Automation Tester Contract Job Trends

Automation Tester
UK

The median Automation Tester daily rate in the UK is £402, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 23 September 2026.

The table below compares current contractor rates and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 597 446 462
Rank change year-on-year -151 +16 +74
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Tester 86 105 103
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.16% 0.32% 0.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.17% 0.35% 0.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 51 77 69
10th Percentile £313 £250 £310
25th Percentile £350 £340 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £402 £400 £450
Median % change year-on-year +0.50% -11.11% -5.76%
75th Percentile £475 £494 £564
90th Percentile £506 £543 £590
UK excluding London median daily rate £375 £340 £425
% change year-on-year +10.29% -20.00% -10.53%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
10th Percentile - - -
25th Percentile £21.50 - -
Median hourly rate £23.00 - -
75th Percentile £24.50 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 - -

All Contract IT Job Roles
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 50,606 29,766 35,027
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.26% 91.04% 92.95%
Number of daily rates quoted 29,920 18,783 21,484
10th Percentile £325 £276 £300
25th Percentile £425 £400 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -0.94%
75th Percentile £630 £625 £638
90th Percentile £733 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,907 1,587 1,616
10th Percentile £14.50 £13.75 £14.79
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.30 £20.69
Median hourly rate £42.30 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +68.19% -41.51% -3.37%
75th Percentile £67.70 £51.65 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £69.65 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £42.50 £25.08 £43.97
% change year-on-year +69.49% -42.97% +0.50%

Automation Tester
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings featuring 'Automation Tester' in the job title relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Automation Tester job vacancy trend in the UK

Automation Tester
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Automation Tester job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Automation Tester job vacancies in the UK

Automation Tester
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Automation Tester over the 6 months to 23 September 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Automation Tester in the UK

Automation Tester
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Automation Tester job vacancies in the UK.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Automation Tester job vacancies in the UK

Automation Tester
Top 12 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Automation Tester within the UK over the 6 months to 23 September 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
England -147 52 £425 +13.33% 45
UK excluding London -119 35 £375 +10.29% 36
London -100 27 £447 -5.89% 15
Work from Home -82 20 £420 +5.00% 19
South West -32 8 - - 5
South East -63 8 £250 -31.51% 5
North of England -85 8 £420 +12.00% 8
Scotland -16 7 £319 - 1
North East -35 5 £485 -0.51% 6
North West -52 3 £402 +18.24%
Wales - 3 £475 - 4
East of England -29 1 - - 7

Automation Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 23 September 2026, Automation Tester contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads featuring Automation Tester in the job title.

1 86 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 47 (54.65%) CI/CD
3 35 (40.70%) Playwright
4 34 (39.53%) Selenium
5 33 (38.37%) QA
6 30 (34.88%) Agile
7 29 (33.72%) Java
8 27 (31.40%) SC Cleared
8 27 (31.40%) Security Cleared
9 25 (29.07%) Azure
10 24 (27.91%) Python
11 22 (25.58%) DevOps
12 21 (24.42%) API Testing
12 21 (24.42%) SQL
13 20 (23.26%) Azure DevOps
14 19 (22.09%) JavaScript
14 19 (22.09%) Jenkins
14 19 (22.09%) Test Scripting
15 18 (20.93%) Postman
15 18 (20.93%) Validation
16 16 (18.60%) C#
16 16 (18.60%) Cucumber
17 15 (17.44%) Cypress.io
17 15 (17.44%) Git
17 15 (17.44%) GitHub
17 15 (17.44%) GitLab
17 15 (17.44%) Test Strategy
17 15 (17.44%) TypeScript
18 14 (16.28%) Continuous Improvement
18 14 (16.28%) JIRA

