Automation Test Lead Contracts

Test Automation Leader
UK

The median Test Automation Leader daily rate in the UK is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 504 564 685
Rank change year-on-year +60 +121 +122
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Test Lead 16 18 33
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK 0.055% 0.041% 0.055%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.059% 0.045% 0.058%
Number of daily rates quoted 13 6 23
10th Percentile £405 £400 £405
25th Percentile £425 £406 £513
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £600
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -16.67% +17.07%
75th Percentile - £579 £650
90th Percentile £540 £603 £685
UK excluding London median daily rate £450 - £551
% change year-on-year - - +19.19%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 27,084 40,415 56,464
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.52% 92.78% 94.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 17,692 26,309 39,470
10th Percentile £300 £275 £313
25th Percentile £406 £410 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £515 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
75th Percentile £625 £638 £650
90th Percentile £738 £750 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £492 £500
% change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,035 2,664 1,570
10th Percentile £14.07 £12.86 £14.29
25th Percentile £18.50 £16.30 £19.50
Median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%
75th Percentile £62.50 £60.75 £65.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £72.50 £75.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%

Automation Test Lead
Job Vacancy Trend

Job postings that featured Automation Test Lead in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Job vacancy trend for Automation Test Lead in the UK

Automation Test Lead
Contractor Daily Rate Trend

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Automation Test Lead.

Daily rate trend for Automation Test Lead in the UK

Automation Test Lead
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Automation Test Lead over the 6 months to 1 May 2025.

Daily rate histogram for Automation Test Lead in the UK

Automation Test Lead
Top 9 Contract Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Automation Test Lead within the UK over the 6 months to 1 May 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
England +58 12 £450 -10.00% 2
London +41 9 £475 -5.00% 1
Work from Home +38 6 £475 -3.06% 2
UK excluding London +63 5 £450 - 2
Scotland - 2 £550 -
East Midlands - 2 £450 -
Midlands - 2 £450 -
North of England +19 1 £450 - 1
Yorkshire +8 1 £450 -

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Automation Test Lead contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Automation Test Lead in the job title.

1 16 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 9 (56.25%) Test Strategy
2 9 (56.25%) JMeter
3 8 (50.00%) CI/CD
4 7 (43.75%) AWS
4 7 (43.75%) DevOps
4 7 (43.75%) API Testing
5 6 (37.50%) Problem-Solving
6 5 (31.25%) Social Skills
6 5 (31.25%) Cypress.io
6 5 (31.25%) Finance
6 5 (31.25%) Performance Testing
6 5 (31.25%) Test Scripting
7 4 (25.00%) JIRA
7 4 (25.00%) QA
8 3 (18.75%) Selenium
8 3 (18.75%) Continuous Integration
8 3 (18.75%) Integration Testing
8 3 (18.75%) Law
8 3 (18.75%) Validation
8 3 (18.75%) Migration
8 3 (18.75%) Stakeholder Management
8 3 (18.75%) SQL
8 3 (18.75%) Python
8 3 (18.75%) CRM
8 3 (18.75%) Kafka
8 3 (18.75%) SC Cleared
8 3 (18.75%) Security Cleared
8 3 (18.75%) Data Lake
8 3 (18.75%) Analytical Skills

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities 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:

Business Applications
1 1 (6.25%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 7 (43.75%) AWS
2 2 (12.50%) Azure
2 2 (12.50%) BrowserStack
2 2 (12.50%) SaaS
3 1 (6.25%) Azure DevOps
3 1 (6.25%) Dynamics 365
3 1 (6.25%) GCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (18.75%) Data Lake
2 1 (6.25%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 9 (56.25%) JMeter
2 5 (31.25%) Cypress.io
3 4 (25.00%) JIRA
4 3 (18.75%) Postman
4 3 (18.75%) Selenium
5 2 (12.50%) SoapUI
6 1 (6.25%) Cucumber
6 1 (6.25%) Jenkins
6 1 (6.25%) LoadRunner
6 1 (6.25%) REST Assured
6 1 (6.25%) Zephyr
General
1 5 (31.25%) Finance
1 5 (31.25%) Social Skills
2 3 (18.75%) Analytical Skills
2 3 (18.75%) Law
3 1 (6.25%) Banking
3 1 (6.25%) Public Sector
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (18.75%) Kafka
1 3 (18.75%) PySpark
2 1 (6.25%) Playwright
Miscellaneous
1 2 (12.50%) Greenfield Project
1 2 (12.50%) Legacy Systems
2 1 (6.25%) NHS
Processes & Methodologies
1 16 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 9 (56.25%) Test Strategy
3 8 (50.00%) CI/CD
4 7 (43.75%) API Testing
4 7 (43.75%) DevOps
5 6 (37.50%) Problem-Solving
6 5 (31.25%) Performance Testing
6 5 (31.25%) Test Scripting
7 3 (18.75%) Component Testing
7 3 (18.75%) Continuous Integration
7 3 (18.75%) CRM
7 3 (18.75%) End-to-End Testing
7 3 (18.75%) Integration Testing
7 3 (18.75%) Migration
7 3 (18.75%) Software Delivery
7 3 (18.75%) Stakeholder Management
7 3 (18.75%) Technical Leadership
7 3 (18.75%) Validation
8 2 (12.50%) Data Pipeline
8 2 (12.50%) Robotic Process Automation
Programming Languages
1 3 (18.75%) Python
1 3 (18.75%) SQL
2 2 (12.50%) Groovy
3 1 (6.25%) Java
Qualifications
1 3 (18.75%) SC Cleared
1 3 (18.75%) Security Cleared
2 2 (12.50%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 4 (25.00%) QA
Systems Management
1 1 (6.25%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 3 (18.75%) StreamSets
2 2 (12.50%) Nintex
3 1 (6.25%) Microsoft
3 1 (6.25%) Salesforce