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 28 February 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 45 52
Rank change year-on-year -3 +7 -7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,892 1,387 1,617
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.54% 4.53% 3.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.24% 5.04% 4.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,297 940 1,133
10th Percentile £337 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £477 £500 £517
Median % change year-on-year -4.70% -3.29% -7.10%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £625
90th Percentile £675 £738 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 47 6 60
10th Percentile £33.09 £42.88 £44.25
25th Percentile £50.63 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.90 £65.75
Median % change year-on-year +6.73% -7.37% +15.35%
75th Percentile £68.13 £76.77 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £82.35 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £60.90 £70.00
% change year-on-year +6.73% -13.00% +22.81%

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 36,087 27,535 38,701
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.65% 89.98% 86.99%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,916 17,126 25,279
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £412 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £739 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £491 £500
% change year-on-year -1.83% -1.80% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,149 888 2,215
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £18.13 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.50 £32.50 £33.50
Median % change year-on-year -15.38% -2.99% -4.29%
75th Percentile £63.32 £63.75 £59.47
90th Percentile £72.71 £75.08 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year -20.81% -9.26% -

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 28 February 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 28 February 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 28 February 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 -1 1,626 £488 -2.50% 559
UK excluding London -2 874 £480 +1.05% 477
London -2 788 £500 -4.76% 172
Work from Home -4 554 £475 -5.00% 296
North of England +4 320 £500 +17.65% 114
Midlands +9 187 £476 +2.86% 57
South East -18 162 £496 -2.02% 151
West Midlands +14 154 £486 +0.54% 37
Yorkshire -14 138 £518 +18.29% 38
North West +2 137 £450 +9.09% 55
South West -4 81 £515 -8.04% 75
East of England +8 60 £570 +25.55% 50
North East +13 49 £488 +28.09% 21
Scotland -17 40 £440 -2.22% 32
East Midlands -13 33 £400 +7.38% 20
Wales +3 31 £475 +2.70% 9
Northern Ireland +12 20 £475 -2.56% 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
1 128 (6.77%) Confluence
2 62 (3.28%) SAS
3 33 (1.74%) Apache Spark
4 15 (0.79%) Apache Airflow
5 11 (0.58%) Apache
5 11 (0.58%) SharePoint
6 8 (0.42%) Appian
7 6 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 6 (0.32%) nginx
7 6 (0.32%) WebLogic
8 5 (0.26%) CMS
8 5 (0.26%) Tomcat
9 4 (0.21%) Camunda
9 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
9 4 (0.21%) Oracle Application Server
10 3 (0.16%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.16%) OpenStack
11 2 (0.11%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.11%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 28 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.74%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.69%) Microsoft Office
4 10 (0.53%) Microsoft Project
4 10 (0.53%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.16%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.053%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 19 (1.00%) Aladdin
2 8 (0.42%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.26%) Loan IQ
3 5 (0.26%) Maximo
3 5 (0.26%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.21%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.21%) SAP HR
4 4 (0.21%) Shopify
5 3 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
5 3 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.11%) Infor CloudSuite
6 2 (0.11%) Infor LN
6 2 (0.11%) Infor M3
6 2 (0.11%) iTrent
6 2 (0.11%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.11%) Oracle ERP
6 2 (0.11%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.11%) Summit
7 1 (0.053%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.053%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 550 (29.07%) Azure
