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

6 months to
21 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 54 45
Rank change year-on-year +6 -9 +6
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 870 624 769
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.40% 4.60% 4.55%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.95% 5.00% 5.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 587 418 526
10th Percentile £340 £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 £619 £675 £675
90th Percentile £710 £775 £775
England median daily rate £475 £483 £525
% change year-on-year -1.66% -8.00% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 4 7
10th Percentile - £37.25 £51.50
25th Percentile £92.50 £40.63 £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 £55.63 £68.44
90th Percentile - £70.25 £71.88
England median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £56.25
% change year-on-year +35.00% -11.11% -25.00%

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 17,589 12,488 14,999
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.92% 92.12% 88.73%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,618 8,349 10,661
10th Percentile £363 £331 £350
25th Percentile £450 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £542 £550 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% - -4.35%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £680
90th Percentile £775 £788 £800
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 276 238 247
10th Percentile £17.60 £16.50 £16.24
25th Percentile £21.41 £24.66 £21.05
Median hourly rate £36.00 £30.40 £33.55
Median % change year-on-year +18.41% -9.38% -19.16%
75th Percentile £57.50 £49.75 £51.75
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.25 £71.25
England median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +88.87% -37.13% -6.43%

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 21 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 21 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 +15 116 £550 +22.22% 32
South London -8 15 £535 +7.00% 4
West London -9 10 £523 +32.28% 5
East London +5 8 £545 +18.48% 11
North London -1 1 £400 -
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 (7.01%) Confluence
2 32 (3.68%) Apache Airflow
3 24 (2.76%) Apache Spark
4 13 (1.49%) CMS
5 12 (1.38%) Apache
6 7 (0.80%) SharePoint
7 5 (0.57%) Camunda
8 4 (0.46%) Appian
8 4 (0.46%) Microsoft Exchange
8 4 (0.46%) nginx
8 4 (0.46%) Tomcat
8 4 (0.46%) WebLogic
9 3 (0.34%) Kentico
10 2 (0.23%) Anypoint
10 2 (0.23%) Mule
10 2 (0.23%) SAS
11 1 (0.11%) Apache Pulsar
11 1 (0.11%) Ethereum
11 1 (0.11%) Palantir Foundry
11 1 (0.11%) Solana
Applications
1 19 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (1.15%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.69%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (0.69%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.46%) Spreadsheet
5 2 (0.23%) Chatbot
5 2 (0.23%) Trello
6 1 (0.11%) Mingle
Business Applications
1 16 (1.84%) Aladdin
2 13 (1.49%) Dynamics CRM
3 8 (0.92%) Findur
3 8 (0.92%) Oracle EBS
4 6 (0.69%) Shopify
5 5 (0.57%) BambooHR
6 4 (0.46%) Loan IQ
6 4 (0.46%) Salesforce CRM
7 3 (0.34%) Distributed Ledger
8 2 (0.23%) Infor CloudSuite
8 2 (0.23%) Infor LN
8 2 (0.23%) Infor M3
8 2 (0.23%) Oracle ERP
8 2 (0.23%) Payment Gateway
8 2 (0.23%) Summit
9 1 (0.11%) IntelliMatch
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
9 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
9 1 (0.11%) Oracle EBS R12
9 1 (0.11%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 286 (32.87%) Azure
2 260 (29.89%) AWS
3 177 (20.34%) GitHub
4 137 (15.75%) Azure DevOps
5 114 (13.10%) GitHub Actions
6 73 (8.39%) Serverless
7 63 (7.24%) GCP
8 62 (7.13%) Power Platform
9 55 (6.32%) AWS Lambda
10 53 (6.09%) Amazon S3
11 40 (4.60%) dbt
12 33 (3.79%) Snowflake
13 29 (3.33%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 29 (3.33%) Amazon ECS
14 24 (2.76%) Amazon EC2
15 23 (2.64%) GitHub Copilot
