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 24 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 61 50 39
Rank change year-on-year -11 -11 +13
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 227 146 205
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.43% 4.19% 4.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.27% 4.71% 5.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 131 100 147
10th Percentile £265 £325 £350
25th Percentile £350 £362 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £448 £488 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.21% -7.14% -
75th Percentile £550 £541 £634
90th Percentile £650 £625 £675
England median daily rate £475 £500 £513
% change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 14 3
10th Percentile £55.00 £47.38 £38.90
25th Percentile £66.31 - £42.13
Median hourly rate £70.00 £50.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.00% - -11.11%
75th Percentile - £58.44 £57.50
90th Percentile - £65.58 £60.50
England median hourly rate £68.61 £57.50 £58.75
% change year-on-year +19.32% -2.13% -21.67%

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 5,319 3,097 3,735
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.40% 88.84% 82.65%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,171 1,933 2,227
10th Percentile £275 £220 £257
25th Percentile £422 £375 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £510
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -1.92%
75th Percentile £616 £590 £625
90th Percentile £713 £650 £688
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 639 304 230
10th Percentile £13.45 £13.33 £16.23
25th Percentile £16.59 £15.91 £30.62
Median hourly rate £50.49 £21.82 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +131.34% -61.95% +7.20%
75th Percentile £70.00 £50.00 £70.43
90th Percentile £87.83 £69.65 £77.17
England median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £43.00
% change year-on-year +67.00% -41.51% -2.39%

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 24 September 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 -32 84 £475 +8.57% 150
Berkshire -26 52 £444 -11.25% 71
Hampshire -34 47 £488 -4.88% 92
Surrey +17 42 £475 +15.85% 27
West Sussex +8 42 £313 -8.09% 30
Buckinghamshire -20 25 £461 +41.92% 14
Oxfordshire -19 7 £868 - 65
Middlesex -12 6 - - 2
Kent -8 2 £475 -5.00% 9
Sussex - 2 £438 - 1
East Sussex +1 1 £459 +27.50% 22
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 13 (5.73%) Confluence
2 4 (1.76%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.88%) SAS
3 2 (0.88%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.44%) WebLogic
4 1 (0.44%) WebSphere
Applications
1 3 (1.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.44%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.88%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.44%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.44%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.44%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.44%) SAP MDG
2 1 (0.44%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 70 (30.84%) AWS
2 62 (27.31%) Azure
3 27 (11.89%) Azure DevOps
4 24 (10.57%) GitHub
5 23 (10.13%) OpenShift
6 18 (7.93%) GCP
7 13 (5.73%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (3.52%) Entra ID
9 7 (3.08%) Azure AKS
9 7 (3.08%) Azure Monitor
10 6 (2.64%) AWS Lambda
10 6 (2.64%) Azure Data Factory
10 6 (2.64%) Azure Key Vault
