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

6 months to
13 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 44 52
Rank change year-on-year -1 +8 -7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 774 648 715
As % of all contract jobs in London 5.08% 4.77% 3.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.60% 5.26% 4.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 507 428 534
10th Percentile £325 £350 £377
25th Percentile £400 £413 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £650
90th Percentile £688 £750 £746
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 £65.00 £77.19 £70.19
% change year-on-year -15.79% +9.98% +23.28%

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 13,833 12,324 16,296
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 90.73% 90.63% 88.57%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,202 7,872 11,677
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 211 152 339
10th Percentile £18.25 £21.03 £16.02
25th Percentile £25.15 £25.56 £19.49
Median hourly rate £35.00 £37.25 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -6.04% +24.17% -14.29%
75th Percentile £56.25 £55.38 £51.25
90th Percentile £70.00 £79.88 £72.50
England median hourly rate £25.77 £35.00 £35.00
% change year-on-year -26.37% - -

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 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 13 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 -8 96 £525 +1.69% 41
West London -11 22 £450 +30.25% 14
South London -10 15 £519 +9.21% 4
East London 0 8 £448 +5.29% 10
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 47 (6.07%) Confluence
2 15 (1.94%) Apache Spark
3 9 (1.16%) Apache Airflow
4 8 (1.03%) Appian
5 5 (0.65%) Apache
5 5 (0.65%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.52%) Camunda
6 4 (0.52%) CMS
7 3 (0.39%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 2 (0.26%) Magnolia
8 2 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
8 2 (0.26%) Sitecore CMS
8 2 (0.26%) WordPress
9 1 (0.13%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.13%) nginx
9 1 (0.13%) Oracle Application Server
9 1 (0.13%) WebLogic
Applications
1 19 (2.45%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.78%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (0.52%) Microsoft Project
4 4 (0.52%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.52%) Spreadsheet
5 1 (0.13%) Chatbot
5 1 (0.13%) Trello
Business Applications
1 18 (2.33%) Aladdin
2 4 (0.52%) Loan IQ
2 4 (0.52%) SAP HR
3 3 (0.39%) Oracle EBS
3 3 (0.39%) 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
1 243 (31.40%) Azure
2 180 (23.26%) AWS
3 112 (14.47%) GitHub
4 106 (13.70%) Azure DevOps
5 83 (10.72%) GCP
6 55 (7.11%) Serverless
7 51 (6.59%) GitHub Actions
8 27 (3.49%) Azure Data Factory
8 27 (3.49%) Snowflake
9 26 (3.36%) SaaS
10 25 (3.23%) AWS Lambda
10 25 (3.23%) Azure AKS
10 25 (3.23%) Power Platform
11 22 (2.84%) Amazon S3
11 22 (2.84%) Azure Cosmos DB
12 20 (2.58%) Dynamics 365
13 18 (2.33%) Amazon EKS
14 17 (2.20%) Azure Functions
15 16 (2.07%) Azure Monitor
16 15 (1.94%) Power Automate
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.42%) Firewall
2 10 (1.29%) HTTP
2 10 (1.29%) HTTPS
2 10 (1.29%) SSL
3 8 (1.03%) VPN
4 7 (0.90%) DNS
4 7 (0.90%) SD-WAN
4 7 (0.90%) TCP/IP
4 7 (0.90%) WAN
5 5 (0.65%) Cisco IPT
5 5 (0.65%) Network Security
6 4 (0.52%) FTP
6 4 (0.52%) Multicast
7 3 (0.39%) DHCP
7 3 (0.39%) Ethernet
7 3 (0.39%) WebEx
7 3 (0.39%) Wireshark
8 2 (0.26%) VLAN
9 1 (0.13%) Cisco IOS
