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

6 months to
20 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 43 52
Rank change year-on-year -5 +9 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,724 1,381 1,663
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.62% 4.42% 3.84%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.28% 4.97% 4.38%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,189 926 1,207
10th Percentile £349 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -7.08%
75th Percentile £588 £611 £625
90th Percentile £688 £725 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 32 6 48
10th Percentile £41.94 £41.88 £37.50
25th Percentile £48.63 £43.75 £57.81
Median hourly rate £60.00 £62.00 £77.50
Median % change year-on-year -3.23% -20.00% +29.17%
75th Percentile £66.63 £76.77 £90.00
90th Percentile £69.70 £82.35 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £60.00 £74.00 £77.50
% change year-on-year -18.92% -4.52% +29.17%

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 32,673 27,807 37,942
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.64% 88.90% 87.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,708 16,856 25,065
10th Percentile £305 £306 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £645
90th Percentile £720 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,982 890 1,770
10th Percentile £14.55 £15.62 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £17.16
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £38.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -14.47% +16.92%
75th Percentile £57.25 £62.50 £63.29
90th Percentile £69.25 £75.00 £75.25
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.41 £30.88 £40.13
% change year-on-year -20.96% -23.05% +54.33%

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 20 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 20 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 20 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 -2 1,505 £500 - 1,157
UK excluding London 0 802 £500 +5.26% 1,105
London -1 719 £500 -2.20% 203
Work from Home -1 511 £500 - 551
North of England 0 315 £500 +14.29% 212
Midlands +16 158 £509 +6.76% 130
South East -17 155 £500 -2.44% 334
Yorkshire -9 154 £519 +15.28% 87
West Midlands +18 124 £525 +6.06% 51
North West +1 115 £430 +5.26% 93
South West +8 72 £545 -0.91% 152
North East +17 48 £488 +27.87% 32
East of England +2 48 £593 +48.13% 172
Scotland -22 46 £500 +6.55% 56
East Midlands -6 34 £397 -13.57% 78
Wales -4 22 £509 -2.12% 57
Northern Ireland +9 13 £295 -43.13% 22

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
1 101 (5.86%) Confluence
2 59 (3.42%) SAS
3 21 (1.22%) Apache Spark
4 15 (0.87%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.75%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.64%) Apache
7 6 (0.35%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 6 (0.35%) OpenStack
7 6 (0.35%) Oracle Application Server
8 5 (0.29%) Appian
8 5 (0.29%) CMS
9 4 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
10 3 (0.17%) Anypoint
10 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.17%) nginx
10 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
11 2 (0.12%) Camunda
