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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 44 50
Rank change year-on-year -2 +6 -5
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 781 649 717
As % of all contract jobs in London 5.03% 4.81% 3.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.55% 5.31% 4.42%
Number of daily rates quoted 516 427 530
10th Percentile £325 £346 £380
25th Percentile £400 £410 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £557
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -5.70% -7.21%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £675
90th Percentile £688 £750 £750
England median daily rate £500 £500 £525
% change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 0 5
10th Percentile £55.99 - -
25th Percentile £58.15 - £52.50
Median hourly rate £63.50 - £55.00
75th Percentile £65.88 - £65.00
90th Percentile £66.25 - £65.60
England median hourly rate £63.50 £77.19 £70.00
% change year-on-year -17.74% +10.27% +19.66%

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 14,067 12,226 16,235
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 90.56% 90.66% 88.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,398 7,826 11,604
10th Percentile £350 £350 £338
25th Percentile £425 £450 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.55% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £500 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 221 153 343
10th Percentile £18.25 £21.05 £16.02
25th Percentile £25.15 £26.00 £19.57
Median hourly rate £35.00 £37.50 £30.16
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +24.34% -17.37%
75th Percentile £56.50 £55.25 £52.50
90th Percentile £70.00 £78.68 £72.50
England median hourly rate £25.89 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -26.04% - -

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 February 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
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 February 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 -6 98 £525 +0.24% 48
West London -12 22 £450 +30.25% 11
South London -9 17 £513 +7.89% 3
East London -4 8 £448 +5.29% 9
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 49 (6.27%) Confluence
2 14 (1.79%) Apache Spark
3 8 (1.02%) Apache Airflow
3 8 (1.02%) Appian
4 5 (0.64%) SharePoint
5 4 (0.51%) Apache
5 4 (0.51%) Camunda
5 4 (0.51%) CMS
6 3 (0.38%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 2 (0.26%) Magnolia
7 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
7 2 (0.26%) nginx
7 2 (0.26%) Sitecore CMS
7 2 (0.26%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.26%) WordPress
8 1 (0.13%) Anypoint
8 1 (0.13%) Oracle Application Server
8 1 (0.13%) Tomcat
Applications
1 19 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.41%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.77%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (0.51%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.51%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.51%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.13%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (2.43%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.51%) Loan IQ
2 4 (0.51%) SAP HR
3 3 (0.38%) Oracle EBS
3 3 (0.38%) Shopify
4 2 (0.26%) iTrent
4 2 (0.26%) NetSuite
4 2 (0.26%) Summit
5 1 (0.13%) Algo Collateral
5 1 (0.13%) Bloomberg TOMS
5 1 (0.13%) CODA-Financials
5 1 (0.13%) Dynamics CRM
5 1 (0.13%) Eagle PACE
5 1 (0.13%) IntelliMatch
5 1 (0.13%) Markit EDM
5 1 (0.13%) Oracle EBS R12
5 1 (0.13%) PORTIA
5 1 (0.13%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.13%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 245 (31.37%) Azure
2 181 (23.18%) AWS
3 117 (14.98%) GitHub
4 106 (13.57%) Azure DevOps
5 83 (10.63%) GCP
6 53 (6.79%) GitHub Actions
7 52 (6.66%) Serverless
8 28 (3.59%) Power Platform
8 28 (3.59%) Snowflake
9 27 (3.46%) Azure Data Factory
10 26 (3.33%) SaaS
11 24 (3.07%) AWS Lambda
12 23 (2.94%) Amazon S3
13 22 (2.82%) Azure AKS
14 20 (2.56%) Dynamics 365
15 19 (2.43%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 17 (2.18%) Amazon EKS
