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

6 months to
5 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 45 44 55
Rank change year-on-year -1 +11 -9
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 806 627 675
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.96% 4.72% 3.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.50% 5.19% 4.23%
Number of daily rates quoted 527 423 496
10th Percentile £325 £341 £378
25th Percentile £400 £410 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £550
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% -8.33%
75th Percentile £600 £650 £675
90th Percentile £700 £773 £750
England median daily rate £490 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -2.00% -4.76% -7.89%
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 £64.25 £65.38 £65.75
% change year-on-year -1.72% -0.57% +9.58%

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 14,657 12,070 15,973
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 90.19% 90.95% 88.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,833 7,901 11,413
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% - -7.17%
75th Percentile £650 £675 £675
90th Percentile £750 £800 £788
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 222 156 343
10th Percentile £18.07 £20.45 £16.00
25th Percentile £22.56 £24.66 £19.21
Median hourly rate £35.00 £35.25 £30.00
Median % change year-on-year -0.71% +17.50% -16.67%
75th Percentile £56.38 £52.44 £50.00
90th Percentile £69.94 £77.95 £72.00
England median hourly rate £29.32 £35.00 £33.78
% change year-on-year -16.23% +3.63% -5.26%

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 5 March 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 5 March 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 -4 102 £525 +0.48% 82
South London -11 21 £513 +7.89% 2
West London -15 21 £450 +28.57% 9
East London +5 8 £448 +11.88% 6
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 54 (6.70%) Confluence
2 16 (1.99%) Apache Spark
3 13 (1.61%) Apache Airflow
4 8 (0.99%) Appian
5 5 (0.62%) Apache
5 5 (0.62%) SharePoint
6 4 (0.50%) Camunda
6 4 (0.50%) CMS
7 3 (0.37%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Exchange
7 3 (0.37%) WebLogic
8 2 (0.25%) Magnolia
8 2 (0.25%) nginx
8 2 (0.25%) Sitecore CMS
8 2 (0.25%) Tomcat
8 2 (0.25%) WordPress
9 1 (0.12%) Anypoint
9 1 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 22 (2.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.74%) Microsoft Project
3 6 (0.74%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
5 4 (0.50%) Spreadsheet
6 1 (0.12%) Chatbot
Business Applications
1 19 (2.36%) Aladdin
2 6 (0.74%) Loan IQ
3 4 (0.50%) SAP HR
3 4 (0.50%) Shopify
4 3 (0.37%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.37%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.25%) BambooHR
5 2 (0.25%) iTrent
5 2 (0.25%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.25%) Summit
6 1 (0.12%) Algo Collateral
6 1 (0.12%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.12%) Infor CloudSuite
6 1 (0.12%) Infor LN
6 1 (0.12%) Infor M3
6 1 (0.12%) IntelliMatch
6 1 (0.12%) Oracle EBS R12
6 1 (0.12%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.12%) Workday HCM
Cloud Services
1 259 (32.13%) Azure
2 188 (23.33%) AWS
3 125 (15.51%) GitHub
4 118 (14.64%) Azure DevOps
5 82 (10.17%) GCP
6 58 (7.20%) GitHub Actions
7 55 (6.82%) Serverless
8 33 (4.09%) Power Platform
9 30 (3.72%) Azure Data Factory
10 29 (3.60%) Snowflake
11 28 (3.47%) Azure AKS
12 26 (3.23%) AWS Lambda
13 25 (3.10%) Amazon S3
14 22 (2.73%) Dynamics 365
14 22 (2.73%) SaaS
15 20 (2.48%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 17 (2.11%) Amazon EKS
16 17 (2.11%) Azure Functions
16 17 (2.11%) Power Automate
17 16 (1.99%) Apigee
Communications & Networking
1 12 (1.49%) Firewall
