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

6 months to
31 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 55 44
Rank change year-on-year +6 -11 +6
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 908 595 793
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.51% 4.42% 4.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.07% 4.78% 5.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 616 407 526
10th Percentile £350 £350 £357
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -7.89%
75th Percentile £601 £650 £650
90th Percentile £712 £775 £765
England median daily rate £475 £500 £520
% change year-on-year -5.00% -3.85% -5.45%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 5
10th Percentile £44.32 £37.25 £51.00
25th Percentile £47.33 £40.63 £52.50
Median hourly rate £72.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -18.18% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £69.25 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +25.91% - -24.66%

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 17,907 12,452 14,448
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 89.02% 92.46% 88.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,698 8,284 9,876
10th Percentile £360 £325 £350
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £538 £550
Median % change year-on-year +2.33% -2.27% -4.35%
75th Percentile £660 £675 £688
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 291 255 193
10th Percentile £17.60 £17.00 £17.30
25th Percentile £19.94 £24.89 £22.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £32.00 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.94% -12.33% -8.75%
75th Percentile £56.63 £49.75 £55.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.75 £71.75
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +74.79% -41.51% +2.63%

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 31 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 31 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 31 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 +14 119 £550 +22.22% 50
South London -8 14 £593 +18.50% 5
East London +7 10 £590 +28.26% 16
West London -20 6 £600 +50.94% 41
North London 0 1 £400 -
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 67 (7.38%) Confluence
2 37 (4.07%) Apache Airflow
3 26 (2.86%) Apache Spark
4 22 (2.42%) SharePoint
5 13 (1.43%) Apache
5 13 (1.43%) CMS
6 6 (0.66%) Camunda
6 6 (0.66%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.33%) Kentico
8 3 (0.33%) nginx
8 3 (0.33%) SAS
8 3 (0.33%) Tomcat
8 3 (0.33%) WebLogic
9 2 (0.22%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.22%) Mule
10 1 (0.11%) Apache Pulsar
10 1 (0.11%) Appian
10 1 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.11%) Solana
Applications
1 19 (2.09%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (1.43%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.77%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 4 (0.44%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.33%) Trello
6 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.11%) Mingle
7 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (1.43%) Aladdin
1 13 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.88%) Findur
3 7 (0.77%) SAP S/4HANA
4 6 (0.66%) Oracle EBS
5 5 (0.55%) BambooHR
5 5 (0.55%) SAP GRC
6 4 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
6 4 (0.44%) Shopify
7 3 (0.33%) Distributed Ledger
7 3 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
9 1 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
9 1 (0.11%) Infor CloudSuite
9 1 (0.11%) Infor LN
9 1 (0.11%) Infor M3
9 1 (0.11%) IntelliMatch
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
9 1 (0.11%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 315 (34.69%) Azure
2 272 (29.96%) AWS
3 197 (21.70%) GitHub
4 159 (17.51%) Azure DevOps
5 124 (13.66%) GitHub Actions
6 79 (8.70%) Serverless
7 73 (8.04%) GCP
8 71 (7.82%) Power Platform
9 61 (6.72%) AWS Lambda
10 52 (5.73%) Amazon S3
11 50 (5.51%) dbt
12 41 (4.52%) Snowflake
13 34 (3.74%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 31 (3.41%) Amazon ECS
