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 29 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
29 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 59 38 56
Rank change year-on-year -21 +18 -22
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 138 184 179
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.13% 5.13% 3.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 3.70% 5.80% 4.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 106 125 120
10th Percentile £338 £384 £400
25th Percentile £375 £456 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £513 £538
Median % change year-on-year -2.44% -4.65% +2.38%
75th Percentile £600 £638 £600
90th Percentile £725 £688 £638
England median daily rate £500 £500 £538
% change year-on-year - -6.98% -6.52%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 1 1
10th Percentile £33.65 - -
25th Percentile £50.00 £47.50 £31.25
Median hourly rate £52.50 £50.00 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% +53.85% -50.00%
75th Percentile £58.75 £52.50 £33.75
90th Percentile £67.50 - -
England median hourly rate £63.50 £67.50 £77.50
% change year-on-year -5.93% -12.90% +29.17%

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 3,731 3,175 4,436
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 84.60% 88.46% 89.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,450 1,978 2,853
10th Percentile £223 £250 £213
25th Percentile £400 £406 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £511 £518
Median % change year-on-year -2.12% -1.38% +1.37%
75th Percentile £600 £625 £615
90th Percentile £678 £675 £688
England median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 355 119 236
10th Percentile £14.75 £19.84 £19.10
25th Percentile £17.00 £26.13 £27.50
Median hourly rate £22.50 £47.25 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -52.38% -14.10% +29.67%
75th Percentile £48.75 £63.00 £66.30
90th Percentile £75.00 £74.89 £76.53
England median hourly rate £25.15 £35.00 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.14% -21.35% +25.35%

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 29 December 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 29 December 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 29 December 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 -30 59 £461 -21.28% 252
Berkshire -34 48 £492 -20.65% 145
Hampshire -7 42 £550 +7.32% 99
Surrey -27 16 £475 -5.00% 49
Buckinghamshire +9 10 £350 -31.71% 60
East Sussex +4 7 £558 +19.89% 24
Kent - 7 £375 - 57
West Sussex -14 5 £368 -43.24% 36
Middlesex - 2 £552 - 2
Oxfordshire -13 1 - - 47
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 9 (6.52%) Confluence
2 2 (1.45%) Apache
2 2 (1.45%) Apache Airflow
3 1 (0.72%) Apache Spark
3 1 (0.72%) WebLogic
Applications
1 3 (2.17%) MS Visio
2 1 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 2 (1.45%) SAP FI
2 1 (0.72%) Salesforce CRM
Cloud Services
1 31 (22.46%) Azure
2 23 (16.67%) AWS
3 16 (11.59%) GitHub
4 15 (10.87%) GitHub Actions
5 13 (9.42%) Azure DevOps
6 12 (8.70%) Entra ID
7 11 (7.97%) Tricentis Tosca
8 9 (6.52%) GCP
9 8 (5.80%) OpenShift
10 6 (4.35%) Serverless
11 4 (2.90%) Azure Functions
12 3 (2.17%) Azure Monitor
12 3 (2.17%) OCI
13 2 (1.45%) AWS Lambda
13 2 (1.45%) Azure API Management