2 11 (1.36%) HTTP
3 8 (0.99%) SSL
3 8 (0.99%) VPN
3 8 (0.99%) WAN
4 7 (0.87%) DNS
4 7 (0.87%) SD-WAN
4 7 (0.87%) TCP/IP
5 5 (0.62%) Cisco IPT
5 5 (0.62%) HTTPS
6 4 (0.50%) FTP
6 4 (0.50%) Multicast
7 3 (0.37%) DHCP
7 3 (0.37%) Ethernet
7 3 (0.37%) WebEx
7 3 (0.37%) Wireshark
8 2 (0.25%) Cisco IOS
8 2 (0.25%) DSL
8 2 (0.25%) SNMP
8 2 (0.25%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 50 (6.20%) PostgreSQL
2 47 (5.83%) SQL Server
3 32 (3.97%) NoSQL
4 26 (3.23%) Relational Database
5 23 (2.85%) Data Warehouse
6 21 (2.61%) BigQuery
6 21 (2.61%) MongoDB
7 18 (2.23%) Power BI
8 16 (1.99%) Tableau
9 13 (1.61%) Data Lake
10 11 (1.36%) Redis
11 10 (1.24%) Azure SQL Database
11 10 (1.24%) Big Data
11 10 (1.24%) Metadata
11 10 (1.24%) Oracle Database
12 9 (1.12%) DynamoDB
12 9 (1.12%) Pinecone
13 8 (0.99%) Amazon RDS
13 8 (0.99%) Delta Lake
13 8 (0.99%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 140 (17.37%) JIRA
2 132 (16.38%) Git
3 107 (13.28%) Jenkins
3 107 (13.28%) Selenium
4 88 (10.92%) GitLab
5 62 (7.69%) Cucumber
6 56 (6.95%) Postman
7 52 (6.45%) Cypress.io
8 33 (4.09%) REST Assured
9 32 (3.97%) JMeter
9 32 (3.97%) SpecFlow
10 30 (3.72%) JUnit
11 19 (2.36%) MLflow
12 16 (1.99%) Bitbucket
13 15 (1.86%) WebDriver
14 14 (1.74%) TestRail
15 13 (1.61%) Appium
15 13 (1.61%) Maven
16 11 (1.36%) Gradle
16 11 (1.36%) Zephyr
General
1 207 (25.68%) Social Skills
2 184 (22.83%) Finance
3 98 (12.16%) Banking
4 89 (11.04%) Public Sector
5 81 (10.05%) Analytical Skills
6 24 (2.98%) Investment Banking
7 22 (2.73%) Front Office
8 16 (1.99%) Pharmaceutical
9 15 (1.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 11 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
11 10 (1.24%) Legal
12 9 (1.12%) Presentation Skills
13 7 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
13 7 (0.87%) Telecoms
14 6 (0.74%) Billing
14 6 (0.74%) Financial Institution
15 5 (0.62%) Influencing Skills
15 5 (0.62%) Retail
16 4 (0.50%) Marketing
16 4 (0.50%) Military
Job Titles
1 173 (21.46%) Developer
2 156 (19.35%) Senior
3 99 (12.28%) Tester
4 87 (10.79%) Lead
5 61 (7.57%) Test Engineer
6 59 (7.32%) Automation Tester
7 54 (6.70%) Analyst
8 42 (5.21%) QA Engineer
9 39 (4.84%) Senior Developer
10 37 (4.59%) Architect
11 35 (4.34%) Automation Engineer
12 34 (4.22%) Data Engineer
13 31 (3.85%) Java Developer
14 30 (3.72%) Software Engineer
14 30 (3.72%) Test Analyst
14 30 (3.72%) Test Automation Engineer
15 29 (3.60%) DevOps Engineer
16 24 (2.98%) Python Developer
17 23 (2.85%) Python Engineer
17 23 (2.85%) Test Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 125 (15.51%) Playwright
2 86 (10.67%) React
3 83 (10.30%) REST
4 74 (9.18%) .NET
5 71 (8.81%) Node.js
6 70 (8.68%) RESTful
7 61 (7.57%) Kafka
8 41 (5.09%) Spring
9 39 (4.84%) pytest
10 37 (4.59%) Web Services
11 36 (4.47%) Spring Boot
12 34 (4.22%) HTML
13 33 (4.09%) CSS
14 27 (3.35%) OAuth
15 25 (3.10%) FastAPI
16 23 (2.85%) GraphQL
17 20 (2.48%) JSON
17 20 (2.48%) Middleware
18 19 (2.36%) Jest
18 19 (2.36%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 97 (12.03%) Cloud Native
2 47 (5.83%) Product Ownership
3 35 (4.34%) Legacy Systems
4 33 (4.09%) Distributed Systems
5 26 (3.23%) Algorithms
6 23 (2.85%) Data Structures
7 21 (2.61%) Mobile App
8 20 (2.48%) Equities
9 19 (2.36%) Data Protection Act
9 19 (2.36%) Virtual Team
10 17 (2.11%) Greenfield Project
11 16 (1.99%) Management Information System
11 16 (1.99%) Onboarding
12 14 (1.74%) Genomics
12 14 (1.74%) Life Science
13 13 (1.61%) Derivative
13 13 (1.61%) Fixed Income
14 11 (1.36%) Security Posture
15 10 (1.24%) Public Cloud
16 9 (1.12%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 50 (6.20%) Linux
2 33 (4.09%) Windows
3 22 (2.73%) Android
3 22 (2.73%) Apple iOS
4 9 (1.12%) Unix
5 5 (0.62%) Mac OS
5 5 (0.62%) Windows Server