15 30 (3.30%) GitHub Copilot
16 26 (2.86%) Amazon EC2
16 26 (2.86%) Azure Monitor
17 24 (2.64%) AWS CloudFormation
17 24 (2.64%) Azure AKS
18 21 (2.31%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (0.99%) HTTP
2 7 (0.77%) Network Security
2 7 (0.77%) TCP/IP
2 7 (0.77%) WAN
2 7 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
3 6 (0.66%) BGP
3 6 (0.66%) DNS
3 6 (0.66%) Firewall
3 6 (0.66%) LAN
4 5 (0.55%) DHCP
5 4 (0.44%) Ethernet VPN
5 4 (0.44%) NX-OS
5 4 (0.44%) TACACS
5 4 (0.44%) VXLAN
6 3 (0.33%) FTP
6 3 (0.33%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (0.33%) SMS
7 2 (0.22%) Bluetooth
7 2 (0.22%) SSH
7 2 (0.22%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 59 (6.50%) Power BI
2 57 (6.28%) Data Warehouse
3 55 (6.06%) PostgreSQL
4 51 (5.62%) NoSQL
5 50 (5.51%) SQL Server
6 41 (4.52%) MongoDB
7 33 (3.63%) Relational Database
8 26 (2.86%) Amazon Redshift
8 26 (2.86%) DynamoDB
9 24 (2.64%) Amazon Athena
10 20 (2.20%) Amazon RDS
10 20 (2.20%) Data Lake
11 19 (2.09%) Big Data
11 19 (2.09%) Tableau
12 18 (1.98%) BigQuery
13 14 (1.54%) Metadata
14 12 (1.32%) Oracle Database
15 11 (1.21%) MySQL
15 11 (1.21%) Redis
16 10 (1.10%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 170 (18.72%) Git
2 152 (16.74%) Jenkins
3 127 (13.99%) JIRA
4 119 (13.11%) Selenium
5 109 (12.00%) GitLab
6 61 (6.72%) Cypress.io
7 52 (5.73%) JMeter
8 47 (5.18%) JUnit
9 46 (5.07%) Postman
10 41 (4.52%) Cucumber
11 40 (4.41%) REST Assured
12 21 (2.31%) Gatling
12 21 (2.31%) Gradle
13 20 (2.20%) LoadRunner
14 18 (1.98%) Appium
14 18 (1.98%) Maven
15 17 (1.87%) Bitbucket
15 17 (1.87%) Mockito
16 16 (1.76%) SonarQube
17 15 (1.65%) Zephyr
General
1 277 (30.51%) Finance
2 246 (27.09%) Social Skills
3 138 (15.20%) Analytical Skills
4 134 (14.76%) Banking
5 90 (9.91%) Public Sector
6 29 (3.19%) Front Office
7 23 (2.53%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.20%) Financial Institution
8 20 (2.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (1.87%) Telecoms
10 15 (1.65%) Back Office
10 15 (1.65%) Legal
11 14 (1.54%) Influencing Skills
12 13 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
13 11 (1.21%) Marketing
14 10 (1.10%) Retail
15 8 (0.88%) Law
15 8 (0.88%) Local Government
16 5 (0.55%) Pharmaceutical
16 5 (0.55%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 203 (22.36%) Developer
2 154 (16.96%) Senior
3 88 (9.69%) Lead
4 67 (7.38%) Tester
5 58 (6.39%) Test Engineer
6 56 (6.17%) DevOps Engineer
7 54 (5.95%) Data Engineer
7 54 (5.95%) Java Developer
8 51 (5.62%) QA Engineer
9 47 (5.18%) Analyst
10 46 (5.07%) Automation Engineer
10 46 (5.07%) Software Engineer
11 43 (4.74%) Architect
12 41 (4.52%) Full-Stack Developer
13 38 (4.19%) Senior Developer
14 36 (3.96%) Test Manager
15 34 (3.74%) Test Automation Engineer
16 33 (3.63%) Test Leader
17 29 (3.19%) Automation Tester
18 24 (2.64%) Java Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 145 (15.97%) Terraform
2 134 (14.76%) REST
3 110 (12.11%) Playwright
4 100 (11.01%) Kafka
5 98 (10.79%) RESTful
6 93 (10.24%) React
7 77 (8.48%) Spring
8 72 (7.93%) .NET
9 66 (7.27%) Spring Boot
10 59 (6.50%) HTML
11 51 (5.62%) CSS
12 50 (5.51%) Node.js
13 32 (3.52%) PySpark
14 30 (3.30%) Middleware
15 29 (3.19%) JSON
16 28 (3.08%) AngularJS
16 28 (3.08%) XML
17 25 (2.75%) SOAP
18 24 (2.64%) HTML5
19 22 (2.42%) Redux
Miscellaneous
1 144 (15.86%) Cloud Native
2 85 (9.36%) Distributed Systems
3 71 (7.82%) Product Ownership
4 33 (3.63%) Onboarding
5 28 (3.08%) AI Agents
6 26 (2.86%) Data Protection Act
6 26 (2.86%) Enterprise Software
7 18 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
8 17 (1.87%) Legacy Systems
8 17 (1.87%) Virtual Team
9 16 (1.76%) Fixed Income
10 15 (1.65%) Data Structures
11 14 (1.54%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.21%) Algorithms
12 11 (1.21%) Greenfield Project
13 10 (1.10%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 9 (0.99%) Equities
14 9 (0.99%) Security Posture
14 9 (0.99%) SWIFT Messaging Network
15 8 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 62 (6.83%) Linux
2 45 (4.96%) Unix
3 36 (3.96%) Windows
