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 14 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 56 44
Rank change year-on-year +6 -12 +2
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 910 582 779
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.52% 4.36% 4.81%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.08% 4.71% 5.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 617 387 511
10th Percentile £350 £348 £350
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -7.28%
75th Percentile £600 £644 £638
90th Percentile £714 £775 £750
England median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -5.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 4 4 3
10th Percentile £44.32 £37.25 £53.13
25th Percentile £47.33 £40.63 £57.81
Median hourly rate £72.00 £45.00 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year +60.00% -34.55% -23.61%
75th Percentile £97.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £67.50 £57.50 £57.50
% change year-on-year +17.39% - -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 17,900 12,362 14,455
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.84% 92.61% 89.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,695 8,173 9,697
10th Percentile £359 £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 £663 £675 £675
90th Percentile £775 £775 £800
England median daily rate £525 £508 £525
% change year-on-year +3.45% -3.33% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 297 255 180
10th Percentile £16.70 £17.00 £17.25
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £35.00 £32.00 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.38% -8.57% -12.50%
75th Percentile £56.25 £49.13 £55.00
90th Percentile £85.09 £63.75 £72.19
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -1.71%

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 14 September 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 14 September 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 14 September 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 +16 118 £550 +22.22% 99
South London -5 16 £593 +18.50% 15
East London +5 10 £590 +13.46% 21
West London -20 5 £600 +50.94% 43
North London +1 2 £463 -
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 (7.58%) Confluence
2 38 (4.18%) Apache Airflow
3 25 (2.75%) Apache Spark
4 23 (2.53%) SharePoint
5 14 (1.54%) Apache
5 14 (1.54%) CMS
6 7 (0.77%) Camunda
6 7 (0.77%) 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%) Ethereum
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 5 (0.55%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.33%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.33%) Trello
6 2 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.22%) Mingle
7 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.88%) Aladdin
3 7 (0.77%) Findur
3 7 (0.77%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.55%) SAP GRC
5 4 (0.44%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.44%) Salesforce CRM
6 3 (0.33%) Distributed Ledger
6 3 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
6 3 (0.33%) Shopify
7 2 (0.22%) BambooHR
7 2 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
8 1 (0.11%) Infor CloudSuite
8 1 (0.11%) Infor LN
8 1 (0.11%) Infor M3
8 1 (0.11%) IntelliMatch
8 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
8 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
8 1 (0.11%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 312 (34.29%) Azure
2 273 (30.00%) AWS
3 189 (20.77%) GitHub
4 155 (17.03%) Azure DevOps
5 124 (13.63%) GitHub Actions
6 82 (9.01%) Serverless
7 75 (8.24%) GCP
8 69 (7.58%) Power Platform
9 65 (7.14%) AWS Lambda
10 52 (5.71%) Amazon S3
11 49 (5.38%) dbt
12 39 (4.29%) Snowflake
13 38 (4.18%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 32 (3.52%) Amazon ECS