11 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
11 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
11 2 (0.12%) WordPress
Applications
1 16 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.58%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 10 (0.58%) MS Visio
3 6 (0.35%) Microsoft Office
4 3 (0.17%) Chatbot
4 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
5 2 (0.12%) Trello
6 1 (0.058%) Oracle Smart View
6 1 (0.058%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 18 (1.04%) Aladdin
2 9 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.29%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.23%) Maximo
4 4 (0.23%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
5 3 (0.17%) SAP BRIM
6 2 (0.12%) Eagle PACE
6 2 (0.12%) iTrent
6 2 (0.12%) Loan IQ
6 2 (0.12%) Markit EDM
6 2 (0.12%) NetSuite
6 2 (0.12%) SAP FI
6 2 (0.12%) Shopify
7 1 (0.058%) CODA-Financials
7 1 (0.058%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.058%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.058%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.058%) SAP ERP
7 1 (0.058%) SAP Payroll
Cloud Services
1 492 (28.54%) Azure
2 432 (25.06%) AWS
3 267 (15.49%) GitHub
4 202 (11.72%) Azure DevOps
5 173 (10.03%) GCP
6 141 (8.18%) GitHub Actions
7 124 (7.19%) Serverless
8 63 (3.65%) Power Platform
9 59 (3.42%) OpenShift
10 56 (3.25%) AWS Lambda
11 46 (2.67%) Amazon S3
11 46 (2.67%) Azure AKS
12 44 (2.55%) AWS CloudFormation
13 39 (2.26%) Amazon EKS
13 39 (2.26%) SaaS
14 37 (2.15%) Amazon CloudWatch
15 35 (2.03%) Snowflake
16 33 (1.91%) Tricentis Tosca
17 32 (1.86%) Azure Functions
17 32 (1.86%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 42 (2.44%) Firewall
2 33 (1.91%) Wireshark
3 29 (1.68%) HTTP
4 26 (1.51%) HTTPS
5 25 (1.45%) SSL
6 21 (1.22%) TCP/IP
7 19 (1.10%) VPN
8 17 (0.99%) Network Security
9 13 (0.75%) SD-WAN
10 10 (0.58%) Ethernet
10 10 (0.58%) FTP
10 10 (0.58%) WAN
11 9 (0.52%) DNS
12 8 (0.46%) VLAN
13 7 (0.41%) AMQP
13 7 (0.41%) MPLS
13 7 (0.41%) Multicast
14 5 (0.29%) Cisco IPT
15 4 (0.23%) 5G
15 4 (0.23%) Internet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 102 (5.92%) PostgreSQL
2 84 (4.87%) NoSQL
3 81 (4.70%) MongoDB
4 63 (3.65%) SQL Server
5 62 (3.60%) Relational Database
6 33 (1.91%) Data Warehouse
6 33 (1.91%) Power BI
7 32 (1.86%) Pentaho
8 26 (1.51%) BigQuery
9 23 (1.33%) DynamoDB
10 20 (1.16%) Big Data
10 20 (1.16%) MySQL
10 20 (1.16%) Oracle Database
11 18 (1.04%) Redis
12 17 (0.99%) Amazon RDS
13 15 (0.87%) Apache Cassandra
13 15 (0.87%) Data Lake
13 15 (0.87%) SAS Enterprise Guide
13 15 (0.87%) Star Schema
14 14 (0.81%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 326 (18.91%) Jenkins
2 316 (18.33%) JIRA
3 309 (17.92%) Git
4 267 (15.49%) Selenium
5 257 (14.91%) GitLab
6 153 (8.87%) Cucumber
7 146 (8.47%) Postman
8 109 (6.32%) Cypress.io
9 92 (5.34%) JUnit
10 82 (4.76%) REST Assured
11 79 (4.58%) JMeter
12 41 (2.38%) SonarQube
13 38 (2.20%) Bitbucket
14 36 (2.09%) SpecFlow
15 35 (2.03%) Gatling
16 34 (1.97%) Maven
16 34 (1.97%) Mockito
17 33 (1.91%) TestRail
18 32 (1.86%) WebDriver
19 31 (1.80%) Gradle
General
1 455 (26.39%) Social Skills
2 290 (16.82%) Finance
3 248 (14.39%) Public Sector
4 187 (10.85%) Analytical Skills
