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 12 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
12 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 45 52
Rank change year-on-year -3 +7 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,649 1,384 1,657
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.55% 4.39% 3.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.18% 4.95% 4.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,129 932 1,203
10th Percentile £342 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -6.46%
75th Percentile £588 £605 £630
90th Percentile £695 £713 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 29 4 45
10th Percentile £41.94 £41.63 £37.50
25th Percentile £50.00 £42.19 £55.00
Median hourly rate £63.50 £47.50 £77.50
Median % change year-on-year +33.68% -38.71% +36.30%
75th Percentile £67.00 £61.25 £90.00
90th Percentile £67.60 £77.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £62.50 £50.00 £77.50
% change year-on-year +25.00% -35.48% +36.30%

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 31,821 27,941 37,669
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.79% 88.66% 87.71%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,057 16,962 24,992
10th Percentile £304 £306 £304
25th Percentile £406 £413 £415
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £614 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £744 £742
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,969 885 1,593
10th Percentile £14.60 £15.62 £14.18
25th Percentile £17.69 £20.48 £18.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.25 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.00% -20.38% +16.41%
75th Percentile £56.00 £61.76 £65.00
90th Percentile £69.49 £74.82 £77.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.83 £30.11 £43.90
% change year-on-year -20.86% -31.42% +59.64%

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 12 January 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 12 January 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in the UK

Test Automation
Top 17 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 12 January 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 -3 1,432 £500 - 1,012
UK excluding London -2 759 £500 +4.17% 928
London -4 691 £500 -3.85% 206
Work from Home 0 490 £500 - 496
North of England +6 302 £492 +12.46% 194
Midlands +13 149 £500 +2.04% 99
Yorkshire -2 148 £513 +13.89% 84
South East -25 136 £500 -2.44% 290
West Midlands +14 113 £519 +3.08% 38
North West +2 111 £430 +7.50% 80
South West -9 70 £550 -3.51% 138
Scotland -23 46 £500 +8.70% 42
North East +20 45 £488 +34.48% 30
East of England -5 45 £570 +42.50% 127
East Midlands +2 36 £397 -14.27% 61
Wales +2 23 £513 -1.30% 40
Northern Ireland +5 12 £295 -43.13% 17

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 94 (5.70%) Confluence
2 55 (3.34%) SAS
3 21 (1.27%) Apache Spark
4 14 (0.85%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.79%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.67%) Apache
7 6 (0.36%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 6 (0.36%) OpenStack
7 6 (0.36%) Oracle Application Server
8 5 (0.30%) CMS
9 4 (0.24%) Appian
9 4 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.18%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.18%) nginx
10 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.12%) Camunda
11 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
11 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 15 (0.91%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.61%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 9 (0.55%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.36%) Microsoft Office
5 3 (0.18%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
6 2 (0.12%) Trello
7 1 (0.061%) Oracle Smart View
7 1 (0.061%) Simulink
7 1 (0.061%) Spreadsheet
7 1 (0.061%) Windchill
Business Applications
1 17 (1.03%) Aladdin
2 10 (0.61%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.24%) SAP HR
4 3 (0.18%) Oracle ERP
4 3 (0.18%) SAP BRIM
4 3 (0.18%) Workday HCM
5 2 (0.12%) Eagle PACE
5 2 (0.12%) Markit EDM
5 2 (0.12%) Maximo
5 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
5 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
5 2 (0.12%) Shopify
