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

6 months to
18 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 51 53 49
Rank change year-on-year +2 -4 -4
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 834 559 755
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.40% 4.50% 4.25%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.96% 4.87% 4.82%
Number of daily rates quoted 552 380 521
10th Percentile £356 £356 £363
25th Percentile £425 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £503 £525
Median % change year-on-year -0.50% -4.29% -8.70%
75th Percentile £593 £688 £675
90th Percentile £699 £800 £768
England median daily rate £475 £491 £525
% change year-on-year -3.26% -6.48% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 2 10
10th Percentile - £39.50 £52.25
25th Percentile £92.50 £46.25 £52.50
Median hourly rate £95.00 £57.50 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +65.22% +4.55% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £68.75 £65.75
90th Percentile - £75.50 £71.88
England median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -4.35% -22.30%

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 16,816 11,468 15,660
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.80% 92.31% 88.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,190 7,694 11,171
10th Percentile £360 £340 £343
25th Percentile £436 £425 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £530 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% - -6.38%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £763 £800 £800
England median daily rate £519 £520 £525
% change year-on-year -0.23% -1.00% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 257 206 315
10th Percentile £18.07 £16.50 £15.50
25th Percentile £25.15 £24.66 £20.01
Median hourly rate £37.50 £33.45 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +12.12% +11.48% -24.84%
75th Percentile £59.00 £50.38 £48.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.75 £67.60
England median hourly rate £47.00 £27.40 £37.50
% change year-on-year +71.53% -26.93% +5.19%

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 June 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 June 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 +8 109 £550 +10.00% 21
South London +2 16 £513 +13.57% 1
East London +6 10 £450 +18.42% 9
West London -23 10 £450 +12.50% 5
North London - 1 £400 - 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 62 (7.43%) Confluence
2 31 (3.72%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (2.64%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.44%) CMS
5 10 (1.20%) Apache
6 9 (1.08%) Appian
7 6 (0.72%) Camunda
8 4 (0.48%) nginx
8 4 (0.48%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.48%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.36%) Kentico
9 3 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
10 2 (0.24%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.24%) Mule
10 2 (0.24%) SAS
10 2 (0.24%) SharePoint
11 1 (0.12%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
11 1 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 22 (2.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.84%) Microsoft Project
4 6 (0.72%) Microsoft Office
5 5 (0.60%) MS Visio
5 5 (0.60%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 18 (2.16%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.56%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.96%) Findur
4 6 (0.72%) Oracle EBS
4 6 (0.72%) Shopify
5 5 (0.60%) BambooHR
5 5 (0.60%) Loan IQ
6 3 (0.36%) Distributed Ledger
6 3 (0.36%) Salesforce CRM
7 2 (0.24%) Infor CloudSuite
7 2 (0.24%) Infor LN
7 2 (0.24%) Infor M3
7 2 (0.24%) IntelliMatch
7 2 (0.24%) iTrent
7 2 (0.24%) Oracle ERP
7 2 (0.24%) Summit
8 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
8 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
8 1 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 254 (30.46%) Azure
2 237 (28.42%) AWS
3 144 (17.27%) GitHub
4 122 (14.63%) Azure DevOps
5 89 (10.67%) GitHub Actions
6 74 (8.87%) Serverless
7 55 (6.59%) AWS Lambda
8 53 (6.35%) Power Platform
