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 9 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 47 45 52
Rank change year-on-year -2 +7 -13
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,688 1,555 1,804
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.65% 4.35% 3.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.23% 4.98% 4.48%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,149 1,044 1,310
10th Percentile £325 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -5.66%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £688 £700 £715
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +2.04% -2.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 30 7 53
10th Percentile £39.48 £40.75 £34.80
25th Percentile £47.19 £41.88 £45.88
Median hourly rate £61.97 £45.00 £75.00
Median % change year-on-year +37.71% -40.00% +25.00%
75th Percentile £66.88 £58.13 £90.00
90th Percentile £67.00 £73.25 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £75.00
% change year-on-year +36.84% -36.67% +25.00%

All Process and 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 32,247 31,236 40,271
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.88% 87.47% 88.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,285 18,990 26,947
10th Percentile £300 £308 £310
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £738 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,090 1,084 1,559
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.25 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.19 £18.94
Median hourly rate £25.13 £33.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.86% -22.35% +21.43%
75th Percentile £45.46 £63.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £74.00 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.63 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -30.37% -23.53% +30.77%

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 9 December 2025.

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 9 December 2025.

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 9 December 2025. 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 1,448 £500 - 564
UK excluding London +3 796 £500 +2.04% 497
London -4 689 £513 -2.38% 169
Work from Home +2 523 £500 - 294
North of England -3 281 £488 +8.33% 115
Midlands +12 152 £500 +2.04% 67
South East -23 145 £500 - 178
Yorkshire -7 130 £516 +14.72% 39
West Midlands +9 121 £515 -2.60% 42
North West +3 111 £425 -5.56% 60
South West +7 86 £537 -1.01% 67
Scotland -9 65 £500 +11.11% 26
East of England +4 48 £525 +31.25% 49
North East +20 42 £494 +16.18% 16
East Midlands -2 31 £381 -16.26% 24
Wales +7 30 £495 -4.81% 8
Northern Ireland +2 11 £295 -43.13% 1