14 32 (3.52%) GitHub Copilot
15 27 (2.97%) AWS CloudFormation
16 24 (2.64%) Amazon EC2
16 24 (2.64%) Azure Monitor
17 23 (2.53%) Amazon EKS
17 23 (2.53%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 9 (0.99%) HTTP
2 7 (0.77%) DNS
2 7 (0.77%) TCP/IP
2 7 (0.77%) Wi-Fi
3 6 (0.66%) BGP
3 6 (0.66%) DHCP
3 6 (0.66%) Firewall
3 6 (0.66%) LAN
3 6 (0.66%) Network Security
3 6 (0.66%) WAN
4 4 (0.44%) Ethernet VPN
4 4 (0.44%) NX-OS
4 4 (0.44%) TACACS
4 4 (0.44%) VXLAN
5 3 (0.33%) FTP
5 3 (0.33%) Internet
5 3 (0.33%) OpenLDAP
5 3 (0.33%) SMS
6 2 (0.22%) Bluetooth
6 2 (0.22%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 61 (6.70%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (6.04%) Data Warehouse
2 55 (6.04%) Power BI
3 50 (5.49%) NoSQL
3 50 (5.49%) SQL Server
4 39 (4.29%) Relational Database
5 38 (4.18%) MongoDB
6 24 (2.64%) Amazon Redshift
6 24 (2.64%) DynamoDB
7 22 (2.42%) Amazon Athena
7 22 (2.42%) Data Lake
8 19 (2.09%) Amazon RDS
8 19 (2.09%) Big Data
9 16 (1.76%) Tableau
10 15 (1.65%) BigQuery
11 14 (1.54%) Metadata
12 13 (1.43%) Redis
13 12 (1.32%) Amazon Aurora
13 12 (1.32%) MySQL
13 12 (1.32%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 180 (19.78%) Git
2 162 (17.80%) Jenkins
3 129 (14.18%) JIRA
4 114 (12.53%) Selenium
5 105 (11.54%) GitLab
6 60 (6.59%) Cypress.io
7 50 (5.49%) JMeter
7 50 (5.49%) JUnit
8 44 (4.84%) Cucumber
8 44 (4.84%) Postman
9 43 (4.73%) REST Assured
10 23 (2.53%) Gradle
11 22 (2.42%) Gatling
11 22 (2.42%) Maven
12 21 (2.31%) SonarQube
13 19 (2.09%) Mockito
14 18 (1.98%) LoadRunner
15 15 (1.65%) Appium
15 15 (1.65%) Bitbucket
15 15 (1.65%) WebDriver
General
1 276 (30.33%) Finance
2 246 (27.03%) Social Skills
3 144 (15.82%) Analytical Skills
4 134 (14.73%) Banking
5 83 (9.12%) Public Sector
6 32 (3.52%) Front Office
7 21 (2.31%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 21 (2.31%) Investment Banking
8 18 (1.98%) Financial Institution
9 14 (1.54%) Telecoms
10 13 (1.43%) Back Office
10 13 (1.43%) Marketing
11 11 (1.21%) Documentation Skills
11 11 (1.21%) Influencing Skills
11 11 (1.21%) Legal
12 10 (1.10%) Law
12 10 (1.10%) Retail
13 8 (0.88%) Local Government
14 5 (0.55%) Games
14 5 (0.55%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 211 (23.19%) Developer
2 160 (17.58%) Senior
3 91 (10.00%) Lead
4 66 (7.25%) Tester
5 58 (6.37%) Java Developer
6 57 (6.26%) Test Engineer
7 56 (6.15%) Data Engineer
8 55 (6.04%) DevOps Engineer
8 55 (6.04%) QA Engineer
9 48 (5.27%) Software Engineer
10 46 (5.05%) Analyst
10 46 (5.05%) Automation Engineer
11 44 (4.84%) Senior Developer
12 43 (4.73%) Full-Stack Developer
13 41 (4.51%) Architect
14 35 (3.85%) Test Manager
15 33 (3.63%) Test Leader
16 32 (3.52%) Test Automation Engineer
17 26 (2.86%) QA Automation Engineer
18 25 (2.75%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 144 (15.82%) Terraform
2 140 (15.38%) REST
3 113 (12.42%) Playwright
4 106 (11.65%) Kafka
5 104 (11.43%) RESTful
6 93 (10.22%) React
7 85 (9.34%) Spring
8 74 (8.13%) Spring Boot
9 72 (7.91%) .NET
10 61 (6.70%) HTML
11 53 (5.82%) CSS
12 49 (5.38%) Node.js
13 36 (3.96%) PySpark
14 32 (3.52%) AngularJS
15 28 (3.08%) Middleware
15 28 (3.08%) XML
16 27 (2.97%) JSON
16 27 (2.97%) SOAP
17 22 (2.42%) HTML5
18 21 (2.31%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 148 (16.26%) Cloud Native
2 88 (9.67%) Distributed Systems
3 77 (8.46%) Product Ownership
4 34 (3.74%) Onboarding
5 32 (3.52%) AI Agents
6 26 (2.86%) Enterprise Software
7 23 (2.53%) Data Protection Act
8 20 (2.20%) Legacy Systems
9 19 (2.09%) Data Structures
9 19 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
10 17 (1.87%) Virtual Team
11 15 (1.65%) Fixed Income
11 15 (1.65%) Mobile App
12 12 (1.32%) Algorithms