4 18 (1.98%) Android
5 17 (1.87%) Apple iOS
6 13 (1.43%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (0.77%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.44%) VMS
9 3 (0.33%) Solaris
9 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.22%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 568 (62.56%) CI/CD
2 390 (42.95%) Agile
3 368 (40.53%) DevOps
4 188 (20.70%) AI
5 177 (19.49%) Infrastructure as Code
6 172 (18.94%) Problem-Solving
7 164 (18.06%) Microservices
8 163 (17.95%) Validation
9 158 (17.40%) Software Engineering
10 153 (16.85%) Continuous Improvement
11 146 (16.08%) Test Strategy
12 140 (15.42%) Containerisation
13 138 (15.20%) Observability
14 121 (13.33%) Scrum
15 111 (12.22%) TDD
16 110 (12.11%) Regression Testing
16 110 (12.11%) Stakeholder Management
17 108 (11.89%) User Acceptance Testing
18 97 (10.68%) End-to-End Testing
19 95 (10.46%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 306 (33.70%) Python
2 251 (27.64%) SQL
3 246 (27.09%) Java
4 140 (15.42%) JavaScript
5 118 (13.00%) TypeScript
6 85 (9.36%) C#
7 49 (5.40%) PowerShell
8 36 (3.96%) Bash
9 26 (2.86%) Bicep
10 21 (2.31%) Kotlin
11 17 (1.87%) Ruby
12 16 (1.76%) Scala
13 13 (1.43%) Apex Code
14 12 (1.32%) C++
14 12 (1.32%) Go
14 12 (1.32%) PL/SQL
15 10 (1.10%) Shell Script
16 9 (0.99%) VB.NET
17 7 (0.77%) Perl
17 7 (0.77%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 245 (26.98%) Security Cleared
2 218 (24.01%) SC Cleared
3 62 (6.83%) Degree
4 37 (4.07%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (3.52%) ISTQB
6 23 (2.53%) DV Cleared
7 21 (2.31%) AWS Certification
8 18 (1.98%) BPSS Clearance
9 12 (1.32%) Azure Certification
10 9 (0.99%) ISEB
11 7 (0.77%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 7 (0.77%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 7 (0.77%) Master's Degree
12 6 (0.66%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 6 (0.66%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.44%) CISSP
14 3 (0.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 3 (0.33%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
14 3 (0.33%) PhD
15 2 (0.22%) TOGAF Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 248 (27.31%) QA
2 73 (8.04%) Data Quality
3 45 (4.96%) Accessibility
4 23 (2.53%) GDPR
5 19 (2.09%) WCAG
6 12 (1.32%) ISO 20022
7 11 (1.21%) SLA
8 9 (0.99%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 9 (0.99%) NIST
9 8 (0.88%) GRC
10 3 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.33%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.33%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.33%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.22%) MiFID
11 2 (0.22%) NCSC
11 2 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.11%) GxP
12 1 (0.11%) SOC 2
System Software
1 164 (18.06%) Docker
2 11 (1.21%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.77%) VMware Infrastructure
4 6 (0.66%) Active Directory
5 3 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
5 3 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.33%) VMware NSX
6 2 (0.22%) Virtual Desktop
7 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 162 (17.84%) Kubernetes
2 51 (5.62%) Grafana
3 44 (4.85%) Ansible
4 41 (4.52%) Prometheus
5 16 (1.76%) Puppet
6 14 (1.54%) Progress Chef
7 10 (1.10%) Kibana
8 9 (0.99%) Control-M
9 7 (0.77%) HP ALM
10 5 (0.55%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.44%) Packer
11 4 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.33%) Argo
12 3 (0.33%) Istio
12 3 (0.33%) Kustomize
12 3 (0.33%) Oracle RMAN
13 1 (0.11%) HP Quality Center
13 1 (0.11%) linkerd
13 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 102 (11.23%) Microsoft
2 59 (6.50%) Oracle
3 44 (4.85%) Salesforce
4 39 (4.30%) Databricks
5 32 (3.52%) Google
6 28 (3.08%) ServiceNow
7 27 (2.97%) IBM
8 21 (2.31%) SAP
9 19 (2.09%) Splunk
10 18 (1.98%) UiPath
11 17 (1.87%) Informatica
12 15 (1.65%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.54%) Cisco
14 12 (1.32%) VMware
15 11 (1.21%) HP
16 10 (1.10%) Dynatrace
16 10 (1.10%) OpenAI
17 9 (0.99%) SaltStack
18 8 (0.88%) Foundry
18 8 (0.88%) OpenLink