Test Automation Contract Job Trends

Automated Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Test Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 17 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
17 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 46 49 51
Rank change year-on-year +3 +2 0
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 2,319 1,519 1,524
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.33% 4.59% 3.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.11% 5.07% 4.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,505 1,051 1,016
10th Percentile £325 £313 £350
25th Percentile £405 £393 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £496 £513
Median % change year-on-year -4.23% -3.22% -2.38%
75th Percentile £575 £575 £603
90th Percentile £663 £700 £725
UK excluding London median daily rate £459 £475 £506
% change year-on-year -3.37% -6.13% +1.20%
Number of hourly rates quoted 104 34 24
10th Percentile £38.08 £36.75 £42.50
25th Percentile £59.81 £44.63 £49.50
Median hourly rate £68.61 £50.00 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.22% -9.09% -16.35%
75th Percentile £70.00 £65.00 £71.87
90th Percentile £74.00 £73.05 £81.85
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.86 £52.50 £56.25
% change year-on-year +29.25% -6.67% -10.00%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Test Automation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 45,350 29,954 33,125
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.75% 90.50% 85.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,857 18,668 21,203
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £424 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.31%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,845 1,726 1,796
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.03
25th Percentile £18.50 £17.31 £18.23
Median hourly rate £42.00 £25.15 £40.97
Median % change year-on-year +67.00% -38.61% -1.28%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -45.88% +13.33%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Test Automation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Test Automation job vacancy trend in the UK

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Test Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Test Automation over the 6 months to 17 August 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Test Automation in the UK

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Test Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Test Automation over the 6 months to 17 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in the UK

Test Automation
Top 18 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Test Automation within the UK over the 6 months to 17 August 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 +4 1,980 £475 -5.00% 1,417
UK excluding London -4 1,153 £459 -3.37% 959
London +6 893 £500 -1.96% 664
Work from Home -4 635 £475 - 620
North of England +10 392 £465 +2.25% 207
Midlands +6 275 £450 - 121
West Midlands +21 259 £450 -10.00% 75
South East -31 217 £462 -7.60% 230
Yorkshire -6 159 £475 -5.00% 58
North West -2 141 £492 +16.62% 104
South West -3 111 £463 +7.25% 149
North East +17 100 £438 +0.57% 45
East of England +14 81 £450 -1.91% 109
Scotland -31 68 £445 -11.00% 110
Wales -5 31 £475 +16.92% 12
