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

6 months to
13 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 55 46
Rank change year-on-year +5 -9 +5
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 884 606 743
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.39% 4.47% 4.58%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.93% 4.84% 5.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 602 410 503
10th Percentile £350 £340 £358
25th Percentile £425 £400 £420
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -7.08%
75th Percentile £600 £675 £675
90th Percentile £709 £776 £775
England median daily rate £475 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 4 5
10th Percentile £52.35 £37.25 £51.00
25th Percentile £67.41 £40.63 £52.50
Median hourly rate £95.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +111.11% -18.18% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £67.86 £50.00 £56.25
% change year-on-year +35.72% -11.11% -13.79%

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 17,930 12,520 14,416
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.08% 92.34% 88.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,792 8,353 10,096
10th Percentile £363 £325 £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 £663 £675 £688
90th Percentile £775 £787 £800
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 291 254 202
10th Percentile £17.60 £16.50 £17.08
25th Percentile £19.50 £24.66 £22.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £29.50 £35.61
Median % change year-on-year +20.34% -17.15% -12.67%
75th Percentile £56.63 £48.44 £53.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.60 £71.25
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +3.24%

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 13 August 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 13 August 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 13 August 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 +12 122 £550 +15.79% 53
South London -2 18 £530 +6.00% 9
East London +4 9 £545 +18.48% 12
West London -16 7 £600 +51.90% 11
North London -2 1 £400 - 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 60 (6.79%) Confluence
2 37 (4.19%) Apache Airflow
3 26 (2.94%) Apache Spark
4 17 (1.92%) SharePoint
5 15 (1.70%) Apache
6 13 (1.47%) CMS
7 5 (0.57%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.45%) nginx
8 4 (0.45%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 4 (0.45%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.45%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.34%) Camunda
9 3 (0.34%) Kentico
10 2 (0.23%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.23%) Mule
10 2 (0.23%) SAS
11 1 (0.11%) Apache Solr
11 1 (0.11%) ColdFusion
11 1 (0.11%) Ethereum
11 1 (0.11%) Oracle Workflow
Applications
1 15 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (1.02%) Microsoft Office
3 5 (0.57%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 5 (0.57%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.45%) Chatbot
4 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Project
5 3 (0.34%) Trello
6 1 (0.11%) Mingle
6 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 15 (1.70%) Aladdin
2 12 (1.36%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.90%) Findur
4 6 (0.68%) Oracle EBS
5 5 (0.57%) BambooHR
5 5 (0.57%) Shopify
6 4 (0.45%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.34%) Distributed Ledger
8 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite
8 2 (0.23%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.23%) Infor M3
8 2 (0.23%) Loan IQ
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
9 1 (0.11%) IntelliMatch
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
9 1 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
9 1 (0.11%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 308 (34.84%) Azure
2 268 (30.32%) AWS
3 194 (21.95%) GitHub
4 150 (16.97%) Azure DevOps
5 120 (13.57%) GitHub Actions
6 76 (8.60%) Serverless
7 68 (7.69%) Power Platform
8 66 (7.47%) GCP
9 58 (6.56%) AWS Lambda
10 52 (5.88%) Amazon S3
11 47 (5.32%) dbt
12 39 (4.41%) Snowflake
13 32 (3.62%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 32 (3.62%) Amazon ECS