9 1 (0.13%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 48 (6.20%) PostgreSQL
2 44 (5.68%) SQL Server
3 36 (4.65%) NoSQL
4 25 (3.23%) Relational Database
5 22 (2.84%) MongoDB
6 19 (2.45%) BigQuery
7 18 (2.33%) Data Warehouse
8 14 (1.81%) Power BI
9 12 (1.55%) Tableau
10 11 (1.42%) Data Lake
10 11 (1.42%) Redis
11 10 (1.29%) Big Data
12 9 (1.16%) Amazon Aurora
12 9 (1.16%) Amazon RDS
12 9 (1.16%) Pinecone
13 8 (1.03%) Azure SQL Database
13 8 (1.03%) Metadata
13 8 (1.03%) Oracle Database
13 8 (1.03%) Star Schema
14 7 (0.90%) DynamoDB
Development Applications
1 126 (16.28%) Git
1 126 (16.28%) JIRA
2 101 (13.05%) Jenkins
3 99 (12.79%) Selenium
4 84 (10.85%) GitLab
5 56 (7.24%) Postman
6 51 (6.59%) Cucumber
7 50 (6.46%) Cypress.io
8 32 (4.13%) JMeter
9 31 (4.01%) REST Assured
10 25 (3.23%) JUnit
11 24 (3.10%) SpecFlow
12 19 (2.45%) MLflow
13 17 (2.20%) Bitbucket
14 15 (1.94%) TestRail
14 15 (1.94%) WebDriver
15 13 (1.68%) Appium
16 11 (1.42%) Gradle
17 10 (1.29%) Maven
17 10 (1.29%) Zephyr
General
1 193 (24.94%) Social Skills
2 171 (22.09%) Finance
3 90 (11.63%) Banking
4 83 (10.72%) Analytical Skills
5 82 (10.59%) Public Sector
6 24 (3.10%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.84%) Front Office
8 19 (2.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (2.20%) Pharmaceutical
10 10 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
11 9 (1.16%) Legal
12 8 (1.03%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.90%) Financial Institution
14 6 (0.78%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.65%) Marketing
15 5 (0.65%) Organisational Skills
15 5 (0.65%) Publishing
15 5 (0.65%) Retail
15 5 (0.65%) Telecoms
16 4 (0.52%) Military
Job Titles
1 184 (23.77%) Developer
2 148 (19.12%) Senior
3 91 (11.76%) Tester
4 74 (9.56%) Lead
5 55 (7.11%) Test Engineer
6 54 (6.98%) Automation Tester
7 51 (6.59%) Analyst
8 41 (5.30%) QA Engineer
9 39 (5.04%) Senior Developer
10 34 (4.39%) Automation Engineer
11 33 (4.26%) Software Engineer
12 32 (4.13%) Java Developer
12 32 (4.13%) Test Analyst
13 31 (4.01%) Architect
14 29 (3.75%) Test Automation Engineer
15 27 (3.49%) DevOps Engineer
15 27 (3.49%) Python Developer
16 26 (3.36%) Data Engineer
17 24 (3.10%) Consultant
18 22 (2.84%) Python Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 112 (14.47%) Playwright
2 84 (10.85%) React
3 83 (10.72%) REST
4 76 (9.82%) .NET
5 73 (9.43%) Node.js
6 63 (8.14%) RESTful
7 58 (7.49%) Kafka
8 39 (5.04%) Web Services
9 38 (4.91%) Spring
10 37 (4.78%) pytest
11 36 (4.65%) Spring Boot
12 31 (4.01%) HTML
13 29 (3.75%) OAuth
14 28 (3.62%) CSS
15 26 (3.36%) FastAPI
15 26 (3.36%) JSON
16 24 (3.10%) GraphQL
17 23 (2.97%) SOAP
17 23 (2.97%) XML
18 21 (2.71%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 92 (11.89%) Cloud Native
2 44 (5.68%) Product Ownership
3 34 (4.39%) Distributed Systems
4 29 (3.75%) Legacy Systems
5 24 (3.10%) Algorithms
6 21 (2.71%) Data Structures
7 20 (2.58%) Mobile App
8 19 (2.45%) Equities
9 17 (2.20%) Virtual Team
10 16 (2.07%) Data Protection Act
10 16 (2.07%) Greenfield Project
10 16 (2.07%) Onboarding
11 14 (1.81%) Genomics
11 14 (1.81%) Life Science
12 13 (1.68%) Management Information System
13 12 (1.55%) Derivative
13 12 (1.55%) Fixed Income
14 11 (1.42%) Security Posture
15 10 (1.29%) Public Cloud
16 8 (1.03%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 54 (6.98%) Linux
2 29 (3.75%) Windows
3 21 (2.71%) Android
3 21 (2.71%) Apple iOS
4 10 (1.29%) Unix
5 6 (0.78%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.52%) Mac OS
7 1 (0.13%) FreeRTOS
7 1 (0.13%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.13%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 409 (52.84%) CI/CD