6 1 (0.061%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.061%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.061%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.061%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.061%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.061%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.061%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.061%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 458 (27.77%) Azure
2 414 (25.11%) AWS
3 260 (15.77%) GitHub
4 186 (11.28%) Azure DevOps
5 158 (9.58%) GCP
6 136 (8.25%) GitHub Actions
7 122 (7.40%) Serverless
8 58 (3.52%) OpenShift
9 55 (3.34%) AWS Lambda
10 53 (3.21%) Power Platform
11 47 (2.85%) Amazon S3
12 46 (2.79%) Azure AKS
13 43 (2.61%) AWS CloudFormation
14 40 (2.43%) Amazon EKS
15 38 (2.30%) SaaS
16 35 (2.12%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 33 (2.00%) Snowflake
18 30 (1.82%) Azure Functions
18 30 (1.82%) Dynamics 365
18 30 (1.82%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 44 (2.67%) Firewall
2 34 (2.06%) Wireshark
3 30 (1.82%) HTTP
4 26 (1.58%) HTTPS
5 25 (1.52%) SSL
6 22 (1.33%) TCP/IP
7 19 (1.15%) VPN
8 16 (0.97%) Network Security
9 15 (0.91%) SD-WAN
10 12 (0.73%) Ethernet
11 10 (0.61%) FTP
11 10 (0.61%) WAN
12 9 (0.55%) DNS
13 8 (0.49%) VLAN
14 7 (0.42%) AMQP
14 7 (0.42%) Multicast
15 5 (0.30%) Cisco IPT
15 5 (0.30%) MPLS
16 4 (0.24%) DHCP
16 4 (0.24%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (6.43%) PostgreSQL
2 82 (4.97%) NoSQL
3 80 (4.85%) MongoDB
4 67 (4.06%) Relational Database
5 62 (3.76%) SQL Server
6 33 (2.00%) Data Warehouse
7 29 (1.76%) Pentaho
8 25 (1.52%) BigQuery
9 24 (1.46%) DynamoDB
9 24 (1.46%) Power BI
10 20 (1.21%) Amazon RDS
10 20 (1.21%) MySQL
10 20 (1.21%) Oracle Database
11 19 (1.15%) Big Data
11 19 (1.15%) Redis
12 15 (0.91%) Apache Cassandra
12 15 (0.91%) Data Lake
12 15 (0.91%) SAS Enterprise Guide
13 13 (0.79%) Azure SQL Database
14 12 (0.73%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 308 (18.68%) Jenkins
2 303 (18.37%) Git
3 289 (17.53%) JIRA
4 258 (15.65%) Selenium
5 244 (14.80%) GitLab
6 150 (9.10%) Cucumber
7 134 (8.13%) Postman
8 109 (6.61%) Cypress.io
9 86 (5.22%) JUnit
10 77 (4.67%) JMeter
10 77 (4.67%) REST Assured
11 41 (2.49%) Bitbucket
12 40 (2.43%) SonarQube
13 34 (2.06%) SpecFlow
14 33 (2.00%) Mockito
15 32 (1.94%) Gatling
16 31 (1.88%) TestRail
17 29 (1.76%) Maven
18 28 (1.70%) WebDriver
19 27 (1.64%) Gradle
General
1 434 (26.32%) Social Skills
2 277 (16.80%) Finance
3 242 (14.68%) Public Sector
4 176 (10.67%) Analytical Skills
5 114 (6.91%) Banking
6 33 (2.00%) Documentation Skills
7 30 (1.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 24 (1.46%) Telecoms
9 23 (1.39%) Investment Banking
9 23 (1.39%) Pharmaceutical
10 19 (1.15%) Front Office
10 19 (1.15%) Presentation Skills
11 16 (0.97%) Financial Institution
11 16 (0.97%) Manufacturing
12 14 (0.85%) Military
13 12 (0.73%) Marketing
14 11 (0.67%) Electronics
15 10 (0.61%) Aerospace
15 10 (0.61%) Organisational Skills
16 9 (0.55%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 370 (22.44%) Developer
2 281 (17.04%) Senior
3 191 (11.58%) Tester
4 179 (10.86%) Test Engineer
5 148 (8.98%) Lead
6 112 (6.79%) Automation Tester
7 105 (6.37%) Java Developer
8 81 (4.91%) Software Engineer
9 78 (4.73%) Test Automation Engineer
10 69 (4.18%) Data Engineer
10 69 (4.18%) Senior Developer
11 68 (4.12%) DevOps Engineer
12 67 (4.06%) QA Engineer
13 66 (4.00%) Analyst
14 51 (3.09%) Automation Engineer
14 51 (3.09%) Test Leader
15 49 (2.97%) Test Manager
16 46 (2.79%) Test Analyst
17 44 (2.67%) Full-Stack Developer
18 41 (2.49%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 227 (13.77%) REST
2 173 (10.49%) Playwright
3 138 (8.37%) React
4 135 (8.19%) .NET
5 129 (7.82%) Node.js
5 129 (7.82%) RESTful
6 120 (7.28%) Kafka
7 115 (6.97%) Spring
8 108 (6.55%) Spring Boot
9 72 (4.37%) pytest
10 68 (4.12%) JSON
11 61 (3.70%) HTML
12 60 (3.64%) AngularJS
13 58 (3.52%) XML
14 55 (3.34%) CSS
14 55 (3.34%) SOAP
15 49 (2.97%) Web Services
16 45 (2.73%) Jest
17 44 (2.67%) OAuth
18 38 (2.30%) JMS
Miscellaneous
1 167 (10.13%) Cloud Native
2 121 (7.34%) Product Ownership
3 54 (3.27%) Distributed Systems
4 44 (2.67%) Mobile App
5 41 (2.49%) Security Posture
6 33 (2.00%) Algorithms
7 29 (1.76%) Data Protection Act
8 28 (1.70%) Onboarding
9 27 (1.64%) Legacy Systems
10 22 (1.33%) Enterprise Software
10 22 (1.33%) Public Cloud
11 21 (1.27%) Data Structures
12 20 (1.21%) Management Information System
13 19 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
13 19 (1.15%) Virtual Team
14 18 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
15 17 (1.03%) NHS
