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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 66 39 41
Rank change year-on-year -27 +2 +11
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 214 176 210
As % of all contract jobs in the South East 3.23% 4.97% 4.39%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.01% 5.56% 5.34%
Number of daily rates quoted 128 124 135
10th Percentile £269 £325 £350
25th Percentile £363 £398 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £459 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -8.20% -4.76% -7.08%
75th Percentile £588 £606 £638
90th Percentile £670 £700 £675
England median daily rate £475 £500 £525
% change year-on-year -4.95% -4.76% -3.23%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 18 3
10th Percentile £56.13 £40.23 £38.90
25th Percentile £66.53 £48.99 £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 £69.00 £55.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +25.45% - -21.15%

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 5,340 3,163 3,935
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 80.49% 89.33% 82.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 3,265 1,961 2,368
10th Percentile £280 £238 £260
25th Percentile £420 £394 £405
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £517
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -3.34% -0.22%
75th Percentile £618 £600 £638
90th Percentile £713 £675 £700
England median daily rate £525 £510 £525
% change year-on-year +2.94% -2.86% -4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 602 317 308
10th Percentile £13.52 £13.50 £15.00
25th Percentile £19.54 £15.50 £26.57
Median hourly rate £52.50 £24.00 £57.35
Median % change year-on-year +118.75% -58.15% +14.70%
75th Percentile £72.25 £53.75 £70.39
90th Percentile £88.00 £69.85 £76.86
England median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £42.50
% change year-on-year +74.79% -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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -39 82 £475 -5.00% 98
Surrey +21 51 £513 +13.89% 21
Berkshire -40 50 £440 -21.78% 45
West Sussex +3 35 £329 -29.70% 17
Hampshire -55 34 £550 +8.64% 57
Buckinghamshire -31 24 £461 +41.92% 17
Oxfordshire -17 8 £847 +78.21% 37
Middlesex -12 6 - - 1
East Sussex - 2 £459 - 18
Sussex - 2 £438 - 1
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 (6.07%) Confluence
2 4 (1.87%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.93%) SAS
3 2 (0.93%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.47%) WebLogic
Applications
1 4 (1.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.47%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 2 (0.93%) 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 64 (29.91%) Azure
2 54 (25.23%) AWS
3 30 (14.02%) Azure DevOps
4 23 (10.75%) OpenShift
5 22 (10.28%) GitHub
6 18 (8.41%) GCP
7 15 (7.01%) GitHub Actions
8 8 (3.74%) Entra ID
9 7 (3.27%) AWS Lambda
9 7 (3.27%) Azure AKS
9 7 (3.27%) Azure Monitor
9 7 (3.27%) Serverless
10 6 (2.80%) Azure Key Vault
11 5 (2.34%) Azure App Service
11 5 (2.34%) Azure Data Factory
11 5 (2.34%) Snowflake
12 4 (1.87%) Amazon Bedrock
12 4 (1.87%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 4 (1.87%) Amazon EventBridge
