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

6 months to
29 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 53 44
Rank change year-on-year +5 -9 +6
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 938 595 754
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.64% 4.48% 4.67%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.23% 4.84% 5.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 646 400 497
10th Percentile £350 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -8.70%
75th Percentile £620 £638 £630
90th Percentile £725 £768 £763
England median daily rate £475 £500 £510
% change year-on-year -5.00% -1.96% -7.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 4 3
10th Percentile £36.78 £37.25 £53.13
25th Percentile £43.61 £40.63 £57.81
Median hourly rate £49.50 £45.00 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year +10.00% -34.55% -23.61%
75th Percentile £86.25 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile £97.50 £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £67.86 £57.50 £60.00
% change year-on-year +18.01% -4.17% -20.00%

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 17,952 12,291 14,390
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.77% 92.58% 89.17%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,781 8,116 9,426
10th Percentile £358 £325 £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 £669 £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 321 240 179
10th Percentile £16.25 £17.89 £17.25
25th Percentile £19.25 £25.01 £23.98
Median hourly rate £33.60 £30.25 £35.50
Median % change year-on-year +11.07% -14.79% -5.33%
75th Percentile £57.50 £47.13 £56.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.75 £75.25
England median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +63.02% -41.51% -3.37%

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 29 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 29 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 29 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 +11 120 £550 +22.22% 106
South London -1 15 £593 +18.50% 6
East London +3 7 £658 +26.44% 12
West London -21 4 £600 +50.94% 58
North London +1 2 £463 - 3
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 70 (7.46%) Confluence
2 44 (4.69%) Apache Airflow
3 26 (2.77%) Apache Spark
4 23 (2.45%) SharePoint
5 18 (1.92%) Apache
6 16 (1.71%) CMS
7 9 (0.96%) Camunda
8 7 (0.75%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.32%) Kentico
10 3 (0.32%) nginx
11 2 (0.21%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.21%) Mule
11 2 (0.21%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.21%) SAS
11 2 (0.21%) Tomcat
11 2 (0.21%) WebLogic
12 1 (0.11%) Appian
12 1 (0.11%) Headless CMS
12 1 (0.11%) ThingWorx
Applications
1 18 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.49%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.53%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.32%) Mingle
5 3 (0.32%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.32%) Trello
6 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.11%) Gliffy
7 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.11%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 13 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.96%) Aladdin
2 9 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.53%) SAP GRC
4 4 (0.43%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.43%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.21%) BambooHR
6 2 (0.21%) Findur
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.21%) SAP MDG
6 2 (0.21%) Shopify
7 1 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
7 1 (0.11%) Infor CloudSuite
7 1 (0.11%) Infor LN
7 1 (0.11%) Maximo
7 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.11%) Sparx Enterprise Architect
7 1 (0.11%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 331 (35.29%) Azure
2 297 (31.66%) AWS
3 192 (20.47%) GitHub
4 158 (16.84%) Azure DevOps
5 122 (13.01%) GitHub Actions
6 88 (9.38%) GCP
7 86 (9.17%) Serverless
8 72 (7.68%) Power Platform
