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

6 months to
19 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 50 56 43
Rank change year-on-year +6 -13 +6
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 932 597 768
As % of all contract jobs in London 4.58% 4.43% 4.71%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.15% 4.79% 5.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 635 400 502
10th Percentile £350 £350 £350
25th Percentile £425 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £509 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.72% -3.10% -7.49%
75th Percentile £619 £650 £629
90th Percentile £725 £775 £750
England median daily rate £475 £500 £510
% change year-on-year -5.00% -1.96% -5.56%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 4 3
10th Percentile £44.39 £37.25 £53.13
25th Percentile £47.50 £40.63 £57.81
Median hourly rate £50.00 £45.00 £68.75
Median % change year-on-year +11.11% -34.55% -23.61%
75th Percentile £97.50 £55.63 £71.88
90th Percentile - £70.25 -
England median hourly rate £69.00 £57.50 £57.50
% change year-on-year +20.00% - -23.33%

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 18,107 12,462 14,550
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in London 88.93% 92.53% 89.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 11,868 8,244 9,685
10th Percentile £360 £327 £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 £675 £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 306 252 179
10th Percentile £16.50 £17.01 £17.25
25th Percentile £19.50 £25.00 £23.80
Median hourly rate £35.00 £31.75 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year +10.24% -9.29% -9.58%
75th Percentile £57.38 £49.56 £55.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £63.75 £72.50
England median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +68.99% -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 19 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 19 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 19 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 +12 120 £550 +22.22% 109
South London -1 16 £593 +18.50% 8
East London +6 11 £545 +4.81% 16
West London -24 4 £600 +50.94% 46
North London +1 2 £463 - 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 72 (7.73%) Confluence
2 43 (4.61%) Apache Airflow
3 26 (2.79%) Apache Spark
4 23 (2.47%) SharePoint
5 16 (1.72%) CMS
6 14 (1.50%) Apache
7 9 (0.97%) Camunda
8 7 (0.75%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 4 (0.43%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.32%) Kentico
10 3 (0.32%) nginx
10 3 (0.32%) SAS
10 3 (0.32%) Tomcat
10 3 (0.32%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.21%) Anypoint
11 2 (0.21%) Mule
11 2 (0.21%) OpenStack
12 1 (0.11%) Appian
12 1 (0.11%) Ethereum
12 1 (0.11%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 18 (1.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.50%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.64%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 5 (0.54%) Chatbot
5 3 (0.32%) MS Visio
5 3 (0.32%) Trello
6 2 (0.21%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.21%) Mingle
7 1 (0.11%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 13 (1.39%) Dynamics CRM
2 9 (0.97%) Aladdin
2 9 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.54%) SAP GRC
4 4 (0.43%) Findur
4 4 (0.43%) Salesforce CRM
5 3 (0.32%) Distributed Ledger
5 3 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.32%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.21%) BambooHR
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 LN
7 1 (0.11%) Infor M3
7 1 (0.11%) IntelliMatch
7 1 (0.11%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.11%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.11%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 322 (34.55%) Azure
2 288 (30.90%) AWS
3 190 (20.39%) GitHub
4 156 (16.74%) Azure DevOps
5 123 (13.20%) GitHub Actions
6 86 (9.23%) Serverless
7 83 (8.91%) GCP
8 70 (7.51%) Power Platform
9 66 (7.08%) AWS Lambda
10 55 (5.90%) Amazon S3
11 51 (5.47%) dbt
12 42 (4.51%) Snowflake