12 4 (1.87%) AWS Step Functions
Communications & Networking
1 13 (6.07%) 2G
1 13 (6.07%) 3G
1 13 (6.07%) 4G
1 13 (6.07%) 5G
1 13 (6.07%) Diameter Protocol
1 13 (6.07%) SIGTRAN
1 13 (6.07%) SS7
2 6 (2.80%) Broadband
3 4 (1.87%) HTTPS
4 3 (1.40%) BGP
4 3 (1.40%) GPRS
4 3 (1.40%) GSM
4 3 (1.40%) LAN
4 3 (1.40%) LTE
4 3 (1.40%) MPLS
4 3 (1.40%) UMTS
4 3 (1.40%) VPN
4 3 (1.40%) VXLAN
4 3 (1.40%) WAN
4 3 (1.40%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (5.14%) PostgreSQL
2 10 (4.67%) NoSQL
3 9 (4.21%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (3.74%) Relational Database
5 6 (2.80%) Oracle Reports
6 5 (2.34%) Azure SQL Database
7 4 (1.87%) Big Data
7 4 (1.87%) Metadata
8 3 (1.40%) DynamoDB
8 3 (1.40%) Spark SQL
8 3 (1.40%) SQL Server
9 2 (0.93%) Data Lake
9 2 (0.93%) Redis
10 1 (0.47%) Amazon Redshift
10 1 (0.47%) BigQuery
10 1 (0.47%) Couchbase
10 1 (0.47%) MongoDB
10 1 (0.47%) Oracle BI Publisher
10 1 (0.47%) Parquet
10 1 (0.47%) Power BI
Development Applications
1 35 (16.36%) Git
2 29 (13.55%) JIRA
3 20 (9.35%) SonarQube
4 19 (8.88%) Jenkins
5 17 (7.94%) Selenium
6 13 (6.07%) GitLab
7 10 (4.67%) Postman
8 8 (3.74%) Cucumber
8 8 (3.74%) JUnit
8 8 (3.74%) SpecFlow
9 6 (2.80%) NUnit
10 5 (2.34%) Bitbucket
10 5 (2.34%) Gradle
10 5 (2.34%) REST Assured
11 4 (1.87%) Artifactory
11 4 (1.87%) Maven
11 4 (1.87%) WebDriver
12 3 (1.40%) TeamCity
12 3 (1.40%) Zephyr
13 2 (0.93%) tSQLt
General
1 53 (24.77%) Social Skills
2 36 (16.82%) Analytical Skills
3 24 (11.21%) Finance
4 18 (8.41%) Telecoms
5 13 (6.07%) Public Sector
6 11 (5.14%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 8 (3.74%) Aerospace
8 4 (1.87%) 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
9 1 (0.47%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 34 (15.89%) Developer
2 30 (14.02%) Senior
3 23 (10.75%) Lead
3 23 (10.75%) Test Engineer
3 23 (10.75%) Tester
4 16 (7.48%) Java Developer
5 14 (6.54%) Java Engineer
6 13 (6.07%) Test Automation Engineer
7 11 (5.14%) Consultant
7 11 (5.14%) Software Engineer
8 10 (4.67%) Designer
9 9 (4.21%) Mobile Designer
9 9 (4.21%) Technical Leader
10 8 (3.74%) Analyst
10 8 (3.74%) QA Engineer
10 8 (3.74%) Test Manager
11 7 (3.27%) Automation Tester
12 6 (2.80%) Architect
12 6 (2.80%) Full-Stack Developer
12 6 (2.80%) Senior Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 30 (14.02%) RESTful
2 26 (12.15%) Terraform
3 24 (11.21%) REST
4 21 (9.81%) AngularJS
5 20 (9.35%) Quarkus
6 17 (7.94%) OAuth
7 15 (7.01%) React
8 13 (6.07%) Playwright
9 12 (5.61%) OpenID
10 11 (5.14%) CSS
10 11 (5.14%) HTML
10 11 (5.14%) OAuth2
10 11 (5.14%) Spring
11 10 (4.67%) .NET
12 9 (4.21%) Spring Boot
13 8 (3.74%) SOAP
14 7 (3.27%) .NET Core
14 7 (3.27%) .NET Framework
14 7 (3.27%) Django
14 7 (3.27%) Entity Framework
Miscellaneous
1 24 (11.21%) Cloud Native
2 22 (10.28%) Product Ownership
3 15 (7.01%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (7.01%) Self-Motivation
4 8 (3.74%) Enterprise Software
5 7 (3.27%) AI Agents
5 7 (3.27%) Virtual Team
6 6 (2.80%) Data Protection Act
7 5 (2.34%) PKI
7 5 (2.34%) Security Posture
8 4 (1.87%) Mobile App
8 4 (1.87%) Social Media
9 3 (1.40%) Analytical Mindset
9 3 (1.40%) FPGA
9 3 (1.40%) Life Science