9 52 (6.24%) Amazon S3
10 49 (5.88%) GCP
11 36 (4.32%) dbt
12 31 (3.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 31 (3.72%) Snowflake
13 29 (3.48%) Amazon ECS
14 28 (3.36%) Azure Data Factory
15 22 (2.64%) Amazon EC2
15 22 (2.64%) Azure AKS
16 21 (2.52%) Azure AI
17 20 (2.40%) Dynamics 365
18 17 (2.04%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.96%) HTTP
2 4 (0.48%) FTP
3 3 (0.36%) Network Security
3 3 (0.36%) OpenLDAP
3 3 (0.36%) SMS
3 3 (0.36%) WAN
4 2 (0.24%) Ethernet
4 2 (0.24%) Firewall
4 2 (0.24%) Multicast
4 2 (0.24%) NaaS
4 2 (0.24%) SSL
5 1 (0.12%) 5G
5 1 (0.12%) Cisco IOS
5 1 (0.12%) Cisco Nexus
5 1 (0.12%) DSL
5 1 (0.12%) MPLS
5 1 (0.12%) SD-WAN
5 1 (0.12%) SNMP
5 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
5 1 (0.12%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (6.59%) PostgreSQL
2 52 (6.24%) SQL Server
3 42 (5.04%) Data Warehouse
3 42 (5.04%) NoSQL
4 41 (4.92%) Power BI
5 36 (4.32%) MongoDB
6 29 (3.48%) DynamoDB
6 29 (3.48%) Relational Database
7 25 (3.00%) Amazon Athena
8 24 (2.88%) Amazon Redshift
9 20 (2.40%) Tableau
10 19 (2.28%) Big Data
11 18 (2.16%) Amazon RDS
11 18 (2.16%) Data Lake
12 17 (2.04%) BigQuery
13 14 (1.68%) Metadata
14 12 (1.44%) Star Schema
15 11 (1.32%) Amazon Aurora
15 11 (1.32%) Redis
16 10 (1.20%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 134 (16.07%) JIRA
2 131 (15.71%) Git
3 107 (12.83%) Jenkins
4 96 (11.51%) GitLab
4 96 (11.51%) Selenium
5 51 (6.12%) Cucumber
6 49 (5.88%) Cypress.io
7 44 (5.28%) Postman
8 43 (5.16%) REST Assured
9 38 (4.56%) JMeter
10 34 (4.08%) JUnit
11 18 (2.16%) Mockito
11 18 (2.16%) SpecFlow
12 17 (2.04%) Gradle
12 17 (2.04%) Maven
13 15 (1.80%) MLflow
14 13 (1.56%) Bitbucket
14 13 (1.56%) WebDriver
14 13 (1.56%) Zephyr
15 12 (1.44%) Gatling
General
1 238 (28.54%) Finance
2 221 (26.50%) Social Skills
3 114 (13.67%) Banking
4 106 (12.71%) Analytical Skills
5 104 (12.47%) Public Sector
6 26 (3.12%) Front Office
7 25 (3.00%) Investment Banking
8 22 (2.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 18 (2.16%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.80%) Legal
11 13 (1.56%) Documentation Skills
12 12 (1.44%) Influencing Skills
13 9 (1.08%) Back Office
13 9 (1.08%) Organisational Skills
13 9 (1.08%) Retail
13 9 (1.08%) Telecoms
14 7 (0.84%) Billing
14 7 (0.84%) Marketing
14 7 (0.84%) Presentation Skills
14 7 (0.84%) Publishing
Job Titles
1 175 (20.98%) Developer
2 151 (18.11%) Senior
3 88 (10.55%) Lead
4 84 (10.07%) Tester
5 57 (6.83%) Test Engineer
6 51 (6.12%) Analyst
7 48 (5.76%) DevOps Engineer
8 47 (5.64%) Data Engineer
9 45 (5.40%) Architect
9 45 (5.40%) QA Engineer
10 40 (4.80%) Automation Tester
11 39 (4.68%) Java Developer
12 38 (4.56%) Automation Engineer
13 36 (4.32%) Senior Developer
14 31 (3.72%) Test Automation Engineer
15 30 (3.60%) Software Engineer
16 27 (3.24%) Test Leader
17 26 (3.12%) Full-Stack Developer
18 24 (2.88%) QA Automation Engineer
18 24 (2.88%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 103 (12.35%) REST
2 99 (11.87%) React
3 94 (11.27%) Playwright
4 78 (9.35%) RESTful
5 69 (8.27%) Kafka
6 59 (7.07%) .NET
7 54 (6.47%) Spring
8 51 (6.12%) Node.js
9 50 (6.00%) Spring Boot
10 38 (4.56%) CSS
11 37 (4.44%) HTML
12 31 (3.72%) OAuth
13 23 (2.76%) PySpark
13 23 (2.76%) pytest
13 23 (2.76%) Web Services
14 21 (2.52%) AngularJS
14 21 (2.52%) Redux
15 20 (2.40%) Swagger
16 19 (2.28%) OAuth2
17 18 (2.16%) Pandas
Miscellaneous
1 111 (13.31%) Cloud Native
2 63 (7.55%) Distributed Systems
3 51 (6.12%) Product Ownership
4 40 (4.80%) Legacy Systems
5 29 (3.48%) Data Protection Act
6 20 (2.40%) Greenfield Project
6 20 (2.40%) Onboarding
7 19 (2.28%) Algorithms
7 19 (2.28%) Fixed Income
7 19 (2.28%) Self-Motivation
7 19 (2.28%) Virtual Team
8 16 (1.92%) Management Information System
9 13 (1.56%) AI Agents
9 13 (1.56%) Equities
9 13 (1.56%) Mobile App
10 12 (1.44%) Data Structures
10 12 (1.44%) Enterprise Software
11 11 (1.32%) Distributed Architecture
12 10 (1.20%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
12 10 (1.20%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 34 (4.08%) Linux
2 26 (3.12%) Windows
