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

6 months to
22 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 56 45
Rank change year-on-year +8 -11 +4
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 923 591 751
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.56% 4.45% 4.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.14% 4.81% 5.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 628 396 495
10th Percentile £350 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -7.49%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £625
90th Percentile £725 £768 £750
England median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 3
10th Percentile £44.39 £37.25 £53.13
25th Percentile £47.50 £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 £97.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £69.00 £57.50 £58.75
% change year-on-year +20.00% -2.13% -21.67%

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 17,965 12,280 14,371
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.83% 92.50% 89.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,777 8,103 9,542
10th Percentile £359 £330 £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 £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 310 249 177
10th Percentile £16.50 £17.00 £17.25
25th Percentile £19.50 £24.77 £23.80
Median hourly rate £35.00 £31.49 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +11.15% -10.03% -7.28%
75th Percentile £57.50 £47.50 £55.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.75 £75.00
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -41.51% -2.95%

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 22 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 22 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 22 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 +13 117 £550 +22.22% 105
South London -2 15 £593 +18.50% 5
East London +4 7 £658 +26.44% 12
West London -24 4 £600 +50.94% 48
North London +1 2 £463 - 2
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 72 (7.80%) Confluence
2 43 (4.66%) Apache Airflow
3 26 (2.82%) Apache Spark
4 23 (2.49%) SharePoint
5 16 (1.73%) CMS
6 14 (1.52%) Apache
7 9 (0.98%) Camunda
8 7 (0.76%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.33%) Kentico
10 3 (0.33%) nginx
10 3 (0.33%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.33%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.22%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.22%) Mule
11 2 (0.22%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.22%) SAS
12 1 (0.11%) Appian
12 1 (0.11%) Jupyter
12 1 (0.11%) ThingWorx
Applications
1 18 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.52%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.65%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.54%) 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
7 1 (0.11%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 13 (1.41%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.98%) Aladdin
2 9 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.54%) SAP GRC
4 4 (0.43%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.33%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.22%) BambooHR
6 2 (0.22%) Distributed Ledger
6 2 (0.22%) Findur
6 2 (0.22%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.22%) SAP MDG
6 2 (0.22%) Shopify
7 1 (0.11%) Infor CloudSuite
7 1 (0.11%) Infor LN
7 1 (0.11%) Infor M3
7 1 (0.11%) IntelliMatch
7 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.11%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 321 (34.78%) Azure
2 290 (31.42%) AWS
3 186 (20.15%) GitHub
4 156 (16.90%) Azure DevOps
5 119 (12.89%) GitHub Actions
6 85 (9.21%) GCP
7 84 (9.10%) Serverless
8 70 (7.58%) Power Platform
9 64 (6.93%) AWS Lambda
10 53 (5.74%) Amazon S3
11 51 (5.53%) dbt
12 42 (4.55%) Snowflake
13 39 (4.23%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 33 (3.58%) AWS CloudFormation
14 33 (3.58%) GitHub Copilot
15 30 (3.25%) Amazon ECS
16 26 (2.82%) Amazon EC2
17 25 (2.71%) Amazon EKS