13 11 (1.21%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 11 (1.21%) Security Posture
14 10 (1.10%) Private Cloud
15 9 (0.99%) Greenfield Project
15 9 (0.99%) Market Risk
15 9 (0.99%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 64 (7.03%) Linux
2 46 (5.05%) Unix
3 32 (3.52%) Windows
4 18 (1.98%) Android
5 17 (1.87%) Apple iOS
6 14 (1.54%) 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
11 1 (0.11%) CentOS
11 1 (0.11%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 581 (63.85%) CI/CD
2 401 (44.07%) Agile
3 367 (40.33%) DevOps
4 198 (21.76%) AI
5 177 (19.45%) Infrastructure as Code
5 177 (19.45%) Problem-Solving
6 175 (19.23%) Microservices
7 171 (18.79%) Software Engineering
8 162 (17.80%) Validation
9 159 (17.47%) Continuous Improvement
10 149 (16.37%) Containerisation
11 148 (16.26%) Test Strategy
12 141 (15.49%) Observability
13 128 (14.07%) Scrum
14 121 (13.30%) TDD
15 112 (12.31%) Stakeholder Management
16 106 (11.65%) Regression Testing
17 104 (11.43%) Event-Driven
17 104 (11.43%) User Acceptance Testing
18 98 (10.77%) End-to-End Testing
Programming Languages
1 309 (33.96%) Python
2 252 (27.69%) Java
3 249 (27.36%) SQL
4 141 (15.49%) JavaScript
5 124 (13.63%) TypeScript
6 83 (9.12%) C#
7 40 (4.40%) PowerShell
8 37 (4.07%) Bash
9 25 (2.75%) Bicep
10 23 (2.53%) Kotlin
11 16 (1.76%) Scala
12 14 (1.54%) Ruby
13 12 (1.32%) C++
13 12 (1.32%) PL/SQL
14 11 (1.21%) Go
15 10 (1.10%) Apex Code
16 9 (0.99%) C
16 9 (0.99%) Shell Script
16 9 (0.99%) VB.NET
17 8 (0.88%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 247 (27.14%) Security Cleared
2 221 (24.29%) SC Cleared
3 63 (6.92%) Degree
4 38 (4.18%) Computer Science Degree
5 30 (3.30%) ISTQB
6 29 (3.19%) DV Cleared
7 22 (2.42%) AWS Certification
8 19 (2.09%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (1.54%) Azure Certification
10 9 (0.99%) ISEB
11 8 (0.88%) Master's Degree
12 7 (0.77%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 7 (0.77%) DBS Check
12 7 (0.77%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 6 (0.66%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 4 (0.44%) CISSP
14 4 (0.44%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Certified Professional
15 3 (0.33%) PhD
16 2 (0.22%) Cisco Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 260 (28.57%) QA
2 72 (7.91%) Data Quality
3 47 (5.16%) Accessibility
4 22 (2.42%) GDPR
5 17 (1.87%) WCAG
6 12 (1.32%) ISO 20022
7 10 (1.10%) SLA
8 9 (0.99%) GRC
8 9 (0.99%) NIST
9 7 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.33%) EU AI Act
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
11 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
12 1 (0.11%) GxP
12 1 (0.11%) SEPA
System Software
1 176 (19.34%) 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 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.11%) Firmware
6 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 170 (18.68%) Kubernetes
2 54 (5.93%) Grafana
3 45 (4.95%) Ansible
4 44 (4.84%) Prometheus
5 17 (1.87%) Puppet
6 15 (1.65%) Progress Chef
7 10 (1.10%) Control-M
7 10 (1.10%) Kibana
8 6 (0.66%) HP ALM
9 5 (0.55%) HP Fortify
9 5 (0.55%) Single Sign-On
10 4 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.33%) Argo
11 3 (0.33%) Kustomize
11 3 (0.33%) Oracle RMAN
11 3 (0.33%) Packer
12 2 (0.22%) Istio
12 2 (0.22%) Rancher
13 1 (0.11%) systemd
13 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 106 (11.65%) Microsoft
2 56 (6.15%) Oracle
3 43 (4.73%) Databricks
4 40 (4.40%) Salesforce
5 35 (3.85%) Google
6 29 (3.19%) ServiceNow
7 27 (2.97%) IBM
8 21 (2.31%) SAP
9 20 (2.20%) Splunk
10 19 (2.09%) UiPath
11 17 (1.87%) Informatica
12 15 (1.65%) Red Hat
13 14 (1.54%) Cisco
14 13 (1.43%) Dynatrace
14 13 (1.43%) VMware
15 12 (1.32%) OpenAI
16 11 (1.21%) Foundry
17 10 (1.10%) HP
17 10 (1.10%) SaltStack
18 7 (0.77%) OpenLink