2 481 (25.42%) AWS
3 324 (17.12%) GitHub
4 240 (12.68%) Azure DevOps
5 194 (10.25%) GCP
6 176 (9.30%) GitHub Actions
7 130 (6.87%) Serverless
8 77 (4.07%) Power Platform
9 72 (3.81%) OpenShift
10 59 (3.12%) AWS Lambda
11 58 (3.07%) Amazon S3
12 45 (2.38%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 45 (2.38%) AWS CloudFormation
13 42 (2.22%) Azure AKS
14 37 (1.96%) Snowflake
15 36 (1.90%) SaaS
16 34 (1.80%) Amazon EKS
16 34 (1.80%) Azure Data Factory
17 33 (1.74%) Dynamics 365
18 32 (1.69%) Azure Functions
Communications & Networking
1 34 (1.80%) Firewall
2 27 (1.43%) HTTP
3 22 (1.16%) Wireshark
4 20 (1.06%) TCP/IP
4 20 (1.06%) VPN
5 18 (0.95%) SSL
6 15 (0.79%) HTTPS
7 13 (0.69%) SD-WAN
8 12 (0.63%) Network Security
8 12 (0.63%) WAN
9 11 (0.58%) DNS
10 10 (0.53%) FTP
11 9 (0.48%) Ethernet
11 9 (0.48%) MPLS
12 8 (0.42%) Multicast
12 8 (0.42%) VLAN
13 7 (0.37%) AMQP
14 6 (0.32%) SAN
15 5 (0.26%) BGP
15 5 (0.26%) Cisco IPT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 110 (5.81%) PostgreSQL
2 90 (4.76%) NoSQL
3 83 (4.39%) MongoDB
4 70 (3.70%) SQL Server
5 62 (3.28%) Relational Database
6 51 (2.70%) Data Warehouse
7 44 (2.33%) Power BI
8 33 (1.74%) Pentaho
9 30 (1.59%) DynamoDB
10 28 (1.48%) BigQuery
11 27 (1.43%) MySQL
11 27 (1.43%) Oracle Database
12 21 (1.11%) Big Data
13 19 (1.00%) Azure SQL Database
14 18 (0.95%) Amazon RDS
14 18 (0.95%) Oracle Reports
14 18 (0.95%) Redis
15 17 (0.90%) Tableau
16 16 (0.85%) Data Lake
16 16 (0.85%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 363 (19.19%) JIRA
2 356 (18.82%) Git
3 350 (18.50%) Jenkins
4 292 (15.43%) GitLab
5 281 (14.85%) Selenium
6 175 (9.25%) Cucumber
7 169 (8.93%) Postman
8 116 (6.13%) Cypress.io
9 110 (5.81%) JUnit
10 102 (5.39%) JMeter
11 101 (5.34%) REST Assured
12 48 (2.54%) WebDriver
13 42 (2.22%) SpecFlow
14 40 (2.11%) SonarQube
15 39 (2.06%) Gatling
16 37 (1.96%) Maven
16 37 (1.96%) Zephyr
17 33 (1.74%) Mockito
17 33 (1.74%) TestRail
18 32 (1.69%) Gradle
General
1 484 (25.58%) Social Skills
2 296 (15.64%) Finance
3 265 (14.01%) Public Sector
4 202 (10.68%) Analytical Skills
5 143 (7.56%) Banking
6 29 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
7 28 (1.48%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 28 (1.48%) Investment Banking
8 22 (1.16%) Front Office
8 22 (1.16%) Pharmaceutical
9 20 (1.06%) Telecoms
10 18 (0.95%) Military
10 18 (0.95%) Presentation Skills
11 16 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
12 14 (0.74%) Aerospace
13 13 (0.69%) Financial Institution
13 13 (0.69%) Influencing Skills
14 11 (0.58%) Legal
14 11 (0.58%) Manufacturing
15 10 (0.53%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 407 (21.51%) Developer
2 316 (16.70%) Senior
3 229 (12.10%) Tester
4 216 (11.42%) Lead
5 211 (11.15%) Test Engineer
6 117 (6.18%) Automation Tester
7 106 (5.60%) Java Developer
8 98 (5.18%) Data Engineer
9 87 (4.60%) Analyst
9 87 (4.60%) Test Automation Engineer
10 86 (4.55%) Software Engineer
11 74 (3.91%) Test Leader
12 73 (3.86%) Senior Developer
13 70 (3.70%) DevOps Engineer
13 70 (3.70%) QA Engineer
14 64 (3.38%) Test Manager
15 58 (3.07%) Architect
16 57 (3.01%) Test Analyst
17 54 (2.85%) Automation Engineer
18 48 (2.54%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 243 (12.84%) REST
2 239 (12.63%) Playwright
3 168 (8.88%) React
4 149 (7.88%) RESTful
5 146 (7.72%) Node.js
6 145 (7.66%) Spring
7 144 (7.61%) .NET
8 131 (6.92%) Kafka
9 121 (6.40%) Spring Boot
10 91 (4.81%) pytest
11 66 (3.49%) HTML
12 64 (3.38%) AngularJS
13 57 (3.01%) CSS
13 57 (3.01%) OAuth
14 55 (2.91%) Jest
15 52 (2.75%) Web Services
16 50 (2.64%) JSON
17 44 (2.33%) GraphQL
18 40 (2.11%) OpenID
19 39 (2.06%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 204 (10.78%) Cloud Native
2 126 (6.66%) Product Ownership
3 76 (4.02%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
4 47 (2.48%) Mobile App
5 42 (2.22%) Algorithms
5 42 (2.22%) Data Protection Act
6 38 (2.01%) Security Posture
7 34 (1.80%) Onboarding
8 29 (1.53%) Virtual Team
9 26 (1.37%) Data Structures
9 26 (1.37%) Enterprise Software
10 23 (1.22%) NHS
10 23 (1.22%) Self-Motivation
11 21 (1.11%) Greenfield Project
12 20 (1.06%) Equities
12 20 (1.06%) Management Information System
12 20 (1.06%) Public Cloud
13 19 (1.00%) Data Centre
14 18 (0.95%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 146 (7.72%) Linux
2 84 (4.44%) Windows
3 45 (2.38%) Android
4 44 (2.33%) Unix
5 40 (2.11%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.06%) Windows Server
