Test Automation Contract Job Trends in the South East

Automated Testing
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the South East requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 23 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 73 40 39
Rank change year-on-year -33 -1 +16
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 198 173 223
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.01% 5.06% 4.18%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.71% 5.62% 5.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 118 118 149
10th Percentile £295 £325 £362
25th Percentile £370 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -8.20% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £588 £600 £638
90th Percentile £650 £700 £678
England median daily rate £475 £475 £525
% change year-on-year - -9.52% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 28 18 4
10th Percentile £55.00 £40.23 £39.98
25th Percentile £62.50 £46.93 £44.81
Median hourly rate £70.00 £50.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.00% -9.09% -2.22%
75th Percentile - £58.75 £66.25
90th Percentile - £65.71 £73.00
England median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +35.00% -9.09% -26.67%

All Process & Methodology Skills
South East

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 South East.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 5,340 3,077 4,420
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 81.20% 90.08% 82.80%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,367 1,920 2,631
10th Percentile £280 £250 £263
25th Percentile £413 £400 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £519
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.57% +0.68%
75th Percentile £611 £600 £638
90th Percentile £700 £665 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 534 270 385
10th Percentile £15.75 £13.50 £13.25
25th Percentile £25.73 £15.13 £19.25
Median hourly rate £57.50 £22.29 £54.88
Median % change year-on-year +158.02% -59.39% +9.75%
75th Percentile £82.25 £51.10 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £77.30
England median hourly rate £47.50 £25.15 £40.00
% change year-on-year +88.87% -37.13% -6.43%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

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

Test Automation job vacancy trend in the South East

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in the South East

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in the South East over the 6 months to 23 July 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in the South East

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

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

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

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram in the South East

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation in the South East over the 6 months to 23 July 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in the South East

Test 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 Test Automation within the South East region over the 6 months to 23 July 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
Thames Valley -49 71 £440 -12.00% 55
Surrey +9 48 £531 +11.84% 7
Berkshire -43 43 £425 -19.05% 33
Hampshire -50 40 £600 +20.00% 29
West Sussex -2 30 £358 -7.25% 7
Buckinghamshire -26 24 £475 +46.15% 8
Oxfordshire -17 4 £800 +68.42% 15
Middlesex -8 3 - -
East Sussex - 3 £391 - 5
Sussex - 1 £600 - 2
Test Automation
England

Test 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:

