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 6 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
6 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 70 38 41
Rank change year-on-year -32 +3 +14
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 211 179 218
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.16% 5.11% 4.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.90% 5.68% 5.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 122 123 146
10th Percentile £274 £325 £353
25th Percentile £378 £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 £681
England median daily rate £477 £492 £525
% change year-on-year -3.15% -6.29% -2.78%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 18 3
10th Percentile £55.13 £40.23 £38.90
25th Percentile £62.50 £46.93 £42.13
Median hourly rate £70.00 £50.00 £50.00
Median % change year-on-year +40.00% - -11.11%
75th Percentile - £58.75 £57.50
90th Percentile - £65.71 £60.50
England median hourly rate £67.50 £50.00 £56.25
% change year-on-year +35.00% -11.11% -13.79%

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 5,408 3,153 4,120
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.98% 90.09% 82.91%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,343 1,973 2,495
10th Percentile £280 £250 £255
25th Percentile £415 £400 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £520
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.85% +0.31%
75th Percentile £613 £600 £638
90th Percentile £706 £675 £700
England median daily rate £525 £513 £525
% change year-on-year +2.44% -2.38% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 581 287 330
10th Percentile £15.05 £13.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £25.24 £15.13 £26.03
Median hourly rate £57.00 £21.58 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +164.19% -62.38% +14.70%
75th Percentile £78.75 £50.00 £70.00
90th Percentile £88.00 £74.25 £76.86
England median hourly rate £44.23 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +75.86% -40.82% -

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 6 August 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 6 August 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 6 August 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 -52 78 £470 -6.00% 70
Surrey +14 51 £511 +10.54% 11
Berkshire -45 47 £440 -21.78% 37
Hampshire -57 38 £580 +13.17% 37
West Sussex +1 32 £358 -16.16% 16
Buckinghamshire -31 25 £475 +46.15% 12
Oxfordshire -16 6 £813 +71.05% 21
Middlesex -13 5 - -
East Sussex - 3 £391 - 8
Sussex - 2 £438 - 5
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 15 (7.11%) Confluence
2 4 (1.90%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.95%) SAS
3 2 (0.95%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.47%) WebLogic
Applications
1 3 (1.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.47%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.47%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.95%) Salesforce CRM
2 1 (0.47%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.47%) Oracle EBS R12
2 1 (0.47%) Payment Gateway
2 1 (0.47%) SAP MDG
2 1 (0.47%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 58 (27.49%) Azure
2 46 (21.80%) AWS
3 28 (13.27%) Azure DevOps
4 23 (10.90%) OpenShift
5 19 (9.00%) GitHub
6 15 (7.11%) GCP
7 14 (6.64%) GitHub Actions
8 9 (4.27%) Azure AKS
9 8 (3.79%) Azure Monitor
9 8 (3.79%) Entra ID
10 7 (3.32%) Azure Key Vault
11 6 (2.84%) Azure App Service
12 5 (2.37%) AWS Lambda
12 5 (2.37%) Azure Data Factory
