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 May 2026.

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

6 months to
21 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 532 442 479
Rank change year-on-year -90 +37 +50
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Tester 98 84 100
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.20% 0.29% 0.24%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.22% 0.31% 0.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 61 65 77
10th Percentile £319 £253 £346
25th Percentile £350 £281 £363
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £400 £463
Median % change year-on-year +6.25% -13.51% -
75th Percentile £469 £500 £588
90th Percentile £488 £575 £688
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £372 £400
% change year-on-year +14.25% -7.00% -6.54%

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 44,544 26,886 39,472
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.32% 92.37% 92.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,258 17,494 25,719
10th Percentile £325 £293 £280
25th Percentile £413 £405 £410
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £510 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.49% -2.86% -3.23%
75th Percentile £615 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £489
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.86% -2.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,901 1,057 2,674
10th Percentile £15.00 £14.00 £12.83
25th Percentile £20.35 £18.13 £16.30
Median hourly rate £42.69 £27.99 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +52.50% -23.32% -18.89%
75th Percentile £66.50 £60.00 £61.30
90th Percentile £78.75 £75.00 £72.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £26.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +70.88% -34.16% -5.88%

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 May 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 14 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 May 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 -91 81 £413 -7.30% 2
London -43 50 £388 -18.42% 1
UK excluding London -102 36 £425 +14.25% 2
Work from Home -51 32 £425 +21.00%
Midlands -55 12 £425 +60.23%
West Midlands - 11 £425 -
South West -26 8 - -
Wales - 7 £450 - 1
North of England -77 6 £450 -10.00%
North West -42 3 £300 -32.58%
South East -59 3 £375 +7.14% 1
Yorkshire -56 2 £550 +2.33%
North East -23 1 £450 +15.38%
East Midlands -36 1 £360 +35.72%

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

For the 6 months to 21 May 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 98 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 48 (48.98%) CI/CD
3 43 (43.88%) Playwright
4 40 (40.82%) Agile
4 40 (40.82%) Azure
5 29 (29.59%) Selenium
5 29 (29.59%) Test Scripting
6 28 (28.57%) Python
6 28 (28.57%) TypeScript
7 27 (27.55%) SQL
8 25 (25.51%) Security Cleared
9 24 (24.49%) DevOps
9 24 (24.49%) Problem-Solving
10 23 (23.47%) GitHub
10 23 (23.47%) Performance Testing
10 23 (23.47%) SC Cleared
10 23 (23.47%) Test Strategy
11 22 (22.45%) JavaScript
12 21 (21.43%) API Testing
12 21 (21.43%) Azure DevOps
12 21 (21.43%) C#
12 21 (21.43%) Validation
13 20 (20.41%) Cucumber
14 19 (19.39%) AWS
14 19 (19.39%) Jenkins
14 19 (19.39%) QA
14 19 (19.39%) TDD
15 18 (18.37%) BDD
15 18 (18.37%) GitLab
16 17 (17.35%) Continuous Improvement

