Automation Test Lead Contract Job Trends in the North of England

Test Automation Leader
England > North of England

The median Test Automation Leader daily rate in the North of England is £336, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 4 December 2025.

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

6 months to
4 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 202 165 179
Rank change year-on-year -37 +14 +61
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Test Lead 6 1 6
As % of all contract jobs in the North of England 0.13% 0.026% 0.13%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.14% 0.028% 0.14%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 1 6
10th Percentile £318 - -
25th Percentile £327 - £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £336 £550 £475
Median % change year-on-year -38.91% +15.79% -1.55%
75th Percentile £372 - £528
90th Percentile £430 - £538
England median daily rate £358 £550 £500
% change year-on-year -35.00% +10.00% -14.89%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
North of England

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the North of England. 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 North of England with a recognized job title 4,279 3,510 4,344
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.75% 91.96% 93.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,895 1,956 2,931
10th Percentile £213 £243 £265
25th Percentile £363 £375 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £460 £475 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.16% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £550 £575 £589
90th Percentile £650 £653 £674
England median daily rate £504 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -4.00% -1.69% -2.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 257 199 203
10th Percentile £15.80 £15.36 £15.75
25th Percentile £19.45 £18.00 £17.72
Median hourly rate £29.60 £25.00 £28.30
Median % change year-on-year +18.40% -11.66% +34.76%
75th Percentile £53.75 £44.75 £46.18
90th Percentile £74.26 £67.64 £61.59
England median hourly rate £25.47 £37.50 £45.00
% change year-on-year -32.08% -16.67% +36.36%

Automation Test Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

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 North of England.

Automation Test Lead job vacancy trend in the North of England

Automation Test Lead
Daily Rate Trend in the North of England

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Automation Test Lead job vacancies in the North of England.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Automation Test Lead job vacancies in the North of England

Automation Test Lead
Daily Rate Histogram in the North of England

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Automation Test Lead in the North of England over the 6 months to 4 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Automation Test Lead in the North of England

Automation Test Lead
Contract Job Locations in the North of England

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 North of England region over the 6 months to 4 December 2025. 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
North West - 5 £332 -
Yorkshire -31 1 £463 -15.91% 6
Automation Test Lead
England

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England

For the 6 months to 4 December 2025, 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 North of England region featuring Automation Test Lead in the job title.

1 6 (100.00%) Selenium
1 6 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 5 (83.33%) Java
3 4 (66.67%) CI/CD
3 4 (66.67%) JSON
3 4 (66.67%) REST
4 3 (50.00%) BrowserStack
4 3 (50.00%) Cucumber
4 3 (50.00%) Playwright
4 3 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
5 2 (33.33%) API Testing
5 2 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
5 2 (33.33%) Gherkin
5 2 (33.33%) Mentoring
5 2 (33.33%) Microsoft
6 1 (16.67%) Actionable Insight
6 1 (16.67%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (16.67%) Agile
6 1 (16.67%) Azure
6 1 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
6 1 (16.67%) BDD
6 1 (16.67%) C#
6 1 (16.67%) Coaching
6 1 (16.67%) Collaborative Culture
6 1 (16.67%) DevOps
6 1 (16.67%) Git
6 1 (16.67%) GitHub
6 1 (16.67%) GitHub Actions
6 1 (16.67%) Jenkins
6 1 (16.67%) JIRA

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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:

Cloud Services
1 3 (50.00%) BrowserStack
2 1 (16.67%) Azure
2 1 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
2 1 (16.67%) GitHub
2 1 (16.67%) GitHub Actions
Development Applications
1 6 (100.00%) Selenium
2 3 (50.00%) Cucumber
3 1 (16.67%) Git
3 1 (16.67%) Jenkins
3 1 (16.67%) JIRA
3 1 (16.67%) Postman
3 1 (16.67%) SpecFlow
3 1 (16.67%) TestRail
3 1 (16.67%) Zephyr
General
1 4 (66.67%) Social Skills
2 3 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
3 1 (16.67%) Banking
3 1 (16.67%) Finance
3 1 (16.67%) Inclusion and Diversity
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 4 (66.67%) JSON
1 4 (66.67%) REST
2 3 (50.00%) Playwright
3 2 (33.33%) Gherkin
4 1 (16.67%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 3 (50.00%) Mobile App
1 3 (50.00%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 4 (66.67%) CI/CD
3 3 (50.00%) Problem-Solving
4 2 (33.33%) API Testing
4 2 (33.33%) Continuous Improvement
4 2 (33.33%) Mentoring
5 1 (16.67%) Actionable Insight
5 1 (16.67%) Agile
5 1 (16.67%) BDD
5 1 (16.67%) Coaching
5 1 (16.67%) DevOps
5 1 (16.67%) Manual Testing
5 1 (16.67%) SDLC
5 1 (16.67%) Software Testing
5 1 (16.67%) Stakeholder Management
5 1 (16.67%) TDD
5 1 (16.67%) Test Management
5 1 (16.67%) Test Planning
5 1 (16.67%) Test Strategy
5 1 (16.67%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 5 (83.33%) Java
2 1 (16.67%) C#
2 1 (16.67%) Python
2 1 (16.67%) XPath
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (16.67%) Actionable Recommendations
Vendors
1 2 (33.33%) Microsoft
2 1 (16.67%) Veracode