Test Automation Contracts in the South East

Automated Testing
England > South East

The following table provides summary statistics for contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for Test Automation skills. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that have cited Test Automation over the 6 months to 7 May 2024 with a comparison to the same period in the previous 2 years.

6 months to
7 May 2024
Same period 2023 Same period 2022
Rank 49 45 41
Rank change year-on-year -4 -4 +6
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 192 259 376
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the South East 3.50% 4.55% 4.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 4.15% 5.09% 5.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 119 196 263
10th Percentile £385 £356 £356
25th Percentile £469 £450 £416
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £565 £505
Median % change year-on-year -2.65% +11.88% +12.22%
75th Percentile £638 £621 £575
90th Percentile £688 £675 £638
England median daily rate £525 £550 £550
% change year-on-year -4.55% - +15.79%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 6 14
10th Percentile £32.35 £51.25 £21.23
25th Percentile £34.00 £51.63 £31.25
Median hourly rate £38.50 £54.50 £43.75
Median % change year-on-year -29.36% +24.57% -
75th Percentile £58.88 £58.63 £62.44
90th Percentile £70.05 £58.75 £66.44
England median hourly rate £62.50 £70.50 £58.75
% change year-on-year -11.35% +20.00% +30.56%

All Process and Methodology Skills
South East

Test Automation is in the Processes and Methodologies category. The following table is for comparison with the above and provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies advertised in the South East with a requirement for process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 4,626 5,085 6,887
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the South East 84.40% 89.37% 89.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 2,697 3,536 4,653
10th Percentile £250 £250 £225
25th Percentile £400 £402 £396
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £508 £500
Median % change year-on-year -1.48% +1.50% +11.11%
75th Percentile £625 £619 £594
90th Percentile £700 £700 £675
England median daily rate £525 £550 £538
% change year-on-year -4.55% +2.33% +7.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 431 222 283
10th Percentile £13.00 £17.05 £12.26
25th Percentile £18.20 £22.16 £15.56
Median hourly rate £47.50 £49.50 £21.50
Median % change year-on-year -4.04% +130.23% -21.82%
75th Percentile £62.50 £64.59 £47.50
90th Percentile £76.86 £74.98 £61.50
England median hourly rate £36.50 £37.34 £24.30
% change year-on-year -2.25% +53.69% +3.38%

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 7 May 2024.

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 7 May 2024.

