Test Automation Contract Job Trends in the Midlands

Automated Testing
England > Midlands

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the Midlands requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 41 50 64
Rank change year-on-year +9 +14 +13
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 192 71 73
As % of all contract jobs in the Midlands 4.96% 3.73% 2.66%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.89% 4.19% 3.20%
Number of daily rates quoted 152 45 56
10th Percentile £350 £251 £354
25th Percentile £400 £367 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £474 £468 £425
Median % change year-on-year +1.28% +10.00% -2.86%
75th Percentile £525 £523 £482
90th Percentile £588 £715 £544
England median daily rate £483 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -3.48% -4.76% -7.08%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 0 1
Median hourly rate - - £55.00
England median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +14.54% -9.20% +4.17%

All Process & Methodology Skills
Midlands

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 the Midlands.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,262 1,695 2,280
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the Midlands 84.25% 89.12% 83.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,057 1,121 1,523
10th Percentile £290 £202 £235
25th Percentile £400 £356 £359
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £463
Median % change year-on-year - +2.70% -3.65%
75th Percentile £575 £580 £588
90th Percentile £650 £678 £688
England median daily rate £505 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -3.81% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 193 71 186
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.62 £11.56
25th Percentile £16.35 £14.70 £14.13
Median hourly rate £21.25 £18.74 £22.28
Median % change year-on-year +13.39% -15.90% +32.40%
75th Percentile £25.15 £24.44 £37.50
90th Percentile £30.25 £35.00 £56.13
England median hourly rate £30.32 £34.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year -12.12% +6.15% -9.72%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in the Midlands

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

Test Automation job vacancy trend in the Midlands

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Test Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in the Midlands

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in the Midlands over the 6 months to 14 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in the Midlands

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in the Midlands

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Test Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the Midlands citing Test Automation

Test Automation
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 Test Automation within the Midlands region over the 6 months to 14 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
West Midlands +10 159 £480 -1.84% 49
East Midlands -20 33 £400 +7.38% 35
Test Automation
England

