Test Automation Contracts in the South East

Automated Testing
England > South East

The table below provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East requiring Test Automation skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Test Automation over the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 34 52 47
Rank change year-on-year +18 -5 -6
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 176 195 269
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 5.85% 3.51% 4.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.38% 4.13% 5.19%
Number of daily rates quoted 103 120 202
10th Percentile £375 £386 £339
25th Percentile £463 £475 £451
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £550 £570
Median % change year-on-year -6.82% -3.51% +14.00%
75th Percentile £675 £638 £625
90th Percentile £700 £688 £675
England median daily rate £500 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -4.76% -4.55% +0.92%
Number of hourly rates quoted 13 3 8
10th Percentile £44.51 £32.35 £49.38
25th Percentile £48.99 £34.00 £51.25
Median hourly rate £56.75 £38.50 £53.00
Median % change year-on-year +47.40% -27.36% -3.64%
75th Percentile £64.52 £58.88 £58.38
90th Percentile £74.10 £70.05 £58.75
England median hourly rate £55.00 £60.00 £61.25
% change year-on-year -8.33% -2.04% +2.08%

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 2,757 4,716 5,181
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 91.59% 84.85% 89.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,756 2,743 3,594
10th Percentile £256 £243 £250
25th Percentile £400 £400 £404
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £508
Median % change year-on-year - -1.53% +1.55%
75th Percentile £600 £621 £619
90th Percentile £675 £700 £700
England median daily rate £525 £525 £550
% change year-on-year - -4.55% +2.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 171 434 219
10th Percentile £13.85 £13.00 £18.25
25th Percentile £15.79 £18.23 £23.83
Median hourly rate £28.00 £47.50 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year -41.05% -5.00% +122.22%
75th Percentile £62.50 £62.49 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £76.86 £74.83
England median hourly rate £29.07 £36.00 £37.50
% change year-on-year -19.25% -4.00% +53.06%

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
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Test Automation in the South East.

Daily rate trend for Test Automation in the South East

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 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in the South East

Test Automation
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the South East

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Test Automation in the South East.

