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 vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 19 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 50 43 56
Rank change year-on-year -7 +13 -23
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 143 201 201
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 4.10% 4.36% 3.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.60% 5.28% 4.03%
Number of daily rates quoted 98 141 139
10th Percentile £325 £350 £388
25th Percentile £366 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £550
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -6.82% +17.02%
75th Percentile £547 £603 £613
90th Percentile £625 £651 £638
England median daily rate £500 £510 £540
% change year-on-year -1.96% -5.56% -6.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 14 3 8
10th Percentile £47.38 £38.90 £40.83
25th Percentile - £42.13 £51.25
Median hourly rate £50.00 £50.00 £56.25
Median % change year-on-year - -11.11% -13.46%
75th Percentile £58.44 £57.50 £58.75
90th Percentile £65.58 £60.50 -
England median hourly rate £57.50 £57.50 £75.00
% change year-on-year - -23.33% +25.00%

All Process and 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 3,112 3,806 4,993
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 89.17% 82.60% 89.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,939 2,269 3,336
10th Percentile £220 £255 £250
25th Percentile £378 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £518
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -1.14% +1.15%
75th Percentile £592 £625 £625
90th Percentile £650 £688 £700
England median daily rate £510 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.86% -4.55% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 304 251 255
10th Percentile £13.33 £16.00 £15.50
25th Percentile £15.50 £30.83 £23.79
Median hourly rate £20.73 £57.35 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -63.85% +9.24% +64.53%
75th Percentile £50.00 £71.50 £66.00
90th Percentile £69.65 £78.75 £75.67
England median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -41.51% -3.37% +53.66%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in the South East

Job postings citing Test Automation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the South East.

Job vacancy trend for Test Automation 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 19 September 2025.

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 19 September 2025.

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 19 September 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
Thames Valley +1 69 £420 -26.96% 59
Hampshire +5 55 £513 -6.68% 23
Berkshire -6 49 £500 -15.61% 41
Buckinghamshire +23 19 £325 -31.58% 11
Surrey -27 6 £410 -8.89% 14
Kent - 6 £625 - 5
West Sussex -6 5 £340 -20.00% 7
Middlesex 0 1 - -
Oxfordshire -9 1 - - 7
Test Automation
England