Test Automation
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 57 (29.69%) SAS
2 26 (13.54%) Confluence
3 4 (2.08%) Apache Spark
4 3 (1.56%) Apache
4 3 (1.56%) OpenStack
5 2 (1.04%) Anypoint
5 2 (1.04%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.52%) Apache Synapse
6 1 (0.52%) nginx
6 1 (0.52%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
2 2 (1.04%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (2.08%) Maximo
1 4 (2.08%) Workday HCM
2 2 (1.04%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (1.04%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.52%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.52%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.52%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 1 (0.52%) Oracle Receivables
3 1 (0.52%) SAP ERP
3 1 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 54 (28.13%) AWS
2 43 (22.40%) Azure
3 35 (18.23%) GitHub
4 26 (13.54%) GitHub Actions
4 26 (13.54%) OpenShift
5 20 (10.42%) GCP
6 15 (7.81%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (3.13%) Serverless
7 6 (3.13%) Tricentis Tosca
8 4 (2.08%) Amazon S3
8 4 (2.08%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 3 (1.56%) Amazon EKS
9 3 (1.56%) AWS CloudFormation
9 3 (1.56%) Azure AKS
9 3 (1.56%) Datadog
9 3 (1.56%) npm
9 3 (1.56%) Pulumi
10 2 (1.04%) AWS KMS
10 2 (1.04%) AWS Lambda
10 2 (1.04%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 2 (1.04%) HTTP
2 1 (0.52%) 4G
2 1 (0.52%) 5G
2 1 (0.52%) Firewall
2 1 (0.52%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (15.10%) Pentaho
2 26 (13.54%) PostgreSQL
3 16 (8.33%) Data Warehouse
4 14 (7.29%) Oracle Reports
5 11 (5.73%) Oracle Database
6 10 (5.21%) SAS Enterprise Guide
7 9 (4.69%) Aerospike
8 7 (3.65%) DynamoDB
8 7 (3.65%) NoSQL
9 6 (3.13%) MongoDB
9 6 (3.13%) Redis
10 4 (2.08%) SAS Visual Analytics
11 3 (1.56%) Relational Database
12 2 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
12 2 (1.04%) SQL Server
13 1 (0.52%) Amazon Athena
13 1 (0.52%) Data Lake
13 1 (0.52%) Power BI
13 1 (0.52%) SAS EBI
13 1 (0.52%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 90 (46.88%) Git
2 88 (45.83%) Jenkins
3 70 (36.46%) JIRA
4 60 (31.25%) GitLab
5 59 (30.73%) Selenium
6 50 (26.04%) JUnit
7 24 (12.50%) Postman
8 22 (11.46%) Cucumber
9 20 (10.42%) JMeter
10 17 (8.85%) WebDriver
11 13 (6.77%) Zephyr
12 10 (5.21%) SonarQube
13 9 (4.69%) Cypress.io
14 7 (3.65%) Gatling
14 7 (3.65%) REST Assured
15 5 (2.60%) Gradle
15 5 (2.60%) Maven
16 4 (2.08%) Artifactory
16 4 (2.08%) Bitbucket
16 4 (2.08%) Toad
General
1 86 (44.79%) Social Skills
2 28 (14.58%) Finance
3 20 (10.42%) Public Sector
4 17 (8.85%) Analytical Skills
5 9 (4.69%) Organisational Skills
6 7 (3.65%) Banking
7 4 (2.08%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (1.04%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.04%) Financial Institution
9 1 (0.52%) Advertising
9 1 (0.52%) Aerospace
9 1 (0.52%) Automotive
9 1 (0.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.52%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.52%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 35 (18.23%) Data Engineer
1 35 (18.23%) Tester
2 26 (13.54%) Test Specialist
3 17 (8.85%) Senior
4 15 (7.81%) Automation Tester
4 15 (7.81%) Lead
5 14 (7.29%) Test Automation Specialist
5 14 (7.29%) Test Leader
6 13 (6.77%) Developer
7 11 (5.73%) Test Engineer
8 10 (5.21%) Analyst
8 10 (5.21%) QA Tester
8 10 (5.21%) Test Analyst
9 9 (4.69%) Test Manager
10 7 (3.65%) Architect
10 7 (3.65%) SAS Engineer
11 6 (3.13%) Senior Automation Tester
11 6 (3.13%) Senior Tester
12 5 (2.60%) QA Engineer
12 5 (2.60%) Test Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (17.19%) REST
2 30 (15.63%) pytest
3 23 (11.98%) Spring
4 18 (9.38%) WireMock
5 12 (6.25%) Playwright
6 11 (5.73%) Kafka
7 9 (4.69%) .NET
7 9 (4.69%) Node.js
8 8 (4.17%) YAML
