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 12 March 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 494 443 477
Rank change year-on-year -51 +34 +89
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Tester 116 85 123
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.27% 0.29% 0.28%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.30% 0.31% 0.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 87 60 105
10th Percentile £319 £307 £350
25th Percentile £361 £361 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £440
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +2.27% -5.38%
75th Percentile £511 £508 £550
90th Percentile £645 £575 £640
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £390 £431
% change year-on-year +8.97% -9.57% -4.17%

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 39,233 27,349 41,475
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 92.93% 92.88%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,515 17,680 27,207
10th Percentile £312 £293 £270
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,440 862 2,502
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.60 £13.00
25th Percentile £19.00 £21.24 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.00 £33.45 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +4.63% +2.92% -23.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.50
90th Percentile £75.79 £76.25 £71.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £32.50 £32.50
% change year-on-year +7.69% - -18.75%

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 12 March 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 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 12 March 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 -73 86 £425 -10.53% 5
London -27 58 £438 -7.89% 3
Work from Home -3 45 £425 +8.97% 5
UK excluding London -86 36 £425 +8.97% 6
Midlands - 15 £425 -
Wales - 11 £592 - 4
West Midlands - 10 £425 -
North of England -65 9 £550 +23.60% 1
Yorkshire -60 5 £550 +3.77%
East Midlands - 5 £725 -
South East -56 4 £725 - 1
North West -41 3 £325 -22.16% 1
North East -13 1 £550 +41.03%

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

For the 6 months to 12 March 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.

1 116 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 57 (49.14%) Agile
3 53 (45.69%) Azure
3 53 (45.69%) CI/CD
4 52 (44.83%) Selenium
5 42 (36.21%) Playwright
6 40 (34.48%) Python
7 38 (32.76%) Test Scripting
8 36 (31.03%) DevOps
8 36 (31.03%) Test Strategy
9 34 (29.31%) C#
9 34 (29.31%) GitHub
9 34 (29.31%) Security Cleared
9 34 (29.31%) SQL
10 32 (27.59%) API Testing
10 32 (27.59%) Azure DevOps
11 31 (26.72%) JavaScript
12 29 (25.00%) Cucumber
12 29 (25.00%) JMeter
12 29 (25.00%) SC Cleared
13 28 (24.14%) TypeScript
14 27 (23.28%) Java
14 27 (23.28%) Postman
15 26 (22.41%) Jenkins
16 25 (21.55%) AWS
16 25 (21.55%) Docker
16 25 (21.55%) Problem-Solving
17 23 (19.83%) Performance Testing
17 23 (19.83%) Validation
18 22 (18.97%) QA