Test Automation
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the South East by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Application Platforms
1 8 (5.59%) Confluence
2 5 (3.50%) Apache
3 2 (1.40%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (1.40%) JBoss
4 1 (0.70%) Anypoint
4 1 (0.70%) Apache Spark
4 1 (0.70%) IIS
4 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Exchange
Applications
1 2 (1.40%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.70%) Chatbot
2 1 (0.70%) Microsoft Project
2 1 (0.70%) MS Visio
Cloud Services
1 46 (32.17%) Azure
2 29 (20.28%) AWS
3 20 (13.99%) Azure DevOps
4 8 (5.59%) Entra ID
5 6 (4.20%) GitHub
6 4 (2.80%) Serverless
7 3 (2.10%) GCP
8 2 (1.40%) Amazon S3
8 2 (1.40%) AWS Lambda
8 2 (1.40%) Cloud Computing
8 2 (1.40%) dbt
8 2 (1.40%) Fivetran
8 2 (1.40%) GitHub Actions
8 2 (1.40%) PaaS
8 2 (1.40%) Snowflake
9 1 (0.70%) Azure AKS
9 1 (0.70%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (0.70%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (0.70%) Azure Pipelines
9 1 (0.70%) Paddle
Communications & Networking
1 9 (6.29%) Firewall
2 4 (2.80%) VPN
3 3 (2.10%) BGP
3 3 (2.10%) Broadband
3 3 (2.10%) Cisco ASA
3 3 (2.10%) HTTP
3 3 (2.10%) MPLS
3 3 (2.10%) Multicast
3 3 (2.10%) Network Security
3 3 (2.10%) OSPF
3 3 (2.10%) SNMP
3 3 (2.10%) Software-Defined Radio
3 3 (2.10%) TCP/IP
3 3 (2.10%) VLAN
3 3 (2.10%) Wireshark
4 2 (1.40%) HTTPS
4 2 (1.40%) LAN
4 2 (1.40%) WAN
5 1 (0.70%) DNS
5 1 (0.70%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (6.99%) NoSQL
2 9 (6.29%) SQL Server
3 2 (1.40%) DynamoDB
3 2 (1.40%) MS Access
3 2 (1.40%) PostgreSQL
3 2 (1.40%) Relational Database
4 1 (0.70%) Azure SQL Database
4 1 (0.70%) Data Lake
4 1 (0.70%) Data Vault
4 1 (0.70%) Data Warehouse
4 1 (0.70%) MongoDB
4 1 (0.70%) MySQL
Development Applications
1 60 (41.96%) JIRA
2 36 (25.17%) Selenium
3 35 (24.48%) Jenkins
4 27 (18.88%) Cucumber
5 25 (17.48%) Git
6 17 (11.89%) REST Assured
7 16 (11.19%) GitLab
8 14 (9.79%) SoapUI
9 9 (6.29%) SonarQube
10 8 (5.59%) Postman
11 7 (4.90%) Bitbucket
11 7 (4.90%) Robot Framework
11 7 (4.90%) WebDriver
12 4 (2.80%) MSI
12 4 (2.80%) NUnit
12 4 (2.80%) Sonatype Nexus
12 4 (2.80%) SpecFlow
13 3 (2.10%) GoogleTest
13 3 (2.10%) HP UFT
13 3 (2.10%) Katalon Studio
General
1 51 (35.66%) Social Skills
2 27 (18.88%) Analytical Skills
3 10 (6.99%) Finance
4 8 (5.59%) Law
5 6 (4.20%) Telecoms
6 4 (2.80%) Automotive
6 4 (2.80%) Police
6 4 (2.80%) Public Sector
7 3 (2.10%) Billing
7 3 (2.10%) Documentation Skills
7 3 (2.10%) Influencing Skills
7 3 (2.10%) Retail
8 2 (1.40%) Aerospace
8 2 (1.40%) Legal
9 1 (0.70%) Banking
Job Titles
1 27 (18.88%) Senior
2 22 (15.38%) Tester
3 20 (13.99%) Analyst
4 18 (12.59%) Test Analyst
5 17 (11.89%) Test Engineer
6 15 (10.49%) Developer
7 13 (9.09%) Software Engineer
8 11 (7.69%) Senior Tester
9 9 (6.29%) DevOps Engineer
9 9 (6.29%) Java Engineer
9 9 (6.29%) Java Software Engineer
9 9 (6.29%) Software Test Engineer
10 8 (5.59%) Automation Tester
11 7 (4.90%) Cloud Engineer
11 7 (4.90%) Lead
11 7 (4.90%) Test Manager
12 6 (4.20%) Architect
12 6 (4.20%) AWS Engineer
12 6 (4.20%) Consultant
12 6 (4.20%) Senior Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (20.28%) REST
2 16 (11.19%) SOAP
3 13 (9.09%) Java EE
4 12 (8.39%) XML
5 10 (6.99%) Playwright
5 10 (6.99%) RESTful
6 9 (6.29%) ARM Templates
6 9 (6.29%) CSS
7 8 (5.59%) .NET
8 6 (4.20%) HTML
8 6 (4.20%) React
9 4 (2.80%) Next.js
9 4 (2.80%) Node.js
9 4 (2.80%) Spring
9 4 (2.80%) Web Services
9 4 (2.80%) WebdriverIO
10 3 (2.10%) Swagger
11 2 (1.40%) GraphQL
11 2 (1.40%) gRPC
11 2 (1.40%) RFC 2544
Miscellaneous
