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 2 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 44 52
Rank change year-on-year -4 +8 -7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,876 1,370 1,607
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.53% 4.54% 3.60%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.24% 5.04% 4.15%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,284 929 1,124
10th Percentile £332 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.90%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £625
90th Percentile £675 £738 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +1.05% -2.56% -7.14%
Number of hourly rates quoted 45 6 60
10th Percentile £38.57 £42.88 £44.25
25th Percentile £51.25 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £60.90 £65.75
Median % change year-on-year +6.73% -7.37% +15.49%
75th Percentile £68.75 £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% +22.96%

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 35,800 27,183 38,766
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.50% 90.06% 86.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,707 16,972 25,287
10th Percentile £313 £305 £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 £740 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -2.13% -1.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,144 882 2,256
10th Percentile £14.65 £15.62 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.24 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.61 £32.50 £33.03
Median % change year-on-year -15.06% -1.61% -5.62%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £59.44
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.48 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.00 £34.36
% change year-on-year -21.41% -6.85% -1.84%

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 2 March 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 2 March 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 2 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 -3 1,614 £488 -2.50% 889
UK excluding London +2 868 £480 +1.05% 809
London -3 782 £500 -4.76% 209
Work from Home -4 545 £475 -5.19% 492
North of England +4 316 £500 +17.65% 181
Midlands +6 187 £476 +2.86% 98
South East -19 162 £496 -13.36% 226
West Midlands +9 154 £486 +0.54% 53
North West +1 137 £450 +4.96% 85
Yorkshire -13 135 £506 +14.08% 64
South West -2 80 £515 -6.36% 123
East of England +3 59 £570 +25.55% 109
North East +13 48 £488 +28.09% 32
Scotland -13 40 £440 -2.22% 56
East Midlands -23 33 £400 +7.38% 42
Wales +6 31 £475 +2.70% 24
Northern Ireland +14 20 £475 -2.56% 8

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 (6.82%) Confluence
2 62 (3.30%) SAS
3 33 (1.76%) Apache Spark
4 15 (0.80%) Apache Airflow
5 11 (0.59%) Apache
5 11 (0.59%) SharePoint
6 8 (0.43%) Appian
7 6 (0.32%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 6 (0.32%) nginx
7 6 (0.32%) WebLogic
8 5 (0.27%) CMS
8 5 (0.27%) 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%) Mendix
11 2 (0.11%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 28 (1.49%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.75%) 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 (1.01%) Aladdin
2 8 (0.43%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.27%) Loan IQ
3 5 (0.27%) Maximo
3 5 (0.27%) 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
1 547 (29.16%) Azure
2 478 (25.48%) AWS
3 322 (17.16%) GitHub
4 240 (12.79%) Azure DevOps
5 193 (10.29%) GCP
6 174 (9.28%) GitHub Actions
7 128 (6.82%) Serverless
8 77 (4.10%) Power Platform
9 72 (3.84%) OpenShift
10 59 (3.14%) AWS Lambda
11 58 (3.09%) Amazon S3
12 45 (2.40%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 45 (2.40%) AWS CloudFormation
13 42 (2.24%) Azure AKS
14 37 (1.97%) Snowflake
15 34 (1.81%) Azure Data Factory
15 34 (1.81%) SaaS