5 125 (7.25%) Banking
6 34 (1.97%) Documentation Skills
7 30 (1.74%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 25 (1.45%) Investment Banking
9 23 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
9 23 (1.33%) Telecoms
10 19 (1.10%) Front Office
10 19 (1.10%) Presentation Skills
11 15 (0.87%) Financial Institution
12 14 (0.81%) Manufacturing
12 14 (0.81%) Military
13 12 (0.70%) Marketing
14 10 (0.58%) Electronics
14 10 (0.58%) Influencing Skills
14 10 (0.58%) Organisational Skills
15 9 (0.52%) Legal
Job Titles
1 394 (22.85%) Developer
2 285 (16.53%) Senior
3 199 (11.54%) Tester
4 185 (10.73%) Test Engineer
5 162 (9.40%) Lead
6 112 (6.50%) Automation Tester
7 111 (6.44%) Java Developer
8 81 (4.70%) Software Engineer
9 80 (4.64%) Test Automation Engineer
10 73 (4.23%) Data Engineer
11 72 (4.18%) DevOps Engineer
12 70 (4.06%) Analyst
12 70 (4.06%) Senior Developer
13 68 (3.94%) QA Engineer
14 56 (3.25%) Test Manager
15 55 (3.19%) Test Leader
16 54 (3.13%) Automation Engineer
17 47 (2.73%) Test Analyst
18 45 (2.61%) Full-Stack Developer
19 44 (2.55%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 243 (14.10%) REST
2 193 (11.19%) Playwright
3 146 (8.47%) React
4 139 (8.06%) Node.js
5 137 (7.95%) RESTful
6 133 (7.71%) .NET
7 125 (7.25%) Spring
8 121 (7.02%) Kafka
9 114 (6.61%) Spring Boot
10 76 (4.41%) pytest
11 67 (3.89%) JSON
12 61 (3.54%) AngularJS
13 60 (3.48%) HTML
14 58 (3.36%) XML
15 57 (3.31%) SOAP
16 52 (3.02%) CSS
16 52 (3.02%) Web Services
17 51 (2.96%) OAuth
18 49 (2.84%) Jest
19 40 (2.32%) JMS
Miscellaneous
1 181 (10.50%) Cloud Native
2 129 (7.48%) Product Ownership
3 59 (3.42%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (2.73%) Mobile App
5 42 (2.44%) Security Posture
6 33 (1.91%) Algorithms
6 33 (1.91%) Data Protection Act
7 30 (1.74%) Legacy Systems
8 29 (1.68%) Onboarding
9 24 (1.39%) Enterprise Software
9 24 (1.39%) Public Cloud
9 24 (1.39%) Virtual Team
10 22 (1.28%) Data Structures
11 20 (1.16%) Management Information System
12 19 (1.10%) Self-Motivation
13 18 (1.04%) NHS
14 16 (0.93%) Data Centre
14 16 (0.93%) Derivative
14 16 (0.93%) Genomics
14 16 (0.93%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 160 (9.28%) Linux
2 80 (4.64%) Windows
3 51 (2.96%) Unix
4 40 (2.32%) Android
5 35 (2.03%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.16%) Mac OS X
6 20 (1.16%) Windows Server
7 12 (0.70%) Kali Linux
8 6 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.23%) CentOS
10 3 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.12%) VMS
11 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.058%) FreeRTOS
12 1 (0.058%) Robot Operating System
12 1 (0.058%) Solaris
12 1 (0.058%) Windows Embedded Compact
12 1 (0.058%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 885 (51.33%) CI/CD
2 843 (48.90%) Agile
3 668 (38.75%) DevOps
4 427 (24.77%) Problem-Solving
5 273 (15.84%) Microservices
6 266 (15.43%) Containerisation
7 264 (15.31%) Continuous Improvement
8 248 (14.39%) Test Strategy
9 237 (13.75%) Scrum
10 219 (12.70%) Infrastructure as Code
11 212 (12.30%) Test Scripting
12 203 (11.77%) TDD
13 201 (11.66%) Software Engineering
14 184 (10.67%) AI
15 182 (10.56%) Validation
16 171 (9.92%) Software Testing
17 169 (9.80%) SDLC