Northern Ireland +20 17 £488 +60.63% 36
East Midlands -45 16 £425 +25.00% 46
Channel Islands - 2 - -

Test Automation
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
1 191 (8.24%) Confluence
2 53 (2.29%) Apache Airflow
2 53 (2.29%) Apache Spark
3 52 (2.24%) SAS
4 40 (1.72%) SharePoint
5 26 (1.12%) Apache
6 14 (0.60%) CMS
7 12 (0.52%) WebLogic
8 6 (0.26%) nginx
8 6 (0.26%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 6 (0.26%) Tomcat
9 5 (0.22%) Camunda
9 5 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.17%) Anypoint
10 4 (0.17%) Jupyter
10 4 (0.17%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.13%) Kentico
11 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
12 2 (0.086%) ColdFusion
12 2 (0.086%) Mule
Applications
1 23 (0.99%) Microsoft Excel
2 16 (0.69%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.30%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.26%) Chatbot
6 5 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
7 4 (0.17%) Simulink
8 3 (0.13%) Trello
9 1 (0.043%) Mingle
9 1 (0.043%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 26 (1.12%) Dynamics CRM
2 20 (0.86%) SAP S/4HANA
3 15 (0.65%) Aladdin
4 12 (0.52%) Payment Gateway
5 11 (0.47%) Oracle EBS
6 8 (0.34%) Findur
7 6 (0.26%) Salesforce CRM
7 6 (0.26%) SAP ERP
7 6 (0.26%) SAP MDG
8 5 (0.22%) BambooHR
8 5 (0.22%) Shopify
9 4 (0.17%) Infor CloudSuite
9 4 (0.17%) Infor LN
9 4 (0.17%) Infor M3
9 4 (0.17%) SAP GRC
10 3 (0.13%) Distributed Ledger
11 2 (0.086%) Advent Geneva
11 2 (0.086%) Loan IQ
11 2 (0.086%) Oracle ERP
12 1 (0.043%) Misys Midas
Cloud Services
1 703 (30.31%) Azure
2 694 (29.93%) AWS
3 423 (18.24%) GitHub
4 322 (13.89%) Azure DevOps
5 258 (11.13%) GitHub Actions
6 170 (7.33%) GCP
7 166 (7.16%) Serverless
8 119 (5.13%) AWS Lambda
9 101 (4.36%) Power Platform
10 97 (4.18%) Amazon S3
11 76 (3.28%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 70 (3.02%) Amazon ECS
13 67 (2.89%) OpenShift
14 62 (2.67%) GitHub Copilot
15 61 (2.63%) AWS CloudFormation
16 58 (2.50%) Amazon EKS
17 56 (2.41%) dbt
18 53 (2.29%) Snowflake
19 51 (2.20%) Amazon EC2
20 45 (1.94%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.16%) Firewall
2 20 (0.86%) HTTP
3 17 (0.73%) 4G
3 17 (0.73%) 5G
4 16 (0.69%) DNS
4 16 (0.69%) Network Security
5 15 (0.65%) 2G
5 15 (0.65%) 3G
5 15 (0.65%) Diameter Protocol
5 15 (0.65%) SIGTRAN
5 15 (0.65%) SS7
5 15 (0.65%) WAN
6 13 (0.56%) TCP/IP
7 12 (0.52%) LAN
7 12 (0.52%) SAN
8 11 (0.47%) Wi-Fi
9 9 (0.39%) BGP
10 8 (0.34%) Ethernet VPN
10 8 (0.34%) VXLAN
11 7 (0.30%) DHCP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 146 (6.30%) PostgreSQL
2 132 (5.69%) Data Warehouse
3 116 (5.00%) MongoDB
4 110 (4.74%) NoSQL
5 90 (3.88%) SQL Server
6 85 (3.67%) Relational Database
7 82 (3.54%) Power BI
8 48 (2.07%) DynamoDB
8 48 (2.07%) Metadata
9 46 (1.98%) Oracle Reports
10 43 (1.85%) Pentaho
11 36 (1.55%) Data Lake
12 34 (1.47%) Amazon Athena
12 34 (1.47%) Big Data
12 34 (1.47%) MySQL
13 29 (1.25%) Amazon Redshift
14 28 (1.21%) Redis
15 27 (1.16%) Amazon RDS
16 24 (1.03%) Tableau
17 21 (0.91%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 469 (20.22%) Git
2 418 (18.03%) JIRA
3 385 (16.60%) Jenkins
4 312 (13.45%) GitLab
5 295 (12.72%) Selenium
6 171 (7.37%) Postman
7 154 (6.64%) Cucumber
8 124 (5.35%) JUnit
9 117 (5.05%) Cypress.io
10 105 (4.53%) JMeter
