Test Automation Contract Job Trends in Surrey

Automated Testing
South East > Surrey

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in Surrey requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 9 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 34 41 17
Rank change year-on-year +7 -24 +17
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 34 7 40
As % of all contract jobs in Surrey 5.18% 2.03% 8.13%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 6.20% 2.16% 9.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 16 4 30
10th Percentile £334 £344 £70
25th Percentile £398 £364 £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £463 £393 £450
Median % change year-on-year +17.83% -12.78% -
75th Percentile £588 £424 £525
90th Percentile £609 £440 £538
South East median daily rate £450 £475 £515
% change year-on-year -5.26% -7.77% -1.90%
Number of hourly rates quoted 18 0 1
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile - - £57.50
Median hourly rate £70.00 - £60.00
75th Percentile - - £62.50
90th Percentile - - -
South East median hourly rate £70.00 £50.00 £55.00
% change year-on-year +40.00% -9.09% -

All Process & Methodology Skills
Surrey

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 Surrey.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 548 324 423
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in Surrey 83.54% 93.91% 85.98%
Number of daily rates quoted 337 210 297
10th Percentile £200 £200 £203
25th Percentile £363 £231 £275
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £475 £450
Median % change year-on-year - +5.56% -14.29%
75th Percentile £575 £550 £545
90th Percentile £640 £625 £625
South East median daily rate £525 £500 £510
% change year-on-year +5.00% -1.96% -2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 75 35 23
10th Percentile £14.10 £20.16 £16.60
25th Percentile £21.25 £25.15 £30.00
Median hourly rate £60.00 £55.00 £60.00
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -2.64%
75th Percentile £70.00 £57.50 £70.95
90th Percentile - - £75.00
South East median hourly rate £47.50 £21.32 £58.49
% change year-on-year +122.80% -63.55% +9.33%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in Surrey

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Test Automation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised in Surrey.

Test Automation job vacancy trend in Surrey

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend in Surrey

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Surrey citing Test Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in Surrey citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram in Surrey

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in Surrey over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in Surrey

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend in Surrey

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Surrey citing Test Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in Surrey citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram in Surrey

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation in Surrey over the 6 months to 9 October 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in Surrey

Test Automation
Contract Job Locations in Surrey

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 Surrey region over the 6 months to 9 October 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
Guildford +6 19 £510 +37.84% 6
Staines -9 9 £475 +26.67% 2
Egham - 2 £360 - 2
Epsom - 2 £609 - 5
Test Automation
South East

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in Surrey 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 4 (11.76%) SharePoint
Cloud Services
1 18 (52.94%) OpenShift
2 9 (26.47%) Azure
3 7 (20.59%) AWS
3 7 (20.59%) GCP
4 4 (11.76%) Microsoft 365
4 4 (11.76%) Power Platform
5 2 (5.88%) Azure API Management
5 2 (5.88%) Azure Data Factory
5 2 (5.88%) Azure DevOps
5 2 (5.88%) Azure Functions
5 2 (5.88%) Azure Storage
5 2 (5.88%) GitHub
5 2 (5.88%) Power Automate
5 2 (5.88%) PowerApps
5 2 (5.88%) Serverless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (20.59%) PostgreSQL
1 7 (20.59%) Relational Database
2 2 (5.88%) Azure SQL Database
2 2 (5.88%) Data Lake
3 1 (2.94%) MongoDB
Development Applications
1 18 (52.94%) SonarQube
2 8 (23.53%) Git
3 1 (2.94%) Bitbucket
3 1 (2.94%) Cucumber
3 1 (2.94%) JIRA
3 1 (2.94%) Postman
General
1 9 (26.47%) Social Skills
2 8 (23.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
2 8 (23.53%) Public Sector
3 3 (8.82%) Finance
4 2 (5.88%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (5.88%) Retail
Job Titles
1 12 (35.29%) Developer
2 8 (23.53%) Java Developer
3 7 (20.59%) Java Engineer
3 7 (20.59%) Lead
3 7 (20.59%) Technical Leader
4 5 (14.71%) Software Engineer
5 3 (8.82%) SC Cleared Java Developer
5 3 (8.82%) Software Developer
6 2 (5.88%) Azure Engineer
6 2 (5.88%) Azure Software Engineer
6 2 (5.88%) Cloud Developer
6 2 (5.88%) Consultant
6 2 (5.88%) Java Software Engineer
6 2 (5.88%) Power Platform Consultant
6 2 (5.88%) Tester
7 1 (2.94%) QA Tester
7 1 (2.94%) Senior
7 1 (2.94%) Senior Tester
7 1 (2.94%) Software Test Engineer
7 1 (2.94%) Test Development Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 18 (52.94%) AngularJS
1 18 (52.94%) Quarkus
2 8 (23.53%) RESTful
3 7 (20.59%) CSS
3 7 (20.59%) Django
3 7 (20.59%) HTML
3 7 (20.59%) OAuth
3 7 (20.59%) OAuth2
3 7 (20.59%) OpenID
3 7 (20.59%) React
4 3 (8.82%) REST
5 2 (5.88%) .NET
5 2 (5.88%) ARM Templates
5 2 (5.88%) Microsoft Graph
6 1 (2.94%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 7 (20.59%) Cloud Native
2 5 (14.71%) Product Ownership
3 2 (5.88%) AS400
4 1 (2.94%) Analytical Mindset
4 1 (2.94%) Self-Motivation
Processes & Methodologies
1 34 (100.00%) Agile
2 22 (64.71%) Scrum
3 21 (61.76%) SDLC
4 20 (58.82%) Software Engineering
4 20 (58.82%) Unit Testing
5 19 (55.88%) Sprint Planning
6 18 (52.94%) DevSecOps
6 18 (52.94%) Front End Development
6 18 (52.94%) Sprint Review
7 10 (29.41%) CI/CD
8 9 (26.47%) Code Quality
8 9 (26.47%) DevOps
8 9 (26.47%) User-Centered Design (UCD)
9 8 (23.53%) Infrastructure Automation
9 8 (23.53%) Mentoring
9 8 (23.53%) Microservices
9 8 (23.53%) Problem-Solving
10 7 (20.59%) API Development
10 7 (20.59%) Digital Transformation Programme
10 7 (20.59%) Performance Optimisation
Programming Languages
1 18 (52.94%) Java
2 10 (29.41%) Python
3 9 (26.47%) JavaScript
4 3 (8.82%) SQL
5 2 (5.88%) C#
6 1 (2.94%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 19 (55.88%) SC Cleared
1 19 (55.88%) Security Cleared
2 5 (14.71%) Computer Science Degree
2 5 (14.71%) Degree
2 5 (14.71%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (82.35%) QA
2 8 (23.53%) Accessibility
System Software
1 7 (20.59%) Docker
Systems Management
1 25 (73.53%) Kubernetes
2 18 (52.94%) Argo
3 1 (2.94%) Ansible
Vendors
1 18 (52.94%) Red Hat
2 4 (11.76%) Microsoft
3 2 (5.88%) Databricks
4 1 (2.94%) Tagetik