14 30 (3.39%) GitHub Copilot
15 26 (2.94%) Amazon EC2
16 24 (2.71%) Azure Data Factory
17 22 (2.49%) Azure AKS
18 21 (2.38%) Azure Monitor
19 18 (2.04%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.90%) HTTP
2 7 (0.79%) Network Security
3 6 (0.68%) Firewall
3 6 (0.68%) TCP/IP
3 6 (0.68%) WAN
4 5 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
5 4 (0.45%) BGP
5 4 (0.45%) DHCP
5 4 (0.45%) DNS
5 4 (0.45%) LAN
6 3 (0.34%) Ethernet VPN
6 3 (0.34%) FTP
6 3 (0.34%) NX-OS
6 3 (0.34%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (0.34%) SMS
6 3 (0.34%) TACACS
6 3 (0.34%) VXLAN
7 2 (0.23%) Bluetooth
7 2 (0.23%) Multicast
7 2 (0.23%) NaaS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 58 (6.56%) PostgreSQL
2 57 (6.45%) Power BI
3 54 (6.11%) Data Warehouse
4 49 (5.54%) NoSQL
5 44 (4.98%) SQL Server
6 40 (4.52%) MongoDB
7 31 (3.51%) Relational Database
8 28 (3.17%) DynamoDB
9 23 (2.60%) Amazon Athena
9 23 (2.60%) Amazon Redshift
9 23 (2.60%) Data Lake
10 21 (2.38%) Tableau
11 20 (2.26%) Big Data
12 18 (2.04%) Amazon RDS
13 16 (1.81%) BigQuery
14 13 (1.47%) Metadata
15 11 (1.24%) Elasticsearch
15 11 (1.24%) MySQL
15 11 (1.24%) Oracle Database
15 11 (1.24%) Redis
Development Applications
1 155 (17.53%) Git
2 142 (16.06%) Jenkins
3 128 (14.48%) JIRA
4 105 (11.88%) Selenium
5 100 (11.31%) GitLab
6 57 (6.45%) Cypress.io
7 47 (5.32%) Cucumber
8 45 (5.09%) JMeter
9 44 (4.98%) JUnit
10 43 (4.86%) Postman
11 39 (4.41%) REST Assured
12 20 (2.26%) Maven
13 19 (2.15%) Appium
13 19 (2.15%) Gradle
14 18 (2.04%) Gatling
15 17 (1.92%) LoadRunner
15 17 (1.92%) Zephyr
16 16 (1.81%) Bitbucket
17 15 (1.70%) Mockito
18 13 (1.47%) SpecFlow
General
1 257 (29.07%) Finance
2 234 (26.47%) Social Skills
3 125 (14.14%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (13.80%) Banking
5 90 (10.18%) Public Sector
6 25 (2.83%) Front Office
7 24 (2.71%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.26%) Financial Institution
9 18 (2.04%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 15 (1.70%) Back Office
10 15 (1.70%) Legal
10 15 (1.70%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.58%) Influencing Skills
12 13 (1.47%) Documentation Skills
13 9 (1.02%) Marketing
13 9 (1.02%) Retail
14 7 (0.79%) Law
14 7 (0.79%) Local Government
14 7 (0.79%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.57%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 188 (21.27%) Developer
2 150 (16.97%) Senior
3 94 (10.63%) Lead
4 72 (8.14%) Tester
5 59 (6.67%) Test Engineer
6 56 (6.33%) Data Engineer
7 50 (5.66%) Java Developer
8 49 (5.54%) QA Engineer
9 48 (5.43%) DevOps Engineer
10 47 (5.32%) Analyst
10 47 (5.32%) Architect
11 41 (4.64%) Automation Engineer
12 40 (4.52%) Software Engineer
13 38 (4.30%) Full-Stack Developer
14 35 (3.96%) Senior Developer
15 34 (3.85%) Test Automation Engineer
16 33 (3.73%) Test Leader
17 31 (3.51%) Automation Tester
18 28 (3.17%) Test Manager
19 24 (2.71%) Azure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 129 (14.59%) REST
2 110 (12.44%) Playwright
3 99 (11.20%) Kafka
4 95 (10.75%) React
5 94 (10.63%) RESTful
6 73 (8.26%) Spring
7 64 (7.24%) .NET
8 61 (6.90%) Spring Boot
9 51 (5.77%) Node.js
10 50 (5.66%) HTML
11 48 (5.43%) CSS
12 29 (3.28%) PySpark
13 28 (3.17%) AngularJS
14 24 (2.71%) HTML5
14 24 (2.71%) JSON
15 23 (2.60%) SOAP
15 23 (2.60%) XML
16 22 (2.49%) CSS3
16 22 (2.49%) Middleware
16 22 (2.49%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 142 (16.06%) Cloud Native
2 81 (9.16%) Distributed Systems
3 63 (7.13%) Product Ownership
4 28 (3.17%) Data Protection Act
5 27 (3.05%) Onboarding
6 23 (2.60%) AI Agents
7 22 (2.49%) Enterprise Software
8 21 (2.38%) Legacy Systems
8 21 (2.38%) Self-Motivation
9 18 (2.04%) Virtual Team
10 17 (1.92%) Fixed Income
11 14 (1.58%) Data Structures
12 13 (1.47%) Mobile App
13 12 (1.36%) Algorithms
13 12 (1.36%) Greenfield Project
13 12 (1.36%) Management Information System
14 11 (1.24%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 10 (1.13%) Equities
16 9 (1.02%) Distributed Architecture
16 9 (1.02%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 56 (6.33%) Linux
2 38 (4.30%) Unix
3 33 (3.73%) Windows
4 18 (2.04%) Android
5 17 (1.92%) Apple iOS