16 16 (0.97%) Derivative
16 16 (0.97%) Genomics
16 16 (0.97%) Life Science
Operating Systems
1 158 (9.58%) Linux
2 78 (4.73%) Windows
3 52 (3.15%) Unix
4 37 (2.24%) Android
5 33 (2.00%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.21%) Mac OS X
6 20 (1.21%) Windows Server
7 10 (0.61%) Kali Linux
8 7 (0.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.24%) CentOS
10 3 (0.18%) Mac OS
10 3 (0.18%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.12%) VMS
12 1 (0.061%) FreeRTOS
12 1 (0.061%) Robot Operating System
12 1 (0.061%) Solaris
12 1 (0.061%) Windows Embedded Compact
12 1 (0.061%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 836 (50.70%) CI/CD
2 812 (49.24%) Agile
3 631 (38.27%) DevOps
4 418 (25.35%) Problem-Solving
5 260 (15.77%) Microservices
6 251 (15.22%) Containerisation
7 249 (15.10%) Continuous Improvement
8 235 (14.25%) Test Strategy
9 228 (13.83%) Scrum
10 214 (12.98%) Infrastructure as Code
11 201 (12.19%) Test Scripting
12 200 (12.13%) TDD
13 197 (11.95%) Software Engineering
14 176 (10.67%) AI
15 171 (10.37%) Validation
16 161 (9.76%) SDLC
17 158 (9.58%) BDD
18 154 (9.34%) Software Testing
19 150 (9.10%) API Testing
20 146 (8.85%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 497 (30.14%) Python
2 395 (23.95%) Java
3 317 (19.22%) SQL
4 240 (14.55%) JavaScript
5 207 (12.55%) TypeScript
6 163 (9.88%) C#
7 88 (5.34%) Bash
8 69 (4.18%) PowerShell
9 37 (2.24%) C++
10 34 (2.06%) Go
11 23 (1.39%) Bicep
12 21 (1.27%) Kotlin
12 21 (1.27%) PL/SQL
13 18 (1.09%) Ruby
14 15 (0.91%) Scala
15 14 (0.85%) PHP
16 12 (0.73%) Apex Code
16 12 (0.73%) Groovy
16 12 (0.73%) Rust
16 12 (0.73%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 443 (26.86%) Security Cleared
2 337 (20.44%) SC Cleared
3 95 (5.76%) Degree
4 68 (4.12%) ISTQB
5 54 (3.27%) Computer Science Degree
6 51 (3.09%) BPSS Clearance
7 50 (3.03%) DV Cleared
8 23 (1.39%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 22 (1.33%) Master's Degree
10 19 (1.15%) AWS Certification
11 18 (1.09%) OSCP
12 16 (0.97%) CISSP
12 16 (0.97%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 15 (0.91%) Cisco Certification
14 14 (0.85%) Azure Certification
14 14 (0.85%) MCP
15 13 (0.79%) CEH
16 12 (0.73%) GPEN
16 12 (0.73%) Oracle Certification
17 11 (0.67%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 362 (21.95%) QA
2 131 (7.94%) Accessibility
3 73 (4.43%) Data Quality
4 45 (2.73%) WCAG
5 39 (2.37%) GDPR
5 39 (2.37%) NIST
6 27 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (1.21%) NCSC
8 18 (1.09%) EU AI Act
9 15 (0.91%) PCI DSS
10 14 (0.85%) PSD2
11 12 (0.73%) ISO 20022
12 10 (0.61%) NIST 800
13 9 (0.55%) SEPA
14 8 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 7 (0.42%) HMG Security Policy Framework
16 5 (0.30%) Actionable Recommendations
16 5 (0.30%) MiFID
16 5 (0.30%) PERC
16 5 (0.30%) SLA
System Software
1 365 (22.13%) Docker
2 32 (1.94%) Active Directory
3 5 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
4 4 (0.24%) Firmware
4 4 (0.24%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.18%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 3 (0.18%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.18%) QEMU
5 3 (0.18%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.18%) Virtual Servers
5 3 (0.18%) zsh
6 2 (0.12%) vSphere
7 1 (0.061%) Embedded Firmware
7 1 (0.061%) HDFS
7 1 (0.061%) KVM
7 1 (0.061%) Squid
7 1 (0.061%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.061%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 319 (19.35%) Kubernetes
2 204 (12.37%) Terraform
3 117 (7.10%) Ansible
4 84 (5.09%) Grafana
5 52 (3.15%) Prometheus
6 17 (1.03%) Progress Chef
7 16 (0.97%) CSIRT
7 16 (0.97%) Nmap
8 15 (0.91%) Argo
9 14 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
10 13 (0.79%) HP ALM
10 13 (0.79%) NetBackup
11 12 (0.73%) Puppet
12 7 (0.42%) Nessus
12 7 (0.42%) Podman
13 6 (0.36%) Kibana
14 5 (0.30%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 5 (0.30%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 4 (0.24%) Rancher
15 4 (0.24%) vRealize
Vendors
1 155 (9.40%) Microsoft
2 151 (9.16%) Oracle
3 66 (4.00%) Splunk
4 57 (3.46%) Databricks
5 56 (3.40%) ServiceNow
6 55 (3.34%) SAP
7 50 (3.03%) Salesforce
8 41 (2.49%) Google
9 29 (1.76%) Denodo
9 29 (1.76%) Talend
10 27 (1.64%) VMware
11 26 (1.58%) Cisco
12 24 (1.46%) F5
12 24 (1.46%) Red Hat
13 21 (1.27%) webMethods
14 19 (1.15%) IBM
15 17 (1.03%) Atlassian
15 17 (1.03%) Dynatrace
15 17 (1.03%) MuleSoft
16 15 (0.91%) Workday