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 7 May 2024. 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 -2 86 £600 +6.67% 40
Berkshire -1 76 £600 +11.63% 18
Hampshire -15 50 £550 -4.84% 41
Surrey +13 37 £525 +2.44% 15
West Sussex -4 11 £400 -23.81% 9
Buckinghamshire 0 8 £600 - 14
East Sussex 0 3 £288 -52.08% 2
Oxfordshire +10 2 £488 - 9
Middlesex +1 2 - -
Kent - 1 - -
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 14 (7.29%) Apache
1 14 (7.29%) Confluence
2 11 (5.73%) Apache Airflow
3 2 (1.04%) Adobe Experience Manager
4 1 (0.52%) IIS
4 1 (0.52%) JBoss
4 1 (0.52%) Jupyter
4 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Exchange
4 1 (0.52%) SharePoint
Applications
1 3 (1.56%) Microsoft Excel
2 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
2 1 (0.52%) Simulink
Business Applications
1 3 (1.56%) Oracle EBS
2 1 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.52%) Oracle Assets
2 1 (0.52%) Oracle Cash Management
2 1 (0.52%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.52%) Oracle General Ledger
2 1 (0.52%) Oracle Payables
2 1 (0.52%) Oracle Receivables
2 1 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.52%) SAP Retail
2 1 (0.52%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 50 (26.04%) Azure
2 31 (16.15%) AWS
3 26 (13.54%) Azure DevOps
4 8 (4.17%) Azure Monitor
4 8 (4.17%) GitHub
4 8 (4.17%) PaaS
5 6 (3.13%) Azure Data Factory
5 6 (3.13%) Azure Service Bus
6 5 (2.60%) Azure Functions
6 5 (2.60%) Serverless
7 4 (2.08%) Azure Logic Apps
7 4 (2.08%) Dynamics 365
7 4 (2.08%) GitHub Actions
8 3 (1.56%) Azure AKS
8 3 (1.56%) Azure API Management
8 3 (1.56%) Azure Cosmos DB
8 3 (1.56%) Datadog
9 2 (1.04%) Azure Key Vault
9 2 (1.04%) Entra ID
9 2 (1.04%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 11 (5.73%) BGP
1 11 (5.73%) Ethernet VPN
1 11 (5.73%) MPLS
1 11 (5.73%) Radio Access Network
1 11 (5.73%) VPN
2 6 (3.13%) TCP/IP
3 2 (1.04%) Firewall
3 2 (1.04%) SSL
4 1 (0.52%) DNS
4 1 (0.52%) NFC
4 1 (0.52%) PPP
4 1 (0.52%) SNA
Database & Business Intelligence
1 17 (8.85%) NoSQL
1 17 (8.85%) PostgreSQL
2 12 (6.25%) MongoDB
3 4 (2.08%) Apache Cassandra
3 4 (2.08%) Couchbase
4 3 (1.56%) Amazon Redshift
4 3 (1.56%) Relational Database
4 3 (1.56%) SQL Server
5 2 (1.04%) Azure SQL Database
6 1 (0.52%) Data Lake
6 1 (0.52%) MySQL
6 1 (0.52%) Neo4j
Development Applications
1 46 (23.96%) Jenkins
1 46 (23.96%) Selenium
2 45 (23.44%) JIRA
3 35 (18.23%) TestRail
4 34 (17.71%) GitLab
5 31 (16.15%) Robot Framework
6 28 (14.58%) Cucumber
7 27 (14.06%) Git
8 26 (13.54%) REST Assured
9 24 (12.50%) SonarQube
10 15 (7.81%) Sonatype Nexus
11 8 (4.17%) Bitbucket
12 7 (3.65%) Postman
13 6 (3.13%) JMeter
13 6 (3.13%) SpecFlow
14 4 (2.08%) Artifactory
14 4 (2.08%) TestLink
15 3 (1.56%) Appium
15 3 (1.56%) JUnit
15 3 (1.56%) Visual Studio
General
1 48 (25.00%) Social Skills
2 42 (21.88%) Analytical Skills
3 21 (10.94%) Law
4 13 (6.77%) Police
5 7 (3.65%) Public Sector
5 7 (3.65%) Telecoms
6 6 (3.13%) Finance
7 4 (2.08%) Automotive
8 3 (1.56%) Electronics
9 2 (1.04%) Influencing Skills
10 1 (0.52%) Advertising
10 1 (0.52%) Aerospace
10 1 (0.52%) Banking
10 1 (0.52%) German Language
10 1 (0.52%) Manufacturing
10 1 (0.52%) Marketing
10 1 (0.52%) Retail
10 1 (0.52%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 31 (16.15%) Analyst
2 22 (11.46%) Test Analyst
3 21 (10.94%) Developer
4 20 (10.42%) DV Cleared Test Analyst
5 17 (8.85%) Java Engineer
6 16 (8.33%) Test Manager
7 15 (7.81%) Architect
7 15 (7.81%) Senior
7 15 (7.81%) Test Engineer
8 13 (6.77%) DevOps Engineer
8 13 (6.77%) DevSecOps Engineer
9 12 (6.25%) Security Architect
9 12 (6.25%) Software Engineer
10 11 (5.73%) Tester
11 10 (5.21%) Network Engineer
12 8 (4.17%) Java Developer
13 7 (3.65%) SC Cleared Software Engineer
14 6 (3.13%) C# Developer
14 6 (3.13%) Java Software Engineer
14 6 (3.13%) Senior Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (21.88%) REST
2 25 (13.02%) Java EE
3 17 (8.85%) SOAP
