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 8 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 76 31 51
Rank change year-on-year -45 +20 -3
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 166 175 191
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 2.83% 5.86% 3.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.50% 6.41% 4.11%
Number of daily rates quoted 121 102 119
10th Percentile £350 £375 £385
25th Percentile £403 £463 £469
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £507 £550
Median % change year-on-year -1.28% -7.91% -4.35%
75th Percentile £625 £675 £638
90th Percentile £725 £700 £688
England median daily rate £475 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 19 15 3
10th Percentile £58.50 £44.51 £32.35
25th Percentile £60.93 £48.99 £34.00
Median hourly rate £67.50 £55.00 £38.50
Median % change year-on-year +22.73% +42.86% -29.36%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.52 £58.88
90th Percentile - £72.70 £70.05
England median hourly rate £65.50 £55.00 £62.50
% change year-on-year +19.09% -12.00% -10.71%

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 4,745 2,728 4,650
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.96% 91.42% 84.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,105 1,742 2,712
10th Percentile £280 £255 £250
25th Percentile £408 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £500 £501
Median % change year-on-year +2.50% -0.10% -1.86%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £625
90th Percentile £713 £675 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £525
% change year-on-year -2.86% - -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 425 170 431
10th Percentile £15.62 £13.82 £13.00
25th Percentile £25.15 £15.25 £18.20
Median hourly rate £55.00 £28.00 £47.50
Median % change year-on-year +96.43% -41.05% -3.06%
75th Percentile £82.25 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £88.00 £75.00 £76.86
England median hourly rate £46.47 £29.15 £36.50
% change year-on-year +59.40% -20.14% -2.14%

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 8 May 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 8 May 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 8 May 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 -61 54 £448 -28.40% 31
Hampshire -23 46 £613 +22.50% 13
Surrey -1 44 £550 +10.00% 9
Berkshire -58 33 £410 -34.40% 9
Buckinghamshire -19 20 £500 +33.33% 13
West Sussex -15 8 £361 -24.00% 5
East Sussex +6 7 £505 +6.21% 7
Kent - 3 £500 - 2
Middlesex -2 2 £552 -
Oxfordshire -20 1 £301 -36.74% 9
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 8 (4.82%) Confluence
2 2 (1.20%) SharePoint
3 1 (0.60%) Apache
Applications
1 5 (3.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (2.41%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (1.81%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 1 (0.60%) SAP MDG
1 1 (0.60%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 36 (21.69%) Azure
2 26 (15.66%) Azure DevOps
3 19 (11.45%) AWS
4 14 (8.43%) OpenShift
5 10 (6.02%) GitHub
6 5 (3.01%) GitHub Actions
6 5 (3.01%) Serverless
7 4 (2.41%) Tricentis Tosca
8 3 (1.81%) Azure AKS
8 3 (1.81%) Azure Monitor
8 3 (1.81%) Entra ID
9 2 (1.20%) Amazon EKS
9 2 (1.20%) AWS Lambda
9 2 (1.20%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (1.20%) Azure Service Bus
9 2 (1.20%) Firebase