16 33 (1.76%) Amazon EKS
16 33 (1.76%) Dynamics 365
17 32 (1.71%) Amazon ECS
Communications & Networking
1 34 (1.81%) Firewall
2 27 (1.44%) HTTP
3 22 (1.17%) Wireshark
4 20 (1.07%) TCP/IP
4 20 (1.07%) VPN
5 17 (0.91%) SSL
6 13 (0.69%) HTTPS
6 13 (0.69%) SD-WAN
7 12 (0.64%) Network Security
7 12 (0.64%) WAN
8 11 (0.59%) DNS
9 10 (0.53%) FTP
10 9 (0.48%) Ethernet
10 9 (0.48%) MPLS
11 8 (0.43%) Multicast
11 8 (0.43%) VLAN
12 7 (0.37%) AMQP
13 6 (0.32%) SAN
14 5 (0.27%) BGP
14 5 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 110 (5.86%) PostgreSQL
2 89 (4.74%) NoSQL
3 79 (4.21%) MongoDB
4 69 (3.68%) SQL Server
5 62 (3.30%) Relational Database
6 51 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
7 44 (2.35%) Power BI
8 33 (1.76%) Pentaho
9 29 (1.55%) DynamoDB
10 28 (1.49%) BigQuery
11 27 (1.44%) MySQL
11 27 (1.44%) Oracle Database
12 21 (1.12%) Big Data
13 19 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
14 18 (0.96%) Amazon RDS
14 18 (0.96%) Oracle Reports
14 18 (0.96%) Redis
15 17 (0.91%) Tableau
16 16 (0.85%) Data Lake
16 16 (0.85%) Star Schema
Development Applications
1 363 (19.35%) JIRA
2 356 (18.98%) Git
3 349 (18.60%) Jenkins
4 289 (15.41%) GitLab
5 279 (14.87%) Selenium
6 173 (9.22%) Cucumber
7 169 (9.01%) Postman
8 116 (6.18%) Cypress.io
9 110 (5.86%) JUnit
10 102 (5.44%) JMeter
11 99 (5.28%) REST Assured
12 48 (2.56%) WebDriver
13 42 (2.24%) SpecFlow
14 40 (2.13%) SonarQube
15 39 (2.08%) Gatling
16 37 (1.97%) Maven
16 37 (1.97%) Zephyr
17 33 (1.76%) TestRail
18 32 (1.71%) Gradle
19 31 (1.65%) Mockito
General
1 482 (25.69%) Social Skills
2 295 (15.72%) Finance
3 260 (13.86%) Public Sector
4 202 (10.77%) Analytical Skills
5 143 (7.62%) Banking
6 28 (1.49%) Documentation Skills
6 28 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 28 (1.49%) Investment Banking
7 22 (1.17%) Front Office
7 22 (1.17%) Pharmaceutical
8 19 (1.01%) Telecoms
9 18 (0.96%) Military
9 18 (0.96%) Presentation Skills
10 16 (0.85%) Organisational Skills
11 14 (0.75%) Aerospace
12 13 (0.69%) Financial Institution
12 13 (0.69%) Influencing Skills
13 11 (0.59%) Legal
14 10 (0.53%) Manufacturing
15 9 (0.48%) Electronics
Job Titles
1 399 (21.27%) Developer
2 312 (16.63%) Senior
3 228 (12.15%) Tester
4 215 (11.46%) Lead
5 208 (11.09%) Test Engineer
6 116 (6.18%) Automation Tester
7 101 (5.38%) Java Developer
8 98 (5.22%) Data Engineer
9 87 (4.64%) Analyst
10 84 (4.48%) Software Engineer
10 84 (4.48%) Test Automation Engineer
11 74 (3.94%) Test Leader
12 70 (3.73%) DevOps Engineer
12 70 (3.73%) QA Engineer
12 70 (3.73%) Senior Developer
13 64 (3.41%) Test Manager
14 58 (3.09%) Architect
15 57 (3.04%) Test Analyst
16 54 (2.88%) Automation Engineer
17 48 (2.56%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 239 (12.74%) Playwright
1 239 (12.74%) REST
2 168 (8.96%) React
3 149 (7.94%) RESTful
4 145 (7.73%) Node.js
5 144 (7.68%) .NET
6 143 (7.62%) Spring
7 128 (6.82%) Kafka
8 117 (6.24%) Spring Boot
9 91 (4.85%) pytest
10 66 (3.52%) HTML
11 64 (3.41%) AngularJS
12 57 (3.04%) CSS
13 55 (2.93%) Jest
13 55 (2.93%) OAuth
14 52 (2.77%) Web Services
15 48 (2.56%) JSON
16 44 (2.35%) GraphQL
17 40 (2.13%) OpenID
18 39 (2.08%) FastAPI
Miscellaneous
1 203 (10.82%) Cloud Native
2 126 (6.72%) Product Ownership
3 76 (4.05%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (2.51%) Mobile App
5 46 (2.45%) Legacy Systems
6 42 (2.24%) Algorithms
6 42 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
7 38 (2.03%) Security Posture
8 34 (1.81%) Onboarding
9 29 (1.55%) Virtual Team
10 26 (1.39%) Data Structures
10 26 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (1.23%) NHS
11 23 (1.23%) Self-Motivation
12 21 (1.12%) Greenfield Project
13 20 (1.07%) Equities
13 20 (1.07%) Management Information System
13 20 (1.07%) Public Cloud
14 19 (1.01%) Data Centre
15 18 (0.96%) Distributed Architecture
Operating Systems
1 142 (7.57%) Linux
