0.61%) DBS Check
14 5 (0.51%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 5 (0.51%) Cisco Certification
15 4 (0.40%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 4 (0.40%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 282 (28.54%) QA
2 86 (8.70%) Data Quality
3 51 (5.16%) Accessibility
4 18 (1.82%) GDPR
5 14 (1.42%) WCAG
6 12 (1.21%) ISO 20022
6 12 (1.21%) NIST
7 11 (1.11%) SLA
8 10 (1.01%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 8 (0.81%) GRC
10 4 (0.40%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.30%) EU AI Act
11 3 (0.30%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.20%) ISO 9001
12 2 (0.20%) MiFID
12 2 (0.20%) NCSC
12 2 (0.20%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.20%) Software Quality Assurance
13 1 (0.10%) COBIT
13 1 (0.10%) WAI
System Software
1 208 (21.05%) Docker
2 10 (1.01%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.71%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.40%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.30%) VMware NSX
6 1 (0.10%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.10%) Firmware
6 1 (0.10%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.10%) VMware ESXi
Systems Management
1 196 (19.84%) Kubernetes
2 64 (6.48%) Grafana
3 52 (5.26%) Ansible
4 47 (4.76%) Prometheus
5 22 (2.23%) Puppet
6 18 (1.82%) Progress Chef
7 14 (1.42%) Kibana
8 10 (1.01%) Control-M
9 6 (0.61%) Argo
9 6 (0.61%) HP Fortify
10 5 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.40%) Packer
11 4 (0.40%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.30%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.30%) Kustomize
12 3 (0.30%) Podman
12 3 (0.30%) Rancher
13 2 (0.20%) Istio
13 2 (0.20%) systemd
14 1 (0.10%) HAProxy
Vendors
1 125 (12.65%) Microsoft
2 57 (5.77%) Oracle
3 51 (5.16%) Databricks
4 48 (4.86%) Google
5 33 (3.34%) IBM
5 33 (3.34%) Salesforce
6 29 (2.94%) ServiceNow
7 25 (2.53%) UiPath
8 23 (2.33%) SAP
9 21 (2.13%) Foundry
9 21 (2.13%) Splunk
10 20 (2.02%) OpenAI
11 18 (1.82%) Dynatrace
11 18 (1.82%) Informatica
12 15 (1.52%) Cisco
13 13 (1.32%) Red Hat
14 11 (1.11%) SaltStack
14 11 (1.11%) VMware
15 9 (0.91%) HP
15 9 (0.91%) MuleSoft