9 66 (7.04%) AWS Lambda
10 57 (6.08%) Amazon S3
11 51 (5.44%) dbt
12 41 (4.37%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 41 (4.37%) Snowflake
13 37 (3.94%) GitHub Copilot
14 32 (3.41%) AWS CloudFormation
15 30 (3.20%) Amazon ECS
16 27 (2.88%) Amazon EC2
16 27 (2.88%) Amazon EKS
16 27 (2.88%) Microsoft Copilot
17 24 (2.56%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 11 (1.17%) DNS
2 9 (0.96%) TCP/IP
3 8 (0.85%) Firewall
4 7 (0.75%) DHCP
4 7 (0.75%) HTTP
4 7 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
5 6 (0.64%) BGP
5 6 (0.64%) LAN
5 6 (0.64%) Network Security
5 6 (0.64%) WAN
6 4 (0.43%) Ethernet VPN
6 4 (0.43%) Internet
6 4 (0.43%) NX-OS
6 4 (0.43%) SSL
6 4 (0.43%) TACACS
6 4 (0.43%) VXLAN
7 3 (0.32%) FTP
7 3 (0.32%) OpenLDAP
7 3 (0.32%) SMS
7 3 (0.32%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 67 (7.14%) PostgreSQL
2 57 (6.08%) Power BI
3 53 (5.65%) Data Warehouse
4 50 (5.33%) NoSQL
4 50 (5.33%) SQL Server
5 38 (4.05%) MongoDB
6 37 (3.94%) Relational Database
7 25 (2.67%) Amazon Redshift
8 22 (2.35%) Data Lake
9 21 (2.24%) Amazon Athena
9 21 (2.24%) DynamoDB
10 20 (2.13%) Amazon RDS
11 16 (1.71%) Big Data
11 16 (1.71%) MySQL
11 16 (1.71%) Redis
11 16 (1.71%) Tableau
12 15 (1.60%) BigQuery
13 14 (1.49%) Amazon Aurora
13 14 (1.49%) Oracle Database
14 13 (1.39%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 192 (20.47%) Git
2 178 (18.98%) Jenkins
3 129 (13.75%) JIRA
4 122 (13.01%) Selenium
5 112 (11.94%) GitLab
6 61 (6.50%) Cypress.io
7 56 (5.97%) JMeter
7 56 (5.97%) JUnit
8 54 (5.76%) Cucumber
8 54 (5.76%) Postman
9 45 (4.80%) REST Assured
10 23 (2.45%) Gatling
10 23 (2.45%) Gradle
10 23 (2.45%) Maven
11 21 (2.24%) LoadRunner
11 21 (2.24%) SonarQube
12 20 (2.13%) Mockito
13 16 (1.71%) Appium
14 15 (1.60%) Bitbucket
14 15 (1.60%) SoapUI
General
1 281 (29.96%) Finance
2 251 (26.76%) Social Skills
3 146 (15.57%) Banking
4 143 (15.25%) Analytical Skills
5 78 (8.32%) Public Sector
6 33 (3.52%) Front Office
7 24 (2.56%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.13%) Financial Institution
8 20 (2.13%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 14 (1.49%) Telecoms
10 13 (1.39%) Back Office
10 13 (1.39%) Marketing
11 11 (1.17%) Retail
12 10 (1.07%) Documentation Skills
12 10 (1.07%) Influencing Skills
12 10 (1.07%) Law
12 10 (1.07%) Local Government
13 9 (0.96%) Legal
14 6 (0.64%) Games
14 6 (0.64%) Military
Job Titles
1 201 (21.43%) Developer
2 166 (17.70%) Senior
3 98 (10.45%) Lead
4 66 (7.04%) Tester
5 65 (6.93%) Data Engineer
6 57 (6.08%) Test Engineer
7 53 (5.65%) QA Engineer
8 52 (5.54%) Java Developer
9 51 (5.44%) Automation Engineer
9 51 (5.44%) DevOps Engineer
10 50 (5.33%) Software Engineer
11 46 (4.90%) Architect
12 43 (4.58%) Analyst
13 40 (4.26%) Full-Stack Developer
13 40 (4.26%) Senior Developer
14 35 (3.73%) Test Manager
15 33 (3.52%) Test Leader
16 31 (3.30%) Test Automation Engineer
17 29 (3.09%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
18 26 (2.77%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 160 (17.06%) Terraform
2 154 (16.42%) REST
3 127 (13.54%) Kafka
4 114 (12.15%) Playwright
5 105 (11.19%) RESTful
6 91 (9.70%) React
7 85 (9.06%) Spring
8 77 (8.21%) .NET
9 74 (7.89%) Spring Boot
10 65 (6.93%) HTML
11 55 (5.86%) CSS
12 44 (4.69%) Node.js
13 36 (3.84%) Middleware
14 35 (3.73%) SOAP
15 34 (3.62%) PySpark
16 32 (3.41%) OAuth
17 28 (2.99%) AngularJS
17 28 (2.99%) JSON
17 28 (2.99%) XML
18 27 (2.88%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 162 (17.27%) Cloud Native
2 88 (9.38%) Distributed Systems
3 84 (8.96%) Product Ownership
4 38 (4.05%) Onboarding
5 37 (3.94%) AI Agents
6 31 (3.30%) Enterprise Software
7 21 (2.24%) Legacy Systems
7 21 (2.24%) Self-Motivation
8 20 (2.13%) Data Structures
9 19 (2.03%) Data Protection Act
10 16 (1.71%) Mobile App
11 15 (1.60%) Fixed Income
11 15 (1.60%) Virtual Team
12 12 (1.28%) Private Cloud
13 11 (1.17%) Security Posture
14 10 (1.07%) Legacy Applications
14 10 (1.07%) Market Risk
15 9 (0.96%) Algorithms
15 9 (0.96%) Greenfield Project
15 9 (0.96%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 71 (7.57%) Linux