17 25 (2.71%) Microsoft Copilot
18 24 (2.60%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 9 (0.98%) DNS
1 9 (0.98%) HTTP
2 8 (0.87%) TCP/IP
3 7 (0.76%) DHCP
3 7 (0.76%) Wi-Fi
4 6 (0.65%) BGP
4 6 (0.65%) Firewall
4 6 (0.65%) LAN
4 6 (0.65%) Network Security
4 6 (0.65%) WAN
5 4 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
5 4 (0.43%) Internet
5 4 (0.43%) NX-OS
5 4 (0.43%) TACACS
5 4 (0.43%) VXLAN
6 3 (0.33%) 5G
6 3 (0.33%) FTP
6 3 (0.33%) OpenLDAP
6 3 (0.33%) SMS
6 3 (0.33%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 64 (6.93%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (5.96%) Power BI
3 53 (5.74%) Data Warehouse
4 51 (5.53%) NoSQL
5 50 (5.42%) SQL Server
6 39 (4.23%) Relational Database
7 38 (4.12%) MongoDB
8 24 (2.60%) Amazon Redshift
9 22 (2.38%) Data Lake
10 21 (2.28%) DynamoDB
11 20 (2.17%) Amazon Athena
11 20 (2.17%) Amazon RDS
12 18 (1.95%) Big Data
13 16 (1.73%) Tableau
14 15 (1.63%) BigQuery
14 15 (1.63%) Redis
15 14 (1.52%) MySQL
15 14 (1.52%) Oracle Database
16 13 (1.41%) Amazon Aurora
16 13 (1.41%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 191 (20.69%) Git
2 177 (19.18%) Jenkins
3 131 (14.19%) JIRA
4 121 (13.11%) Selenium
5 108 (11.70%) GitLab
6 60 (6.50%) Cypress.io
7 56 (6.07%) JUnit
8 53 (5.74%) JMeter
9 51 (5.53%) Cucumber
10 49 (5.31%) Postman
11 44 (4.77%) REST Assured
12 23 (2.49%) Gatling
12 23 (2.49%) Gradle
12 23 (2.49%) Maven
13 22 (2.38%) SonarQube
14 20 (2.17%) LoadRunner
14 20 (2.17%) Mockito
15 16 (1.73%) Appium
16 15 (1.63%) Bitbucket
16 15 (1.63%) WebDriver
General
1 278 (30.12%) Finance
2 252 (27.30%) Social Skills
3 140 (15.17%) Banking
4 139 (15.06%) Analytical Skills
5 81 (8.78%) Public Sector
6 33 (3.58%) Front Office
7 23 (2.49%) Investment Banking
8 21 (2.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 18 (1.95%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.63%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.52%) Marketing
12 12 (1.30%) Influencing Skills
13 11 (1.19%) Back Office
13 11 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
13 11 (1.19%) Law
13 11 (1.19%) Legal
14 10 (1.08%) Local Government
14 10 (1.08%) Retail
15 6 (0.65%) Games
16 5 (0.54%) Military
Job Titles
1 204 (22.10%) Developer
2 162 (17.55%) Senior
3 93 (10.08%) Lead
4 67 (7.26%) Tester
5 61 (6.61%) Data Engineer
6 57 (6.18%) Test Engineer
7 56 (6.07%) Java Developer
8 52 (5.63%) DevOps Engineer
9 51 (5.53%) QA Engineer
10 50 (5.42%) Software Engineer
11 48 (5.20%) Automation Engineer
12 43 (4.66%) Analyst
13 42 (4.55%) Architect
14 41 (4.44%) Full-Stack Developer
15 40 (4.33%) Senior Developer
16 35 (3.79%) Test Manager
17 33 (3.58%) Test Leader
18 29 (3.14%) Test Automation Engineer
19 28 (3.03%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
20 27 (2.93%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 152 (16.47%) Terraform
2 151 (16.36%) REST
3 114 (12.35%) Playwright
4 112 (12.13%) Kafka
5 104 (11.27%) RESTful
6 94 (10.18%) React
7 84 (9.10%) Spring
8 75 (8.13%) .NET
9 73 (7.91%) Spring Boot
10 66 (7.15%) HTML
11 57 (6.18%) CSS
12 49 (5.31%) Node.js
13 34 (3.68%) PySpark
14 33 (3.58%) Middleware
15 32 (3.47%) AngularJS
15 32 (3.47%) SOAP
16 28 (3.03%) XML
17 27 (2.93%) JSON
18 26 (2.82%) pytest
19 24 (2.60%) OAuth
Miscellaneous
1 156 (16.90%) Cloud Native
2 84 (9.10%) Distributed Systems
3 80 (8.67%) Product Ownership
4 36 (3.90%) AI Agents
4 36 (3.90%) Onboarding
5 25 (2.71%) Enterprise Software
6 22 (2.38%) Data Protection Act
7 21 (2.28%) Legacy Systems
7 21 (2.28%) Self-Motivation
8 19 (2.06%) Data Structures
9 16 (1.73%) Fixed Income
9 16 (1.73%) Virtual Team
10 15 (1.63%) Mobile App
11 11 (1.19%) Legacy Applications
11 11 (1.19%) Private Cloud
11 11 (1.19%) Security Posture
12 10 (1.08%) Market Risk
13 9 (0.98%) Algorithms
13 9 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
13 9 (0.98%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 70 (7.58%) Linux
2 48 (5.20%) Unix
3 34 (3.68%) Windows
4 18 (1.95%) Android
5 17 (1.84%) Apple iOS