4 14 (7.29%) ARM Templates
5 13 (6.77%) Web Services
6 11 (5.73%) NETCONF
6 11 (5.73%) RESTCONF
6 11 (5.73%) XML
6 11 (5.73%) YANG
7 8 (4.17%) HTML
7 8 (4.17%) React
8 7 (3.65%) .NET
8 7 (3.65%) RESTful
9 5 (2.60%) AngularJS
9 5 (2.60%) CSS
10 4 (2.08%) JSON
10 4 (2.08%) Node.js
10 4 (2.08%) Oracle Fusion
10 4 (2.08%) Spring
10 4 (2.08%) Spring Boot
Miscellaneous
1 16 (8.33%) PKI
2 10 (5.21%) Product Ownership
3 6 (3.13%) Client/Server
3 6 (3.13%) Life Science
4 5 (2.60%) Public Cloud
5 4 (2.08%) Data Protection Act
5 4 (2.08%) NHS
6 3 (1.56%) Data Centre
6 3 (1.56%) Distributed Systems
6 3 (1.56%) Private Cloud
7 2 (1.04%) Management Information System
7 2 (1.04%) Self-Motivation
8 1 (0.52%) Cloud Native
8 1 (0.52%) Digital TV
8 1 (0.52%) Enterprise Software
8 1 (0.52%) Greenfield Project
8 1 (0.52%) Linux Command Line
8 1 (0.52%) Mobile App
8 1 (0.52%) Robotics
8 1 (0.52%) Smartcard
Operating Systems
1 30 (15.63%) Windows
2 27 (14.06%) Linux
3 23 (11.98%) Windows Server
4 14 (7.29%) Windows Server 2019
5 7 (3.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 5 (2.60%) Embedded Linux
7 4 (2.08%) Unix
8 2 (1.04%) Android
8 2 (1.04%) Ubuntu
8 2 (1.04%) VMS
9 1 (0.52%) Apple iOS
9 1 (0.52%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 116 (60.42%) Agile
2 75 (39.06%) DevOps
3 63 (32.81%) Continuous Integration
4 44 (22.92%) Scrum
5 42 (21.88%) Containerisation
6 39 (20.31%) CI/CD
7 37 (19.27%) Software Engineering
8 36 (18.75%) Problem-Solving
9 32 (16.67%) Infrastructure as Code
10 31 (16.15%) Test Management
11 30 (15.63%) Software Testing
12 29 (15.10%) Technical Leadership
13 27 (14.06%) Decision-Making
14 25 (13.02%) Software Architecture
15 23 (11.98%) Performance Testing
16 21 (10.94%) Configuration Management
16 21 (10.94%) Scaled Agile Framework
17 18 (9.38%) Integration Testing
17 18 (9.38%) Security Testing
17 18 (9.38%) Unit Testing
Programming Languages
1 55 (28.65%) Python
2 43 (22.40%) Java
3 31 (16.15%) PowerShell
4 29 (15.10%) SQL
5 16 (8.33%) JavaScript
6 14 (7.29%) C#
7 13 (6.77%) C++
8 8 (4.17%) Bash
9 6 (3.13%) Go
9 6 (3.13%) VBScript
10 5 (2.60%) C
11 4 (2.08%) T-SQL
12 3 (1.56%) Perl
12 3 (1.56%) Ruby
12 3 (1.56%) Scala
13 2 (1.04%) Kotlin
13 2 (1.04%) PHP
13 2 (1.04%) Shell Script
14 1 (0.52%) Bicep
14 1 (0.52%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 94 (48.96%) Security Cleared
2 50 (26.04%) SC Cleared
3 35 (18.23%) ISTQB
4 30 (15.63%) DV Cleared
5 25 (13.02%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 20 (10.42%) Degree
7 12 (6.25%) Computer Science Degree
8 6 (3.13%) AAT
9 4 (2.08%) Master's Degree
10 2 (1.04%) BPSS Clearance
10 2 (1.04%) HNC
11 1 (0.52%) Microsoft Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (10.42%) QA
2 7 (3.65%) RMADS
3 5 (2.60%) HL7
4 4 (2.08%) Accessibility
5 1 (0.52%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.52%) IEC 61508
5 1 (0.52%) MISRA
5 1 (0.52%) MISRA C
5 1 (0.52%) PMO
System Software
1 30 (15.63%) Docker
2 22 (11.46%) VMware Infrastructure
3 20 (10.42%) Active Directory
4 4 (2.08%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (2.08%) VirtualBox
5 1 (0.52%) Firmware
5 1 (0.52%) Terminal Services
5 1 (0.52%) VMware NSX
5 1 (0.52%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 49 (25.52%) Ansible
2 40 (20.83%) Terraform
3 28 (14.58%) Kubernetes
4 12 (6.25%) Docker Swarm
4 12 (6.25%) Podman
5 8 (4.17%) Progress Chef
5 8 (4.17%) Puppet
6 3 (1.56%) Nagios
6 3 (1.56%) Rancher
7 2 (1.04%) vRealize
8 1 (0.52%) Grafana
8 1 (0.52%) HP Quality Center
8 1 (0.52%) Kibana
8 1 (0.52%) Nessus
8 1 (0.52%) VxRail
8 1 (0.52%) WMI
Vendors
1 25 (13.02%) VMware
2 18 (9.38%) Microsoft
3 13 (6.77%) Oracle
4 6 (3.13%) Ericsson
5 5 (2.60%) ServiceNow
6 4 (2.08%) Red Hat
6 4 (2.08%) Splunk
7 3 (1.56%) Atlassian
7 3 (1.56%) New Relic
7 3 (1.56%) SAP
8 2 (1.04%) Adobe
8 2 (1.04%) Databricks
8 2 (1.04%) Google
9 1 (0.52%) BMC
9 1 (0.52%) Dell
9 1 (0.52%) LogRhythm
9 1 (0.52%) Remedy
9 1 (0.52%) SolarWinds
9 1 (0.52%) UiPath