16 22 (2.53%) Azure AKS
16 22 (2.53%) Azure Data Factory
17 20 (2.30%) Dynamics 365
18 18 (2.07%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 8 (0.92%) HTTP
2 5 (0.57%) Network Security
3 4 (0.46%) Firewall
3 4 (0.46%) WAN
4 3 (0.34%) FTP
4 3 (0.34%) OpenLDAP
4 3 (0.34%) SMS
4 3 (0.34%) TCP/IP
5 2 (0.23%) DHCP
5 2 (0.23%) DNS
5 2 (0.23%) Ethernet
5 2 (0.23%) LAN
5 2 (0.23%) Multicast
5 2 (0.23%) NaaS
5 2 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
6 1 (0.11%) Bluetooth
6 1 (0.11%) DSL
6 1 (0.11%) NFC
6 1 (0.11%) NGFW
6 1 (0.11%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 55 (6.32%) PostgreSQL
2 50 (5.75%) Power BI
3 49 (5.63%) NoSQL
3 49 (5.63%) SQL Server
4 47 (5.40%) Data Warehouse
5 39 (4.48%) MongoDB
6 31 (3.56%) DynamoDB
7 29 (3.33%) Relational Database
8 23 (2.64%) Amazon Athena
9 22 (2.53%) Amazon Redshift
10 19 (2.18%) Amazon RDS
10 19 (2.18%) Big Data
11 18 (2.07%) Data Lake
12 16 (1.84%) Tableau
13 15 (1.72%) BigQuery
13 15 (1.72%) Metadata
14 11 (1.26%) Redis
15 10 (1.15%) Elasticsearch
15 10 (1.15%) MySQL
15 10 (1.15%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 139 (15.98%) Git
2 132 (15.17%) JIRA
3 123 (14.14%) Jenkins
4 98 (11.26%) Selenium
5 94 (10.80%) GitLab
6 55 (6.32%) Cypress.io
7 51 (5.86%) Cucumber
8 44 (5.06%) REST Assured
9 38 (4.37%) Postman
10 37 (4.25%) JMeter
10 37 (4.25%) JUnit
11 17 (1.95%) Gatling
11 17 (1.95%) Gradle
11 17 (1.95%) Maven
11 17 (1.95%) Zephyr
12 16 (1.84%) Appium
12 16 (1.84%) Bitbucket
13 15 (1.72%) Mockito
13 15 (1.72%) SpecFlow
14 11 (1.26%) WebDriver
General
1 259 (29.77%) Finance
2 233 (26.78%) Social Skills
3 120 (13.79%) Banking
4 116 (13.33%) Analytical Skills
5 94 (10.80%) Public Sector
6 28 (3.22%) Front Office
7 24 (2.76%) Investment Banking
8 20 (2.30%) Financial Institution
8 20 (2.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 17 (1.95%) Influencing Skills
10 15 (1.72%) Legal
11 12 (1.38%) Back Office
11 12 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
12 11 (1.26%) Telecoms
13 9 (1.03%) Retail
14 8 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
15 7 (0.80%) Marketing
16 6 (0.69%) Games
16 6 (0.69%) Local Government
16 6 (0.69%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 192 (22.07%) Developer
2 147 (16.90%) Senior
3 97 (11.15%) Lead
4 77 (8.85%) Tester
5 56 (6.44%) Test Engineer
6 54 (6.21%) Data Engineer
7 51 (5.86%) DevOps Engineer
8 50 (5.75%) Analyst
8 50 (5.75%) Architect
8 50 (5.75%) QA Engineer
9 48 (5.52%) Java Developer
10 38 (4.37%) Software Engineer
11 36 (4.14%) Automation Engineer
11 36 (4.14%) Full-Stack Developer
11 36 (4.14%) Senior Developer
12 33 (3.79%) Test Leader
13 32 (3.68%) Automation Tester
14 30 (3.45%) Test Automation Engineer
15 24 (2.76%) Test Analyst
16 23 (2.64%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 111 (12.76%) Playwright
2 106 (12.18%) REST
3 101 (11.61%) React
4 84 (9.66%) RESTful
5 75 (8.62%) Kafka
6 69 (7.93%) .NET
7 63 (7.24%) Spring
8 56 (6.44%) Node.js
9 55 (6.32%) Spring Boot
10 50 (5.75%) CSS
11 47 (5.40%) HTML
12 27 (3.10%) HTML5
13 26 (2.99%) OAuth
14 25 (2.87%) PySpark
15 23 (2.64%) CSS3
16 22 (2.53%) AngularJS
16 22 (2.53%) Redux
17 20 (2.30%) Jest
18 19 (2.18%) Next.js
18 19 (2.18%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 131 (15.06%) Cloud Native
2 79 (9.08%) Distributed Systems
3 54 (6.21%) Product Ownership
4 31 (3.56%) Legacy Systems
5 27 (3.10%) Data Protection Act
6 25 (2.87%) Onboarding
7 21 (2.41%) AI Agents
7 21 (2.41%) Fixed Income
7 21 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
8 20 (2.30%) Algorithms
9 19 (2.18%) Greenfield Project
10 17 (1.95%) Enterprise Software
11 15 (1.72%) Virtual Team
12 14 (1.61%) Data Structures
12 14 (1.61%) Management Information System
13 12 (1.38%) Equities
13 12 (1.38%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 12 (1.38%) Mobile App
14 10 (1.15%) NHS
14 10 (1.15%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 32 (3.68%) Linux
2 26 (2.99%) Windows
3 19 (2.18%) Android