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 11 (9.48%) Confluence
2 2 (1.72%) Apache
3 1 (0.86%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 9 (7.76%) Aladdin
2 2 (1.72%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.86%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.86%) NetSuite
3 1 (0.86%) Oracle Assets
3 1 (0.86%) Oracle General Ledger
3 1 (0.86%) Oracle Payables
3 1 (0.86%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 53 (45.69%) Azure
2 34 (29.31%) GitHub
3 32 (27.59%) Azure DevOps
4 25 (21.55%) AWS
5 20 (17.24%) GitHub Actions
6 11 (9.48%) GCP
7 10 (8.62%) Dynamics 365
7 10 (8.62%) Power Platform
8 9 (7.76%) Snowflake
9 3 (2.59%) Amazon CloudWatch
9 3 (2.59%) Azure API Management
9 3 (2.59%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 3 (2.59%) Power Automate
10 2 (1.72%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.72%) Azure Data Factory
10 2 (1.72%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 1 (0.86%) AWS CodePipeline
11 1 (0.86%) BlazeMeter
11 1 (0.86%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.86%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 4 (3.45%) HTTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 11 (9.48%) PostgreSQL
2 2 (1.72%) Data Warehouse
2 2 (1.72%) Relational Database
3 1 (0.86%) Amazon Athena
3 1 (0.86%) Power BI
3 1 (0.86%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 52 (44.83%) Selenium
2 29 (25.00%) Cucumber
2 29 (25.00%) JMeter
3 27 (23.28%) Postman
4 26 (22.41%) Jenkins
5 21 (18.10%) GitLab
6 20 (17.24%) SpecFlow
7 19 (16.38%) Cypress.io
7 19 (16.38%) Git
7 19 (16.38%) JIRA
8 16 (13.79%) REST Assured
9 15 (12.93%) WebDriver
10 13 (11.21%) JUnit
11 10 (8.62%) MSTest
12 7 (6.03%) Visual Studio
12 7 (6.03%) Zephyr
13 5 (4.31%) Gatling
13 5 (4.31%) TestRail
14 3 (2.59%) Appium
15 2 (1.72%) SoapUI
General
1 26 (22.41%) Social Skills
2 18 (15.52%) Analytical Skills
3 9 (7.76%) Banking
3 9 (7.76%) Finance
4 6 (5.17%) Public Sector
5 5 (4.31%) Pharmaceutical
6 1 (0.86%) Billing
6 1 (0.86%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 1 (0.86%) Organisational Skills
6 1 (0.86%) Retail Banking
6 1 (0.86%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 42 (36.21%) Playwright
2 13 (11.21%) REST
3 10 (8.62%) Web Services
3 10 (8.62%) WireMock
4 8 (6.90%) Spring
5 7 (6.03%) pytest
6 6 (5.17%) .NET
6 6 (5.17%) JSON
6 6 (5.17%) XML
7 5 (4.31%) Gherkin
7 5 (4.31%) RESTful
8 2 (1.72%) Apache NiFi
8 2 (1.72%) Kafka
8 2 (1.72%) Node.js
8 2 (1.72%) React
8 2 (1.72%) WebdriverIO
9 1 (0.86%) Great Expectations
9 1 (0.86%) Nightwatchjs
9 1 (0.86%) React Native
9 1 (0.86%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 10 (8.62%) Data Protection Act
2 9 (7.76%) Distributed Systems
3 6 (5.17%) Distributed Architecture
4 4 (3.45%) Mobile App
5 3 (2.59%) Virtual Team
6 2 (1.72%) Product Ownership
7 1 (0.86%) Analytical Mindset
7 1 (0.86%) Distributed Applications
7 1 (0.86%) Embedded Systems
7 1 (0.86%) Legacy Systems
7 1 (0.86%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 2 (1.72%) Linux
2 1 (0.86%) Android
2 1 (0.86%) Apple iOS
2 1 (0.86%) Windows
Processes & Methodologies
1 116 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 57 (49.14%) Agile
3 53 (45.69%) CI/CD
4 38 (32.76%) Test Scripting
5 36 (31.03%) DevOps
5 36 (31.03%) Test Strategy
6 32 (27.59%) API Testing
7 25 (21.55%) Problem-Solving
8 23 (19.83%) Performance Testing
8 23 (19.83%) Validation
9 22 (18.97%) TDD
10 19 (16.38%) BDD
11 16 (13.79%) Continuous Improvement
11 16 (13.79%) Non-Functional Testing
12 15 (12.93%) Data Validation
12 15 (12.93%) Scrum
13 14 (12.07%) AI
13 14 (12.07%) End-to-End Testing
14 12 (10.34%) Load Testing
15 11 (9.48%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 40 (34.48%) Python
2 34 (29.31%) C#
2 34 (29.31%) SQL
3 31 (26.72%) JavaScript
4 28 (24.14%) TypeScript
5 27 (23.28%) Java
6 5 (4.31%) XPath
7 2 (1.72%) Bash
7 2 (1.72%) C
8 1 (0.86%) C++
8 1 (0.86%) Kotlin
8 1 (0.86%) Ruby
8 1 (0.86%) Rust
8 1 (0.86%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 34 (29.31%) Security Cleared
2 29 (25.00%) SC Cleared
3 15 (12.93%) ISTQB
4 12 (10.34%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 5 (4.31%) Degree
6 3 (2.59%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.86%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (18.97%) QA
2 8 (6.90%) Accessibility
3 7 (6.03%) HMG Security Policy Framework
3 7 (6.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 2 (1.72%) Data Quality
5 1 (0.86%) Software Quality Assurance
5 1 (0.86%) WCAG
System Software
1 25 (21.55%) Docker
Systems Management
1 15 (12.93%) Kubernetes
2 9 (7.76%) Grafana
3 7 (6.03%) Prometheus
4 2 (1.72%) Terraform
Vendors
1 10 (8.62%) Databricks
2 7 (6.03%) Microsoft
3 4 (3.45%) Wind River
4 3 (2.59%) Oracle
5 2 (1.72%) SAP
6 1 (0.86%) Avaloq
6 1 (0.86%) Conga
6 1 (0.86%) Google
6 1 (0.86%) Optimizely
6 1 (0.86%) Salesforce
6 1 (0.86%) ServiceNow
6 1 (0.86%) Splunk
6 1 (0.86%) Workday