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 18 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 48 44 56
Rank change year-on-year -4 +12 -14
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 713 693 751
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.99% 4.60% 3.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.46% 5.11% 4.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 476 461 566
10th Percentile £325 £340 £400
25th Percentile £404 £406 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £520 £575
Median % change year-on-year -2.98% -9.57% -4.17%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £675
90th Percentile £738 £738 £800
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -6.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 1
10th Percentile £43.50 - -
25th Percentile £45.00 - -
Median hourly rate £58.94 - £75.00
75th Percentile £65.25 - -
90th Percentile £66.00 - -
England median hourly rate £65.00 £67.50 £75.00
% change year-on-year -3.70% -10.00% +25.00%

All Process and 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 13,063 13,572 16,916
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 91.44% 90.07% 89.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,607 8,737 12,135
10th Percentile £350 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £450 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £565
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% -2.65% -4.24%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £688
90th Percentile £760 £800 £794
England median daily rate £505 £525 £544
% change year-on-year -3.81% -3.49% -1.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 234 164 237
10th Percentile £18.06 £18.03 £18.50
25th Percentile £24.77 £23.80 £21.25
Median hourly rate £31.49 £36.00 £34.00
Median % change year-on-year -12.53% +5.88% -12.54%
75th Percentile £50.88 £54.06 £60.00
90th Percentile £67.20 £80.75 £74.25
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +19.70%

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 18 December 2025.

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 18 December 2025.

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 18 December 2025. 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 88 £518 -1.43% 26
West London -13 16 £442 +29.62% 7
South London -1 15 £506 +3.32% 5
East London -2 9 £445 +4.71% 9
North London - 1 - - 5
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 43 (6.03%) Confluence
2 18 (2.52%) Apache Spark
3 9 (1.26%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (0.70%) Apache
4 5 (0.70%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.56%) CMS
6 3 (0.42%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 2 (0.28%) Magnolia
7 2 (0.28%) Sitecore CMS
7 2 (0.28%) WordPress
8 1 (0.14%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.14%) JBoss
8 1 (0.14%) nginx
8 1 (0.14%) Oracle Application Server
8 1 (0.14%) WebLogic
Applications
1 14 (1.96%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (1.68%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.98%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.84%) MS Visio
5 2 (0.28%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.28%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.14%) Trello
Business Applications
1 17 (2.38%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.56%) SAP HR
3 2 (0.28%) Eagle PACE
3 2 (0.28%) Markit EDM
3 2 (0.28%) NetSuite
3 2 (0.28%) Shopify
4 1 (0.14%) Algo Collateral
4 1 (0.14%) CODA-Financials
4 1 (0.14%) ION Anvil
4 1 (0.14%) Loan IQ
4 1 (0.14%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.14%) PORTIA
4 1 (0.14%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.14%) Summit
4 1 (0.14%) Temenos T24
4 1 (0.14%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 221 (31.00%) Azure
2 167 (23.42%) AWS
3 102 (14.31%) GitHub
4 100 (14.03%) Azure DevOps
5 79 (11.08%) GCP
6 49 (6.87%) Serverless
7 45 (6.31%) GitHub Actions
8 26 (3.65%) SaaS
9 25 (3.51%) Snowflake
10 24 (3.37%) AWS Lambda
