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

6 months to
4 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 56 48
Rank change year-on-year +7 -8 0
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 858 598 774
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.43% 4.52% 4.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.99% 4.91% 4.96%
Number of daily rates quoted 575 405 536
10th Percentile £350 £338 £363
25th Percentile £425 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £600 £675 £675
90th Percentile £708 £790 £772
England median daily rate £475 £483 £525
% change year-on-year -1.66% -8.00% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 3 10
10th Percentile - £36.50 £52.25
25th Percentile £92.50 £38.75 £52.50
Median hourly rate £95.00 £45.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +111.11% -18.18% -38.89%
75th Percentile £97.50 £63.75 £65.75
90th Percentile - £73.50 £71.88
England median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £57.50
% change year-on-year +22.73% -4.35% -15.75%

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 17,207 12,190 15,592
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.94% 92.22% 88.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,434 8,142 11,106
10th Percentile £360 £331 £340
25th Percentile £438 £425 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £538 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.27% - -5.98%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £763 £800 £800
England median daily rate £523 £515 £525
% change year-on-year +1.46% -1.90% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 265 227 296
10th Percentile £17.60 £16.50 £15.97
25th Percentile £23.16 £24.66 £20.02
Median hourly rate £37.00 £32.50 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.85% +8.33% -25.47%
75th Percentile £59.00 £50.25 £48.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.45 £68.75
England median hourly rate £47.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +86.88% -34.02% +1.65%

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 4 July 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 4 July 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 +9 112 £550 +10.00% 66
South London -3 12 £513 +3.54% 2
West London -16 12 £486 +21.56% 5
East London +6 8 £545 +43.42% 16
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 61 (7.11%) Confluence
2 32 (3.73%) Apache Airflow
3 22 (2.56%) Apache Spark
4 12 (1.40%) CMS
5 10 (1.17%) Apache
6 6 (0.70%) Appian
7 4 (0.47%) Camunda
7 4 (0.47%) nginx
7 4 (0.47%) Tomcat
7 4 (0.47%) WebLogic
8 3 (0.35%) Kentico
8 3 (0.35%) Microsoft Exchange
8 3 (0.35%) SharePoint
9 2 (0.23%) Anypoint
9 2 (0.23%) Mule
9 2 (0.23%) SAS
10 1 (0.12%) Apache Pulsar
10 1 (0.12%) Ethereum
10 1 (0.12%) Palantir Foundry
10 1 (0.12%) Solana
Applications
1 22 (2.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (1.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.82%) Microsoft Project
4 5 (0.58%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.58%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
6 1 (0.12%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 16 (1.86%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.52%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.93%) Findur
4 7 (0.82%) Oracle EBS
5 6 (0.70%) Shopify
6 5 (0.58%) BambooHR
6 5 (0.58%) Loan IQ
7 4 (0.47%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.35%) Distributed Ledger
9 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite
9 2 (0.23%) Infor LN
9 2 (0.23%) Infor M3
9 2 (0.23%) IntelliMatch
9 2 (0.23%) iTrent
9 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
9 2 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
9 2 (0.23%) Summit
10 1 (0.12%) Misys Equation
10 1 (0.12%) Misys Midas
10 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
Cloud Services
1 264 (30.77%) Azure
2 247 (28.79%) AWS
3 157 (18.30%) GitHub
4 127 (14.80%) Azure DevOps
5 96 (11.19%) GitHub Actions
6 75 (8.74%) Serverless