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 91 (5.39%) Confluence
2 53 (3.14%) SAS
3 26 (1.54%) Apache Spark
4 19 (1.13%) Apache Airflow
5 14 (0.83%) Apache
6 13 (0.77%) SharePoint
7 8 (0.47%) Oracle Application Server
8 6 (0.36%) CMS
9 5 (0.30%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.24%) Anypoint
10 4 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.18%) nginx
11 3 (0.18%) WebLogic
11 3 (0.18%) WordPress
12 2 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 2 (0.12%) IIS
12 2 (0.12%) JBoss
12 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 19 (1.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.41%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.24%) Simulink
5 4 (0.24%) Windchill
6 3 (0.18%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.12%) Trello
8 1 (0.059%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 17 (1.01%) Aladdin
2 11 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.24%) SAP HR
3 4 (0.24%) SAP PLM
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 (0.059%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.059%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.059%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.059%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.059%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.059%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.059%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 470 (27.84%) Azure
2 422 (25.00%) AWS
3 253 (14.99%) GitHub
4 204 (12.09%) Azure DevOps
5 152 (9.00%) GCP
6 130 (7.70%) GitHub Actions
6 130 (7.70%) Serverless
7 62 (3.67%) AWS Lambda
8 56 (3.32%) OpenShift
9 53 (3.14%) Amazon S3
9 53 (3.14%) Power Platform
10 47 (2.78%) AWS CloudFormation
11 45 (2.67%) Azure AKS
12 39 (2.31%) SaaS
13 36 (2.13%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 36 (2.13%) Amazon EKS
13 36 (2.13%) Snowflake
14 28 (1.66%) Amazon ECS
15 27 (1.60%) Entra ID
15 27 (1.60%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 42 (2.49%) Firewall
2 35 (2.07%) HTTP
3 34 (2.01%) Wireshark
4 27 (1.60%) HTTPS
5 23 (1.36%) SSL
6 18 (1.07%) VPN
7 17 (1.01%) TCP/IP
8 15 (0.89%) SD-WAN
9 13 (0.77%) DNS
9 13 (0.77%) Network Security
10 12 (0.71%) Ethernet
11 11 (0.65%) Multicast
12 10 (0.59%) WAN
13 9 (0.53%) FTP
14 7 (0.41%) AMQP
15 6 (0.36%) Bluetooth
15 6 (0.36%) Internet
16 5 (0.30%) Broadband
16 5 (0.30%) MPLS
16 5 (0.30%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (6.28%) PostgreSQL
2 93 (5.51%) NoSQL
3 87 (5.15%) MongoDB
4 73 (4.32%) Relational Database
5 57 (3.38%) SQL Server
6 42 (2.49%) Data Warehouse
7 28 (1.66%) Pentaho
8 27 (1.60%) Power BI
9 26 (1.54%) Amazon RDS
10 24 (1.42%) BigQuery
10 24 (1.42%) DynamoDB
11 21 (1.24%) Oracle Database
12 20 (1.18%) Big Data
13 19 (1.13%) Data Lake
14 18 (1.07%) MySQL
15 16 (0.95%) Apache Cassandra
16 15 (0.89%) Redis
16 15 (0.89%) SAS Enterprise Guide
17 14 (0.83%) Azure SQL Database
18 13 (0.77%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 316 (18.72%) Git
2 311 (18.42%) JIRA
3 306 (18.13%) Jenkins
4 266 (15.76%) Selenium
5 229 (13.57%) GitLab
6 149 (8.83%) Cucumber
7 127 (7.52%) Postman
8 114 (6.75%) Cypress.io
9 91 (5.39%) JUnit
10 74 (4.38%) JMeter
11 66 (3.91%) REST Assured
12 58 (3.44%) Bitbucket
13 45 (2.67%) SonarQube
14 39 (2.31%) SpecFlow
15 34 (2.01%) Mockito
16 32 (1.90%) Maven
17 30 (1.78%) Gatling
18 26 (1.54%) TestRail
18 26 (1.54%) Zephyr
19 25 (1.48%) Appium
General
1 467 (27.67%) Social Skills
2 297 (17.59%) Finance
3 213 (12.62%) Public Sector
4 174 (10.31%) Analytical Skills
5 119 (7.05%) Banking
6 32 (1.90%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 32 (1.90%) Telecoms
7 30 (1.78%) Documentation Skills
8 22 (1.30%) Front Office
8 22 (1.30%) Investment Banking
8 22 (1.30%) Manufacturing
8 22 (1.30%) Pharmaceutical
9 19 (1.13%) Presentation Skills
10 17 (1.01%) Financial Institution
11 16 (0.95%) Marketing
12 15 (0.89%) Electronics
13 13 (0.77%) Organisational Skills
14 12 (0.71%) Military
14 12 (0.71%) Retail
15 11 (0.65%) Aerospace
Job Titles
1 380 (22.51%) Developer
2 269 (15.94%) Senior
3 206 (12.20%) Tester
4 157 (9.30%) Test Engineer
5 145 (8.59%) Lead
6 119 (7.05%) Java Developer
7 116 (6.87%) Automation Tester
8 79 (4.68%) Software Engineer
9 77 (4.56%) Analyst
10 74 (4.38%) Data Engineer
11 68 (4.03%) QA Engineer
12 66 (3.91%) DevOps Engineer
13 62 (3.67%) Senior Developer
13 62 (3.67%) Test Automation Engineer
14 59 (3.50%) Test Analyst
15 54 (3.20%) Automation Engineer
16 49 (2.90%) Test Leader
16 49 (2.90%) Test Manager
17 39 (2.31%) Senior Tester
18 37 (2.19%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 212 (12.56%) REST
2 165 (9.77%) Playwright
3 144 (8.53%) React
4 128 (7.58%) RESTful
5 126 (7.46%) .NET
6 124 (7.35%) Node.js
7 120 (7.11%) Kafka
8 119 (7.05%) Spring
9 114 (6.75%) Spring Boot
10 80 (4.74%) JSON
11 75 (4.44%) XML
12 72 (4.27%) HTML
12 72 (4.27%) SOAP
13 70 (4.15%) CSS
14 68 (4.03%) AngularJS
15 66 (3.91%) pytest
16 49 (2.90%) Jest
17 44 (2.61%) JMS
18 41 (2.43%) Web Services