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 10 (10.20%) Confluence
2 1 (1.02%) SAS
2 1 (1.02%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 10 (10.20%) Aladdin
2 2 (2.04%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (1.02%) NetSuite
3 1 (1.02%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (1.02%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (1.02%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (1.02%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (1.02%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 40 (40.82%) Azure
2 23 (23.47%) GitHub
3 21 (21.43%) Azure DevOps
4 19 (19.39%) AWS
5 16 (16.33%) GitHub Actions
6 12 (12.24%) GCP
7 10 (10.20%) Snowflake
8 4 (4.08%) Dynamics 365
9 3 (3.06%) Azure API Management
9 3 (3.06%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 3 (3.06%) Power Automate
10 2 (2.04%) Azure Data Factory
10 2 (2.04%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 1 (1.02%) Amazon CloudWatch
11 1 (1.02%) AWS CodePipeline
11 1 (1.02%) BlazeMeter
11 1 (1.02%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (1.02%) Power Platform
11 1 (1.02%) Tricentis Tosca
11 1 (1.02%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.02%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 10 (10.20%) PostgreSQL
2 3 (3.06%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (1.02%) Apache Hive
3 1 (1.02%) Base SAS
3 1 (1.02%) Big Data
3 1 (1.02%) Hadoop
3 1 (1.02%) Power BI
3 1 (1.02%) SAS Data Integration Studio
3 1 (1.02%) SAS Enterprise Guide
3 1 (1.02%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 29 (29.59%) Selenium
2 20 (20.41%) Cucumber
3 19 (19.39%) Jenkins
4 18 (18.37%) GitLab
5 17 (17.35%) Git
5 17 (17.35%) JMeter
6 16 (16.33%) WebDriver
7 14 (14.29%) JIRA
7 14 (14.29%) Postman
7 14 (14.29%) SpecFlow
8 11 (11.22%) REST Assured
9 10 (10.20%) JUnit
10 7 (7.14%) Cypress.io
11 4 (4.08%) Gatling
12 3 (3.06%) PyCharm
12 3 (3.06%) TeamCity
13 2 (2.04%) Appium
13 2 (2.04%) MSTest
13 2 (2.04%) TestRail
13 2 (2.04%) Zephyr
General
1 24 (24.49%) Social Skills
2 15 (15.31%) Analytical Skills
3 14 (14.29%) Finance
4 9 (9.18%) Banking
5 4 (4.08%) Pharmaceutical
6 2 (2.04%) Documentation Skills
6 2 (2.04%) Public Sector
7 1 (1.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 1 (1.02%) Organisational Skills
7 1 (1.02%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 43 (43.88%) Playwright
2 10 (10.20%) WireMock
3 9 (9.18%) Spring
4 7 (7.14%) REST
5 4 (4.08%) Gherkin
5 4 (4.08%) pytest
6 3 (3.06%) Kafka
7 2 (2.04%) Django
7 2 (2.04%) JSON
7 2 (2.04%) RESTful
7 2 (2.04%) Swagger
7 2 (2.04%) Web Services
7 2 (2.04%) XML
8 1 (1.02%) JDBC
8 1 (1.02%) Jest
8 1 (1.02%) Node.js
8 1 (1.02%) ODBC
8 1 (1.02%) React
8 1 (1.02%) React Native
8 1 (1.02%) WebdriverIO
Miscellaneous
1 12 (12.24%) Data Protection Act
2 10 (10.20%) Distributed Systems
3 7 (7.14%) Distributed Architecture
4 4 (4.08%) Mobile App
5 3 (3.06%) Virtual Team
6 2 (2.04%) Linux Command Line
6 2 (2.04%) Product Ownership
7 1 (1.02%) Distributed Applications
7 1 (1.02%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (1.02%) Enterprise Software
7 1 (1.02%) Legacy Systems
Operating Systems
1 3 (3.06%) Linux
2 1 (1.02%) Android
2 1 (1.02%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 98 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 48 (48.98%) CI/CD
3 40 (40.82%) Agile
4 29 (29.59%) Test Scripting
5 24 (24.49%) DevOps
5 24 (24.49%) Problem-Solving
6 23 (23.47%) Performance Testing
6 23 (23.47%) Test Strategy
7 21 (21.43%) API Testing
7 21 (21.43%) Validation
8 19 (19.39%) TDD
9 18 (18.37%) BDD
10 17 (17.35%) Continuous Improvement
10 17 (17.35%) Data Validation
11 14 (14.29%) Regression Testing
12 13 (13.27%) End-to-End Testing
13 12 (12.24%) Data Protection
14 10 (10.20%) Asset Management
14 10 (10.20%) Load Testing
14 10 (10.20%) Stakeholder Management
Programming Languages
1 28 (28.57%) Python
1 28 (28.57%) TypeScript
2 27 (27.55%) SQL
3 22 (22.45%) JavaScript
4 21 (21.43%) C#
5 13 (13.27%) Java
6 3 (3.06%) Kotlin
7 2 (2.04%) Bash
7 2 (2.04%) XPath
8 1 (1.02%) C
8 1 (1.02%) C++
8 1 (1.02%) Rust
8 1 (1.02%) SAS Macro
Qualifications
1 25 (25.51%) Security Cleared
2 23 (23.47%) SC Cleared
3 6 (6.12%) ISTQB
4 4 (4.08%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 1 (1.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 1 (1.02%) Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 19 (19.39%) QA
2 3 (3.06%) Accessibility
2 3 (3.06%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 3 (3.06%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 2 (2.04%) Data Quality
4 1 (1.02%) GDPR
4 1 (1.02%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 17 (17.35%) Docker
Systems Management
1 15 (15.31%) Kubernetes
2 9 (9.18%) Grafana
3 8 (8.16%) Prometheus
4 1 (1.02%) Control-M
4 1 (1.02%) HP ALM
4 1 (1.02%) Terraform
Vendors
1 10 (10.20%) Databricks
2 8 (8.16%) Microsoft
3 2 (2.04%) Oracle
3 2 (2.04%) SAP
4 1 (1.02%) Avaloq
4 1 (1.02%) Braze
4 1 (1.02%) Google
4 1 (1.02%) HP
4 1 (1.02%) Optimizely
4 1 (1.02%) ServiceNow
4 1 (1.02%) Talend
4 1 (1.02%) Workday