7 58 (6.76%) Power Platform
8 56 (6.53%) AWS Lambda
9 54 (6.29%) Amazon S3
10 51 (5.94%) GCP
11 39 (4.55%) dbt
12 31 (3.61%) Snowflake
13 29 (3.38%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 28 (3.26%) Amazon ECS
15 24 (2.80%) Amazon EC2
16 23 (2.68%) Azure Data Factory
17 22 (2.56%) Azure AKS
18 20 (2.33%) Azure AI
19 18 (2.10%) Amazon SQS
19 18 (2.10%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.93%) HTTP
2 3 (0.35%) FTP
2 3 (0.35%) Network Security
2 3 (0.35%) OpenLDAP
2 3 (0.35%) SMS
2 3 (0.35%) WAN
3 2 (0.23%) Ethernet
3 2 (0.23%) Firewall
3 2 (0.23%) Multicast
3 2 (0.23%) NaaS
4 1 (0.12%) 5G
4 1 (0.12%) Bluetooth
4 1 (0.12%) Cisco Nexus
4 1 (0.12%) DSL
4 1 (0.12%) MPLS
4 1 (0.12%) NFC
4 1 (0.12%) SNMP
4 1 (0.12%) SSL
4 1 (0.12%) TCP/IP
4 1 (0.12%) WebEx
Database & Business Intelligence
1 53 (6.18%) PostgreSQL
2 48 (5.59%) SQL Server
3 46 (5.36%) NoSQL
3 46 (5.36%) Power BI
4 45 (5.24%) Data Warehouse
5 38 (4.43%) MongoDB
6 31 (3.61%) DynamoDB
6 31 (3.61%) Relational Database
7 25 (2.91%) Amazon Athena
8 23 (2.68%) Amazon Redshift
9 19 (2.21%) Amazon RDS
9 19 (2.21%) Big Data
10 18 (2.10%) Data Lake
10 18 (2.10%) Tableau
11 15 (1.75%) Metadata
12 14 (1.63%) BigQuery
13 10 (1.17%) Oracle Database
13 10 (1.17%) Redis
14 9 (1.05%) Amazon Aurora
15 8 (0.93%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 137 (15.97%) JIRA
2 134 (15.62%) Git
3 118 (13.75%) Jenkins
4 103 (12.00%) Selenium
5 94 (10.96%) GitLab
6 52 (6.06%) Cucumber
7 50 (5.83%) Cypress.io
8 48 (5.59%) REST Assured
9 45 (5.24%) Postman
10 39 (4.55%) JUnit
11 37 (4.31%) JMeter
12 17 (1.98%) Maven
12 17 (1.98%) Mockito
12 17 (1.98%) SpecFlow
13 16 (1.86%) Gradle
14 15 (1.75%) Gatling
14 15 (1.75%) WebDriver
15 14 (1.63%) Bitbucket
15 14 (1.63%) Zephyr
16 13 (1.52%) Appium
General
1 252 (29.37%) Finance
2 233 (27.16%) Social Skills
3 121 (14.10%) Analytical Skills
4 118 (13.75%) Banking
5 96 (11.19%) Public Sector
6 27 (3.15%) Investment Banking
7 26 (3.03%) Front Office
8 22 (2.56%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 20 (2.33%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.75%) Legal
11 13 (1.52%) Influencing Skills
12 12 (1.40%) Documentation Skills
13 11 (1.28%) Back Office
14 9 (1.05%) Organisational Skills
14 9 (1.05%) Retail
14 9 (1.05%) Telecoms
15 8 (0.93%) Presentation Skills
16 7 (0.82%) Marketing
17 6 (0.70%) Local Government
18 5 (0.58%) Billing
Job Titles
1 183 (21.33%) Developer
2 149 (17.37%) Senior
3 90 (10.49%) Lead
4 83 (9.67%) Tester
5 54 (6.29%) Test Engineer
6 53 (6.18%) Analyst
6 53 (6.18%) Data Engineer
7 50 (5.83%) QA Engineer
8 46 (5.36%) DevOps Engineer
8 46 (5.36%) Java Developer
9 45 (5.24%) Architect
10 41 (4.78%) Automation Engineer
11 35 (4.08%) Automation Tester
11 35 (4.08%) Senior Developer
11 35 (4.08%) Software Engineer
12 31 (3.61%) Test Automation Engineer
13 30 (3.50%) Test Leader
14 29 (3.38%) Full-Stack Developer
15 26 (3.03%) QA Automation Engineer
16 24 (2.80%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 109 (12.70%) Playwright
2 103 (12.00%) REST
3 100 (11.66%) React
4 77 (8.97%) RESTful
5 68 (7.93%) Kafka
6 62 (7.23%) .NET
6 62 (7.23%) Spring
7 56 (6.53%) Node.js
8 55 (6.41%) Spring Boot
9 41 (4.78%) CSS
10 39 (4.55%) HTML
11 27 (3.15%) OAuth
12 24 (2.80%) PySpark
13 21 (2.45%) pytest
13 21 (2.45%) Redux
14 20 (2.33%) AngularJS
14 20 (2.33%) SOAP
15 18 (2.10%) Gherkin
15 18 (2.10%) HTML5
15 18 (2.10%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 121 (14.10%) Cloud Native
2 69 (8.04%) Distributed Systems
3 51 (5.94%) Product Ownership
4 37 (4.31%) Legacy Systems
5 26 (3.03%) Data Protection Act
6 23 (2.68%) Onboarding
7 21 (2.45%) Self-Motivation
8 19 (2.21%) Fixed Income
8 19 (2.21%) Greenfield Project
9 18 (2.10%) Virtual Team
10 16 (1.86%) Algorithms
10 16 (1.86%) Management Information System
11 15 (1.75%) Enterprise Software
11 15 (1.75%) Mobile App
12 14 (1.63%) AI Agents
13 11 (1.28%) Data Structures
13 11 (1.28%) Equities
14 10 (1.17%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 10 (1.17%) NHS