17 16 (2.05%) Power Automate
18 15 (1.92%) Apigee
19 14 (1.79%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.54%) Firewall
2 11 (1.41%) HTTP
3 10 (1.28%) HTTPS
3 10 (1.28%) SSL
4 8 (1.02%) VPN
5 7 (0.90%) DNS
5 7 (0.90%) SD-WAN
5 7 (0.90%) TCP/IP
5 7 (0.90%) WAN
6 5 (0.64%) Cisco IPT
6 5 (0.64%) Network Security
7 4 (0.51%) FTP
7 4 (0.51%) Multicast
8 3 (0.38%) DHCP
8 3 (0.38%) Ethernet
8 3 (0.38%) WebEx
8 3 (0.38%) Wireshark
9 2 (0.26%) Cisco IOS
9 2 (0.26%) SNMP
9 2 (0.26%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 46 (5.89%) PostgreSQL
2 44 (5.63%) SQL Server
3 34 (4.35%) NoSQL
4 25 (3.20%) Relational Database
5 19 (2.43%) BigQuery
5 19 (2.43%) Data Warehouse
5 19 (2.43%) MongoDB
6 15 (1.92%) Power BI
7 12 (1.54%) Tableau
8 10 (1.28%) Big Data
8 10 (1.28%) Data Lake
8 10 (1.28%) Redis
9 9 (1.15%) Pinecone
10 8 (1.02%) Amazon Aurora
10 8 (1.02%) Azure SQL Database
10 8 (1.02%) Metadata
10 8 (1.02%) Oracle Database
10 8 (1.02%) Star Schema
11 7 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
11 7 (0.90%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 130 (16.65%) JIRA
2 123 (15.75%) Git
3 105 (13.44%) Jenkins
4 103 (13.19%) Selenium
5 85 (10.88%) GitLab
6 59 (7.55%) Postman
7 54 (6.91%) Cucumber
8 52 (6.66%) Cypress.io
9 34 (4.35%) REST Assured
10 32 (4.10%) JMeter
11 28 (3.59%) SpecFlow
12 25 (3.20%) JUnit
13 19 (2.43%) MLflow
14 17 (2.18%) Bitbucket
15 16 (2.05%) TestRail
16 15 (1.92%) WebDriver
17 13 (1.66%) Appium
18 11 (1.41%) Maven
18 11 (1.41%) Zephyr
19 10 (1.28%) Gradle
General
1 199 (25.48%) Social Skills
2 172 (22.02%) Finance
3 89 (11.40%) Banking
4 84 (10.76%) Analytical Skills
5 83 (10.63%) Public Sector
6 25 (3.20%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.82%) Front Office
8 19 (2.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (2.18%) Pharmaceutical
10 10 (1.28%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (1.15%) Legal
12 8 (1.02%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.90%) Financial Institution
14 6 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.64%) Marketing
15 5 (0.64%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.64%) Publishing
15 5 (0.64%) Retail
15 5 (0.64%) Telecoms
16 4 (0.51%) Military
Job Titles
1 177 (22.66%) Developer
2 152 (19.46%) Senior
3 93 (11.91%) Tester
4 74 (9.48%) Lead
5 59 (7.55%) Test Engineer
6 56 (7.17%) Automation Tester
7 54 (6.91%) Analyst
8 41 (5.25%) QA Engineer
9 38 (4.87%) Senior Developer
10 35 (4.48%) Automation Engineer
11 33 (4.23%) Architect
11 33 (4.23%) Software Engineer
11 33 (4.23%) Test Analyst
12 32 (4.10%) Java Developer
13 31 (3.97%) Test Automation Engineer
14 27 (3.46%) Data Engineer
14 27 (3.46%) DevOps Engineer
14 27 (3.46%) Python Developer
15 24 (3.07%) Consultant
16 23 (2.94%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 117 (14.98%) Playwright
2 84 (10.76%) REST
3 83 (10.63%) React
4 70 (8.96%) .NET
5 69 (8.83%) Node.js
6 62 (7.94%) RESTful
7 54 (6.91%) Kafka
8 39 (4.99%) pytest
8 39 (4.99%) Web Services
9 37 (4.74%) Spring
10 35 (4.48%) Spring Boot
11 32 (4.10%) HTML
12 29 (3.71%) CSS
12 29 (3.71%) OAuth
13 26 (3.33%) FastAPI
14 25 (3.20%) JSON
15 24 (3.07%) GraphQL
16 23 (2.94%) SOAP
17 22 (2.82%) XML
18 21 (2.69%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 92 (11.78%) Cloud Native
2 46 (5.89%) Product Ownership
3 31 (3.97%) Distributed Systems
4 30 (3.84%) Legacy Systems
5 24 (3.07%) Algorithms
6 21 (2.69%) Data Structures
7 20 (2.56%) Mobile App
8 19 (2.43%) Data Protection Act
8 19 (2.43%) Equities
9 17 (2.18%) Onboarding
9 17 (2.18%) Virtual Team
10 16 (2.05%) Greenfield Project
11 14 (1.79%) Genomics
11 14 (1.79%) Life Science
12 13 (1.66%) Management Information System
13 12 (1.54%) Derivative
13 12 (1.54%) Fixed Income
14 11 (1.41%) Security Posture
15 10 (1.28%) Public Cloud
16 9 (1.15%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 54 (6.91%) Linux
2 30 (3.84%) Windows
3 21 (2.69%) Android
3 21 (2.69%) Apple iOS
4 10 (1.28%) Unix
5 7 (0.90%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.51%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
