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 18 March 2026.

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

6 months to
18 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 490 447 469
Rank change year-on-year -43 +22 +94
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Tester 116 84 119
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.27% 0.29% 0.27%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.29% 0.31% 0.29%
Number of daily rates quoted 86 60 102
10th Percentile £319 £291 £350
25th Percentile £363 £361 £378
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £425 £450 £440
Median % change year-on-year -5.56% +2.27% -7.37%
75th Percentile £512 £508 £550
90th Percentile £719 £575 £648
UK excluding London median daily rate £425 £390 £425
% change year-on-year +8.97% -8.24% -4.23%

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 39,756 27,258 41,316
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 91.88% 92.98% 92.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,823 17,712 27,111
10th Percentile £313 £300 £273
25th Percentile £410 £406 £406
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.02%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £485
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.06% -3.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,465 888 2,497
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.25 £12.96
25th Percentile £19.10 £21.04 £16.25
Median hourly rate £35.91 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +10.49% - -23.29%
75th Percentile £65.00 £65.00 £59.95
90th Percentile £75.92 £77.28 £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 18 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 18 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 -85 84 £425 -10.53% 6
London -22 57 £430 -9.47% 1
Work from Home -10 47 £425 +12.73% 7
UK excluding London -81 37 £425 +8.97% 13
Midlands - 14 £425 -
Wales - 13 £675 - 8
West Midlands - 10 £425 -
North of England -63 9 £550 +23.60% 2
Yorkshire -56 5 £550 +3.77%
South East -60 4 £725 - 2
East Midlands - 4 £725 -
North West -40 3 £325 -22.16% 1
North East -11 1 £550 +41.03% 1

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

For the 6 months to 18 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 55 (47.41%) Azure
4 52 (44.83%) CI/CD
5 51 (43.97%) Selenium
6 43 (37.07%) Playwright
7 41 (35.34%) Python
8 37 (31.90%) DevOps
8 37 (31.90%) Test Scripting
9 36 (31.03%) C#
9 36 (31.03%) Test Strategy
10 35 (30.17%) GitHub
10 35 (30.17%) Security Cleared
10 35 (30.17%) SQL
11 33 (28.45%) Azure DevOps
12 32 (27.59%) JavaScript
13 31 (26.72%) API Testing
14 30 (25.86%) JMeter
15 29 (25.00%) SC Cleared
15 29 (25.00%) TypeScript
16 28 (24.14%) Cucumber
17 27 (23.28%) Java
18 26 (22.41%) Postman
19 25 (21.55%) Docker
19 25 (21.55%) Jenkins
19 25 (21.55%) Problem-Solving
20 24 (20.69%) AWS
21 23 (19.83%) Performance Testing
21 23 (19.83%) Validation
22 21 (18.10%) 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 10 (8.62%) Confluence
2 2 (1.72%) Apache
3 1 (0.86%) SharePoint
Business Applications
1 9 (7.76%) Aladdin
2 1 (0.86%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.86%) NetSuite
2 1 (0.86%) Oracle Assets
2 1 (0.86%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.86%) Oracle General Ledger
2 1 (0.86%) Oracle Payables
2 1 (0.86%) Oracle Receivables
Cloud Services
1 55 (47.41%) Azure
2 35 (30.17%) GitHub
3 33 (28.45%) Azure DevOps
4 24 (20.69%) 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%) Azure API Management
9 3 (2.59%) Azure Cosmos DB
9 3 (2.59%) Power Automate
10 2 (1.72%) Amazon CloudWatch
10 2 (1.72%) Amazon S3
10 2 (1.72%) Azure Data Factory
10 2 (1.72%) Azure Synapse Analytics
11 1 (0.86%) Amazon EC2
11 1 (0.86%) Google Analytics
11 1 (0.86%) Microsoft 365
11 1 (0.86%) Virtual Private Cloud
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 51 (43.97%) Selenium
2 30 (25.86%) JMeter
3 28 (24.14%) Cucumber
4 26 (22.41%) Postman
5 25 (21.55%) Jenkins
6 20 (17.24%) GitLab
6 20 (17.24%) SpecFlow
7 19 (16.38%) Git
8 18 (15.52%) Cypress.io
8 18 (15.52%) JIRA
9 16 (13.79%) REST Assured
10 15 (12.93%) WebDriver
11 12 (10.34%) JUnit
12 11 (9.48%) MSTest
13 8 (6.90%) Visual Studio
14 7 (6.03%) Zephyr
15 5 (4.31%) TestRail
16 4 (3.45%) Gatling
17 3 (2.59%) Appium
18 2 (1.72%) SoapUI
General
1 25 (21.55%) 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 43 (37.07%) Playwright
2 13 (11.21%) REST
3 11 (9.48%) Web Services
4 9 (7.76%) WireMock
5 8 (6.90%) Spring
6 7 (6.03%) pytest
7 6 (5.17%) .NET
7 6 (5.17%) JSON
7 6 (5.17%) XML
8 5 (4.31%) Gherkin
8 5 (4.31%) RESTful
9 2 (1.72%) Apache NiFi
9 2 (1.72%) Kafka
9 2 (1.72%) Node.js
9 2 (1.72%) React
9 2 (1.72%) WebdriverIO
10 1 (0.86%) Great Expectations
10 1 (0.86%) Nightwatchjs
10 1 (0.86%) React Native
10 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 52 (44.83%) CI/CD
4 37 (31.90%) DevOps
4 37 (31.90%) Test Scripting
5 36 (31.03%) Test Strategy
6 31 (26.72%) API Testing
7 25 (21.55%) Problem-Solving
8 23 (19.83%) Performance Testing
8 23 (19.83%) Validation
9 21 (18.10%) TDD
10 18 (15.52%) BDD
11 17 (14.66%) Non-Functional Testing
12 16 (13.79%) Continuous Improvement
13 15 (12.93%) AI
13 15 (12.93%) Data Validation
14 14 (12.07%) End-to-End Testing
14 14 (12.07%) Scrum
15 12 (10.34%) Load Testing
16 11 (9.48%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 41 (35.34%) Python
2 36 (31.03%) C#
3 35 (30.17%) SQL
4 32 (27.59%) JavaScript
5 29 (25.00%) TypeScript
6 27 (23.28%) Java
7 5 (4.31%) XPath
8 2 (1.72%) Bash
8 2 (1.72%) C
9 1 (0.86%) C++
9 1 (0.86%) Kotlin
9 1 (0.86%) Ruby
9 1 (0.86%) Rust
9 1 (0.86%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 35 (30.17%) Security Cleared
2 29 (25.00%) SC Cleared
3 16 (13.79%) ISTQB
4 13 (11.21%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
5 5 (4.31%) Degree
6 3 (2.59%) DV Cleared
7 1 (0.86%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (18.10%) QA
2 9 (7.76%) HMG Security Policy Framework
2 9 (7.76%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 8 (6.90%) Accessibility
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 2 (1.72%) Oracle
4 2 (1.72%) SAP
5 1 (0.86%) Avaloq
5 1 (0.86%) Conga
5 1 (0.86%) Google
5 1 (0.86%) Optimizely
5 1 (0.86%) Salesforce
5 1 (0.86%) ServiceNow
5 1 (0.86%) Workday