13 2 (1.45%) dbt
13 2 (1.45%) Fivetran
13 2 (1.45%) Google Kubernetes Engine
13 2 (1.45%) Power Platform
13 2 (1.45%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 10 (7.25%) Wireshark
2 8 (5.80%) Firewall
3 7 (5.07%) VPN
4 5 (3.62%) MPLS
4 5 (3.62%) Network Security
4 5 (3.62%) TCP/IP
4 5 (3.62%) VLAN
5 4 (2.90%) Broadband
6 3 (2.17%) 5G
6 3 (2.17%) BGP
6 3 (2.17%) Cisco ASA
6 3 (2.17%) Multicast
6 3 (2.17%) OSPF
7 2 (1.45%) 2G
7 2 (1.45%) Intranet
7 2 (1.45%) LTE
7 2 (1.45%) Mobile Backhaul
7 2 (1.45%) NaaS
7 2 (1.45%) SD-WAN
7 2 (1.45%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (12.32%) NoSQL
2 13 (9.42%) PostgreSQL
3 5 (3.62%) Apache Cassandra
3 5 (3.62%) Couchbase
4 4 (2.90%) SQL Server
5 3 (2.17%) Azure SQL Database
6 2 (1.45%) BigQuery
6 2 (1.45%) Power BI
6 2 (1.45%) Relational Database
6 2 (1.45%) Tableau
7 1 (0.72%) Amazon Aurora
7 1 (0.72%) Big Data
7 1 (0.72%) Data Lake
7 1 (0.72%) Data Vault
7 1 (0.72%) Data Warehouse
7 1 (0.72%) DynamoDB
7 1 (0.72%) MySQL
7 1 (0.72%) RDBMS
7 1 (0.72%) Redis
Development Applications
1 32 (23.19%) JIRA
2 31 (22.46%) Jenkins
3 19 (13.77%) Selenium
4 18 (13.04%) Cucumber
5 17 (12.32%) GitLab
6 16 (11.59%) Git
7 9 (6.52%) Sonatype Nexus
8 8 (5.80%) Burp Suite
8 8 (5.80%) JMeter
9 7 (5.07%) Gradle
9 7 (5.07%) JUnit
9 7 (5.07%) Metasploit
10 5 (3.62%) Bitbucket
10 5 (3.62%) HP UFT
10 5 (3.62%) REST Assured
11 4 (2.90%) Android Studio
11 4 (2.90%) Cypress.io
11 4 (2.90%) Postman
11 4 (2.90%) Toad
11 4 (2.90%) WebDriver
General
1 50 (36.23%) Social Skills
2 35 (25.36%) Analytical Skills
3 16 (11.59%) Finance
4 13 (9.42%) Public Sector
5 10 (7.25%) Telecoms
6 5 (3.62%) Automotive
6 5 (3.62%) Documentation Skills
6 5 (3.62%) Influencing Skills
6 5 (3.62%) Presentation Skills
7 2 (1.45%) Billing
7 2 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 2 (1.45%) Retail
8 1 (0.72%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 26 (18.84%) Tester
2 25 (18.12%) Developer
3 24 (17.39%) Senior
4 15 (10.87%) Test Manager
5 11 (7.97%) Lead
6 10 (7.25%) Automation Tester
7 9 (6.52%) Java Developer
7 9 (6.52%) Penetration Tester
8 8 (5.80%) QA Engineer
9 7 (5.07%) Analyst
9 7 (5.07%) DevOps Engineer
9 7 (5.07%) Senior Developer
9 7 (5.07%) Test Analyst
9 7 (5.07%) Test Engineer
10 5 (3.62%) AWS Engineer
10 5 (3.62%) Cloud Engineer
11 4 (2.90%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 4 (2.90%) Java Engineer
11 4 (2.90%) Selenium Automation Tester
11 4 (2.90%) Selenium Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 17 (12.32%) REST
2 12 (8.70%) Kafka
3 11 (7.97%) .NET
4 9 (6.52%) Spring
5 7 (5.07%) Oracle Fusion
5 7 (5.07%) RESTful
6 6 (4.35%) OAuth
6 6 (4.35%) RabbitMQ
6 6 (4.35%) SAML
6 6 (4.35%) SOAP
6 6 (4.35%) XML
7 5 (3.62%) Hibernate
7 5 (3.62%) Playwright
7 5 (3.62%) React
8 4 (2.90%) Flask
8 4 (2.90%) GraphQL
8 4 (2.90%) JWT
8 4 (2.90%) SailPoint
9 3 (2.17%) CSS
9 3 (2.17%) HTML
Miscellaneous
1 8 (5.80%) Cloud Native
1 8 (5.80%) Enterprise Software
2 7 (5.07%) Distributed Systems
2 7 (5.07%) Synthetic Data
3 4 (2.90%) Algorithms
3 4 (2.90%) Product Ownership
3 4 (2.90%) Security Posture
4 3 (2.17%) Cloud Security Posture
4 3 (2.17%) Data Centre
4 3 (2.17%) Hybrid Cloud
4 3 (2.17%) IoT
4 3 (2.17%) PKI
4 3 (2.17%) Public Cloud
