Automation Tester Contract Job Trends

Automation Tester
UK

The median Automation Tester daily rate in the UK is £425, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 21 December 2025.

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

6 months to
21 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 468 426 492
Rank change year-on-year -42 +66 +67
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Tester 118 109 111
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.32% 0.32% 0.25%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.35% 0.35% 0.27%
Number of daily rates quoted 88 66 99
10th Percentile £325 £330 £340
25th Percentile £372 £365 £372
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £425 £440
Median % change year-on-year - -3.41% -4.86%
75th Percentile £517 £500 £544
90th Percentile £634 £573 £590
UK excluding London median daily rate £375 £400 £439
% change year-on-year -6.25% -8.83% -2.50%

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 33,430 31,506 40,926
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.01% 92.78% 93.41%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,135 19,373 27,542
10th Percentile £291 £300 £285
25th Percentile £404 £409 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £640
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -2.56% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,981 981 1,444
10th Percentile £14.25 £15.53 £15.04
25th Percentile £18.00 £21.05 £19.11
Median hourly rate £25.15 £33.00 £45.00
Median % change year-on-year -23.79% -26.67% +50.00%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.56 £65.00
90th Percentile £70.71 £72.75 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £45.88
% change year-on-year -22.62% -29.16% +83.52%

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 21 December 2025.

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 13 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 21 December 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 -34 87 £425 -5.97% 12
London -3 53 £445 -6.32% 5
Work from Home -4 42 £425 +9.32% 4
UK excluding London -40 39 £375 -6.25% 9
North of England -40 14 £375 -6.25% 3
South East -25 11 £383 -26.79% 5
Wales - 8 £700 -
East Midlands - 8 £360 - 1
Midlands - 8 £360 - 1
Yorkshire -38 7 £375 -25.00%
North West -38 5 £325 -18.75% 2
North East -4 2 £488 +14.71% 1
South West -13 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 21 December 2025, 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.

1 118 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 58 (49.15%) Selenium
3 54 (45.76%) Agile
4 46 (38.98%) CI/CD
5 41 (34.75%) Playwright
6 39 (33.05%) Python
7 37 (31.36%) Azure
8 36 (30.51%) DevOps
9 35 (29.66%) Security Cleared
10 33 (27.97%) C#
11 32 (27.12%) Java
11 32 (27.12%) Test Strategy
12 31 (26.27%) SQL
13 29 (24.58%) SC Cleared
14 28 (23.73%) Azure DevOps
15 27 (22.88%) API Testing
15 27 (22.88%) Cucumber
15 27 (22.88%) Cypress.io
15 27 (22.88%) QA
16 26 (22.03%) Test Scripting
17 25 (21.19%) Jenkins
18 24 (20.34%) JavaScript
19 21 (17.80%) Postman
20 20 (16.95%) AWS
20 20 (16.95%) GitHub
20 20 (16.95%) GitLab
20 20 (16.95%) JIRA
20 20 (16.95%) Performance Testing
20 20 (16.95%) Problem-Solving
21 19 (16.10%) JMeter