11 22 (3.09%) Amazon S3
11 22 (3.09%) Power Platform
12 21 (2.95%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 21 (2.95%) Azure Data Factory
13 20 (2.81%) Azure AKS
14 17 (2.38%) Azure Monitor
15 15 (2.10%) Azure Synapse Analytics
15 15 (2.10%) Cloud Run
16 14 (1.96%) Amazon EKS
17 13 (1.82%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 16 (2.24%) HTTP
2 15 (2.10%) Firewall
2 15 (2.10%) SSL
3 11 (1.54%) HTTPS
3 11 (1.54%) TCP/IP
4 9 (1.26%) DNS
4 9 (1.26%) VPN
5 7 (0.98%) Multicast
6 6 (0.84%) SD-WAN
6 6 (0.84%) WAN
7 5 (0.70%) Cisco IPT
7 5 (0.70%) Network Security
8 3 (0.42%) DHCP
8 3 (0.42%) FTP
8 3 (0.42%) WebEx
8 3 (0.42%) Wireshark
9 2 (0.28%) DSL
9 2 (0.28%) Ethernet
9 2 (0.28%) Internet
9 2 (0.28%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (8.27%) PostgreSQL
2 45 (6.31%) NoSQL
3 40 (5.61%) SQL Server
4 28 (3.93%) Relational Database
5 24 (3.37%) Data Warehouse
5 24 (3.37%) MongoDB
6 18 (2.52%) BigQuery
7 13 (1.82%) Big Data
8 12 (1.68%) Data Lake
8 12 (1.68%) Redis
9 11 (1.54%) Amazon RDS
9 11 (1.54%) Power BI
10 8 (1.12%) Azure SQL Database
11 7 (0.98%) Delta Lake
12 6 (0.84%) Amazon Aurora
12 6 (0.84%) Amazon Redshift
13 5 (0.70%) DB2
13 5 (0.70%) Metadata
13 5 (0.70%) Oracle Database
13 5 (0.70%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 112 (15.71%) Git
2 111 (15.57%) JIRA
3 102 (14.31%) Jenkins
3 102 (14.31%) Selenium
4 68 (9.54%) GitLab
5 58 (8.13%) Cucumber
6 54 (7.57%) Postman
7 50 (7.01%) Cypress.io
8 34 (4.77%) JMeter
9 26 (3.65%) JUnit
10 25 (3.51%) Bitbucket
11 23 (3.23%) SpecFlow
12 22 (3.09%) REST Assured
13 17 (2.38%) Appium
14 14 (1.96%) TestRail
15 11 (1.54%) Gatling
16 10 (1.40%) Maven
16 10 (1.40%) WebDriver
16 10 (1.40%) webpack
16 10 (1.40%) Zephyr
General
1 191 (26.79%) Social Skills
2 163 (22.86%) Finance
3 82 (11.50%) Banking
4 67 (9.40%) Analytical Skills
5 56 (7.85%) Public Sector
6 23 (3.23%) Front Office
7 21 (2.95%) Investment Banking
8 19 (2.66%) Pharmaceutical
9 18 (2.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 13 (1.82%) Presentation Skills
11 11 (1.54%) Financial Institution
12 10 (1.40%) Documentation Skills
13 8 (1.12%) Legal
14 7 (0.98%) Back Office
14 7 (0.98%) International Banking
15 6 (0.84%) Telecoms
16 5 (0.70%) Marketing
17 4 (0.56%) Electronics
17 4 (0.56%) Publishing
17 4 (0.56%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 161 (22.58%) Developer
2 131 (18.37%) Senior
3 100 (14.03%) Tester
4 55 (7.71%) Automation Tester
5 53 (7.43%) Test Engineer
6 50 (7.01%) Lead
7 44 (6.17%) QA Engineer
8 42 (5.89%) Analyst
9 34 (4.77%) Software Engineer
10 33 (4.63%) Java Developer
11 32 (4.49%) Senior Developer
12 30 (4.21%) Automation Engineer
13 29 (4.07%) Test Analyst
13 29 (4.07%) Test Automation Engineer
14 28 (3.93%) Consultant
15 27 (3.79%) Python Developer
16 26 (3.65%) Data Engineer
17 23 (3.23%) Architect
18 22 (3.09%) Python Engineer
19 18 (2.52%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 94 (13.18%) Playwright
2 77 (10.80%) React
3 72 (10.10%) Node.js
4 66 (9.26%) .NET
5 64 (8.98%) REST
6 56 (7.85%) RESTful
7 52 (7.29%) Kafka
8 35 (4.91%) Spring Boot
9 34 (4.77%) pytest
9 34 (4.77%) Spring
10 31 (4.35%) JSON
11 30 (4.21%) HTML
12 28 (3.93%) CSS
12 28 (3.93%) XML
13 26 (3.65%) Web Services
14 24 (3.37%) SOAP
15 22 (3.09%) AngularJS
16 21 (2.95%) FastAPI
16 21 (2.95%) GraphQL
16 21 (2.95%) Jest
Miscellaneous
1 80 (11.22%) Cloud Native
2 48 (6.73%) Product Ownership
3 28 (3.93%) Distributed Systems
4 23 (3.23%) Mobile App
5 16 (2.24%) Data Structures
5 16 (2.24%) Genomics
5 16 (2.24%) Life Science
6 13 (1.82%) Algorithms
6 13 (1.82%) Equities
6 13 (1.82%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
6 13 (1.82%) Virtual Team
7 12 (1.68%) Onboarding
7 12 (1.68%) Reinsurance
8 11 (1.54%) Derivative
8 11 (1.54%) Fixed Income
8 11 (1.54%) Management Information System
9 10 (1.40%) Data Protection Act
9 10 (1.40%) Public Cloud
9 10 (1.40%) Security Posture
10 9 (1.26%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 59 (8.27%) Linux
2 27 (3.79%) Windows
3 20 (2.81%) Android