2 83 (4.42%) Windows
3 45 (2.40%) Android
4 41 (2.19%) Unix
5 40 (2.13%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.07%) Windows Server
7 16 (0.85%) Mac OS X
8 14 (0.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 11 (0.59%) Kali Linux
10 9 (0.48%) Mac OS
11 5 (0.27%) CentOS
11 5 (0.27%) Solaris
11 5 (0.27%) Windows Server 2008
11 5 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.27%) 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
1 998 (53.20%) CI/CD
2 912 (48.61%) Agile
3 703 (37.47%) DevOps
4 448 (23.88%) Problem-Solving
5 300 (15.99%) Continuous Improvement
6 297 (15.83%) Microservices
7 293 (15.62%) Test Strategy
8 275 (14.66%) Containerisation
9 271 (14.45%) Scrum
10 240 (12.79%) Validation
11 239 (12.74%) AI
11 239 (12.74%) Infrastructure as Code
12 232 (12.37%) Test Scripting
13 222 (11.83%) Software Engineering
14 210 (11.19%) TDD
15 207 (11.03%) Analytics
16 199 (10.61%) Observability
17 186 (9.91%) API Testing
17 186 (9.91%) Software Testing
18 180 (9.59%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 583 (31.08%) Python
2 453 (24.15%) Java
3 376 (20.04%) SQL
4 293 (15.62%) JavaScript
5 273 (14.55%) TypeScript
6 184 (9.81%) C#
7 81 (4.32%) Bash
8 68 (3.62%) PowerShell
9 44 (2.35%) C++
10 34 (1.81%) Go
11 27 (1.44%) PL/SQL
12 25 (1.33%) Kotlin
13 23 (1.23%) Bicep
14 22 (1.17%) Scala
15 20 (1.07%) Ruby
16 18 (0.96%) C
17 17 (0.91%) Apex Code
17 17 (0.91%) Swift
18 14 (0.75%) Shell Script
19 13 (0.69%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 534 (28.46%) Security Cleared
2 414 (22.07%) SC Cleared
3 105 (5.60%) Degree
4 90 (4.80%) ISTQB
5 67 (3.57%) BPSS Clearance
6 58 (3.09%) Computer Science Degree
7 56 (2.99%) DV Cleared
8 33 (1.76%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 29 (1.55%) Master's Degree
10 18 (0.96%) OSCP
11 17 (0.91%) AWS Certification
12 14 (0.75%) Azure Certification
12 14 (0.75%) Cisco Certification
12 14 (0.75%) 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 (0.64%) CEH
15 11 (0.59%) ISEB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 421 (22.44%) QA
2 151 (8.05%) Accessibility
3 102 (5.44%) Data Quality
4 48 (2.56%) WCAG
5 37 (1.97%) GDPR
6 35 (1.87%) NIST
7 22 (1.17%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 18 (0.96%) EU AI Act
9 17 (0.91%) NCSC
10 15 (0.80%) SLA
11 11 (0.59%) ISO 20022
11 11 (0.59%) PCI DSS
12 9 (0.48%) NIST 800
12 9 (0.48%) PSD2
13 8 (0.43%) 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
1 402 (21.43%) Docker
2 34 (1.81%) 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 4 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
6 4 (0.21%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.16%) ISA Server
8 2 (0.11%) SRDF
8 2 (0.11%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.053%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.053%) HDFS
9 1 (0.053%) KVM
9 1 (0.053%) QEMU
9 1 (0.053%) Squid
9 1 (0.053%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.053%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.053%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 366 (19.51%) Kubernetes
2 216 (11.51%) Terraform
3 107 (5.70%) Ansible
4 106 (5.65%) Grafana
5 76 (4.05%) Prometheus
6 22 (1.17%) HP ALM
7 19 (1.01%) Argo
7 19 (1.01%) Puppet
8 18 (0.96%) Nmap
9 17 (0.91%) Progress Chef
10 15 (0.80%) Single Sign-On
11 12 (0.64%) 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%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 166 (8.85%) Microsoft
2 157 (8.37%) Oracle
3 70 (3.73%) Databricks
4 68 (3.62%) ServiceNow
5 66 (3.52%) Google
6 64 (3.41%) Splunk
7 61 (3.25%) Salesforce
8 46 (2.45%) SAP
9 37 (1.97%) Talend
10 34 (1.81%) Red Hat
11 29 (1.55%) Denodo
12 28 (1.49%) VMware
13 24 (1.28%) Cisco
13 24 (1.28%) HP
13 24 (1.28%) IBM
14 16 (0.85%) Atlassian
14 16 (0.85%) Workday
15 15 (0.80%) OpenAI
16 14 (0.75%) Dynatrace
16 14 (0.75%) UiPath