11 97 (4.18%) REST Assured
12 76 (3.28%) Zephyr
13 64 (2.76%) SonarQube
14 63 (2.72%) WebDriver
15 53 (2.29%) Gatling
16 52 (2.24%) Gradle
17 47 (2.03%) Maven
18 42 (1.81%) Bitbucket
18 42 (1.81%) Mockito
19 28 (1.21%) SpecFlow
General
1 628 (27.08%) Social Skills
2 419 (18.07%) Finance
3 324 (13.97%) Public Sector
4 311 (13.41%) Analytical Skills
5 193 (8.32%) Banking
6 71 (3.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 45 (1.94%) Documentation Skills
8 43 (1.85%) Telecoms
9 35 (1.51%) Front Office
9 35 (1.51%) Investment Banking
10 34 (1.47%) Influencing Skills
11 32 (1.38%) Retail
12 26 (1.12%) Military
13 25 (1.08%) Financial Institution
14 20 (0.86%) Aerospace
15 19 (0.82%) Back Office
16 16 (0.69%) Manufacturing
16 16 (0.69%) Organisational Skills
17 15 (0.65%) Legal
17 15 (0.65%) Marketing
Job Titles
1 488 (21.04%) Developer
2 380 (16.39%) Senior
3 257 (11.08%) Lead
4 225 (9.70%) Test Engineer
5 216 (9.31%) Tester
6 160 (6.90%) Data Engineer
6 160 (6.90%) Java Developer
7 119 (5.13%) Analyst
8 114 (4.92%) Software Engineer
9 111 (4.79%) DevOps Engineer
10 105 (4.53%) Architect
10 105 (4.53%) Senior Developer
11 101 (4.36%) Test Automation Engineer
12 96 (4.14%) QA Engineer
13 89 (3.84%) Automation Tester
13 89 (3.84%) Test Leader
14 80 (3.45%) Test Analyst
15 73 (3.15%) Full-Stack Developer
16 67 (2.89%) Test Manager
17 66 (2.85%) Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 347 (14.96%) REST
2 272 (11.73%) Playwright
3 215 (9.27%) RESTful
4 208 (8.97%) Kafka
5 202 (8.71%) Spring
6 201 (8.67%) React
7 161 (6.94%) Spring Boot
8 157 (6.77%) .NET
9 120 (5.17%) Node.js
10 108 (4.66%) HTML
11 95 (4.10%) AngularJS
12 94 (4.05%) CSS
13 76 (3.28%) OAuth
14 67 (2.89%) JSON
15 62 (2.67%) pytest
16 57 (2.46%) OAuth2
17 56 (2.41%) Jest
18 51 (2.20%) XML
19 50 (2.16%) HTML5
20 49 (2.11%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 341 (14.70%) Cloud Native
2 177 (7.63%) Product Ownership
3 156 (6.73%) Distributed Systems
4 90 (3.88%) Enterprise Software
5 60 (2.59%) Onboarding
6 58 (2.50%) Legacy Systems
7 52 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
8 51 (2.20%) Self-Motivation
9 44 (1.90%) Mobile App
10 41 (1.77%) AI Agents
11 37 (1.60%) Virtual Team
12 29 (1.25%) Distributed Architecture
13 28 (1.21%) Embedded Systems
14 25 (1.08%) NHS
14 25 (1.08%) Security Posture
15 23 (0.99%) Data Centre
15 23 (0.99%) Management Information System
16 19 (0.82%) Derivative
17 18 (0.78%) Fixed Income
18 17 (0.73%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 162 (6.99%) Linux
2 96 (4.14%) Unix
3 94 (4.05%) Windows
4 42 (1.81%) Apple iOS
5 41 (1.77%) Android
6 30 (1.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
7 20 (0.86%) Windows Server
8 7 (0.30%) Mac OS X
8 7 (0.30%) Solaris
9 6 (0.26%) Embedded Linux
10 5 (0.22%) Mac OS
10 5 (0.22%) Windows 10
10 5 (0.22%) Windows 7
10 5 (0.22%) Windows Server 2003
11 4 (0.17%) AIX
11 4 (0.17%) Ubuntu
11 4 (0.17%) Windows Server 2008
12 3 (0.13%) Windows Server 2019
13 2 (0.086%) CentOS
13 2 (0.086%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,353 (58.34%) CI/CD
2 1,077 (46.44%) Agile
3 876 (37.77%) DevOps
4 439 (18.93%) Problem-Solving
5 436 (18.80%) Continuous Improvement
6 425 (18.33%) Microservices
7 378 (16.30%) Software Engineering
8 374 (16.13%) Infrastructure as Code
9 373 (16.08%) Scrum
10 368 (15.87%) Validation