Application Platforms
1 16 (8.08%) Confluence
2 4 (2.02%) Apache Spark
3 2 (1.01%) SAS
3 2 (1.01%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.51%) WebLogic
Applications
1 3 (1.52%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (1.01%) Microsoft Office
3 1 (0.51%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (1.01%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.51%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.51%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.51%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.51%) SAP MDG
2 1 (0.51%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 52 (26.26%) Azure
2 37 (18.69%) AWS
3 26 (13.13%) Azure DevOps
4 21 (10.61%) OpenShift
5 17 (8.59%) GitHub
6 12 (6.06%) GitHub Actions
7 9 (4.55%) Azure AKS
7 9 (4.55%) GCP
8 8 (4.04%) Azure Monitor
8 8 (4.04%) Entra ID
9 7 (3.54%) Azure Key Vault
10 6 (3.03%) Azure App Service
11 5 (2.53%) Azure Data Factory
12 4 (2.02%) Azure Storage
12 4 (2.02%) IaaS
12 4 (2.02%) PaaS
13 3 (1.52%) Amazon ECS
13 3 (1.52%) Amazon S3
13 3 (1.52%) AWS Lambda
13 3 (1.52%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 10 (5.05%) 2G
1 10 (5.05%) 3G
1 10 (5.05%) 4G
1 10 (5.05%) 5G
1 10 (5.05%) Diameter Protocol
1 10 (5.05%) SIGTRAN
1 10 (5.05%) SS7
2 6 (3.03%) BGP
2 6 (3.03%) HTTPS
2 6 (3.03%) MPLS
2 6 (3.03%) VPN
3 5 (2.53%) Wireshark
4 4 (2.02%) Broadband
4 4 (2.02%) Ethernet VPN
5 3 (1.52%) GPRS
5 3 (1.52%) GSM
5 3 (1.52%) LAN
5 3 (1.52%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.52%) UMTS
5 3 (1.52%) WAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.55%) Data Warehouse
1 9 (4.55%) NoSQL
2 6 (3.03%) Azure SQL Database
2 6 (3.03%) PostgreSQL
3 4 (2.02%) Big Data
3 4 (2.02%) Oracle Reports
4 3 (1.52%) DynamoDB
4 3 (1.52%) Metadata
4 3 (1.52%) Spark SQL
5 2 (1.01%) Data Lake
5 2 (1.01%) MongoDB
5 2 (1.01%) Parquet
5 2 (1.01%) Redis
5 2 (1.01%) Relational Database
6 1 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
6 1 (0.51%) BigQuery
6 1 (0.51%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 35 (17.68%) JIRA
2 29 (14.65%) Git
3 20 (10.10%) SonarQube
4 18 (9.09%) Selenium
5 16 (8.08%) Jenkins
6 10 (5.05%) Postman
7 9 (4.55%) GitLab
7 9 (4.55%) SpecFlow
8 7 (3.54%) Cucumber
8 7 (3.54%) JUnit
9 6 (3.03%) NUnit
10 5 (2.53%) Bitbucket
10 5 (2.53%) WebDriver
11 4 (2.02%) Artifactory
11 4 (2.02%) Gradle
12 3 (1.52%) Maven
12 3 (1.52%) REST Assured
12 3 (1.52%) Robot Framework
12 3 (1.52%) TeamCity
12 3 (1.52%) Zephyr
General
1 45 (22.73%) Social Skills
2 27 (13.64%) Analytical Skills
3 21 (10.61%) Finance
4 18 (9.09%) Telecoms
5 10 (5.05%) Public Sector
6 8 (4.04%) Aerospace
7 6 (3.03%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (1.01%) Aviation
8 2 (1.01%) Banking
8 2 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
9 1 (0.51%) Advertising
9 1 (0.51%) Automotive
9 1 (0.51%) Documentation Skills
9 1 (0.51%) Games
Job Titles
1 36 (18.18%) Developer
2 29 (14.65%) Senior
3 25 (12.63%) Test Engineer
4 24 (12.12%) Tester
5 15 (7.58%) Java Developer
5 15 (7.58%) Lead
6 14 (7.07%) Java Engineer
6 14 (7.07%) Test Automation Engineer
7 12 (6.06%) Software Engineer
8 8 (4.04%) Analyst
8 8 (4.04%) Consultant
8 8 (4.04%) Test Manager
9 7 (3.54%) Designer
9 7 (3.54%) Full-Stack Developer
9 7 (3.54%) Senior Developer
9 7 (3.54%) Software Developer
10 6 (3.03%) Architect
10 6 (3.03%) Mobile Designer
10 6 (3.03%) SC Cleared Java Developer
10 6 (3.03%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 25 (12.63%) RESTful
2 23 (11.62%) REST
3 21 (10.61%) AngularJS
4 20 (10.10%) Quarkus
5 12 (6.06%) OAuth
5 12 (6.06%) Playwright
5 12 (6.06%) React
6 11 (5.56%) Spring
7 10 (5.05%) .NET
7 10 (5.05%) Spring Boot
8 8 (4.04%) .NET Core
8 8 (4.04%) .NET Framework
8 8 (4.04%) Entity Framework
8 8 (4.04%) OpenID
9 7 (3.54%) GraphQL
9 7 (3.54%) SOAP
10 6 (3.03%) OAuth2
10 6 (3.03%) SAML
10 6 (3.03%) Swagger
11 5 (2.53%) Hibernate
Miscellaneous
1 21 (10.61%) Cloud Native
2 18 (9.09%) Product Ownership
3 16 (8.08%) Distributed Systems
4 14 (7.07%) Self-Motivation