13 40 (4.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 34 (3.65%) GitHub Copilot
15 32 (3.43%) Amazon ECS
15 32 (3.43%) AWS CloudFormation
16 26 (2.79%) Amazon EC2
16 26 (2.79%) Azure Monitor
17 25 (2.68%) Amazon EKS
17 25 (2.68%) Microsoft Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 10 (1.07%) HTTP
2 9 (0.97%) DNS
3 8 (0.86%) TCP/IP
4 7 (0.75%) DHCP
4 7 (0.75%) Wi-Fi
5 6 (0.64%) BGP
5 6 (0.64%) Firewall
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%) NX-OS
6 4 (0.43%) TACACS
6 4 (0.43%) VXLAN
7 3 (0.32%) 5G
7 3 (0.32%) FTP
7 3 (0.32%) Internet
7 3 (0.32%) OpenLDAP
7 3 (0.32%) SMS
7 3 (0.32%) SSH
Database & Business Intelligence
1 63 (6.76%) PostgreSQL
2 55 (5.90%) Power BI
3 54 (5.79%) Data Warehouse
4 52 (5.58%) NoSQL
4 52 (5.58%) SQL Server
5 38 (4.08%) MongoDB
5 38 (4.08%) Relational Database
6 24 (2.58%) Amazon Redshift
6 24 (2.58%) DynamoDB
7 22 (2.36%) Amazon Athena
7 22 (2.36%) Data Lake
8 20 (2.15%) Amazon RDS
9 19 (2.04%) Big Data
10 16 (1.72%) Tableau
11 15 (1.61%) BigQuery
11 15 (1.61%) Redis
12 14 (1.50%) Metadata
12 14 (1.50%) Oracle Database
13 13 (1.39%) Amazon Aurora
13 13 (1.39%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 190 (20.39%) Git
2 174 (18.67%) Jenkins
3 132 (14.16%) JIRA
4 117 (12.55%) Selenium
5 108 (11.59%) GitLab
6 61 (6.55%) Cypress.io
7 52 (5.58%) JUnit
8 50 (5.36%) JMeter
9 48 (5.15%) Cucumber
10 47 (5.04%) Postman
11 43 (4.61%) REST Assured
12 23 (2.47%) Gradle
12 23 (2.47%) Maven
13 22 (2.36%) Gatling
14 21 (2.25%) SonarQube
15 19 (2.04%) Mockito
16 18 (1.93%) LoadRunner
17 15 (1.61%) Appium
17 15 (1.61%) Bitbucket
17 15 (1.61%) WebDriver
General
1 287 (30.79%) Finance
2 255 (27.36%) Social Skills
3 144 (15.45%) Analytical Skills
4 143 (15.34%) Banking
5 80 (8.58%) Public Sector
6 34 (3.65%) Front Office
7 23 (2.47%) Investment Banking
8 21 (2.25%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 18 (1.93%) Financial Institution
10 15 (1.61%) Telecoms
11 14 (1.50%) Marketing
12 12 (1.29%) Back Office
12 12 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
13 11 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
13 11 (1.18%) Law
13 11 (1.18%) Legal
14 10 (1.07%) Local Government
14 10 (1.07%) Retail
15 6 (0.64%) Games
16 5 (0.54%) Military
Job Titles
1 211 (22.64%) Developer
2 166 (17.81%) Senior
3 93 (9.98%) Lead
4 68 (7.30%) Tester
5 60 (6.44%) Data Engineer
6 57 (6.12%) Java Developer
7 55 (5.90%) DevOps Engineer
7 55 (5.90%) Test Engineer
8 52 (5.58%) QA Engineer
9 50 (5.36%) Software Engineer
10 48 (5.15%) Automation Engineer
11 45 (4.83%) Analyst
12 44 (4.72%) Senior Developer
13 42 (4.51%) Architect
13 42 (4.51%) Full-Stack Developer
14 35 (3.76%) Test Manager
15 33 (3.54%) Test Leader
16 29 (3.11%) Test Automation Engineer
17 28 (3.00%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
17 28 (3.00%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 152 (16.31%) Terraform
2 150 (16.09%) REST
3 113 (12.12%) Playwright
4 111 (11.91%) Kafka
5 104 (11.16%) RESTful
6 94 (10.09%) React
7 85 (9.12%) Spring
8 76 (8.15%) .NET
9 74 (7.94%) Spring Boot
10 65 (6.97%) HTML
11 56 (6.01%) CSS
12 51 (5.47%) Node.js
13 35 (3.76%) PySpark
14 32 (3.43%) Middleware
15 30 (3.22%) AngularJS
16 29 (3.11%) SOAP
17 26 (2.79%) JSON
17 26 (2.79%) XML
18 24 (2.58%) OAuth
18 24 (2.58%) pytest
Miscellaneous
1 157 (16.85%) Cloud Native
2 89 (9.55%) Distributed Systems
3 80 (8.58%) Product Ownership
4 37 (3.97%) Onboarding
5 36 (3.86%) AI Agents
6 25 (2.68%) Enterprise Software
7 22 (2.36%) Data Protection Act
7 22 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
8 21 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
9 19 (2.04%) Data Structures
10 16 (1.72%) Fixed Income
10 16 (1.72%) Virtual Team
11 15 (1.61%) Mobile App
12 11 (1.18%) Algorithms
12 11 (1.18%) Legacy Applications
12 11 (1.18%) Private Cloud
12 11 (1.18%) Security Posture
13 10 (1.07%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 10 (1.07%) Market Risk
14 9 (0.97%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 69 (7.40%) Linux
2 47 (5.04%) Unix
3 34 (3.65%) Windows
4 18 (1.93%) Android
5 17 (1.82%) Apple iOS
