QA Automation Contract Job Trends in the South East

Quality Assurance (QA) Automation
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring QA Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 5 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 174 173 -
Rank change year-on-year -1 - -
Contract jobs citing QA Automation 11 3 0
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 0.26% 0.075% -
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.30% 0.086% -
Number of daily rates quoted 10 3 0
10th Percentile £381 £371 -
25th Percentile £425 £384 -
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £413 -
Median % change year-on-year +21.21% - -
75th Percentile £538 £419 -
90th Percentile £560 - -
England median daily rate £475 £413 £525
% change year-on-year +15.15% -21.43% +10.53%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

QA 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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 3,693 3,476 4,648
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 86.53% 87.12% 89.94%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,373 2,149 3,007
10th Percentile £222 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £523
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -1.91% +1.95%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £615
90th Percentile £675 £688 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £545
% change year-on-year -4.76% -3.67% -0.91%
Number of hourly rates quoted 393 156 243
10th Percentile £14.58 £18.60 £16.42
25th Percentile £16.95 £26.19 £25.00
Median hourly rate £22.00 £55.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -60.00% +4.76% +20.69%
75th Percentile £41.00 £70.00 £65.93
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +18.67%

QA Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing QA Automation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East.

QA Automation job vacancy trend in the South East

QA Automation
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing QA Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the South East citing QA Automation

QA Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing QA Automation in the South East over the 6 months to 5 December 2025.

Daily rate histogram for QA Automation in the South East

QA Automation
Contract Job Locations in the South East

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing QA Automation within the South East region over the 6 months to 5 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
Surrey - 9 £500 -
Hampshire -8 1 - -
Berkshire - 1 £650 - 2
Thames Valley - 1 £650 - 2
QA Automation
England

QA Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South East 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 7 (63.64%) Tricentis Tosca
2 2 (18.18%) Azure
2 2 (18.18%) OCI
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (18.18%) Azure SQL Database
1 2 (18.18%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 8 (72.73%) JIRA
2 7 (63.64%) GitLab
3 3 (27.27%) Jenkins
4 1 (9.09%) Appium
4 1 (9.09%) Cucumber
4 1 (9.09%) Cypress.io
4 1 (9.09%) Git
4 1 (9.09%) Gradle
4 1 (9.09%) JMeter
4 1 (9.09%) JUnit
4 1 (9.09%) Maven
4 1 (9.09%) Postman
4 1 (9.09%) REST Assured
4 1 (9.09%) Selenium
4 1 (9.09%) TestNG
General
1 2 (18.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
1 2 (18.18%) Social Skills
2 1 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
Job Titles
1 8 (72.73%) QA Engineer
2 3 (27.27%) Lead
2 3 (27.27%) QA Leader
2 3 (27.27%) Senior
2 3 (27.27%) Senior QA Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) .NET Developer
3 1 (9.09%) Automation Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) Azure Developer
3 1 (9.09%) Developer
3 1 (9.09%) Java Engineer
3 1 (9.09%) QA Tester
3 1 (9.09%) SQL Developer
3 1 (9.09%) SQL Server Developer
3 1 (9.09%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (63.64%) Oracle Fusion
2 2 (18.18%) .NET
2 2 (18.18%) ADO
3 1 (9.09%) Gherkin
3 1 (9.09%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 7 (63.64%) Synthetic Data
2 1 (9.09%) Mobile App
2 1 (9.09%) Product Ownership
Processes & Methodologies
1 11 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 9 (81.82%) Acceptance Criteria
2 9 (81.82%) Agile
2 9 (81.82%) CI/CD
2 9 (81.82%) Problem-Solving
3 8 (72.73%) Test Planning
4 7 (63.64%) Data Management
4 7 (63.64%) Data Privacy
4 7 (63.64%) Data Strategy
4 7 (63.64%) DevOps
4 7 (63.64%) Digital Transformation Programme
4 7 (63.64%) ERP
4 7 (63.64%) User Experience
4 7 (63.64%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
4 7 (63.64%) Validation
5 2 (18.18%) Continuous Delivery
5 2 (18.18%) CRM
6 1 (9.09%) API Testing
6 1 (9.09%) SDLC
6 1 (9.09%) Software Delivery
Programming Languages
1 9 (81.82%) SQL
2 7 (63.64%) PL/SQL
3 2 (18.18%) Java
4 1 (9.09%) JavaScript
Qualifications
1 7 (63.64%) OCA
1 7 (63.64%) Oracle Certification
2 2 (18.18%) SC Cleared
2 2 (18.18%) Security Cleared
3 1 (9.09%) Computer Science Degree
3 1 (9.09%) Degree
3 1 (9.09%) ISTQB
3 1 (9.09%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
3 1 (9.09%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 11 (100.00%) QA
2 7 (63.64%) GDPR
3 1 (9.09%) SLA
System Software
1 1 (9.09%) Docker
Vendors
1 7 (63.64%) Oracle