6 2 (0.25%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 2 (0.25%) Solaris
6 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2008
6 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
6 2 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
7 1 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
7 1 (0.12%) Kali Linux
7 1 (0.12%) VMS
Processes & Methodologies
1 439 (54.47%) CI/CD
2 354 (43.92%) Agile
3 309 (38.34%) DevOps
4 169 (20.97%) Problem-Solving
5 139 (17.25%) AI
6 117 (14.52%) Containerisation
7 110 (13.65%) Test Scripting
8 109 (13.52%) Continuous Improvement
9 108 (13.40%) Test Strategy
10 107 (13.28%) Infrastructure as Code
11 106 (13.15%) Observability
12 105 (13.03%) Microservices
13 100 (12.41%) Software Engineering
13 100 (12.41%) Validation
14 93 (11.54%) Software Testing
15 81 (10.05%) Analytics
15 81 (10.05%) Regression Testing
16 80 (9.93%) API Testing
16 80 (9.93%) Scrum
17 77 (9.55%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 280 (34.74%) Python
2 196 (24.32%) SQL
3 156 (19.35%) Java
4 154 (19.11%) TypeScript
5 141 (17.49%) JavaScript
6 115 (14.27%) C#
7 24 (2.98%) PowerShell
8 21 (2.61%) Bash
9 20 (2.48%) C++
10 14 (1.74%) Bicep
10 14 (1.74%) Kotlin
11 13 (1.61%) Apex Code
12 12 (1.49%) PL/SQL
13 11 (1.36%) Go
14 9 (1.12%) Ruby
15 8 (0.99%) Rust
15 8 (0.99%) Swift
16 7 (0.87%) T-SQL
17 5 (0.62%) Shell Script
18 4 (0.50%) C
Qualifications
1 156 (19.35%) Security Cleared
2 132 (16.38%) SC Cleared
3 55 (6.82%) Degree
4 38 (4.71%) ISTQB
5 23 (2.85%) Computer Science Degree
6 22 (2.73%) BPSS Clearance
7 16 (1.99%) Master's Degree
8 12 (1.49%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 9 (1.12%) OSCP
10 7 (0.87%) Microsoft Certification
11 6 (0.74%) Azure Certification
11 6 (0.74%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
11 6 (0.74%) SANS
12 5 (0.62%) DBS Check
12 5 (0.62%) GPEN
12 5 (0.62%) ISEB
13 4 (0.50%) CEH
13 4 (0.50%) DV Cleared
14 3 (0.37%) CREST Certified
14 3 (0.37%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 196 (24.32%) QA
2 50 (6.20%) Accessibility
3 43 (5.33%) Data Quality
4 20 (2.48%) GDPR
5 16 (1.99%) WCAG
6 12 (1.49%) NIST
7 8 (0.99%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 6 (0.74%) NCSC
9 5 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 5 (0.62%) MiFID
9 5 (0.62%) PERC
10 4 (0.50%) ISO 20022
10 4 (0.50%) SLA
10 4 (0.50%) Software Quality Assurance
11 3 (0.37%) EU AI Act
11 3 (0.37%) GMP
11 3 (0.37%) HL7
11 3 (0.37%) NIST 800
11 3 (0.37%) PCI DSS
12 1 (0.12%) HMG Security Policy Framework
System Software
1 167 (20.72%) Docker
2 10 (1.24%) Active Directory
3 4 (0.50%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.37%) VMware Infrastructure
5 2 (0.25%) Oracle RAC
5 2 (0.25%) Virtual Desktop
5 2 (0.25%) Virtual Machines
6 1 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
6 1 (0.12%) Firmware
6 1 (0.12%) Squid
6 1 (0.12%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 138 (17.12%) Kubernetes
2 89 (11.04%) Terraform
3 29 (3.60%) Grafana
4 28 (3.47%) Ansible
5 25 (3.10%) Prometheus
6 9 (1.12%) HP ALM
7 6 (0.74%) Single Sign-On
8 5 (0.62%) Nmap
9 4 (0.50%) Nessus
10 3 (0.37%) Kibana
10 3 (0.37%) Progress Chef
10 3 (0.37%) Puppet
10 3 (0.37%) Rancher
11 2 (0.25%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.25%) Microsoft Intune
11 2 (0.25%) Oracle RMAN
11 2 (0.25%) SCCM
12 1 (0.12%) Argo
12 1 (0.12%) CloudHub
12 1 (0.12%) Istio
Vendors
1 77 (9.55%) Microsoft
2 51 (6.33%) Oracle
3 48 (5.96%) Databricks
4 45 (5.58%) Salesforce
5 36 (4.47%) Google
6 28 (3.47%) ServiceNow
7 15 (1.86%) SAP
8 14 (1.74%) OpenAI
8 14 (1.74%) Splunk
9 11 (1.36%) Guidewire
9 11 (1.36%) MuleSoft
9 11 (1.36%) UiPath
10 10 (1.24%) Apple
10 10 (1.24%) Dynatrace
11 9 (1.12%) HP
12 8 (0.99%) Automation Anywhere
12 8 (0.99%) VMware
12 8 (0.99%) Workday
13 7 (0.87%) Charles River
13 7 (0.87%) Cisco