Automation Tester Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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 3 (3.49%) Confluence
2 1 (1.16%) Apache
2 1 (1.16%) Apache Airflow
2 1 (1.16%) Camunda
Business Applications
1 2 (2.33%) Aladdin
1 2 (2.33%) Dynamics CRM
Cloud Services
1 25 (29.07%) Azure
2 20 (23.26%) Azure DevOps
3 15 (17.44%) GitHub
4 13 (15.12%) GitHub Actions
5 9 (10.47%) AWS
6 4 (4.65%) GCP
7 3 (3.49%) Dynamics 365
7 3 (3.49%) SaaS
8 2 (2.33%) Snowflake
9 1 (1.16%) Amazon ECS
9 1 (1.16%) Amazon EKS
9 1 (1.16%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (1.16%) BrowserStack
9 1 (1.16%) Power Platform
9 1 (1.16%) PowerApps
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (3.49%) PostgreSQL
2 1 (1.16%) Azure SQL Data Warehouse
2 1 (1.16%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 34 (39.53%) Selenium
2 19 (22.09%) Jenkins
3 18 (20.93%) Postman
4 16 (18.60%) Cucumber
5 15 (17.44%) Cypress.io
5 15 (17.44%) Git
5 15 (17.44%) GitLab
6 14 (16.28%) JIRA
6 14 (16.28%) REST Assured
7 9 (10.47%) JMeter
8 8 (9.30%) JUnit
8 8 (9.30%) TestNG
9 7 (8.14%) WebDriver
10 6 (6.98%) SpecFlow
11 5 (5.81%) Maven
11 5 (5.81%) NUnit
12 4 (4.65%) Bitbucket
13 3 (3.49%) Appium
13 3 (3.49%) LoadRunner
13 3 (3.49%) TeamCity
General
1 16 (18.60%) Finance
1 16 (18.60%) Social Skills
2 13 (15.12%) Banking
3 7 (8.14%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (5.81%) Public Sector
5 2 (2.33%) Documentation Skills
6 1 (1.16%) Investment Banking
6 1 (1.16%) Military
6 1 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 35 (40.70%) Playwright
2 9 (10.47%) REST
3 6 (6.98%) Kafka
3 6 (6.98%) WireMock
4 4 (4.65%) Node.js
4 4 (4.65%) RESTful
5 3 (3.49%) Spring
5 3 (3.49%) XML
6 2 (2.33%) .NET
6 2 (2.33%) Gherkin
6 2 (2.33%) pytest
6 2 (2.33%) Swagger
6 2 (2.33%) WebdriverIO
6 2 (2.33%) XSD
7 1 (1.16%) .NET Core
7 1 (1.16%) Jest
7 1 (1.16%) Pandas
7 1 (1.16%) React
7 1 (1.16%) Terraform
7 1 (1.16%) XML Schema
Miscellaneous
1 8 (9.30%) Data Protection Act
2 6 (6.98%) Distributed Systems
3 4 (4.65%) Product Ownership
4 3 (3.49%) Mobile App
5 2 (2.33%) Cloud Native
5 2 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
6 1 (1.16%) Data Structures
6 1 (1.16%) Greenfield Project
6 1 (1.16%) Legacy Systems
6 1 (1.16%) SWIFT Messaging Network
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.16%) Linux
1 1 (1.16%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 86 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 47 (54.65%) CI/CD
3 30 (34.88%) Agile
4 22 (25.58%) DevOps
5 21 (24.42%) API Testing
6 19 (22.09%) Test Scripting
7 18 (20.93%) Validation
8 15 (17.44%) Test Strategy
9 14 (16.28%) Continuous Improvement
9 14 (16.28%) Problem-Solving
10 13 (15.12%) End-to-End Testing
10 13 (15.12%) Performance Testing
11 12 (13.95%) Regression Testing
11 12 (13.95%) SDLC
12 11 (12.79%) BDD
12 11 (12.79%) Defect Management
13 10 (11.63%) AI
13 10 (11.63%) Code Quality
13 10 (11.63%) Scrum
14 9 (10.47%) Scenario Testing
Programming Languages
1 29 (33.72%) Java
2 24 (27.91%) Python
3 21 (24.42%) SQL
4 19 (22.09%) JavaScript
5 16 (18.60%) C#
6 15 (17.44%) TypeScript
7 7 (8.14%) Bash
8 5 (5.81%) Kotlin
9 4 (4.65%) PowerShell
10 1 (1.16%) Scala
Qualifications
1 27 (31.40%) SC Cleared
1 27 (31.40%) Security Cleared
2 6 (6.98%) DV Cleared
3 5 (5.81%) ISTQB
4 4 (4.65%) Computer Science Degree
4 4 (4.65%) Degree
5 2 (2.33%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 33 (38.37%) QA
2 2 (2.33%) Accessibility
2 2 (2.33%) Data Quality
2 2 (2.33%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 8 (9.30%) Docker
Systems Management
1 9 (10.47%) Kubernetes
2 4 (4.65%) HP ALM
Vendors
1 4 (4.65%) HP
1 4 (4.65%) Microsoft
2 3 (3.49%) Databricks
2 3 (3.49%) Talend
3 1 (1.16%) Oracle
3 1 (1.16%) Salesforce
3 1 (1.16%) SAP
3 1 (1.16%) Veracode