6 15 (1.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.87%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.43%) VMS
9 3 (0.33%) Solaris
9 3 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.22%) Mac OS X
10 2 (0.22%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.11%) CentOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 598 (64.79%) CI/CD
2 416 (45.07%) Agile
3 377 (40.85%) DevOps
4 210 (22.75%) AI
5 182 (19.72%) Infrastructure as Code
5 182 (19.72%) Problem-Solving
6 175 (18.96%) Microservices
7 171 (18.53%) Software Engineering
8 169 (18.31%) Validation
9 162 (17.55%) Continuous Improvement
10 159 (17.23%) Containerisation
11 150 (16.25%) Test Strategy
12 144 (15.60%) Observability
13 132 (14.30%) Scrum
14 123 (13.33%) TDD
15 121 (13.11%) Stakeholder Management
16 105 (11.38%) Event-Driven
17 102 (11.05%) Regression Testing
18 101 (10.94%) Data Pipeline
19 99 (10.73%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 323 (34.99%) Python
2 263 (28.49%) Java
3 262 (28.39%) SQL
4 148 (16.03%) JavaScript
5 127 (13.76%) TypeScript
6 84 (9.10%) C#
7 40 (4.33%) PowerShell
8 38 (4.12%) Bash
9 25 (2.71%) Bicep
10 23 (2.49%) Kotlin
10 23 (2.49%) Scala
11 16 (1.73%) Go
12 12 (1.30%) C++
12 12 (1.30%) PL/SQL
12 12 (1.30%) Ruby
12 12 (1.30%) Shell Script
13 10 (1.08%) C
13 10 (1.08%) Groovy
14 9 (0.98%) Apex Code
14 9 (0.98%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 252 (27.30%) Security Cleared
2 225 (24.38%) SC Cleared
3 65 (7.04%) Degree
4 38 (4.12%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (3.47%) DV Cleared
6 31 (3.36%) ISTQB
7 26 (2.82%) AWS Certification
8 21 (2.28%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (1.52%) Azure Certification
10 9 (0.98%) ISEB
11 8 (0.87%) CISSP
11 8 (0.87%) Master's Degree
12 7 (0.76%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 7 (0.76%) DBS Check
12 7 (0.76%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 6 (0.65%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 4 (0.43%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 4 (0.43%) Cisco Certification
14 4 (0.43%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 3 (0.33%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 263 (28.49%) QA
2 74 (8.02%) Data Quality
3 48 (5.20%) Accessibility
4 22 (2.38%) GDPR
5 16 (1.73%) WCAG
6 12 (1.30%) ISO 20022
6 12 (1.30%) NIST
7 10 (1.08%) SLA
8 9 (0.98%) GRC
8 9 (0.98%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 3 (0.33%) Actionable Recommendations
9 3 (0.33%) EU AI Act
10 2 (0.22%) ISO 9001
10 2 (0.22%) MiFID
10 2 (0.22%) NCSC
10 2 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
10 2 (0.22%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.22%) Software Quality Assurance
11 1 (0.11%) ITGC
11 1 (0.11%) PMO
System Software
1 191 (20.69%) Docker
2 11 (1.19%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.76%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.76%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
4 3 (0.33%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.33%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.11%) Firmware
5 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 177 (19.18%) Kubernetes
2 63 (6.83%) Grafana
3 49 (5.31%) Ansible
4 47 (5.09%) Prometheus
5 17 (1.84%) Puppet
6 16 (1.73%) Kibana
7 15 (1.63%) Progress Chef
8 10 (1.08%) Control-M
9 6 (0.65%) HP ALM
9 6 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.54%) HP Fortify
10 5 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.43%) Argo
12 3 (0.33%) Kustomize
12 3 (0.33%) Oracle RMAN
12 3 (0.33%) Packer
12 3 (0.33%) Rancher
13 2 (0.22%) Istio
13 2 (0.22%) systemd
14 1 (0.11%) HP Quality Center
Vendors
1 111 (12.03%) Microsoft
2 57 (6.18%) Oracle
3 44 (4.77%) Databricks
4 43 (4.66%) Google
5 34 (3.68%) Salesforce
6 32 (3.47%) ServiceNow
7 31 (3.36%) IBM
8 24 (2.60%) SAP
9 23 (2.49%) Splunk
10 22 (2.38%) UiPath
11 17 (1.84%) Informatica
12 16 (1.73%) Dynatrace
13 15 (1.63%) OpenAI
13 15 (1.63%) Red Hat
14 14 (1.52%) Cisco
14 14 (1.52%) Foundry
14 14 (1.52%) VMware
15 12 (1.30%) HP
16 11 (1.19%) SaltStack
17 7 (0.76%) MuleSoft