19 37 (2.19%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 160 (9.48%) Cloud Native
2 119 (7.05%) Product Ownership
3 52 (3.08%) Mobile App
4 47 (2.78%) Distributed Systems
5 45 (2.67%) Security Posture
6 32 (1.90%) Data Protection Act
7 31 (1.84%) Public Cloud
8 30 (1.78%) Algorithms
9 29 (1.72%) Onboarding
10 27 (1.60%) Self-Motivation
11 25 (1.48%) Virtual Team
12 23 (1.36%) Legacy Systems
13 22 (1.30%) Enterprise Software
14 19 (1.13%) Data Structures
14 19 (1.13%) Management Information System
15 17 (1.01%) Greenfield Project
16 16 (0.95%) Genomics
17 15 (0.89%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 15 (0.89%) Life Science
18 14 (0.83%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 170 (10.07%) Linux
2 81 (4.80%) Windows
3 56 (3.32%) Unix
4 45 (2.67%) Android
5 38 (2.25%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.18%) Mac OS X
7 17 (1.01%) Windows Server
8 13 (0.77%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 10 (0.59%) Kali Linux
10 8 (0.47%) CentOS
11 3 (0.18%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.18%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
12 2 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.12%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.059%) Solaris
13 1 (0.059%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.059%) VMS
13 1 (0.059%) Windows Embedded Compact
13 1 (0.059%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 848 (50.24%) CI/CD
2 843 (49.94%) Agile
3 654 (38.74%) DevOps
4 420 (24.88%) Problem-Solving
5 272 (16.11%) Microservices
6 259 (15.34%) Scrum
7 251 (14.87%) Containerisation
8 240 (14.22%) Test Strategy
9 234 (13.86%) Continuous Improvement
10 220 (13.03%) TDD
11 209 (12.38%) Infrastructure as Code
12 208 (12.32%) Software Engineering
13 199 (11.79%) Test Scripting
14 187 (11.08%) SDLC
15 171 (10.13%) AI
15 171 (10.13%) Software Testing
16 165 (9.77%) BDD
17 162 (9.60%) Validation
18 149 (8.83%) Analytics
19 147 (8.71%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 490 (29.03%) Python
2 401 (23.76%) Java
3 308 (18.25%) SQL
4 234 (13.86%) JavaScript
5 197 (11.67%) TypeScript
6 178 (10.55%) C#
7 99 (5.86%) Bash
8 65 (3.85%) PowerShell
9 40 (2.37%) C++
9 40 (2.37%) Go
10 22 (1.30%) Kotlin
11 21 (1.24%) Bicep
12 17 (1.01%) PL/SQL
13 16 (0.95%) Ruby
14 15 (0.89%) Scala
15 12 (0.71%) Groovy
15 12 (0.71%) Perl
15 12 (0.71%) Shell Script
15 12 (0.71%) Swift
16 11 (0.65%) PHP
Qualifications
1 422 (25.00%) Security Cleared
2 328 (19.43%) SC Cleared
3 110 (6.52%) Degree
4 68 (4.03%) ISTQB
5 57 (3.38%) Computer Science Degree
6 46 (2.73%) DV Cleared
7 44 (2.61%) BPSS Clearance
8 27 (1.60%) AWS Certification
9 25 (1.48%) Master's Degree
10 22 (1.30%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 20 (1.18%) CISSP
12 18 (1.07%) OSCP
13 15 (0.89%) Azure Certification
14 14 (0.83%) CISM
14 14 (0.83%) MCP
15 13 (0.77%) CEH
15 13 (0.77%) Cisco Certification
15 13 (0.77%) GPEN
15 13 (0.77%) ISEB
16 12 (0.71%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 372 (22.04%) QA
2 131 (7.76%) Accessibility
3 73 (4.32%) Data Quality
4 42 (2.49%) NIST
5 38 (2.25%) GDPR
6 36 (2.13%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 33 (1.95%) WCAG
8 19 (1.13%) NCSC
8 19 (1.13%) PCI DSS
9 18 (1.07%) EU AI Act
10 16 (0.95%) NIST 800
11 14 (0.83%) PSD2
12 12 (0.71%) SEPA
13 9 (0.53%) ISO 20022
14 8 (0.47%) COBIT
14 8 (0.47%) SLA
15 7 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 7 (0.41%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
15 7 (0.41%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 7 (0.41%) SOC 2
System Software
1 359 (21.27%) Docker
2 28 (1.66%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.47%) Firmware
4 7 (0.41%) VMware Infrastructure
5 4 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
6 3 (0.18%) QEMU
6 3 (0.18%) Virtual Servers
6 3 (0.18%) zsh
7 2 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
7 2 (0.12%) ISA Server
7 2 (0.12%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.12%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.12%) vSphere
8 1 (0.059%) HDFS
8 1 (0.059%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 323 (19.14%) Kubernetes
2 220 (13.03%) Terraform
3 133 (7.88%) Ansible
4 82 (4.86%) Grafana
5 50 (2.96%) Prometheus
6 16 (0.95%) CSIRT
6 16 (0.95%) HP ALM
6 16 (0.95%) Nmap
6 16 (0.95%) Progress Chef
7 15 (0.89%) Argo
8 13 (0.77%) NetBackup
9 12 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
10 10 (0.59%) Puppet
11 7 (0.41%) Kibana
11 7 (0.41%) Nessus
12 6 (0.36%) Podman
13 5 (0.30%) RSA Archer
14 4 (0.24%) Rancher
14 4 (0.24%) SCCM
14 4 (0.24%) vRealize
Vendors
1 169 (10.01%) Microsoft
2 153 (9.06%) Oracle
3 66 (3.91%) Splunk
4 64 (3.79%) SAP
5 63 (3.73%) ServiceNow
6 59 (3.50%) Databricks
7 57 (3.38%) Salesforce
8 48 (2.84%) Google
9 30 (1.78%) Talend
10 28 (1.66%) Denodo
11 27 (1.60%) VMware
12 23 (1.36%) Cisco
13 22 (1.30%) F5
13 22 (1.30%) webMethods
14 20 (1.18%) IBM
15 19 (1.13%) Atlassian
15 19 (1.13%) Red Hat
16 17 (1.01%) HP
17 16 (0.95%) Dynatrace
18 15 (0.89%) Workday