6 13 (1.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.90%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.45%) Solaris
8 4 (0.45%) Windows Server 2008
9 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
9 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.23%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.11%) Mac OS
11 1 (0.11%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 553 (62.56%) CI/CD
2 367 (41.52%) Agile
3 353 (39.93%) DevOps
4 179 (20.25%) AI
5 165 (18.67%) Infrastructure as Code
6 158 (17.87%) Problem-Solving
7 157 (17.76%) Continuous Improvement
8 156 (17.65%) Microservices
9 147 (16.63%) Validation
10 141 (15.95%) Software Engineering
10 141 (15.95%) Test Strategy
11 133 (15.05%) Observability
12 132 (14.93%) Containerisation
13 108 (12.22%) Regression Testing
14 104 (11.76%) Scrum
15 103 (11.65%) TDD
16 98 (11.09%) User Acceptance Testing
17 97 (10.97%) Stakeholder Management
18 94 (10.63%) Full-Stack Development
19 91 (10.29%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 282 (31.90%) Python
2 232 (26.24%) SQL
3 228 (25.79%) Java
4 134 (15.16%) JavaScript
5 124 (14.03%) TypeScript
6 88 (9.95%) C#
7 44 (4.98%) PowerShell
8 29 (3.28%) Bash
9 23 (2.60%) Kotlin
10 22 (2.49%) Bicep
11 17 (1.92%) Ruby
12 16 (1.81%) Scala
13 14 (1.58%) Apex Code
13 14 (1.58%) PL/SQL
14 11 (1.24%) C++
14 11 (1.24%) Go
15 7 (0.79%) VB.NET
16 6 (0.68%) C
16 6 (0.68%) Perl
16 6 (0.68%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 221 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 194 (21.95%) SC Cleared
3 53 (6.00%) Degree
4 33 (3.73%) Computer Science Degree
5 27 (3.05%) ISTQB
6 19 (2.15%) DV Cleared
7 17 (1.92%) AWS Certification
7 17 (1.92%) BPSS Clearance
8 9 (1.02%) Azure Certification
9 7 (0.79%) DBS Check
10 6 (0.68%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
10 6 (0.68%) ISEB
11 5 (0.57%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 5 (0.57%) Master's Degree
12 4 (0.45%) CISSP
12 4 (0.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 3 (0.34%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 3 (0.34%) PhD
14 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 2 (0.23%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 239 (27.04%) QA
2 72 (8.14%) Data Quality
3 50 (5.66%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.71%) GDPR
5 22 (2.49%) WCAG
6 10 (1.13%) SLA
7 9 (1.02%) ISO 20022
8 7 (0.79%) NIST
9 6 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.34%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.34%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.34%) MiFID
10 3 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 3 (0.34%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.23%) GRC
11 2 (0.23%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.23%) NCSC
12 1 (0.11%) GxP
12 1 (0.11%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 151 (17.08%) Docker
2 12 (1.36%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.79%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.68%) Active Directory
5 4 (0.45%) Oracle RAC
5 4 (0.45%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.23%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.11%) Firmware
8 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
8 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 152 (17.19%) Kubernetes
2 133 (15.05%) Terraform
3 49 (5.54%) Grafana
4 42 (4.75%) Prometheus
5 38 (4.30%) Ansible
6 14 (1.58%) Puppet
7 13 (1.47%) Progress Chef
8 9 (1.02%) Kibana
9 8 (0.90%) Control-M
10 7 (0.79%) HP ALM
11 6 (0.68%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (0.57%) HP Fortify
13 4 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
13 4 (0.45%) Oracle RMAN
13 4 (0.45%) Packer
14 3 (0.34%) Kustomize
15 2 (0.23%) Amdocs OSS
15 2 (0.23%) Istio
16 1 (0.11%) Argo
16 1 (0.11%) linkerd
Vendors
1 94 (10.63%) Microsoft
2 53 (6.00%) Oracle
3 51 (5.77%) Salesforce
4 38 (4.30%) Databricks
5 29 (3.28%) ServiceNow
6 27 (3.05%) Google
7 24 (2.71%) IBM
8 17 (1.92%) Splunk
9 15 (1.70%) Informatica
9 15 (1.70%) UiPath
10 14 (1.58%) Red Hat
11 12 (1.36%) SAP
11 12 (1.36%) VMware
12 11 (1.24%) Dynatrace
12 11 (1.24%) HP
13 10 (1.13%) Cisco
14 9 (1.02%) OpenAI
15 8 (0.90%) OpenLink
15 8 (0.90%) SaltStack
16 7 (0.79%) Guidewire