Hourly rate trend for Test Automation in the South East

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 1 May 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 1 May 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 +25 87 £625 +4.17% 69
Berkshire +20 80 £638 +6.25% 37
Hampshire +16 43 £500 -9.09% 65
Surrey +12 29 £500 -14.89% 18
West Sussex +11 9 £475 +18.75% 10
Buckinghamshire +13 6 £375 -37.50% 19
East Sussex -3 2 £475 +65.22% 7
Middlesex +8 1 - - 4
Oxfordshire +4 1 £475 -2.56% 25
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 4 (2.27%) Confluence
2 1 (0.57%) WebLogic
Applications
1 3 (1.70%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 1 (0.57%) Infor CloudSuite
Cloud Services
1 64 (36.36%) Azure
2 27 (15.34%) AWS
3 26 (14.77%) Azure DevOps
4 12 (6.82%) Azure Data Factory
5 11 (6.25%) GCP
6 8 (4.55%) Azure Cosmos DB
6 8 (4.55%) SaaS
7 7 (3.98%) Azure API Management
8 6 (3.41%) Azure Service Bus
8 6 (3.41%) Tricentis Tosca
9 4 (2.27%) Azure Stack
9 4 (2.27%) Azure Synapse Analytics
10 2 (1.14%) Azure Monitor
10 2 (1.14%) Entra ID
10 2 (1.14%) Power Platform
11 1 (0.57%) Azure AKS
11 1 (0.57%) Azure Functions
11 1 (0.57%) npm
11 1 (0.57%) OpenShift
11 1 (0.57%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 7 (3.98%) VLAN
2 6 (3.41%) BGP
2 6 (3.41%) MPLS
3 5 (2.84%) TCP/IP
4 3 (1.70%) HTTP
4 3 (1.70%) SNMP
4 3 (1.70%) Software-Defined Radio
5 1 (0.57%) Ethernet VPN
5 1 (0.57%) HTTPS
5 1 (0.57%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (3.98%) PostgreSQL
2 6 (3.41%) NoSQL
3 5 (2.84%) Big Data
3 5 (2.84%) Relational Database
4 4 (2.27%) SQL Server
5 3 (1.70%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (1.14%) Data Lake
6 2 (1.14%) Data Warehouse
6 2 (1.14%) Elasticsearch
6 2 (1.14%) Metadata
6 2 (1.14%) MS Access
6 2 (1.14%) NewSQL
7 1 (0.57%) MongoDB
7 1 (0.57%) ObjectStore
7 1 (0.57%) Parquet
Development Applications
1 39 (22.16%) JIRA
1 39 (22.16%) Selenium
2 33 (18.75%) Git
2 33 (18.75%) Jenkins
3 19 (10.80%) Cucumber
4 15 (8.52%) GitLab
5 13 (7.39%) REST Assured
6 11 (6.25%) TestRail
7 10 (5.68%) GoogleTest
8 9 (5.11%) SonarQube
9 8 (4.55%) Bitbucket
9 8 (4.55%) Robot Framework
10 7 (3.98%) Cypress.io
10 7 (3.98%) Rational DOORS
10 7 (3.98%) SoapUI
10 7 (3.98%) SpecFlow
11 5 (2.84%) JUnit
12 4 (2.27%) Appium
12 4 (2.27%) JMeter
12 4 (2.27%) Visual Studio Code
General
1 40 (22.73%) Social Skills
2 31 (17.61%) Public Sector
3 29 (16.48%) Analytical Skills
3 29 (16.48%) Telecoms
4 28 (15.91%) Finance
5 24 (13.64%) Electronics
5 24 (13.64%) Manufacturing
5 24 (13.64%) Marketing
6 8 (4.55%) Law
7 4 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
7 4 (2.27%) Police
8 3 (1.70%) Billing
9 1 (0.57%) Games
9 1 (0.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 1 (0.57%) Retail
Job Titles
1 30 (17.05%) Architect
2 29 (16.48%) Senior
3 28 (15.91%) Developer
4 25 (14.20%) Active Directory Architect
4 25 (14.20%) Software Engineer
5 17 (9.66%) Test Engineer
5 17 (9.66%) Tester
6 13 (7.39%) Analyst
7 11 (6.25%) Test Analyst
8 10 (5.68%) Automation Tester
8 10 (5.68%) Full-Stack Developer
9 9 (5.11%) Java Engineer
9 9 (5.11%) Java Software Engineer
9 9 (5.11%) Senior Developer
9 9 (5.11%) Senior Software Engineer
10 8 (4.55%) Azure Developer
10 8 (4.55%) DevOps Engineer
10 8 (4.55%) Embedded Engineer
11 7 (3.98%) Embedded Linux Engineer
11 7 (3.98%) Senior Embedded Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (10.23%) REST