11 357 (15.39%) Test Strategy
12 331 (14.27%) AI
13 316 (13.63%) Containerisation
14 299 (12.89%) Observability
15 297 (12.81%) TDD
16 252 (10.87%) End-to-End Testing
17 250 (10.78%) ETL
17 250 (10.78%) SDLC
18 240 (10.35%) Data Pipeline
19 235 (10.13%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 617 (26.61%) Python
2 598 (25.79%) Java
3 568 (24.49%) SQL
4 315 (13.58%) JavaScript
5 239 (10.31%) TypeScript
6 199 (8.58%) C#
7 100 (4.31%) PowerShell
8 84 (3.62%) Bash
9 53 (2.29%) C++
10 51 (2.20%) Kotlin
11 49 (2.11%) Bicep
12 36 (1.55%) PL/SQL
13 33 (1.42%) C
14 31 (1.34%) Scala
15 28 (1.21%) Apex Code
16 27 (1.16%) Go
17 24 (1.03%) Ruby
17 24 (1.03%) Shell Script
18 18 (0.78%) Groovy
18 18 (0.78%) Swift
Qualifications
1 765 (32.99%) Security Cleared
2 654 (28.20%) SC Cleared
3 115 (4.96%) ISTQB
4 109 (4.70%) Degree
5 101 (4.36%) BPSS Clearance
6 68 (2.93%) DV Cleared
7 59 (2.54%) Computer Science Degree
8 34 (1.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 33 (1.42%) AWS Certification
10 23 (0.99%) Azure Certification
11 17 (0.73%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
12 12 (0.52%) Cisco Certification
13 11 (0.47%) ISEB
13 11 (0.47%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 11 (0.47%) Master's Degree
13 11 (0.47%) SAFe Agilist
14 10 (0.43%) CISSP
14 10 (0.43%) Microsoft Certification
15 8 (0.34%) CCNP
15 8 (0.34%) DBS Check
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 583 (25.14%) QA
2 189 (8.15%) Accessibility
3 171 (7.37%) Data Quality
4 84 (3.62%) WCAG
5 43 (1.85%) GDPR
6 16 (0.69%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (0.65%) ISO 20022
7 15 (0.65%) NCSC
7 15 (0.65%) SLA
8 10 (0.43%) NIST
9 8 (0.34%) GRC
10 7 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
10 7 (0.30%) Def Stans
10 7 (0.30%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 7 (0.30%) PCI DSS
11 6 (0.26%) Software Quality Assurance
12 5 (0.22%) FATCA
12 5 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.17%) MiFID
14 3 (0.13%) EU AI Act
System Software
1 453 (19.53%) Docker
2 34 (1.47%) VMware Infrastructure
3 30 (1.29%) Active Directory
4 17 (0.73%) Virtual Machines
5 14 (0.60%) Firmware
6 5 (0.22%) VMware NSX
7 4 (0.17%) Virtual Desktop
7 4 (0.17%) VMware ESXi
8 3 (0.13%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.13%) Oracle RAC
9 2 (0.086%) SRDF
10 1 (0.043%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.043%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 450 (19.40%) Kubernetes
2 325 (14.01%) Terraform
3 125 (5.39%) Ansible
3 125 (5.39%) Grafana
4 100 (4.31%) Prometheus
5 40 (1.72%) Argo
6 25 (1.08%) Puppet
7 22 (0.95%) Progress Chef
8 18 (0.78%) HP ALM
9 14 (0.60%) Kibana
10 11 (0.47%) Control-M
10 11 (0.47%) Single Sign-On
11 10 (0.43%) Dell DRAC
12 7 (0.30%) Kustomize
13 6 (0.26%) Istio
13 6 (0.26%) Microsoft Intune
13 6 (0.26%) Packer
14 5 (0.22%) HP Fortify
14 5 (0.22%) HP Quality Center
14 5 (0.22%) SCCM
Vendors
1 218 (9.40%) Microsoft
2 210 (9.06%) Oracle
3 94 (4.05%) Salesforce
4 89 (3.84%) Databricks
5 70 (3.02%) Talend
6 65 (2.80%) Google
6 65 (2.80%) Red Hat
7 61 (2.63%) Splunk
8 56 (2.41%) ServiceNow
9 55 (2.37%) IBM
10 50 (2.16%) Denodo
11 48 (2.07%) SAP
12 43 (1.85%) Informatica
13 41 (1.77%) VMware
14 37 (1.60%) Dynatrace
15 31 (1.34%) Cisco
16 29 (1.25%) MuleSoft
17 25 (1.08%) HP
17 25 (1.08%) UiPath
18 14 (0.60%) OpenAI