7 1 (0.13%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.13%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.13%) Solaris
7 1 (0.13%) VMS
7 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2008
7 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2016
7 1 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 414 (53.01%) CI/CD
2 361 (46.22%) Agile
3 297 (38.03%) DevOps
4 170 (21.77%) Problem-Solving
5 130 (16.65%) AI
6 113 (14.47%) Containerisation
7 107 (13.70%) Test Scripting
8 104 (13.32%) Software Engineering
9 102 (13.06%) Microservices
9 102 (13.06%) Test Strategy
10 101 (12.93%) Infrastructure as Code
11 100 (12.80%) Observability
12 95 (12.16%) Software Testing
12 95 (12.16%) Validation
13 91 (11.65%) Continuous Improvement
14 81 (10.37%) API Testing
14 81 (10.37%) Scrum
15 80 (10.24%) TDD
16 76 (9.73%) Regression Testing
17 74 (9.48%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 268 (34.31%) Python
2 177 (22.66%) SQL
3 149 (19.08%) Java
3 149 (19.08%) TypeScript
4 137 (17.54%) JavaScript
5 103 (13.19%) C#
6 20 (2.56%) Bash
6 20 (2.56%) PowerShell
7 19 (2.43%) C++
8 15 (1.92%) Go
9 14 (1.79%) Bicep
10 13 (1.66%) Kotlin
11 10 (1.28%) Apex Code
11 10 (1.28%) PL/SQL
12 8 (1.02%) Ruby
12 8 (1.02%) Swift
13 7 (0.90%) Rust
13 7 (0.90%) T-SQL
14 5 (0.64%) Shell Script
15 4 (0.51%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 153 (19.59%) Security Cleared
2 131 (16.77%) SC Cleared
3 59 (7.55%) Degree
4 38 (4.87%) ISTQB
5 25 (3.20%) Computer Science Degree
6 23 (2.94%) BPSS Clearance
7 18 (2.30%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.54%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 9 (1.15%) OSCP
10 7 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (0.77%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 6 (0.77%) SANS
12 5 (0.64%) Azure Certification
12 5 (0.64%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.64%) GPEN
12 5 (0.64%) ISEB
13 4 (0.51%) CEH
13 4 (0.51%) DV Cleared
14 3 (0.38%) CREST Certified
14 3 (0.38%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 177 (22.66%) QA
2 48 (6.15%) Accessibility
3 38 (4.87%) Data Quality
4 19 (2.43%) GDPR
5 14 (1.79%) WCAG
6 12 (1.54%) NIST
7 9 (1.15%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.77%) NCSC
9 5 (0.64%) PERC
10 4 (0.51%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.51%) MiFID
10 4 (0.51%) SLA
10 4 (0.51%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.38%) EU AI Act
11 3 (0.38%) GMP
11 3 (0.38%) HL7
11 3 (0.38%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.38%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.13%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 164 (21.00%) Docker
2 11 (1.41%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.51%) Virtual Servers
4 3 (0.38%) VMware ESXi
5 2 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
5 2 (0.26%) VMware Infrastructure
6 1 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) Firmware
6 1 (0.13%) Oracle RAC
6 1 (0.13%) Squid
6 1 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.13%) zsh
Systems Management
1 131 (16.77%) Kubernetes
2 85 (10.88%) Terraform
3 27 (3.46%) Ansible
4 23 (2.94%) Grafana
5 20 (2.56%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.15%) HP ALM
7 5 (0.64%) Nmap
7 5 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.51%) Nessus
9 3 (0.38%) Kibana
9 3 (0.38%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.38%) Puppet
9 3 (0.38%) Rancher
10 2 (0.26%) HP Quality Center
10 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
10 2 (0.26%) SCCM
10 2 (0.26%) vRealize
11 1 (0.13%) Argo
11 1 (0.13%) CloudHub
11 1 (0.13%) Istio
Vendors
1 73 (9.35%) Microsoft
2 47 (6.02%) Oracle
3 42 (5.38%) Databricks
4 39 (4.99%) Salesforce
5 35 (4.48%) Google
6 25 (3.20%) ServiceNow
7 18 (2.30%) SAP
8 15 (1.92%) OpenAI
9 14 (1.79%) Splunk
10 13 (1.66%) MuleSoft
11 11 (1.41%) Guidewire
11 11 (1.41%) UiPath
12 10 (1.28%) Apple
13 9 (1.15%) HP
14 8 (1.02%) Automation Anywhere
14 8 (1.02%) Dynatrace
15 7 (0.90%) Cisco
15 7 (0.90%) IBM
15 7 (0.90%) VMware
15 7 (0.90%) webMethods