9 7 (3.65%) JSON
10 6 (3.13%) Elastic Stack
10 6 (3.13%) RESTful
10 6 (3.13%) XML
11 5 (2.60%) Jest
11 5 (2.60%) Spring Boot
12 4 (2.08%) ADO
12 4 (2.08%) Gherkin
13 3 (1.56%) .NET Framework
13 3 (1.56%) SailPoint
13 3 (1.56%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 21 (10.94%) Distributed Systems
2 13 (6.77%) Cloud Native
3 10 (5.21%) Distributed Architecture
4 8 (4.17%) Product Ownership
5 3 (1.56%) Distributed Applications
5 3 (1.56%) Private Cloud
6 2 (1.04%) Data Protection Act
6 2 (1.04%) Derivative
6 2 (1.04%) Enterprise Software
6 2 (1.04%) Mainframe
6 2 (1.04%) Mobile App
6 2 (1.04%) Onboarding
6 2 (1.04%) Public Cloud
7 1 (0.52%) Low-Code
7 1 (0.52%) Management Information System
7 1 (0.52%) Mobile Banking
7 1 (0.52%) SCADA
7 1 (0.52%) Security Posture
7 1 (0.52%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 9 (4.69%) Linux
2 7 (3.65%) Windows
3 3 (1.56%) Apple iOS
4 2 (1.04%) Android
4 2 (1.04%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.52%) Windows 10
Processes & Methodologies
1 126 (65.63%) CI/CD
2 123 (64.06%) Agile
3 82 (42.71%) DevOps
4 71 (36.98%) Problem-Solving
5 62 (32.29%) Analytics
6 56 (29.17%) Scrum
7 55 (28.65%) Continuous Improvement
8 54 (28.13%) ETL
8 54 (28.13%) Test Strategy
9 51 (26.56%) Data Pipeline
10 46 (23.96%) Integration Testing
11 44 (22.92%) Test Scripting
12 40 (20.83%) Containerisation
13 39 (20.31%) Validation
14 37 (19.27%) Deployment Automation
15 36 (18.75%) Data Modelling
16 33 (17.19%) End-to-End Testing
16 33 (17.19%) Microservices
16 33 (17.19%) Stakeholder Management
17 31 (16.15%) Business Intelligence
Programming Languages
1 68 (35.42%) SQL
2 36 (18.75%) Python
3 35 (18.23%) Java
4 6 (3.13%) JavaScript
5 4 (2.08%) C#
5 4 (2.08%) PL/SQL
5 4 (2.08%) TypeScript
6 3 (1.56%) Shell Script
6 3 (1.56%) Swift
7 2 (1.04%) Go
7 2 (1.04%) Groovy
7 2 (1.04%) PowerShell
7 2 (1.04%) VB
8 1 (0.52%) C++
8 1 (0.52%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.52%) Scala
Qualifications
1 106 (55.21%) Security Cleared
2 90 (46.88%) SC Cleared
3 17 (8.85%) ISTQB
4 11 (5.73%) Degree
4 11 (5.73%) DV Cleared
5 6 (3.13%) BPSS Clearance
5 6 (3.13%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (2.60%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
7 3 (1.56%) Master's Degree
7 3 (1.56%) Microsoft Certification
8 2 (1.04%) CISA
8 2 (1.04%) CISM
8 2 (1.04%) CISSP
8 2 (1.04%) ISEB
8 2 (1.04%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
8 2 (1.04%) ITIL Certification
8 2 (1.04%) PRINCE2 Practitioner
9 1 (0.52%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.52%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 1 (0.52%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (18.75%) QA
2 30 (15.63%) Data Quality
3 7 (3.65%) Accessibility
4 5 (2.60%) NCSC
5 2 (1.04%) COBIT
5 2 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (1.04%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
5 2 (1.04%) NIST
5 2 (1.04%) NIST 800
5 2 (1.04%) SLA
5 2 (1.04%) WCAG
6 1 (0.52%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 76 (39.58%) Docker
2 1 (0.52%) Active Directory
Systems Management
1 85 (44.27%) Kubernetes
2 22 (11.46%) Grafana
3 21 (10.94%) Prometheus
4 14 (7.29%) Terraform
5 9 (4.69%) Ansible
6 5 (2.60%) HP ALM
7 3 (1.56%) Podman
7 3 (1.56%) Progress Chef
7 3 (1.56%) Puppet
8 2 (1.04%) HP Quality Center
8 2 (1.04%) Kibana
9 1 (0.52%) CSIRT
9 1 (0.52%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 54 (28.13%) Oracle
2 32 (16.67%) Talend
3 25 (13.02%) Denodo
4 11 (5.73%) Databricks
4 11 (5.73%) Microsoft
5 10 (5.21%) Splunk
6 9 (4.69%) SAP
7 5 (2.60%) HP
7 5 (2.60%) Sage
8 4 (2.08%) Informatica
8 4 (2.08%) Workday
9 3 (1.56%) Ariba
9 3 (1.56%) MuleSoft
9 3 (1.56%) ServiceNow
10 2 (1.04%) Atlassian
10 2 (1.04%) Calypso
10 2 (1.04%) Dynatrace
10 2 (1.04%) IBM
10 2 (1.04%) Rapid7
10 2 (1.04%) webMethods