12 5 (2.37%) Serverless
13 4 (1.90%) Azure Storage
13 4 (1.90%) IaaS
13 4 (1.90%) PaaS
14 3 (1.42%) Amazon ECS
14 3 (1.42%) AWS CodePipeline
Communications & Networking
1 12 (5.69%) 2G
1 12 (5.69%) 3G
1 12 (5.69%) 4G
1 12 (5.69%) 5G
1 12 (5.69%) Diameter Protocol
1 12 (5.69%) SIGTRAN
1 12 (5.69%) SS7
2 6 (2.84%) HTTPS
3 5 (2.37%) Broadband
4 3 (1.42%) BGP
4 3 (1.42%) GPRS
4 3 (1.42%) GSM
4 3 (1.42%) LAN
4 3 (1.42%) LTE
4 3 (1.42%) MPLS
4 3 (1.42%) UMTS
4 3 (1.42%) VPN
4 3 (1.42%) VXLAN
4 3 (1.42%) WAN
4 3 (1.42%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (4.74%) NoSQL
2 9 (4.27%) Data Warehouse
3 8 (3.79%) PostgreSQL
4 6 (2.84%) Azure SQL Database
4 6 (2.84%) Oracle Reports
5 4 (1.90%) Big Data
5 4 (1.90%) Metadata
5 4 (1.90%) Relational Database
6 3 (1.42%) DynamoDB
6 3 (1.42%) Spark SQL
6 3 (1.42%) SQL Server
7 2 (0.95%) Data Lake
7 2 (0.95%) MongoDB
7 2 (0.95%) Parquet
7 2 (0.95%) Redis
8 1 (0.47%) Amazon Redshift
8 1 (0.47%) BigQuery
8 1 (0.47%) Couchbase
8 1 (0.47%) Oracle BI Publisher
Development Applications
1 34 (16.11%) JIRA
2 32 (15.17%) Git
3 22 (10.43%) SonarQube
4 18 (8.53%) Jenkins
5 16 (7.58%) Selenium
6 11 (5.21%) GitLab
7 10 (4.74%) Postman
8 8 (3.79%) SpecFlow
9 7 (3.32%) Cucumber
9 7 (3.32%) JUnit
10 6 (2.84%) NUnit
11 5 (2.37%) Bitbucket
11 5 (2.37%) REST Assured
12 4 (1.90%) Artifactory
12 4 (1.90%) Gradle
12 4 (1.90%) WebDriver
13 3 (1.42%) Maven
13 3 (1.42%) Robot Framework
13 3 (1.42%) TeamCity
13 3 (1.42%) Zephyr
General
1 49 (23.22%) Social Skills
2 31 (14.69%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (11.37%) Finance
4 17 (8.06%) Telecoms
5 11 (5.21%) Public Sector
6 9 (4.27%) Aerospace
7 8 (3.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 2 (0.95%) Banking
9 1 (0.47%) Advertising
9 1 (0.47%) Automotive
9 1 (0.47%) Electronics
9 1 (0.47%) Games
9 1 (0.47%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 39 (18.48%) Developer
2 32 (15.17%) Senior
3 23 (10.90%) Test Engineer
4 20 (9.48%) Tester
5 18 (8.53%) Java Developer
5 18 (8.53%) Lead
6 14 (6.64%) Java Engineer
7 13 (6.16%) Test Automation Engineer
8 12 (5.69%) Software Engineer
9 11 (5.21%) Consultant
10 9 (4.27%) Designer
11 8 (3.79%) Analyst
11 8 (3.79%) Mobile Designer
11 8 (3.79%) QA Engineer
11 8 (3.79%) Test Manager
12 7 (3.32%) Full-Stack Developer
12 7 (3.32%) Senior Developer
12 7 (3.32%) Software Developer
13 6 (2.84%) Architect
13 6 (2.84%) SC Cleared Java Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (13.74%) RESTful
2 25 (11.85%) REST
3 23 (10.90%) AngularJS
4 22 (10.43%) Quarkus
5 15 (7.11%) OAuth
6 14 (6.64%) React
7 13 (6.16%) Playwright
8 12 (5.69%) Spring
9 11 (5.21%) .NET
10 10 (4.74%) OpenID
10 10 (4.74%) Spring Boot
11 8 (3.79%) .NET Core
11 8 (3.79%) .NET Framework
11 8 (3.79%) Entity Framework
11 8 (3.79%) OAuth2
11 8 (3.79%) SOAP
12 7 (3.32%) CSS
12 7 (3.32%) HTML
12 7 (3.32%) JSON
12 7 (3.32%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 21 (9.95%) Cloud Native
2 20 (9.48%) Product Ownership
3 17 (8.06%) Distributed Systems
4 15 (7.11%) Self-Motivation
5 9 (4.27%) Enterprise Software
6 7 (3.32%) Virtual Team
7 6 (2.84%) PKI
8 4 (1.90%) AI Agents
8 4 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
9 3 (1.42%) Analytical Mindset
9 3 (1.42%) FPGA
9 3 (1.42%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (1.42%) Mobile App
9 3 (1.42%) Security Posture
9 3 (1.42%) Social Media
9 3 (1.42%) Verilog
9 3 (1.42%) VHDL
10 2 (0.95%) Algorithms
11 1 (0.47%) Data Structures
11 1 (0.47%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 12 (5.69%) Windows