4 3 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
5 2 (1.45%) Linux Command Line
6 1 (0.72%) Client/Server
6 1 (0.72%) Mobile App
6 1 (0.72%) Team-Oriented Environment
6 1 (0.72%) TM Forum
6 1 (0.72%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 17 (12.32%) Linux
2 16 (11.59%) Windows
3 8 (5.80%) Kali Linux
4 4 (2.90%) Android
4 4 (2.90%) Unix
4 4 (2.90%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 60 (43.48%) Agile
2 53 (38.41%) CI/CD
3 48 (34.78%) Problem-Solving
4 41 (29.71%) DevOps
5 29 (21.01%) Scenario Testing
6 28 (20.29%) Software Testing
6 28 (20.29%) Validation
7 27 (19.57%) Test Strategy
8 19 (13.77%) Continuous Improvement
9 18 (13.04%) Test Scripting
10 17 (12.32%) Regression Testing
10 17 (12.32%) Test Planning
11 16 (11.59%) Microservices
11 16 (11.59%) SDLC
11 16 (11.59%) Test Management
12 15 (10.87%) Observability
12 15 (10.87%) Performance Testing
12 15 (10.87%) Stakeholder Management
13 14 (10.14%) User Acceptance Testing
13 14 (10.14%) User Experience
Programming Languages
1 42 (30.43%) Python
2 33 (23.91%) Java
3 29 (21.01%) SQL
4 21 (15.22%) PowerShell
5 17 (12.32%) Bash
6 13 (9.42%) JavaScript
7 11 (7.97%) C#
8 7 (5.07%) Go
8 7 (5.07%) PL/SQL
9 4 (2.90%) TypeScript
10 2 (1.45%) C++
10 2 (1.45%) PHP
10 2 (1.45%) R
10 2 (1.45%) VBScript
11 1 (0.72%) Ada
Qualifications
1 48 (34.78%) Security Cleared
2 26 (18.84%) SC Cleared
3 15 (10.87%) DV Cleared
4 10 (7.25%) ISTQB
5 9 (6.52%) Cisco Certification
5 9 (6.52%) Degree
6 8 (5.80%) AWS Certification
6 8 (5.80%) Oracle Certification
6 8 (5.80%) OSCP
7 7 (5.07%) CEH
7 7 (5.07%) Computer Science Degree
7 7 (5.07%) GPEN
7 7 (5.07%) OCA
8 5 (3.62%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (3.62%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
8 5 (3.62%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 4 (2.90%) (ISC)2 CCSP
9 4 (2.90%) CCNP
9 4 (2.90%) CCSP
9 4 (2.90%) CISSP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 39 (28.26%) QA
2 10 (7.25%) GDPR
3 6 (4.35%) Data Quality
4 3 (2.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 3 (2.17%) NIST
4 3 (2.17%) PCI DSS
4 3 (2.17%) PSD2
4 3 (2.17%) SLA
System Software
1 15 (10.87%) Docker
2 7 (5.07%) Active Directory
3 2 (1.45%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.72%) Firmware
4 1 (0.72%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.72%) VMware ESXi
4 1 (0.72%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 19 (13.77%) Kubernetes
2 15 (10.87%) Ansible
3 11 (7.97%) Nmap
4 9 (6.52%) Terraform
5 6 (4.35%) Progress Chef
6 4 (2.90%) Forefront Identity Manager
6 4 (2.90%) NetIQ Identity Manager
7 3 (2.17%) Iperf
8 2 (1.45%) Argo
8 2 (1.45%) Grafana
8 2 (1.45%) Nagios
8 2 (1.45%) Nessus
8 2 (1.45%) Prometheus
9 1 (0.72%) Proxmox
9 1 (0.72%) Puppet
9 1 (0.72%) Rundeck
9 1 (0.72%) Salt
9 1 (0.72%) vCenter Server
9 1 (0.72%) VxRail
Vendors
1 13 (9.42%) Oracle
2 10 (7.25%) VMware
3 7 (5.07%) CheckPoint
3 7 (5.07%) Cisco
3 7 (5.07%) SAP
4 6 (4.35%) ServiceNow
5 5 (3.62%) Atlassian
5 5 (3.62%) Fortinet
5 5 (3.62%) Microsoft
5 5 (3.62%) SolarWinds
5 5 (3.62%) Workday
6 4 (2.90%) Juniper
6 4 (2.90%) NetIQ
6 4 (2.90%) Salesforce
7 3 (2.17%) Palo Alto
7 3 (2.17%) webMethods
8 2 (1.45%) Ariba
8 2 (1.45%) F5
8 2 (1.45%) Google
8 2 (1.45%) Red Hat