7 18 (0.95%) Mac OS X
8 14 (0.74%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 11 (0.58%) Kali Linux
10 9 (0.48%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.26%) CentOS
11 5 (0.26%) Solaris
11 5 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
11 5 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.11%) VMS
12 2 (0.11%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.053%) FreeRTOS
13 1 (0.053%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.053%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,004 (53.07%) CI/CD
2 919 (48.57%) Agile
3 707 (37.37%) DevOps
4 451 (23.84%) Problem-Solving
5 305 (16.12%) Microservices
6 301 (15.91%) Continuous Improvement
7 294 (15.54%) Test Strategy
8 278 (14.69%) Containerisation
9 272 (14.38%) Scrum
10 241 (12.74%) Infrastructure as Code
11 240 (12.68%) Validation
12 239 (12.63%) AI
13 232 (12.26%) Test Scripting
14 226 (11.95%) Software Engineering
15 216 (11.42%) TDD
16 207 (10.94%) Analytics
17 200 (10.57%) Observability
18 189 (9.99%) Software Testing
19 188 (9.94%) API Testing
20 180 (9.51%) BDD
Programming Languages
1 584 (30.87%) Python
2 461 (24.37%) Java
3 377 (19.93%) SQL
4 294 (15.54%) JavaScript
5 274 (14.48%) TypeScript
6 185 (9.78%) C#
7 81 (4.28%) Bash
8 69 (3.65%) PowerShell
9 45 (2.38%) C++
10 34 (1.80%) Go
11 27 (1.43%) PL/SQL
12 25 (1.32%) Kotlin
13 24 (1.27%) Bicep
14 22 (1.16%) Scala
15 20 (1.06%) Ruby
16 18 (0.95%) C
17 17 (0.90%) Apex Code
17 17 (0.90%) Swift
18 14 (0.74%) Shell Script
19 13 (0.69%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 544 (28.75%) Security Cleared
2 421 (22.25%) SC Cleared
3 105 (5.55%) Degree
4 90 (4.76%) ISTQB
5 69 (3.65%) BPSS Clearance
6 58 (3.07%) Computer Science Degree
7 56 (2.96%) DV Cleared
8 33 (1.74%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 29 (1.53%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.95%) OSCP
11 17 (0.90%) AWS Certification
12 14 (0.74%) Azure Certification
12 14 (0.74%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (0.74%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 13 (0.69%) CISSP
13 13 (0.69%) GPEN
13 13 (0.69%) Microsoft Certification
13 13 (0.69%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 12 (0.63%) CEH
15 11 (0.58%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 421 (22.25%) QA
2 153 (8.09%) Accessibility
3 102 (5.39%) Data Quality
4 50 (2.64%) WCAG
5 38 (2.01%) GDPR
6 35 (1.85%) NIST
7 22 (1.16%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 18 (0.95%) EU AI Act
9 17 (0.90%) NCSC
10 15 (0.79%) SLA
11 11 (0.58%) ISO 20022
11 11 (0.58%) PCI DSS
12 9 (0.48%) NIST 800
12 9 (0.48%) PSD2
13 8 (0.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 7 (0.37%) Def Stans
14 7 (0.37%) HMG Security Policy Framework
14 7 (0.37%) SEPA
14 7 (0.37%) SOC 2
15 6 (0.32%) HIPAA
System Software
1 406 (21.46%) Docker
2 34 (1.80%) Active Directory
3 9 (0.48%) VMware ESXi
3 9 (0.48%) VMware Infrastructure
4 7 (0.37%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 6 (0.32%) Firmware
6 5 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
8 3 (0.16%) ISA Server
9 2 (0.11%) SRDF
9 2 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.053%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.053%) HDFS
10 1 (0.053%) KVM
10 1 (0.053%) QEMU
10 1 (0.053%) Squid
10 1 (0.053%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.053%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.053%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 368 (19.45%) Kubernetes
2 219 (11.58%) Terraform
3 107 (5.66%) Ansible
4 106 (5.60%) Grafana
5 76 (4.02%) Prometheus
6 22 (1.16%) HP ALM
7 19 (1.00%) Argo
7 19 (1.00%) Puppet
8 18 (0.95%) Nmap
9 17 (0.90%) Progress Chef
10 16 (0.85%) Single Sign-On
11 12 (0.63%) NetBackup
12 10 (0.53%) HP Quality Center
13 7 (0.37%) Kibana
13 7 (0.37%) Nessus
13 7 (0.37%) Podman
14 6 (0.32%) CSIRT
14 6 (0.32%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 6 (0.32%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 4 (0.21%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 167 (8.83%) Microsoft
2 157 (8.30%) Oracle
3 70 (3.70%) Databricks
4 68 (3.59%) ServiceNow
5 66 (3.49%) Google
6 64 (3.38%) Splunk
7 62 (3.28%) Salesforce
8 48 (2.54%) SAP
9 37 (1.96%) Talend
10 34 (1.80%) Red Hat
11 29 (1.53%) Denodo
12 28 (1.48%) VMware
13 24 (1.27%) Cisco
13 24 (1.27%) HP
13 24 (1.27%) IBM
14 16 (0.85%) Atlassian
14 16 (0.85%) Workday
15 15 (0.79%) OpenAI
16 14 (0.74%) Dynatrace
16 14 (0.74%) UiPath