10 6 (2.64%) Serverless
11 5 (2.20%) Azure App Service
11 5 (2.20%) GitHub Copilot
11 5 (2.20%) Snowflake
12 4 (1.76%) Amazon Bedrock
12 4 (1.76%) Anthropic Claude
12 4 (1.76%) Supabase
Communications & Networking
1 12 (5.29%) 2G
1 12 (5.29%) 3G
1 12 (5.29%) 4G
1 12 (5.29%) 5G
1 12 (5.29%) Diameter Protocol
1 12 (5.29%) SIGTRAN
1 12 (5.29%) SS7
2 6 (2.64%) Broadband
3 5 (2.20%) HTTPS
4 3 (1.32%) BGP
4 3 (1.32%) GPRS
4 3 (1.32%) GSM
4 3 (1.32%) LAN
4 3 (1.32%) LTE
4 3 (1.32%) MPLS
4 3 (1.32%) UMTS
4 3 (1.32%) VPN
4 3 (1.32%) VXLAN
4 3 (1.32%) WAN
4 3 (1.32%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 21 (9.25%) Relational Database
2 14 (6.17%) PostgreSQL
3 10 (4.41%) NoSQL
4 9 (3.96%) Data Warehouse
5 6 (2.64%) Oracle Reports
6 5 (2.20%) Azure SQL Database
6 5 (2.20%) Metadata
7 4 (1.76%) Big Data
7 4 (1.76%) SQL Server
8 3 (1.32%) Spark SQL
9 2 (0.88%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.88%) DynamoDB
9 2 (0.88%) Redis
10 1 (0.44%) Amazon Redshift
10 1 (0.44%) BigQuery
10 1 (0.44%) Couchbase
10 1 (0.44%) MongoDB
10 1 (0.44%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 1 (0.44%) Parquet
10 1 (0.44%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 52 (22.91%) Git
2 30 (13.22%) JIRA
3 29 (12.78%) Selenium
4 19 (8.37%) SonarQube
5 17 (7.49%) Jenkins
6 14 (6.17%) GitLab
7 10 (4.41%) Postman
8 8 (3.52%) JUnit
8 8 (3.52%) SpecFlow
9 7 (3.08%) Cucumber
10 5 (2.20%) Bitbucket
10 5 (2.20%) REST Assured
11 4 (1.76%) Artifactory
11 4 (1.76%) Gradle
11 4 (1.76%) Maven
11 4 (1.76%) NUnit
11 4 (1.76%) Visual Studio Code
11 4 (1.76%) WebDriver
12 3 (1.32%) TeamCity
12 3 (1.32%) Zephyr
General
1 64 (28.19%) Social Skills
2 36 (15.86%) Analytical Skills
3 30 (13.22%) Finance
4 17 (7.49%) Telecoms
5 9 (3.96%) Aerospace
6 8 (3.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 8 (3.52%) Public Sector
7 5 (2.20%) Banking
8 3 (1.32%) Electronics
9 2 (0.88%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.44%) Advertising
10 1 (0.44%) Automotive
10 1 (0.44%) Games
10 1 (0.44%) German Language
10 1 (0.44%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.44%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 38 (16.74%) Developer
2 26 (11.45%) Senior
3 24 (10.57%) Tester
4 23 (10.13%) Lead
4 23 (10.13%) Test Engineer
5 16 (7.05%) Java Developer
6 12 (5.29%) Java Engineer
7 11 (4.85%) Test Automation Engineer
8 10 (4.41%) Software Engineer
8 10 (4.41%) Test Manager
9 9 (3.96%) Consultant
9 9 (3.96%) Designer
9 9 (3.96%) Technical Leader
10 8 (3.52%) Analyst
10 8 (3.52%) Automation Tester
10 8 (3.52%) Mobile Designer
10 8 (3.52%) QA Engineer
11 6 (2.64%) Architect
11 6 (2.64%) Software Developer
11 6 (2.64%) Software Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 31 (13.66%) RESTful
2 29 (12.78%) Terraform
3 24 (10.57%) REST
4 20 (8.81%) AngularJS
5 19 (8.37%) Quarkus
6 18 (7.93%) React
7 17 (7.49%) CSS
7 17 (7.49%) HTML
8 16 (7.05%) OAuth
9 12 (5.29%) OpenID
10 11 (4.85%) Playwright
10 11 (4.85%) Spring
11 10 (4.41%) .NET
11 10 (4.41%) OAuth2
12 9 (3.96%) Spring Boot
13 8 (3.52%) JSON
13 8 (3.52%) Kafka
14 7 (3.08%) .NET Framework
14 7 (3.08%) Django
14 7 (3.08%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 24 (10.57%) Cloud Native
2 22 (9.69%) Product Ownership
3 15 (6.61%) Distributed Systems
4 14 (6.17%) Self-Motivation
5 10 (4.41%) AI Agents
6 9 (3.96%) Enterprise Software
7 8 (3.52%) Data Protection Act
8 6 (2.64%) Virtual Team
9 5 (2.20%) Security Posture
10 4 (1.76%) Low-Code