18 161 (9.34%) API Testing
18 161 (9.34%) BDD
19 159 (9.22%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 519 (30.10%) Python
2 424 (24.59%) Java
3 333 (19.32%) SQL
4 255 (14.79%) JavaScript
5 225 (13.05%) TypeScript
6 168 (9.74%) C#
7 87 (5.05%) Bash
8 71 (4.12%) PowerShell
9 37 (2.15%) C++
10 36 (2.09%) Go
11 24 (1.39%) Bicep
12 23 (1.33%) Scala
13 21 (1.22%) Kotlin
13 21 (1.22%) PL/SQL
14 18 (1.04%) Ruby
15 13 (0.75%) Groovy
15 13 (0.75%) PHP
16 12 (0.70%) Rust
16 12 (0.70%) Shell Script
16 12 (0.70%) Swift
Qualifications
1 474 (27.49%) Security Cleared
2 361 (20.94%) SC Cleared
3 97 (5.63%) Degree
4 74 (4.29%) ISTQB
5 59 (3.42%) BPSS Clearance
6 57 (3.31%) Computer Science Degree
7 53 (3.07%) DV Cleared
8 26 (1.51%) Master's Degree
9 25 (1.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 20 (1.16%) AWS Certification
11 19 (1.10%) OSCP
12 16 (0.93%) CISSP
12 16 (0.93%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 14 (0.81%) Azure Certification
13 14 (0.81%) CEH
13 14 (0.81%) Cisco Certification
13 14 (0.81%) MCP
14 13 (0.75%) GPEN
15 12 (0.70%) Oracle Certification
16 11 (0.64%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 371 (21.52%) QA
2 129 (7.48%) Accessibility
3 82 (4.76%) Data Quality
4 43 (2.49%) WCAG
5 40 (2.32%) GDPR
6 39 (2.26%) NIST
7 27 (1.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 19 (1.10%) NCSC
9 18 (1.04%) EU AI Act
10 16 (0.93%) PSD2
11 15 (0.87%) ISO 20022
11 15 (0.87%) PCI DSS
12 11 (0.64%) SEPA
13 10 (0.58%) NIST 800
14 9 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 8 (0.46%) SLA
16 7 (0.41%) HMG Security Policy Framework
17 6 (0.35%) SOC 2
18 5 (0.29%) Actionable Recommendations
18 5 (0.29%) PERC
System Software
1 386 (22.39%) Docker
2 33 (1.91%) Active Directory
3 7 (0.41%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
4 5 (0.29%) Firmware
4 5 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
5 4 (0.23%) VMware Infrastructure
6 3 (0.17%) ISA Server
6 3 (0.17%) QEMU
6 3 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
7 2 (0.12%) vSphere
7 2 (0.12%) zsh
8 1 (0.058%) Embedded Firmware
8 1 (0.058%) HDFS
8 1 (0.058%) KVM
8 1 (0.058%) Squid
8 1 (0.058%) Time Sharing Option
8 1 (0.058%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 336 (19.49%) Kubernetes
2 209 (12.12%) Terraform
3 113 (6.55%) Ansible
4 84 (4.87%) Grafana
5 53 (3.07%) Prometheus
6 18 (1.04%) Nmap
6 18 (1.04%) Progress Chef
7 16 (0.93%) CSIRT
7 16 (0.93%) HP ALM
8 15 (0.87%) Argo
9 14 (0.81%) Puppet
9 14 (0.81%) Single Sign-On
10 13 (0.75%) NetBackup
11 8 (0.46%) Nessus
12 7 (0.41%) Podman
13 6 (0.35%) Kibana
14 5 (0.29%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 5 (0.29%) HP Quality Center
14 5 (0.29%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 4 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 164 (9.51%) Microsoft
2 150 (8.70%) Oracle
3 70 (4.06%) Splunk
4 61 (3.54%) ServiceNow
5 58 (3.36%) Databricks
6 57 (3.31%) SAP
7 52 (3.02%) Salesforce
8 49 (2.84%) Google
9 32 (1.86%) Denodo
9 32 (1.86%) Talend
10 26 (1.51%) VMware
11 25 (1.45%) Red Hat
12 23 (1.33%) F5
13 22 (1.28%) Cisco
14 21 (1.22%) webMethods
15 19 (1.10%) IBM
16 17 (0.99%) Atlassian
16 17 (0.99%) MuleSoft
16 17 (0.99%) Workday
17 16 (0.93%) OpenAI