2 361 (46.64%) Agile
3 295 (38.11%) DevOps
4 167 (21.58%) Problem-Solving
5 125 (16.15%) AI
6 116 (14.99%) Containerisation
7 105 (13.57%) Software Engineering
7 105 (13.57%) Test Scripting
8 104 (13.44%) Microservices
9 100 (12.92%) Test Strategy
10 98 (12.66%) Infrastructure as Code
10 98 (12.66%) Observability
11 92 (11.89%) Software Testing
11 92 (11.89%) Validation
12 88 (11.37%) Continuous Improvement
13 81 (10.47%) Scrum
14 79 (10.21%) TDD
15 77 (9.95%) API Testing
16 75 (9.69%) Full-Stack Development
17 71 (9.17%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 267 (34.50%) Python
2 179 (23.13%) SQL
3 150 (19.38%) Java
4 147 (18.99%) TypeScript
5 135 (17.44%) JavaScript
6 105 (13.57%) C#
7 21 (2.71%) Bash
7 21 (2.71%) PowerShell
8 19 (2.45%) C++
9 15 (1.94%) Go
10 14 (1.81%) Bicep
11 13 (1.68%) Kotlin
12 10 (1.29%) Apex Code
12 10 (1.29%) PL/SQL
13 8 (1.03%) Ruby
13 8 (1.03%) Swift
14 7 (0.90%) Rust
14 7 (0.90%) T-SQL
15 6 (0.78%) Shell Script
16 5 (0.65%) Groovy
Qualifications
1 150 (19.38%) Security Cleared
2 128 (16.54%) SC Cleared
3 59 (7.62%) Degree
4 38 (4.91%) ISTQB
5 25 (3.23%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (2.84%) BPSS Clearance
7 18 (2.33%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.55%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 9 (1.16%) OSCP
10 7 (0.90%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (0.78%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 6 (0.78%) SANS
12 5 (0.65%) Azure Certification
12 5 (0.65%) GPEN
12 5 (0.65%) ISEB
13 4 (0.52%) CEH
13 4 (0.52%) DBS Check
13 4 (0.52%) DV Cleared
14 3 (0.39%) CREST Certified
14 3 (0.39%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 170 (21.96%) QA
2 46 (5.94%) Accessibility
3 35 (4.52%) Data Quality
4 18 (2.33%) GDPR
5 13 (1.68%) WCAG
6 12 (1.55%) NIST
7 8 (1.03%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 6 (0.78%) NCSC
9 5 (0.65%) PERC
10 4 (0.52%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.52%) MiFID
10 4 (0.52%) SLA
10 4 (0.52%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.39%) EU AI Act
11 3 (0.39%) GMP
11 3 (0.39%) HL7
11 3 (0.39%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.39%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.13%) GRC
System Software
1 168 (21.71%) Docker
2 11 (1.42%) Active Directory
3 3 (0.39%) Virtual Servers
4 2 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
4 2 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.13%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.13%) Firmware
5 1 (0.13%) Squid
5 1 (0.13%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.13%) VMware Infrastructure
5 1 (0.13%) zsh
Systems Management
1 135 (17.44%) Kubernetes
2 84 (10.85%) Terraform
3 26 (3.36%) Ansible
4 24 (3.10%) Grafana
5 21 (2.71%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.16%) HP ALM
7 5 (0.65%) Nmap
7 5 (0.65%) Single Sign-On
8 4 (0.52%) Nessus
8 4 (0.52%) Rancher
9 3 (0.39%) Kibana
9 3 (0.39%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.39%) Puppet
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 71 (9.17%) Microsoft
2 48 (6.20%) Oracle
3 41 (5.30%) Databricks
4 38 (4.91%) Salesforce
5 35 (4.52%) Google
6 25 (3.23%) ServiceNow
7 18 (2.33%) SAP
8 16 (2.07%) OpenAI
9 15 (1.94%) Splunk
10 13 (1.68%) MuleSoft
11 11 (1.42%) Guidewire
11 11 (1.42%) UiPath
12 10 (1.29%) Apple
13 9 (1.16%) HP
14 8 (1.03%) Automation Anywhere
14 8 (1.03%) Dynatrace
15 7 (0.90%) webMethods
16 6 (0.78%) Charles River
16 6 (0.78%) Cisco
16 6 (0.78%) VMware