Automation Test Lead Contract Job Trends in the Midlands

Test Automation Leader
England > Midlands

The median Test Automation Leader daily rate in the Midlands is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 19 June 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 179 124 -
Rank change year-on-year -55 - -
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Test Lead 4 2 0
As % of all contract jobs in the Midlands 0.090% 0.091% -
As % of the Job Titles category 0.098% 0.10% -
Number of daily rates quoted 3 2 0
10th Percentile £403 - -
25th Percentile £425 £425 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £450 -
Median % change year-on-year +5.56% - -
75th Percentile £488 £475 -
90th Percentile - - -
England median daily rate £500 £450 £565
% change year-on-year +11.11% -20.35% +2.73%

All Contract IT Job Roles
Midlands

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the Midlands. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the Midlands with a recognized job title 4,083 1,975 2,752
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.00% 90.10% 92.13%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,513 1,281 1,815
10th Percentile £313 £202 £213
25th Percentile £405 £350 £338
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £485 £450 £475
Median % change year-on-year +7.78% -5.26% -
75th Percentile £575 £550 £588
90th Percentile £675 £638 £675
England median daily rate £521 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +1.56% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 309 142 244
10th Percentile £13.54 £12.62 £11.83
25th Percentile £16.35 £14.13 £14.09
Median hourly rate £25.12 £22.05 £19.00
Median % change year-on-year +13.92% +16.05% -8.00%
75th Percentile £50.00 £31.00 £35.00
90th Percentile £67.84 £50.00 £52.67
England median hourly rate £45.50 £28.75 £39.55
% change year-on-year +58.26% -27.31% -12.11%

Automation Test Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Automation Test Lead' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands.

Automation Test Lead job vacancy trend in the Midlands

Automation Test Lead
Daily Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Automation Test Lead job vacancies in the Midlands.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Automation Test Lead job vacancies in the Midlands

Automation Test Lead
Contract Job Locations in the Midlands

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Automation Test Lead within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 19 June 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
West Midlands - 4 £475 - 1
Automation Test Lead
England

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Midlands

For the 6 months to 19 June 2026, Automation Test Lead contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the Midlands region featuring Automation Test Lead in the job title.

1 4 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 4 (100.00%) Confluence
1 4 (100.00%) Cucumber
1 4 (100.00%) End-to-End Testing
1 4 (100.00%) Git
1 4 (100.00%) JIRA
1 4 (100.00%) JMeter
1 4 (100.00%) JUnit
1 4 (100.00%) Load Testing
1 4 (100.00%) Mentoring
1 4 (100.00%) Microservices
1 4 (100.00%) PostgreSQL
1 4 (100.00%) Selenium
1 4 (100.00%) Spring
1 4 (100.00%) Test Automation
1 4 (100.00%) Test Strategy
1 4 (100.00%) Validation
1 4 (100.00%) WebDriver
1 4 (100.00%) WireMock
2 3 (75.00%) API Testing
2 3 (75.00%) AWS
2 3 (75.00%) Azure
2 3 (75.00%) BDD
2 3 (75.00%) Coaching
2 3 (75.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 3 (75.00%) Digital Transformation Programme
2 3 (75.00%) Docker
2 3 (75.00%) GCP
2 3 (75.00%) Grafana
2 3 (75.00%) Kubernetes

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the Midlands 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 4 (100.00%) Confluence
Cloud Services
1 3 (75.00%) AWS
1 3 (75.00%) Azure
1 3 (75.00%) GCP
2 1 (25.00%) GitHub
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (100.00%) PostgreSQL
Development Applications
1 4 (100.00%) Cucumber
1 4 (100.00%) Git
1 4 (100.00%) JIRA
1 4 (100.00%) JMeter
1 4 (100.00%) JUnit
1 4 (100.00%) Selenium
1 4 (100.00%) WebDriver
2 1 (25.00%) Jenkins
General
1 3 (75.00%) Organisational Skills
1 3 (75.00%) Social Skills
2 1 (25.00%) Analytical Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (100.00%) Spring
1 4 (100.00%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 3 (75.00%) Distributed Architecture
2 1 (25.00%) Distributed Systems
Processes & Methodologies
1 4 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 4 (100.00%) End-to-End Testing
1 4 (100.00%) Load Testing
1 4 (100.00%) Mentoring
1 4 (100.00%) Microservices
1 4 (100.00%) Test Automation
1 4 (100.00%) Test Strategy
1 4 (100.00%) Validation
2 3 (75.00%) API Testing
2 3 (75.00%) BDD
2 3 (75.00%) Coaching
2 3 (75.00%) Continuous Improvement
2 3 (75.00%) Digital Transformation Programme
2 3 (75.00%) Observability
2 3 (75.00%) Stakeholder Management
2 3 (75.00%) TDD
2 3 (75.00%) Workshop Facilitation
3 1 (25.00%) Agile
3 1 (25.00%) Data Validation
Qualifications
1 1 (25.00%) SC Cleared
1 1 (25.00%) Security Cleared
System Software
1 3 (75.00%) Docker
Systems Management
1 3 (75.00%) Grafana
1 3 (75.00%) Kubernetes
1 3 (75.00%) Prometheus