4 17 (1.95%) Apple iOS
5 16 (1.84%) Unix
6 6 (0.69%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 6 (0.69%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.46%) Solaris
7 4 (0.46%) Windows Server 2008
8 3 (0.34%) Mac OS
8 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2016
8 3 (0.34%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.23%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.11%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 541 (62.18%) CI/CD
2 369 (42.41%) Agile
3 329 (37.82%) DevOps
4 174 (20.00%) AI
5 159 (18.28%) Infrastructure as Code
6 153 (17.59%) Microservices
7 149 (17.13%) Problem-Solving
8 138 (15.86%) Continuous Improvement
8 138 (15.86%) Test Strategy
8 138 (15.86%) Validation
9 132 (15.17%) Containerisation
10 130 (14.94%) Observability
11 128 (14.71%) Software Engineering
12 115 (13.22%) Regression Testing
13 109 (12.53%) User Acceptance Testing
14 105 (12.07%) Scrum
15 100 (11.49%) TDD
16 99 (11.38%) Full-Stack Development
17 91 (10.46%) Stakeholder Management
18 89 (10.23%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 261 (30.00%) Python
2 220 (25.29%) SQL
3 202 (23.22%) Java
4 132 (15.17%) TypeScript
5 125 (14.37%) JavaScript
6 89 (10.23%) C#
7 35 (4.02%) PowerShell
8 26 (2.99%) Bash
9 24 (2.76%) Kotlin
10 19 (2.18%) Bicep
11 18 (2.07%) Ruby
12 15 (1.72%) Apex Code
12 15 (1.72%) Scala
13 13 (1.49%) Go
13 13 (1.49%) PL/SQL
14 8 (0.92%) Swift
15 7 (0.80%) T-SQL
16 6 (0.69%) C++
16 6 (0.69%) Groovy
16 6 (0.69%) VBA
Qualifications
1 197 (22.64%) Security Cleared
2 175 (20.11%) SC Cleared
3 58 (6.67%) Degree
4 34 (3.91%) Computer Science Degree
5 23 (2.64%) BPSS Clearance
6 19 (2.18%) ISTQB
7 16 (1.84%) AWS Certification
8 15 (1.72%) DV Cleared
9 10 (1.15%) Azure Certification
9 10 (1.15%) Master's Degree
10 7 (0.80%) DBS Check
11 6 (0.69%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 5 (0.57%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 5 (0.57%) PhD
13 4 (0.46%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 4 (0.46%) CISSP
14 3 (0.34%) TOGAF Certification
15 2 (0.23%) Cisco Certification
15 2 (0.23%) ISEB
15 2 (0.23%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 221 (25.40%) QA
2 69 (7.93%) Data Quality
3 52 (5.98%) Accessibility
4 23 (2.64%) GDPR
5 22 (2.53%) WCAG
6 9 (1.03%) NIST
7 6 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 5 (0.57%) SLA
9 4 (0.46%) ISO 20022
10 3 (0.34%) EU AI Act
10 3 (0.34%) HL7
10 3 (0.34%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 3 (0.34%) MiFID
10 3 (0.34%) Software Quality Assurance
11 2 (0.23%) GRC
11 2 (0.23%) NCSC
12 1 (0.11%) GxP
12 1 (0.11%) ISO/IEC 42001
12 1 (0.11%) PMO
12 1 (0.11%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 148 (17.01%) Docker
2 9 (1.03%) Virtual Machines
3 5 (0.57%) Active Directory
3 5 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 4 (0.46%) Oracle RAC
4 4 (0.46%) VMware ESXi
5 3 (0.34%) Virtual Desktop
6 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.11%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 151 (17.36%) Kubernetes
2 125 (14.37%) Terraform
3 46 (5.29%) Grafana
4 41 (4.71%) Prometheus
5 32 (3.68%) Ansible
6 9 (1.03%) Kibana
7 8 (0.92%) HP ALM
7 8 (0.92%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.57%) Progress Chef
8 5 (0.57%) Puppet
9 4 (0.46%) Oracle RMAN
10 3 (0.34%) Control-M
10 3 (0.34%) Kustomize
10 3 (0.34%) Packer
11 2 (0.23%) Amdocs OSS
11 2 (0.23%) Microsoft Intune
12 1 (0.11%) HP Quality Center
12 1 (0.11%) Istio
12 1 (0.11%) linkerd
12 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 92 (10.57%) Microsoft
2 53 (6.09%) Salesforce
3 52 (5.98%) Oracle
4 31 (3.56%) Databricks
5 22 (2.53%) Google
6 21 (2.41%) ServiceNow
7 18 (2.07%) UiPath
8 16 (1.84%) Splunk
9 15 (1.72%) IBM
10 14 (1.61%) Informatica
11 10 (1.15%) HP
11 10 (1.15%) OpenAI
12 9 (1.03%) Dynatrace
13 8 (0.92%) OpenLink
13 8 (0.92%) SAP
14 7 (0.80%) Guidewire
14 7 (0.80%) VMware
15 6 (0.69%) Charles River
15 6 (0.69%) MuleSoft
15 6 (0.69%) Workday