9 2 (1.20%) Google Kubernetes Engine
9 2 (1.20%) OCI
9 2 (1.20%) Power Automate
9 2 (1.20%) Power Platform
Communications & Networking
1 7 (4.22%) VPN
2 6 (3.61%) Firewall
2 6 (3.61%) MPLS
3 5 (3.01%) TCP/IP
3 5 (3.01%) VLAN
4 4 (2.41%) Wireshark
5 3 (1.81%) BGP
5 3 (1.81%) IPv4
5 3 (1.81%) IPv6
5 3 (1.81%) Multicast
5 3 (1.81%) Network Security
5 3 (1.81%) OSPF
5 3 (1.81%) WAN
6 2 (1.20%) 2G
6 2 (1.20%) 3G
6 2 (1.20%) 4G
6 2 (1.20%) 5G
6 2 (1.20%) Broadband
6 2 (1.20%) Diameter Protocol
6 2 (1.20%) SS7
Database & Business Intelligence
1 4 (2.41%) NoSQL
2 2 (1.20%) BigQuery
2 2 (1.20%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (1.20%) MongoDB
2 2 (1.20%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
3 1 (0.60%) DynamoDB
3 1 (0.60%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.60%) Oracle Reports
3 1 (0.60%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 26 (15.66%) JIRA
2 20 (12.05%) Git
2 20 (12.05%) Jenkins
3 16 (9.64%) Selenium
4 13 (7.83%) SonarQube
5 10 (6.02%) GitLab
6 7 (4.22%) HP UFT
6 7 (4.22%) JUnit
6 7 (4.22%) Postman
6 7 (4.22%) Robot Framework
6 7 (4.22%) Sonatype Nexus
7 6 (3.61%) Gradle
7 6 (3.61%) NUnit
7 6 (3.61%) WebDriver
8 5 (3.01%) SpecFlow
9 4 (2.41%) Bitbucket
9 4 (2.41%) Maven
10 3 (1.81%) Cypress.io
10 3 (1.81%) TeamCity
10 3 (1.81%) Zephyr
General
1 33 (19.88%) Social Skills
2 22 (13.25%) Analytical Skills
3 12 (7.23%) Public Sector
4 11 (6.63%) Finance
5 8 (4.82%) Telecoms
6 4 (2.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 3 (1.81%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (1.81%) Presentation Skills
8 2 (1.20%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.20%) Aviation
8 2 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
8 2 (1.20%) Law
9 1 (0.60%) Advertising
9 1 (0.60%) Automotive
9 1 (0.60%) Banking
9 1 (0.60%) Marketing
9 1 (0.60%) Retail
Job Titles
1 29 (17.47%) Developer
2 25 (15.06%) Senior
3 22 (13.25%) Test Engineer
4 16 (9.64%) Tester
5 13 (7.83%) Java Developer
6 12 (7.23%) Test Manager
7 10 (6.02%) Analyst
7 10 (6.02%) Java Engineer
7 10 (6.02%) Software Engineer
8 9 (5.42%) Test Automation Engineer
9 7 (4.22%) Lead
9 7 (4.22%) Pensions Analyst
9 7 (4.22%) QA Engineer
10 6 (3.61%) DevOps Engineer
11 5 (3.01%) Designer
11 5 (3.01%) SC Cleared Java Developer
11 5 (3.01%) Senior Developer
11 5 (3.01%) Senior Test Engineer
11 5 (3.01%) Test Analyst
11 5 (3.01%) Test Leader
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 15 (9.04%) AngularJS
2 13 (7.83%) Quarkus
3 10 (6.02%) REST
3 10 (6.02%) RESTful
3 10 (6.02%) SailPoint
4 8 (4.82%) Spring
5 7 (4.22%) Playwright
6 6 (3.61%) React
7 5 (3.01%) .NET
7 5 (3.01%) OAuth
8 4 (2.41%) Oracle Fusion
8 4 (2.41%) Vert.x
9 3 (1.81%) CSS
9 3 (1.81%) Hibernate
9 3 (1.81%) JSON
9 3 (1.81%) JWT
9 3 (1.81%) Kafka
9 3 (1.81%) SAML
9 3 (1.81%) Spring Boot
9 3 (1.81%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 12 (7.23%) Distributed Systems
2 10 (6.02%) Self-Motivation
2 10 (6.02%) Virtual Team
3 8 (4.82%) Cloud Native
3 8 (4.82%) PKI
3 8 (4.82%) Product Ownership
4 5 (3.01%) Linux Command Line
5 4 (2.41%) Data Centre
5 4 (2.41%) Enterprise Software
5 4 (2.41%) Synthetic Data
6 3 (1.81%) FPGA
6 3 (1.81%) Mobile App
6 3 (1.81%) Verilog
6 3 (1.81%) VHDL
7 2 (1.20%) Algorithms
7 2 (1.20%) Data Protection Act
7 2 (1.20%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.20%) Security Posture