10 4 (1.76%) PKI
10 4 (1.76%) Social Media
11 3 (1.32%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (1.32%) Life Science
12 2 (0.88%) Linux Command Line
12 2 (0.88%) Mobile App
12 2 (0.88%) Onboarding
13 1 (0.44%) Cyber Threat
13 1 (0.44%) Data Centre
13 1 (0.44%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 9 (3.96%) Windows
2 7 (3.08%) Linux
3 6 (2.64%) Unix
4 4 (1.76%) Windows Server
5 2 (0.88%) Embedded Linux
6 1 (0.44%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 130 (57.27%) Agile
2 129 (56.83%) CI/CD
3 63 (27.75%) SDLC
4 62 (27.31%) DevOps
5 54 (23.79%) Software Engineering
6 50 (22.03%) Continuous Improvement
6 50 (22.03%) Validation
7 44 (19.38%) Problem-Solving
8 42 (18.50%) Scrum
9 39 (17.18%) Software Testing
10 34 (14.98%) Infrastructure as Code
10 34 (14.98%) Sprint Planning
10 34 (14.98%) Stakeholder Management
11 32 (14.10%) Containerisation
11 32 (14.10%) DevSecOps
11 32 (14.10%) Technical Leadership
12 31 (13.66%) Performance Testing
12 31 (13.66%) Regression Testing
12 31 (13.66%) Test Strategy
12 31 (13.66%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 71 (31.28%) SQL
2 67 (29.52%) Python
3 57 (25.11%) Java
4 24 (10.57%) JavaScript
5 22 (9.69%) C#
6 15 (6.61%) PowerShell
6 15 (6.61%) TypeScript
7 5 (2.20%) Bash
8 4 (1.76%) Bicep
8 4 (1.76%) Go
8 4 (1.76%) PL/SQL
9 3 (1.32%) Kotlin
10 2 (0.88%) Apex Code
10 2 (0.88%) C++
10 2 (0.88%) Groovy
10 2 (0.88%) T-SQL
11 1 (0.44%) C
11 1 (0.44%) MATLAB
11 1 (0.44%) Ruby
11 1 (0.44%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 90 (39.65%) Security Cleared
2 58 (25.55%) SC Cleared
3 31 (13.66%) DV Cleared
4 15 (6.61%) ISTQB
5 8 (3.52%) Computer Science Degree
5 8 (3.52%) Degree
5 8 (3.52%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 5 (2.20%) BPSS Clearance
6 5 (2.20%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (2.20%) Master's Degree
7 4 (1.76%) CCNP
8 3 (1.32%) Azure Certification
8 3 (1.32%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (0.88%) CISSP
10 1 (0.44%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.44%) CCNA
10 1 (0.44%) CEH
10 1 (0.44%) CISA
10 1 (0.44%) ISEB
10 1 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 87 (38.33%) QA
2 10 (4.41%) Accessibility
3 8 (3.52%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.32%) Software Quality Assurance
5 2 (0.88%) GDPR
5 2 (0.88%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.88%) NIST
6 1 (0.44%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.44%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.44%) GRC
6 1 (0.44%) NCSC
6 1 (0.44%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.44%) PMO
System Software
1 23 (10.13%) Docker
2 11 (4.85%) VMware Infrastructure
3 9 (3.96%) Active Directory
4 5 (2.20%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 42 (18.50%) Kubernetes
2 20 (8.81%) Argo
3 16 (7.05%) Ansible
4 4 (1.76%) WMI
5 1 (0.44%) Forefront Identity Manager
5 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.44%) NetIQ Identity Manager
5 1 (0.44%) Podman
5 1 (0.44%) QRadar
Vendors
1 23 (10.13%) Microsoft
2 18 (7.93%) Red Hat
3 12 (5.29%) Oracle
3 12 (5.29%) VMware
4 11 (4.85%) Cisco
5 8 (3.52%) Databricks
6 7 (3.08%) Splunk
7 6 (2.64%) Arista
7 6 (2.64%) Tagetik
8 5 (2.20%) Salesforce
9 4 (1.76%) Denodo
9 4 (1.76%) Talend
10 3 (1.32%) F5
10 3 (1.32%) Fortinet
10 3 (1.32%) Juniper
10 3 (1.32%) ServiceNow
11 2 (0.88%) Atlassian
11 2 (0.88%) Google
11 2 (0.88%) MuleSoft
11 2 (0.88%) SAP