2 16 (9.09%) .NET
3 15 (8.52%) CSS
4 13 (7.39%) Java EE
5 12 (6.82%) HTML
6 10 (5.68%) ARM Templates
6 10 (5.68%) RESTful
7 9 (5.11%) XML
8 8 (4.55%) Playwright
8 8 (4.55%) React
9 6 (3.41%) ADO
9 6 (3.41%) SOAP
9 6 (3.41%) YAML
10 5 (2.84%) .NET Core
10 5 (2.84%) Web Services
11 4 (2.27%) AngularJS
11 4 (2.27%) JSON
12 3 (1.70%) .NET Framework
12 3 (1.70%) Entity Framework
12 3 (1.70%) Node.js
Miscellaneous
1 11 (6.25%) Product Ownership
2 10 (5.68%) Cloud Native
3 9 (5.11%) Algorithms
3 9 (5.11%) Self-Motivation
4 6 (3.41%) Renewable Energy
5 4 (2.27%) Linux Command Line
6 3 (1.70%) IoT
6 3 (1.70%) Onboarding
6 3 (1.70%) Operational Technology
6 3 (1.70%) SCADA
7 2 (1.14%) Replication
7 2 (1.14%) Virtual Team
8 1 (0.57%) Data Structures
8 1 (0.57%) Distributed Systems
8 1 (0.57%) EPoS
8 1 (0.57%) Wiki
Operating Systems
1 44 (25.00%) Windows
2 21 (11.93%) Linux
3 8 (4.55%) Unix
4 7 (3.98%) Embedded Linux
5 2 (1.14%) Windows 10
5 2 (1.14%) Windows 7
6 1 (0.57%) CentOS
6 1 (0.57%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 103 (58.52%) Agile
2 60 (34.09%) DevOps
3 43 (24.43%) CI/CD
4 42 (23.86%) Problem-Solving
4 42 (23.86%) Software Engineering
5 31 (17.61%) Containerisation
6 29 (16.48%) Continuous Integration
7 26 (14.77%) Identity Access Management
7 26 (14.77%) Scrum
8 24 (13.64%) Business Intelligence
8 24 (13.64%) Digital Marketing
8 24 (13.64%) Programme Management
9 23 (13.07%) Test Scripting
10 21 (11.93%) Software Testing
10 21 (11.93%) Test Strategy
11 20 (11.36%) Infrastructure as Code
11 20 (11.36%) Validation
12 18 (10.23%) Manual Testing
12 18 (10.23%) OO
13 17 (9.66%) Scenario Testing
Programming Languages
1 45 (25.57%) Python
2 35 (19.89%) Java
3 34 (19.32%) SQL
4 33 (18.75%) PowerShell
5 26 (14.77%) C#
6 19 (10.80%) JavaScript
7 13 (7.39%) TypeScript
8 9 (5.11%) C++
9 5 (2.84%) Bash
9 5 (2.84%) Rust
10 3 (1.70%) Go
10 3 (1.70%) Perl
10 3 (1.70%) PL/SQL
11 2 (1.14%) Scala
11 2 (1.14%) Shell Script
11 2 (1.14%) VB
12 1 (0.57%) ActionScript
12 1 (0.57%) Bicep
12 1 (0.57%) C
Qualifications
1 92 (52.27%) Security Cleared
2 55 (31.25%) SC Cleared
3 35 (19.89%) DV Cleared
4 30 (17.05%) Degree
5 13 (7.39%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (3.41%) ISTQB
7 5 (2.84%) Master's Degree
8 3 (1.70%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 1 (0.57%) AWS Certification
9 1 (0.57%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (15.91%) QA
2 3 (1.70%) Software Quality Assurance
3 2 (1.14%) Accessibility
3 2 (1.14%) Cyber Essentials
3 2 (1.14%) Data Quality
3 2 (1.14%) GDPR
3 2 (1.14%) GMP
3 2 (1.14%) HIPAA
System Software
1 27 (15.34%) Active Directory
2 22 (12.50%) Docker
3 2 (1.14%) Firmware
3 2 (1.14%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.57%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 22 (12.50%) Kubernetes
2 18 (10.23%) Ansible
3 13 (7.39%) Terraform
4 9 (5.11%) Docker Swarm
4 9 (5.11%) Podman
5 3 (1.70%) WMI
6 2 (1.14%) Proxmox
7 1 (0.57%) Grafana
7 1 (0.57%) Progress Chef
7 1 (0.57%) Puppet
7 1 (0.57%) Rancher
Vendors
1 25 (14.20%) SAP
2 11 (6.25%) Google
3 10 (5.68%) Microsoft
4 4 (2.27%) Databricks
5 3 (1.70%) Cisco
6 2 (1.14%) Citrix
6 2 (1.14%) Salesforce
7 1 (0.57%) Atlassian
7 1 (0.57%) CA Agile Central
7 1 (0.57%) CheckPoint
7 1 (0.57%) Infor
7 1 (0.57%) Oracle
7 1 (0.57%) Red Hat
7 1 (0.57%) ServiceNow
7 1 (0.57%) VMware
7 1 (0.57%) webMethods