14 10 (1.17%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 32 (3.73%) Linux
2 24 (2.80%) Windows
3 17 (1.98%) Android
4 14 (1.63%) Apple iOS
4 14 (1.63%) Unix
5 5 (0.58%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 4 (0.47%) Solaris
6 4 (0.47%) Windows Server
6 4 (0.47%) Windows Server 2008
7 3 (0.35%) Mac OS
7 3 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
7 3 (0.35%) Windows Server 2019
8 2 (0.23%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 513 (59.79%) CI/CD
2 351 (40.91%) Agile
3 305 (35.55%) DevOps
4 161 (18.76%) AI
5 148 (17.25%) Infrastructure as Code
6 144 (16.78%) Problem-Solving
7 139 (16.20%) Validation
8 138 (16.08%) Continuous Improvement
9 131 (15.27%) Test Strategy
10 129 (15.03%) Microservices
11 121 (14.10%) Containerisation
11 121 (14.10%) Observability
12 118 (13.75%) Software Engineering
13 115 (13.40%) Regression Testing
14 111 (12.94%) User Acceptance Testing
15 97 (11.31%) Scrum
16 92 (10.72%) TDD
17 90 (10.49%) Analytics
18 88 (10.26%) Full-Stack Development
19 86 (10.02%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 257 (29.95%) Python
2 220 (25.64%) SQL
3 197 (22.96%) Java
4 134 (15.62%) TypeScript
5 123 (14.34%) JavaScript
6 97 (11.31%) C#
7 32 (3.73%) PowerShell
8 22 (2.56%) Bash
9 21 (2.45%) Kotlin
10 16 (1.86%) Apex Code
10 16 (1.86%) Bicep
10 16 (1.86%) Ruby
11 14 (1.63%) PL/SQL
11 14 (1.63%) Scala
12 12 (1.40%) Go
13 8 (0.93%) T-SQL
14 7 (0.82%) Swift
15 6 (0.70%) C++
15 6 (0.70%) Groovy
15 6 (0.70%) VBA
Qualifications
1 194 (22.61%) Security Cleared
2 172 (20.05%) SC Cleared
3 52 (6.06%) Degree
4 31 (3.61%) Computer Science Degree
5 22 (2.56%) BPSS Clearance
5 22 (2.56%) ISTQB
6 16 (1.86%) DV Cleared
7 13 (1.52%) AWS Certification
8 10 (1.17%) Master's Degree
9 7 (0.82%) DBS Check
10 6 (0.70%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
11 5 (0.58%) Azure Certification
12 4 (0.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 4 (0.47%) CISSP
13 3 (0.35%) TOGAF Certification
14 2 (0.23%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 2 (0.23%) Cisco Certification
14 2 (0.23%) PhD
14 2 (0.23%) PMI Certification
14 2 (0.23%) PMP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 214 (24.94%) QA
2 74 (8.62%) Data Quality
3 51 (5.94%) Accessibility
4 25 (2.91%) GDPR
5 19 (2.21%) WCAG
6 9 (1.05%) NIST
7 6 (0.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.58%) ISO 20022
8 5 (0.58%) SLA
9 4 (0.47%) HL7
10 3 (0.35%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.35%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.35%) MiFID
10 3 (0.35%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.23%) GRC
11 2 (0.23%) NCSC
11 2 (0.23%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 1 (0.12%) GMP
12 1 (0.12%) GxP
12 1 (0.12%) ISO 8583
System Software
1 136 (15.85%) Docker
2 7 (0.82%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.58%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.47%) Active Directory
4 4 (0.47%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.47%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.35%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.12%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 144 (16.78%) Kubernetes
2 119 (13.87%) Terraform
3 38 (4.43%) Grafana
4 32 (3.73%) Prometheus
5 29 (3.38%) Ansible
6 8 (0.93%) HP ALM
6 8 (0.93%) Kibana
6 8 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
7 4 (0.47%) Oracle RMAN
8 3 (0.35%) Control-M
8 3 (0.35%) Kustomize
8 3 (0.35%) Packer
8 3 (0.35%) Puppet
9 2 (0.23%) Amdocs OSS
9 2 (0.23%) 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 84 (9.79%) Microsoft
2 56 (6.53%) Salesforce
3 49 (5.71%) Oracle
4 30 (3.50%) Databricks
5 23 (2.68%) ServiceNow
6 19 (2.21%) UiPath
7 15 (1.75%) Informatica
7 15 (1.75%) Splunk
8 13 (1.52%) Google
9 12 (1.40%) IBM
10 10 (1.17%) OpenAI
11 9 (1.05%) Dynatrace
11 9 (1.05%) SAP
12 8 (0.93%) HP
12 8 (0.93%) OpenLink
13 7 (0.82%) MuleSoft
14 6 (0.70%) Foundry
14 6 (0.70%) Workday
15 5 (0.58%) Automation Anywhere
15 5 (0.58%) Guidewire