6 15 (1.61%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 8 (0.86%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.43%) VMS
9 3 (0.32%) Solaris
9 3 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
10 2 (0.21%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2016
10 2 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.11%) CentOS
11 1 (0.11%) Mac OS X
Processes & Methodologies
1 599 (64.27%) CI/CD
2 415 (44.53%) Agile
3 377 (40.45%) DevOps
4 211 (22.64%) AI
5 186 (19.96%) Infrastructure as Code
6 185 (19.85%) Problem-Solving
7 179 (19.21%) Microservices
8 171 (18.35%) Software Engineering
9 168 (18.03%) Validation
10 163 (17.49%) Continuous Improvement
11 160 (17.17%) Containerisation
12 147 (15.77%) Test Strategy
13 145 (15.56%) Observability
14 133 (14.27%) Scrum
15 123 (13.20%) TDD
16 120 (12.88%) Stakeholder Management
17 106 (11.37%) Event-Driven
18 104 (11.16%) Regression Testing
19 100 (10.73%) SDLC
19 100 (10.73%) User Acceptance Testing
Programming Languages
1 321 (34.44%) Python
2 261 (28.00%) Java
3 260 (27.90%) SQL
4 145 (15.56%) JavaScript
5 126 (13.52%) TypeScript
6 86 (9.23%) C#
7 41 (4.40%) PowerShell
8 39 (4.18%) Bash
9 26 (2.79%) Bicep
10 23 (2.47%) Kotlin
10 23 (2.47%) Scala
11 15 (1.61%) Go
12 13 (1.39%) Ruby
13 12 (1.29%) C++
13 12 (1.29%) PL/SQL
13 12 (1.29%) Shell Script
14 10 (1.07%) C
14 10 (1.07%) Groovy
15 9 (0.97%) Apex Code
15 9 (0.97%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 251 (26.93%) Security Cleared
2 223 (23.93%) SC Cleared
3 66 (7.08%) Degree
4 38 (4.08%) Computer Science Degree
5 32 (3.43%) ISTQB
6 29 (3.11%) DV Cleared
7 26 (2.79%) AWS Certification
8 18 (1.93%) BPSS Clearance
9 15 (1.61%) Azure Certification
10 9 (0.97%) ISEB
11 8 (0.86%) CISSP
11 8 (0.86%) Master's Degree
12 7 (0.75%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 7 (0.75%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
13 6 (0.64%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
13 6 (0.64%) DBS Check
14 4 (0.43%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
14 4 (0.43%) Cisco Certification
14 4 (0.43%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 3 (0.32%) Microsoft Certified Professional
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 262 (28.11%) QA
2 75 (8.05%) Data Quality
3 48 (5.15%) Accessibility
4 22 (2.36%) GDPR
5 17 (1.82%) WCAG
6 12 (1.29%) ISO 20022
7 11 (1.18%) NIST
8 10 (1.07%) SLA
9 9 (0.97%) GRC
10 8 (0.86%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 3 (0.32%) Actionable Recommendations
11 3 (0.32%) EU AI Act
12 2 (0.21%) ISO 9001
12 2 (0.21%) MiFID
12 2 (0.21%) NCSC
12 2 (0.21%) Sarbanes-Oxley
12 2 (0.21%) SOC 2
12 2 (0.21%) Software Quality Assurance
13 1 (0.11%) ISO 15022
13 1 (0.11%) SEPA
System Software
1 189 (20.28%) Docker
2 11 (1.18%) Virtual Machines
3 7 (0.75%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.75%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (0.32%) Oracle RAC
4 3 (0.32%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.32%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.11%) Embedded Firmware
5 1 (0.11%) Firmware
5 1 (0.11%) Hyper-V
Systems Management
1 177 (18.99%) Kubernetes
2 65 (6.97%) Grafana
3 49 (5.26%) Prometheus
4 48 (5.15%) Ansible
5 18 (1.93%) Puppet
6 16 (1.72%) Kibana
6 16 (1.72%) Progress Chef
7 10 (1.07%) Control-M
8 7 (0.75%) HP ALM
9 6 (0.64%) Single Sign-On
10 5 (0.54%) HP Fortify
10 5 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
11 3 (0.32%) Argo
11 3 (0.32%) Kustomize
11 3 (0.32%) Oracle RMAN
11 3 (0.32%) Packer
11 3 (0.32%) Rancher
12 2 (0.21%) Istio
13 1 (0.11%) HP Quality Center
13 1 (0.11%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 112 (12.02%) Microsoft
2 57 (6.12%) Oracle
3 45 (4.83%) Databricks
4 42 (4.51%) Google
5 36 (3.86%) Salesforce
6 32 (3.43%) ServiceNow
7 30 (3.22%) IBM
8 25 (2.68%) Splunk
9 24 (2.58%) SAP
10 22 (2.36%) UiPath
11 18 (1.93%) Informatica
12 16 (1.72%) Dynatrace
13 15 (1.61%) OpenAI
13 15 (1.61%) Red Hat
14 14 (1.50%) Cisco
14 14 (1.50%) Foundry
14 14 (1.50%) VMware
15 13 (1.39%) HP
16 11 (1.18%) SaltStack
17 7 (0.75%) MuleSoft