2 8 (3.79%) Linux
3 7 (3.32%) Unix
4 6 (2.84%) Windows Server
5 5 (2.37%) Embedded Linux
6 2 (0.95%) CentOS
6 2 (0.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 1 (0.47%) Android
7 1 (0.47%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.47%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 114 (54.03%) Agile
2 103 (48.82%) CI/CD
3 67 (31.75%) DevOps
4 51 (24.17%) SDLC
5 47 (22.27%) Scrum
5 47 (22.27%) Software Engineering
6 39 (18.48%) Problem-Solving
7 38 (18.01%) Sprint Planning
8 34 (16.11%) Continuous Improvement
9 33 (15.64%) Unit Testing
10 31 (14.69%) DevSecOps
11 29 (13.74%) Stakeholder Management
12 28 (13.27%) Microservices
12 28 (13.27%) Validation
13 27 (12.80%) Sprint Review
14 25 (11.85%) Test Strategy
15 24 (11.37%) Front End Development
15 24 (11.37%) Technical Leadership
16 22 (10.43%) Mentoring
17 21 (9.95%) Roadmaps
Programming Languages
1 59 (27.96%) Java
2 55 (26.07%) SQL
3 51 (24.17%) Python
4 27 (12.80%) C#
5 20 (9.48%) PowerShell
6 15 (7.11%) JavaScript
7 9 (4.27%) TypeScript
8 5 (2.37%) Bicep
8 5 (2.37%) C++
9 4 (1.90%) C
9 4 (1.90%) Go
9 4 (1.90%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.42%) Bash
10 3 (1.42%) Embedded C
10 3 (1.42%) Embedded C++
10 3 (1.42%) Groovy
10 3 (1.42%) Kotlin
10 3 (1.42%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.95%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.95%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 82 (38.86%) Security Cleared
2 56 (26.54%) SC Cleared
3 24 (11.37%) DV Cleared
4 13 (6.16%) ISTQB
5 8 (3.79%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 6 (2.84%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (2.84%) Degree
7 5 (2.37%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (2.37%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (1.90%) Azure Certification
8 4 (1.90%) CCNP
9 2 (0.95%) CISSP
9 2 (0.95%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 2 (0.95%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.47%) (ISC)2 CCSP
10 1 (0.47%) AWS Certification
10 1 (0.47%) CompTIA Security+
10 1 (0.47%) CREST Certified
10 1 (0.47%) ISEB
10 1 (0.47%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 74 (35.07%) QA
2 8 (3.79%) Accessibility
3 7 (3.32%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.42%) Software Quality Assurance
5 2 (0.95%) GDPR
5 2 (0.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.95%) NIST
5 2 (0.95%) WCAG
6 1 (0.47%) Actionable Recommendations
6 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials
6 1 (0.47%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
6 1 (0.47%) GRC
6 1 (0.47%) NCSC
6 1 (0.47%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 18 (8.53%) Docker
2 13 (6.16%) VMware Infrastructure
3 12 (5.69%) Active Directory
4 5 (2.37%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 39 (18.48%) Kubernetes
2 23 (10.90%) Terraform
3 22 (10.43%) Argo
4 14 (6.64%) Ansible
5 5 (2.37%) Forefront Identity Manager
5 5 (2.37%) NetIQ Identity Manager
6 4 (1.90%) WMI
7 1 (0.47%) HP Quality Center
7 1 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.47%) QRadar
7 1 (0.47%) Rancher
Vendors
1 22 (10.43%) Microsoft
2 21 (9.95%) Red Hat
3 14 (6.64%) VMware
4 12 (5.69%) Oracle
5 11 (5.21%) Cisco
6 8 (3.79%) Databricks
7 7 (3.32%) Splunk
8 6 (2.84%) Arista
8 6 (2.84%) Tagetik
9 5 (2.37%) NetIQ
9 5 (2.37%) Salesforce
9 5 (2.37%) SAP
10 4 (1.90%) Blue Prism
10 4 (1.90%) Denodo
10 4 (1.90%) ServiceNow
10 4 (1.90%) Talend
11 3 (1.42%) Dynatrace
11 3 (1.42%) F5
11 3 (1.42%) Intel
11 3 (1.42%) Juniper