4 19 (2.66%) Apple iOS
4 19 (2.66%) Unix
5 6 (0.84%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.28%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.14%) CentOS
7 1 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
7 1 (0.14%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.14%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.14%) Ubuntu
7 1 (0.14%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 367 (51.47%) CI/CD
2 364 (51.05%) Agile
3 289 (40.53%) DevOps
4 164 (23.00%) Problem-Solving
5 110 (15.43%) Software Engineering
6 104 (14.59%) Microservices
7 103 (14.45%) Containerisation
8 96 (13.46%) Test Scripting
9 94 (13.18%) AI
10 93 (13.04%) Scrum
11 91 (12.76%) TDD
12 88 (12.34%) Test Strategy
13 80 (11.22%) Infrastructure as Code
14 79 (11.08%) Continuous Improvement
14 79 (11.08%) Software Testing
15 78 (10.94%) Validation
16 77 (10.80%) SDLC
17 67 (9.40%) API Testing
18 65 (9.12%) Observability
19 64 (8.98%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 240 (33.66%) Python
2 162 (22.72%) SQL
3 149 (20.90%) Java
4 121 (16.97%) TypeScript
5 117 (16.41%) JavaScript
6 92 (12.90%) C#
7 26 (3.65%) Bash
8 21 (2.95%) C++
9 20 (2.81%) Go
9 20 (2.81%) PowerShell
10 12 (1.68%) Bicep
10 12 (1.68%) Kotlin
11 9 (1.26%) PL/SQL
12 8 (1.12%) Perl
13 7 (0.98%) Apex Code
13 7 (0.98%) Ruby
13 7 (0.98%) Swift
14 6 (0.84%) Shell Script
15 5 (0.70%) T-SQL
15 5 (0.70%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 121 (16.97%) Security Cleared
2 107 (15.01%) SC Cleared
3 59 (8.27%) Degree
4 34 (4.77%) ISTQB
5 24 (3.37%) Computer Science Degree
6 17 (2.38%) BPSS Clearance
7 13 (1.82%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.68%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 9 (1.26%) OSCP
10 7 (0.98%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (0.84%) SANS
12 5 (0.70%) Azure Certification
12 5 (0.70%) GPEN
13 4 (0.56%) CEH
13 4 (0.56%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.56%) ISEB
13 4 (0.56%) MCP
14 3 (0.42%) EMC Certification
14 3 (0.42%) HNC
14 3 (0.42%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 175 (24.54%) QA
2 50 (7.01%) Accessibility
3 21 (2.95%) Data Quality
4 17 (2.38%) GDPR
5 14 (1.96%) WCAG
6 8 (1.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 8 (1.12%) NIST
6 8 (1.12%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 5 (0.70%) MiFID
7 5 (0.70%) PERC
8 4 (0.56%) NCSC
8 4 (0.56%) NIST 800
8 4 (0.56%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.42%) Def Stans
9 3 (0.42%) EU AI Act
9 3 (0.42%) IEC 61508
9 3 (0.42%) ISO/IEC 15288
9 3 (0.42%) ITGC
9 3 (0.42%) SLA
9 3 (0.42%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 147 (20.62%) Docker
2 9 (1.26%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.42%) Virtual Servers
3 3 (0.42%) zsh
4 2 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.14%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.14%) Firmware
5 1 (0.14%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.14%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.14%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 120 (16.83%) Kubernetes
2 83 (11.64%) Terraform
3 30 (4.21%) Ansible
4 18 (2.52%) Grafana
5 14 (1.96%) Prometheus
6 8 (1.12%) HP ALM
7 5 (0.70%) Nmap
8 4 (0.56%) Nessus
8 4 (0.56%) Rancher
9 3 (0.42%) Argo
9 3 (0.42%) Functional Safety
9 3 (0.42%) Single Sign-On
10 2 (0.28%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.28%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.28%) SCCM
10 2 (0.28%) vRealize
11 1 (0.14%) HP Quality Center
11 1 (0.14%) logstash
11 1 (0.14%) NetBackup
11 1 (0.14%) Puppet
Vendors
1 60 (8.42%) Microsoft
2 53 (7.43%) Oracle
3 44 (6.17%) Databricks
4 35 (4.91%) Salesforce
5 34 (4.77%) Google
6 21 (2.95%) ServiceNow
7 17 (2.38%) Splunk
8 16 (2.24%) SAP
9 12 (1.68%) MuleSoft
10 8 (1.12%) HP
11 7 (0.98%) Charles River
11 7 (0.98%) Dynatrace
11 7 (0.98%) OpenAI
11 7 (0.98%) webMethods
12 6 (0.84%) Cisco
12 6 (0.84%) F5
12 6 (0.84%) Murex
12 6 (0.84%) UiPath
12 6 (0.84%) VMware
12 6 (0.84%) Workday