1 15 (10.49%) Self-Motivation
2 6 (4.20%) Enterprise Software
3 5 (3.50%) Cloud Native
3 5 (3.50%) Distributed Systems
3 5 (3.50%) Hybrid Cloud
3 5 (3.50%) PKI
4 3 (2.10%) Cloud Security Posture
4 3 (2.10%) Data Centre
4 3 (2.10%) Public Cloud
4 3 (2.10%) Security Posture
5 2 (1.40%) Fibre Optics
5 2 (1.40%) Linux Command Line
5 2 (1.40%) Product Ownership
6 1 (0.70%) Algorithms
6 1 (0.70%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.70%) Onboarding
6 1 (0.70%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.70%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 20 (13.99%) Windows
2 10 (6.99%) Linux
3 6 (4.20%) Windows Server
4 4 (2.80%) CentOS
4 4 (2.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 4 (2.80%) Unix
4 4 (2.80%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (53.15%) Agile
2 64 (44.76%) DevOps
3 47 (32.87%) CI/CD
4 43 (30.07%) Software Testing
5 37 (25.87%) Problem-Solving
6 30 (20.98%) Test Scripting
7 26 (18.18%) Scenario Testing
7 26 (18.18%) Test Strategy
7 26 (18.18%) Validation
8 25 (17.48%) Waterfall
9 24 (16.78%) Software Engineering
10 22 (15.38%) End-to-End Testing
10 22 (15.38%) Manual Testing
11 21 (14.69%) Infrastructure as Code
12 20 (13.99%) SDLC
13 19 (13.29%) Integration Testing
14 18 (12.59%) Configuration Management
14 18 (12.59%) Continuous Integration
15 17 (11.89%) Defect Management
15 17 (11.89%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 30 (20.98%) Java
2 26 (18.18%) Python
3 23 (16.08%) SQL
4 20 (13.99%) C#
5 11 (7.69%) PowerShell
6 9 (6.29%) TypeScript
7 6 (4.20%) Bash
7 6 (4.20%) JavaScript
7 6 (4.20%) VB
8 4 (2.80%) PHP
9 3 (2.10%) Go
10 2 (1.40%) Ada
11 1 (0.70%) Bicep
11 1 (0.70%) C++
11 1 (0.70%) PL/SQL
11 1 (0.70%) PromQL
11 1 (0.70%) Rust
Qualifications
1 60 (41.96%) Security Cleared
2 34 (23.78%) SC Cleared
3 21 (14.69%) DV Cleared
4 10 (6.99%) AWS Certification
5 7 (4.90%) Cisco Certification
6 5 (3.50%) Degree
6 5 (3.50%) ISTQB
7 4 (2.80%) CCNP
8 3 (2.10%) (ISC)2 CCSP
8 3 (2.10%) Azure Certification
8 3 (2.10%) CCSP
8 3 (2.10%) CISSP
8 3 (2.10%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
9 2 (1.40%) CCIE
9 2 (1.40%) CCNA
9 2 (1.40%) Computer Science Degree
9 2 (1.40%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 1 (0.70%) BPSS Clearance
10 1 (0.70%) ISEB
10 1 (0.70%) OCA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 30 (20.98%) QA
2 5 (3.50%) GDPR
3 4 (2.80%) PCI DSS
4 3 (2.10%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (2.10%) NIST
4 3 (2.10%) PSD2
5 2 (1.40%) Data Quality
6 1 (0.70%) HIPAA
6 1 (0.70%) HL7
6 1 (0.70%) SLA
System Software
1 16 (11.19%) Docker
2 10 (6.99%) Active Directory
3 8 (5.59%) VMware Infrastructure
4 3 (2.10%) Firmware
5 1 (0.70%) Virtual Desktop
5 1 (0.70%) VMware ESXi
5 1 (0.70%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 21 (14.69%) Ansible
2 18 (12.59%) Terraform
3 17 (11.89%) Kubernetes
4 9 (6.29%) Docker Swarm
4 9 (6.29%) Podman
5 4 (2.80%) HP ALM
5 4 (2.80%) HP Quality Center
5 4 (2.80%) WMI
6 3 (2.10%) Iperf
6 3 (2.10%) Nmap
7 1 (0.70%) CloudHub
7 1 (0.70%) Grafana
7 1 (0.70%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.70%) Rancher
7 1 (0.70%) Rundeck
7 1 (0.70%) Salt
7 1 (0.70%) vCenter Server
7 1 (0.70%) VxRail
Vendors
1 14 (9.79%) Microsoft
2 8 (5.59%) VMware
3 6 (4.20%) Salesforce
4 5 (3.50%) CheckPoint
4 5 (3.50%) Cisco
4 5 (3.50%) HP
5 4 (2.80%) ServiceNow
6 3 (2.10%) Fortinet
6 3 (2.10%) Oracle
6 3 (2.10%) Palo Alto
6 3 (2.10%) SolarWinds
6 3 (2.10%) Workday
7 2 (1.40%) Citrix
7 2 (1.40%) Red Hat
7 2 (1.40%) Splunk
8 1 (0.70%) Compaq
8 1 (0.70%) Databricks
8 1 (0.70%) EMC
8 1 (0.70%) Ericsson
8 1 (0.70%) webMethods