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 7 (5.93%) Confluence
2 2 (1.69%) Apache
Business Applications
1 4 (3.39%) Aladdin
2 2 (1.69%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.85%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.85%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.85%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.85%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.85%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.85%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 37 (31.36%) Azure
2 28 (23.73%) Azure DevOps
3 20 (16.95%) AWS
3 20 (16.95%) GitHub
4 11 (9.32%) GitHub Actions
5 10 (8.47%) Dynamics 365
6 9 (7.63%) Power Platform
7 4 (3.39%) Snowflake
8 3 (2.54%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 3 (2.54%) Amazon S3
8 3 (2.54%) GCP
9 1 (0.85%) Amazon EC2
9 1 (0.85%) Amazon EventBridge
9 1 (0.85%) Azure AKS
9 1 (0.85%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 1 (0.85%) Azure Data Factory
9 1 (0.85%) Azure Service Bus
9 1 (0.85%) Azure Synapse Analytics
9 1 (0.85%) Google Analytics
9 1 (0.85%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.39%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 3 (2.54%) Relational Database
2 2 (1.69%) PostgreSQL
3 1 (0.85%) Amazon Athena
3 1 (0.85%) Amazon RDS
3 1 (0.85%) Big Data
3 1 (0.85%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.85%) MongoDB
3 1 (0.85%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 58 (49.15%) Selenium
2 27 (22.88%) Cucumber
2 27 (22.88%) Cypress.io
3 25 (21.19%) Jenkins
4 21 (17.80%) Postman
5 20 (16.95%) GitLab
5 20 (16.95%) JIRA
6 19 (16.10%) JMeter
7 15 (12.71%) REST Assured
8 14 (11.86%) SpecFlow
9 11 (9.32%) JUnit
10 10 (8.47%) Git
11 9 (7.63%) MSTest
11 9 (7.63%) Zephyr
12 6 (5.08%) Visual Studio
13 5 (4.24%) TestRail
14 4 (3.39%) Bitbucket
14 4 (3.39%) Gatling
15 3 (2.54%) Appium
16 2 (1.69%) SoapUI
General
1 21 (17.80%) Social Skills
2 19 (16.10%) Finance
3 12 (10.17%) Analytical Skills
4 11 (9.32%) Banking
5 9 (7.63%) Public Sector
6 3 (2.54%) Automotive
7 2 (1.69%) Pharmaceutical
8 1 (0.85%) Billing
8 1 (0.85%) Documentation Skills
8 1 (0.85%) Retail Banking
8 1 (0.85%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 41 (34.75%) Playwright
2 16 (13.56%) REST
3 13 (11.02%) RESTful
4 12 (10.17%) .NET
5 9 (7.63%) Web Services
6 6 (5.08%) JSON
6 6 (5.08%) SOAP
6 6 (5.08%) XML
7 5 (4.24%) Gherkin
7 5 (4.24%) pytest
8 4 (3.39%) Node.js
9 3 (2.54%) React
9 3 (2.54%) WebdriverIO
10 2 (1.69%) Apache NiFi
10 2 (1.69%) jQuery
10 2 (1.69%) Kafka
10 2 (1.69%) Puppeteer
10 2 (1.69%) Spring Boot
10 2 (1.69%) Swagger
10 2 (1.69%) WireMock
Miscellaneous
1 4 (3.39%) Data Protection Act
1 4 (3.39%) Product Ownership
2 2 (1.69%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
3 1 (0.85%) Analytical Mindset
3 1 (0.85%) Client/Server
3 1 (0.85%) Distributed Systems
3 1 (0.85%) Embedded Systems
3 1 (0.85%) Enterprise Software
3 1 (0.85%) Legacy Systems
3 1 (0.85%) Linux Command Line
3 1 (0.85%) Mobile App
3 1 (0.85%) Team-Oriented Environment
Operating Systems
1 6 (5.08%) Linux
2 4 (3.39%) Windows
3 2 (1.69%) Unix
4 1 (0.85%) Android
4 1 (0.85%) Apple iOS
4 1 (0.85%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 118 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 54 (45.76%) Agile
3 46 (38.98%) CI/CD
4 36 (30.51%) DevOps
5 32 (27.12%) Test Strategy
6 27 (22.88%) API Testing
7 26 (22.03%) Test Scripting
8 20 (16.95%) Performance Testing
8 20 (16.95%) Problem-Solving
9 19 (16.10%) Non-Functional Testing
10 18 (15.25%) Regression Testing
11 16 (13.56%) SDLC
12 14 (11.86%) Validation
13 13 (11.02%) Acceptance Criteria
13 13 (11.02%) Continuous Improvement
13 13 (11.02%) TDD
13 13 (11.02%) Test Management
14 12 (10.17%) Continuous Integration
14 12 (10.17%) Software Testing
15 11 (9.32%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 39 (33.05%) Python
2 33 (27.97%) C#
3 32 (27.12%) Java
4 31 (26.27%) SQL
5 24 (20.34%) JavaScript
6 16 (13.56%) TypeScript
7 5 (4.24%) XPath
8 4 (3.39%) Bash
9 3 (2.54%) Ruby
10 2 (1.69%) C
10 2 (1.69%) Scala
11 1 (0.85%) C++
11 1 (0.85%) Go
11 1 (0.85%) Rust
11 1 (0.85%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 35 (29.66%) Security Cleared
2 29 (24.58%) SC Cleared
3 16 (13.56%) ISTQB
4 11 (9.32%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 8 (6.78%) Degree
6 4 (3.39%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.85%) BPSS Clearance
7 1 (0.85%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 27 (22.88%) QA
2 12 (10.17%) Accessibility
3 6 (5.08%) HMG Security Policy Framework
3 6 (5.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.69%) Data Quality
4 2 (1.69%) SLA
5 1 (0.85%) Software Quality Assurance
5 1 (0.85%) WCAG
System Software
1 15 (12.71%) Docker
Systems Management
1 6 (5.08%) Kubernetes
2 4 (3.39%) Terraform
3 3 (2.54%) Grafana
4 1 (0.85%) Ansible
4 1 (0.85%) Prometheus
Vendors
1 7 (5.93%) Oracle
2 6 (5.08%) Microsoft
3 5 (4.24%) Databricks
4 4 (3.39%) Wind River
5 3 (2.54%) Salesforce
6 2 (1.69%) SAP
7 1 (0.85%) Conga
7 1 (0.85%) Optimizely
7 1 (0.85%) Splunk
7 1 (0.85%) UiPath
7 1 (0.85%) Workday