3 19 (2.28%) Android
4 17 (2.04%) Apple iOS
5 13 (1.56%) Unix
6 4 (0.48%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.48%) Solaris
6 4 (0.48%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.48%) Windows Server 2008
7 3 (0.36%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (0.36%) Windows Server 2019
8 1 (0.12%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 478 (57.31%) CI/CD
2 334 (40.05%) Agile
3 293 (35.13%) DevOps
4 146 (17.51%) Infrastructure as Code
5 145 (17.39%) AI
6 132 (15.83%) Problem-Solving
7 129 (15.47%) Validation
8 128 (15.35%) Observability
9 124 (14.87%) Continuous Improvement
10 121 (14.51%) Microservices
10 121 (14.51%) Test Strategy
11 117 (14.03%) Containerisation
12 110 (13.19%) Software Engineering
13 109 (13.07%) Regression Testing
14 108 (12.95%) User Acceptance Testing
15 95 (11.39%) Data Modelling
16 88 (10.55%) Analytics
17 87 (10.43%) Scrum
18 86 (10.31%) Stakeholder Management
19 84 (10.07%) Full-Stack Development
Programming Languages
1 257 (30.82%) Python
2 216 (25.90%) SQL
3 180 (21.58%) Java
4 125 (14.99%) TypeScript
5 119 (14.27%) JavaScript
6 100 (11.99%) C#
7 35 (4.20%) PowerShell
8 21 (2.52%) Bash
9 20 (2.40%) Kotlin
10 17 (2.04%) Apex Code
10 17 (2.04%) Bicep
11 15 (1.80%) PL/SQL
11 15 (1.80%) Ruby
12 13 (1.56%) Scala
13 12 (1.44%) Go
14 8 (0.96%) C++
14 8 (0.96%) T-SQL
15 7 (0.84%) Swift
16 6 (0.72%) Groovy
16 6 (0.72%) VBA
Qualifications
1 182 (21.82%) Security Cleared
2 159 (19.06%) SC Cleared
3 43 (5.16%) Degree
4 27 (3.24%) ISTQB
5 23 (2.76%) Computer Science Degree
6 21 (2.52%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (1.92%) DV Cleared
8 13 (1.56%) AWS Certification
9 10 (1.20%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.84%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.72%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 6 (0.72%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
12 5 (0.60%) Azure Certification
13 4 (0.48%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 3 (0.36%) CISSP
14 3 (0.36%) TOGAF Certification
15 2 (0.24%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
15 2 (0.24%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.24%) CompTIA Security+
15 2 (0.24%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 196 (23.50%) QA
2 72 (8.63%) Data Quality
3 51 (6.12%) Accessibility
4 24 (2.88%) GDPR
5 18 (2.16%) WCAG
6 10 (1.20%) NIST
7 6 (0.72%) ISO 20022
8 5 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.60%) SLA
9 4 (0.48%) HL7
9 4 (0.48%) NCSC
10 3 (0.36%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.36%) MiFID
10 3 (0.36%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.24%) EU AI Act
11 2 (0.24%) GRC
11 2 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) GxP
12 1 (0.12%) ISO/IEC 42001
System Software
1 132 (15.83%) Docker
2 6 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.60%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.48%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.48%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.36%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.12%) Squid
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 137 (16.43%) Kubernetes
2 116 (13.91%) Terraform
3 40 (4.80%) Grafana
4 37 (4.44%) Prometheus
5 28 (3.36%) Ansible
6 8 (0.96%) HP ALM
6 8 (0.96%) Kibana
6 8 (0.96%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.48%) Oracle RMAN
8 3 (0.36%) Control-M
8 3 (0.36%) Kustomize
8 3 (0.36%) Puppet
9 2 (0.24%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.24%) Packer
9 2 (0.24%) Progress Chef
10 1 (0.12%) HP Quality Center
10 1 (0.12%) Istio
10 1 (0.12%) linkerd
10 1 (0.12%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 80 (9.59%) Microsoft
2 55 (6.59%) Salesforce
3 51 (6.12%) Oracle
4 33 (3.96%) Databricks
5 25 (3.00%) ServiceNow
6 19 (2.28%) UiPath
7 16 (1.92%) Google
8 15 (1.80%) Splunk
9 14 (1.68%) OpenAI
10 12 (1.44%) Informatica
11 11 (1.32%) IBM
12 10 (1.20%) Dynatrace
13 9 (1.08%) Guidewire
13 9 (1.08%) MuleSoft
14 8 (0.96%) Apple
14 8 (0.96%) Automation Anywhere
14 8 (0.96%) HP
14 8 (0.96%) OpenLink
14 8 (0.96%) SAP
15 6 (0.72%) Red Hat