2 48 (5.12%) Unix
3 35 (3.73%) Windows
4 19 (2.03%) Android
5 18 (1.92%) Apple iOS
6 14 (1.49%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 7 (0.75%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.43%) VMS
9 2 (0.21%) Mac OS X
9 2 (0.21%) Solaris
9 2 (0.21%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2008
10 1 (0.11%) CentOS
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 611 (65.14%) CI/CD
2 418 (44.56%) Agile
3 388 (41.36%) DevOps
4 217 (23.13%) AI
5 184 (19.62%) Infrastructure as Code
6 182 (19.40%) Problem-Solving
7 177 (18.87%) Software Engineering
8 176 (18.76%) Microservices
9 171 (18.23%) Validation
10 170 (18.12%) Continuous Improvement
11 156 (16.63%) Containerisation
12 152 (16.20%) Test Strategy
13 147 (15.67%) Observability
14 135 (14.39%) Scrum
15 128 (13.65%) Stakeholder Management
16 120 (12.79%) TDD
17 112 (11.94%) Event-Driven
18 102 (10.87%) Data Pipeline
18 102 (10.87%) Regression Testing
19 101 (10.77%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 330 (35.18%) Python
2 266 (28.36%) SQL
3 263 (28.04%) Java
4 153 (16.31%) JavaScript
5 125 (13.33%) TypeScript
6 89 (9.49%) C#
7 41 (4.37%) PowerShell
8 39 (4.16%) Bash
9 27 (2.88%) Bicep
10 23 (2.45%) Kotlin
10 23 (2.45%) Scala
11 16 (1.71%) Go
12 15 (1.60%) C++
13 12 (1.28%) Shell Script
14 11 (1.17%) PL/SQL
15 10 (1.07%) C
15 10 (1.07%) Groovy
15 10 (1.07%) Ruby
16 9 (0.96%) VB.NET
17 8 (0.85%) Perl
Qualifications
1 255 (27.19%) Security Cleared
2 227 (24.20%) SC Cleared
3 67 (7.14%) Degree
4 40 (4.26%) Computer Science Degree
5 34 (3.62%) DV Cleared
6 32 (3.41%) ISTQB
7 29 (3.09%) AWS Certification
8 23 (2.45%) BPSS Clearance
9 14 (1.49%) Azure Certification
10 10 (1.07%) ISEB
11 9 (0.96%) CISSP
11 9 (0.96%) Master's Degree
12 7 (0.75%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 7 (0.75%) DBS Check
12 7 (0.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 6 (0.64%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
14 5 (0.53%) Cisco Certification
15 4 (0.43%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 4 (0.43%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 265 (28.25%) QA
2 77 (8.21%) Data Quality
3 46 (4.90%) Accessibility
4 23 (2.45%) GDPR
5 14 (1.49%) WCAG
6 13 (1.39%) ISO 20022
7 12 (1.28%) NIST
8 11 (1.17%) SLA
9 9 (0.96%) GRC
9 9 (0.96%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 3 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
10 3 (0.32%) EU AI Act
11 2 (0.21%) ISO 9001
11 2 (0.21%) MiFID
11 2 (0.21%) NCSC
11 2 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
11 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.21%) Software Quality Assurance
12 1 (0.11%) COBIT
12 1 (0.11%) SEPA
System Software
1 198 (21.11%) Docker
2 11 (1.17%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.75%) Active Directory
4 6 (0.64%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.32%) VMware NSX
6 2 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
6 2 (0.21%) VMware ESXi
7 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) Firmware
7 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 184 (19.62%) Kubernetes
2 64 (6.82%) Grafana
3 51 (5.44%) Ansible
4 49 (5.22%) Prometheus
5 19 (2.03%) Puppet
6 17 (1.81%) Progress Chef
7 16 (1.71%) Kibana
8 10 (1.07%) Control-M
9 6 (0.64%) Argo
9 6 (0.64%) HP ALM
9 6 (0.64%) HP Fortify
9 6 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.53%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.32%) Kustomize
11 3 (0.32%) Packer
11 3 (0.32%) Rancher
12 2 (0.21%) Istio
12 2 (0.21%) Oracle RMAN
12 2 (0.21%) systemd
13 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 113 (12.05%) Microsoft
2 52 (5.54%) Oracle
3 45 (4.80%) Databricks
4 43 (4.58%) Google
5 34 (3.62%) IBM
6 31 (3.30%) ServiceNow
7 30 (3.20%) Salesforce
8 26 (2.77%) SAP
9 24 (2.56%) Splunk
10 22 (2.35%) UiPath
11 17 (1.81%) Informatica
12 16 (1.71%) OpenAI
13 15 (1.60%) Dynatrace
14 14 (1.49%) Cisco
14 14 (1.49%) Foundry
14 14 (1.49%) Red Hat
15 13 (1.39%) VMware
16 12 (1.28%) HP
17 11 (1.17%) SaltStack
18 7 (0.75%) MuleSoft