9 3 (1.40%) Linux Command Line
9 3 (1.40%) Verilog
9 3 (1.40%) VHDL
10 2 (0.93%) Low-Code
11 1 (0.47%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 10 (4.67%) Windows
2 8 (3.74%) Linux
3 7 (3.27%) Unix
4 5 (2.34%) Embedded Linux
4 5 (2.34%) Windows Server
5 1 (0.47%) Android
5 1 (0.47%) Apple iOS
5 1 (0.47%) CentOS
5 1 (0.47%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.47%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 113 (52.80%) Agile
2 109 (50.93%) CI/CD
3 69 (32.24%) DevOps
4 49 (22.90%) SDLC
5 47 (21.96%) Software Engineering
6 45 (21.03%) Problem-Solving
7 41 (19.16%) Scrum
8 36 (16.82%) Continuous Improvement
9 34 (15.89%) Sprint Planning
9 34 (15.89%) Stakeholder Management
10 33 (15.42%) Validation
11 32 (14.95%) DevSecOps
11 32 (14.95%) Unit Testing
12 28 (13.08%) Microservices
12 28 (13.08%) Technical Leadership
13 27 (12.62%) Test Strategy
14 25 (11.68%) Sprint Review
15 24 (11.21%) Mentoring
16 23 (10.75%) Roadmaps
17 22 (10.28%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 57 (26.64%) Python
2 56 (26.17%) SQL
3 55 (25.70%) Java
4 26 (12.15%) C#
5 20 (9.35%) PowerShell
6 19 (8.88%) JavaScript
7 9 (4.21%) TypeScript
8 5 (2.34%) Bash
8 5 (2.34%) C++
9 4 (1.87%) Bicep
9 4 (1.87%) C
9 4 (1.87%) PL/SQL
10 3 (1.40%) Embedded C
10 3 (1.40%) Embedded C++
10 3 (1.40%) Kotlin
11 2 (0.93%) Apex Code
11 2 (0.93%) Go
11 2 (0.93%) Groovy
11 2 (0.93%) T-SQL
11 2 (0.93%) VBScript
Qualifications
1 80 (37.38%) Security Cleared
2 56 (26.17%) SC Cleared
3 22 (10.28%) DV Cleared
4 13 (6.07%) ISTQB
5 8 (3.74%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 7 (3.27%) Computer Science Degree
6 7 (3.27%) Degree
7 5 (2.34%) BPSS Clearance
7 5 (2.34%) Cisco Certification
7 5 (2.34%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.87%) CCNP
9 3 (1.40%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.93%) CISSP
10 2 (0.93%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 1 (0.47%) (ISC)2 CCSP
11 1 (0.47%) AWS Certification
11 1 (0.47%) CCNA
11 1 (0.47%) CISA
11 1 (0.47%) CompTIA Security+
11 1 (0.47%) CREST Certified
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 80 (37.38%) QA
2 12 (5.61%) Accessibility
3 7 (3.27%) Data Quality
4 3 (1.40%) Software Quality Assurance
5 2 (0.93%) GDPR
5 2 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.93%) NIST
5 2 (0.93%) 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 22 (10.28%) Docker
2 12 (5.61%) VMware Infrastructure
3 10 (4.67%) Active Directory
4 5 (2.34%) Virtual Machines
5 1 (0.47%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 41 (19.16%) Kubernetes
2 20 (9.35%) Argo
3 15 (7.01%) Ansible
4 4 (1.87%) Forefront Identity Manager
4 4 (1.87%) NetIQ Identity Manager
4 4 (1.87%) WMI
5 1 (0.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 1 (0.47%) QRadar
Vendors
1 22 (10.28%) Microsoft
2 19 (8.88%) Red Hat
3 13 (6.07%) VMware
4 12 (5.61%) Oracle
5 11 (5.14%) Cisco
6 8 (3.74%) Databricks
7 7 (3.27%) Splunk
8 6 (2.80%) Arista
8 6 (2.80%) Tagetik
9 5 (2.34%) Salesforce
9 5 (2.34%) SAP
10 4 (1.87%) Denodo
10 4 (1.87%) NetIQ
10 4 (1.87%) Talend
11 3 (1.40%) Blue Prism
11 3 (1.40%) Dynatrace
11 3 (1.40%) F5
11 3 (1.40%) Intel
11 3 (1.40%) Juniper
11 3 (1.40%) ServiceNow