7 2 (1.20%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 1 (0.60%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 19 (11.45%) Windows
2 10 (6.02%) Linux
3 8 (4.82%) Windows Server
4 7 (4.22%) Unix
5 3 (1.81%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (1.20%) Android
6 2 (1.20%) CentOS
6 2 (1.20%) Kali Linux
6 2 (1.20%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.60%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.60%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (49.40%) Agile
2 56 (33.73%) DevOps
3 55 (33.13%) CI/CD
4 34 (20.48%) SDLC
5 32 (19.28%) Problem-Solving
6 29 (17.47%) Scrum
7 26 (15.66%) Software Engineering
8 25 (15.06%) Test Strategy
9 24 (14.46%) Unit Testing
10 23 (13.86%) Software Testing
11 22 (13.25%) Sprint Planning
12 20 (12.05%) AI
12 20 (12.05%) Microservices
12 20 (12.05%) Validation
13 19 (11.45%) Regression Testing
14 16 (9.64%) Code Quality
14 16 (9.64%) Continuous Improvement
14 16 (9.64%) Scenario Testing
14 16 (9.64%) Test Management
15 15 (9.04%) DevSecOps
Programming Languages
1 37 (22.29%) Java
2 32 (19.28%) Python
3 27 (16.27%) SQL
4 25 (15.06%) PowerShell
5 17 (10.24%) C#
6 16 (9.64%) JavaScript
7 8 (4.82%) VBScript
8 7 (4.22%) TypeScript
9 6 (3.61%) PL/SQL
10 4 (2.41%) Bash
10 4 (2.41%) C++
11 3 (1.81%) C
11 3 (1.81%) Embedded C
11 3 (1.81%) Embedded C++
11 3 (1.81%) T-SQL
12 2 (1.20%) Go
12 2 (1.20%) Kotlin
13 1 (0.60%) Bicep
13 1 (0.60%) Groovy
13 1 (0.60%) Swift
Qualifications
1 77 (46.39%) Security Cleared
2 44 (26.51%) SC Cleared
3 32 (19.28%) DV Cleared
4 12 (7.23%) ISTQB
5 7 (4.22%) CCNP
5 7 (4.22%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (3.01%) Computer Science Degree
6 5 (3.01%) Degree
6 5 (3.01%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
7 4 (2.41%) BPSS Clearance
7 4 (2.41%) OCA
7 4 (2.41%) Oracle Certification
8 3 (1.81%) CCNA
8 3 (1.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 3 (1.81%) JNCIS
9 2 (1.20%) BC Cleared
9 2 (1.20%) CCIE
10 1 (0.60%) CCIP
10 1 (0.60%) CEH
10 1 (0.60%) GPEN
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 44 (26.51%) QA
2 5 (3.01%) Accessibility
3 4 (2.41%) Data Quality
3 4 (2.41%) GDPR
4 2 (1.20%) NCSC
4 2 (1.20%) WCAG
5 1 (0.60%) GMP
5 1 (0.60%) GRC
5 1 (0.60%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 9 (5.42%) Active Directory
2 8 (4.82%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (4.22%) Docker
4 3 (1.81%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.60%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 20 (12.05%) Kubernetes
2 16 (9.64%) Terraform
3 13 (7.83%) Ansible
3 13 (7.83%) Argo
4 10 (6.02%) Forefront Identity Manager
4 10 (6.02%) NetIQ Identity Manager
5 4 (2.41%) HP Quality Center
5 4 (2.41%) Nmap
6 3 (1.81%) Nagios
7 2 (1.20%) Cisco Prime
7 2 (1.20%) Iperf
7 2 (1.20%) Progress Chef
7 2 (1.20%) WMI
8 1 (0.60%) Grafana
8 1 (0.60%) Microsoft Intune
8 1 (0.60%) Nessus
8 1 (0.60%) Prometheus
8 1 (0.60%) Puppet
8 1 (0.60%) Rancher
Vendors
1 13 (7.83%) Microsoft
1 13 (7.83%) VMware
2 12 (7.23%) Red Hat
3 11 (6.63%) Cisco
4 10 (6.02%) NetIQ
5 8 (4.82%) Oracle
5 8 (4.82%) Splunk
6 7 (4.22%) Blue Prism
6 7 (4.22%) CheckPoint
7 6 (3.61%) SAP
8 5 (3.01%) Juniper
8 5 (3.01%) SolarWinds
9 4 (2.41%) F5
9 4 (2.41%) Fortinet
9 4 (2.41%) ServiceNow
10 3 (1.81%) Google
10 3 (1.81%) Intel
10 3 (1.81%) Xilinx
11 2 (1.20%) Informatica
11 2 (1.20%) Talend