5 10 (5.05%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (3.54%) Virtual Team
7 6 (3.03%) PKI
8 4 (2.02%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
9 3 (1.52%) FPGA
9 3 (1.52%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (1.52%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.52%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.52%) Verilog
9 3 (1.52%) VHDL
10 2 (1.01%) AI Agents
10 2 (1.01%) Algorithms
10 2 (1.01%) Management Information System
10 2 (1.01%) Social Media
11 1 (0.51%) IVR
Operating Systems
1 12 (6.06%) Windows
2 8 (4.04%) Linux
3 7 (3.54%) Unix
4 6 (3.03%) Windows Server
5 5 (2.53%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (1.01%) CentOS
6 2 (1.01%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.51%) Android
7 1 (0.51%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.51%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (54.04%) Agile
2 91 (45.96%) CI/CD
3 58 (29.29%) DevOps
4 44 (22.22%) SDLC
5 43 (21.72%) Scrum
6 42 (21.21%) Software Engineering
7 36 (18.18%) Sprint Planning
8 34 (17.17%) Problem-Solving
9 32 (16.16%) Continuous Improvement
10 29 (14.65%) Unit Testing
11 27 (13.64%) DevSecOps
11 27 (13.64%) Test Strategy
11 27 (13.64%) Validation
12 25 (12.63%) Microservices
13 24 (12.12%) Sprint Review
14 23 (11.62%) Stakeholder Management
15 22 (11.11%) Front End Development
16 18 (9.09%) Mentoring
16 18 (9.09%) Technical Leadership
16 18 (9.09%) Test Management
Programming Languages
1 55 (27.78%) Java
2 53 (26.77%) SQL
3 46 (23.23%) Python
4 28 (14.14%) C#
5 18 (9.09%) PowerShell
6 14 (7.07%) JavaScript
7 8 (4.04%) TypeScript
8 5 (2.53%) C++
9 4 (2.02%) Bicep
9 4 (2.02%) C
9 4 (2.02%) Go
9 4 (2.02%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.52%) Bash
10 3 (1.52%) Embedded C
10 3 (1.52%) Embedded C++
10 3 (1.52%) Kotlin
10 3 (1.52%) VBScript
11 2 (1.01%) Apex Code
11 2 (1.01%) Groovy
11 2 (1.01%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 80 (40.40%) Security Cleared
2 55 (27.78%) SC Cleared
3 23 (11.62%) DV Cleared
4 15 (7.58%) ISTQB
5 8 (4.04%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 7 (3.54%) CCNP
6 7 (3.54%) Cisco Certification
7 6 (3.03%) Computer Science Degree
7 6 (3.03%) Degree
8 5 (2.53%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (2.02%) Azure Certification
10 2 (1.01%) BC Cleared
10 2 (1.01%) CCIE
10 2 (1.01%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 2 (1.01%) Master's Degree
11 1 (0.51%) CCIP
11 1 (0.51%) CCNA
11 1 (0.51%) ISEB
11 1 (0.51%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 68 (34.34%) QA
2 7 (3.54%) Accessibility
3 6 (3.03%) Data Quality
4 2 (1.01%) GRC
4 2 (1.01%) NCSC
4 2 (1.01%) Software Quality Assurance
4 2 (1.01%) WCAG
5 1 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
5 1 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials
5 1 (0.51%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
5 1 (0.51%) GDPR
5 1 (0.51%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 1 (0.51%) NIST
5 1 (0.51%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 14 (7.07%) Docker
2 13 (6.57%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (6.06%) Active Directory
4 5 (2.53%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.51%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 32 (16.16%) Kubernetes
2 20 (10.10%) Argo
3 19 (9.60%) Terraform
4 15 (7.58%) Ansible
5 5 (2.53%) Forefront Identity Manager
5 5 (2.53%) NetIQ Identity Manager
6 4 (2.02%) WMI
7 2 (1.01%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (1.01%) HP Quality Center
7 2 (1.01%) Iperf
7 2 (1.01%) Nmap
8 1 (0.51%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.51%) QRadar
8 1 (0.51%) Rancher
Vendors
1 19 (9.60%) Microsoft
1 19 (9.60%) Red Hat
2 14 (7.07%) Cisco
2 14 (7.07%) VMware
3 10 (5.05%) Oracle
4 8 (4.04%) Databricks
5 7 (3.54%) Splunk
6 6 (3.03%) Arista
6 6 (3.03%) Fortinet
6 6 (3.03%) Tagetik
7 5 (2.53%) NetIQ
7 5 (2.53%) Salesforce
7 5 (2.53%) SAP
8 4 (2.02%) Blue Prism
8 4 (2.02%) CheckPoint
8 4 (2.02%) Denodo
8 4 (2.02%) Juniper
8 4 (2.02%) Talend
9 3 (1.52%) Dynatrace
9 3 (1.52%) F5