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

6 months to
31 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 46 55
Rank change year-on-year -2 +9 -9
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,977 1,323 1,548
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.44% 4.55% 3.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.19% 5.03% 4.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,331 914 1,038
10th Percentile £330 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £513
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -2.44% -6.82%
75th Percentile £575 £625 £638
90th Percentile £675 £725 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £498
% change year-on-year - -4.52% -5.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 70 9 58
10th Percentile £33.54 £41.66 £37.50
25th Percentile £55.00 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.50 £56.75 £57.50
Median % change year-on-year +15.42% -1.30% -8.00%
75th Percentile £70.00 £68.50 £76.25
90th Percentile - £75.84 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £67.50 £56.75 £60.00
% change year-on-year +18.94% -5.42% -4.00%

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 38,122 26,294 38,266
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.61% 90.44% 86.45%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,155 17,082 24,859
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £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 £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.51% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,251 966 2,351
10th Percentile £14.96 £15.00 £12.84
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.24 £16.00
Median hourly rate £35.50 £31.88 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +11.36% -1.91% -10.48%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.72 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £33.00 £31.50 £31.50
% change year-on-year +4.76% - -12.50%

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 31 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 31 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Test Automation in the UK

Test Automation
Top 18 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 31 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 -2 1,694 £488 -2.50% 674
UK excluding London +4 915 £475 - 573
London +1 827 £500 - 183
Work from Home -5 574 £475 -5.00% 333
North of England +6 337 £477 +5.89% 162
Midlands +8 194 £474 - 83
South East -23 177 £500 -8.26% 145
West Midlands +14 165 £478 -3.87% 57
North West +7 148 £456 +1.39% 82
Yorkshire -5 145 £500 +5.26% 41
South West -7 78 £475 -9.52% 72
East of England -1 61 £570 +16.33% 65
North East +7 47 £425 +8.97% 39
Scotland -20 39 £415 -7.83% 30
Wales +4 35 £505 +26.13% 27
East Midlands -28 29 £400 +8.55% 26
Northern Ireland +14 19 £475 -3.01% 7
Channel Islands - 2 - - 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
1 136 (6.88%) Confluence
2 66 (3.34%) SAS
3 32 (1.62%) Apache Spark
4 20 (1.01%) Apache Airflow
5 14 (0.71%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.56%) Apache
7 8 (0.40%) Appian
7 8 (0.40%) nginx
8 7 (0.35%) Tomcat
8 7 (0.35%) WebLogic
9 6 (0.30%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 6 (0.30%) Camunda
10 5 (0.25%) CMS
11 4 (0.20%) Microsoft Exchange
12 3 (0.15%) Anypoint
13 2 (0.10%) Magnolia
13 2 (0.10%) Mendix
13 2 (0.10%) Oracle Application Server
13 2 (0.10%) Oracle Workflow
13 2 (0.10%) WordPress
Applications
1 29 (1.47%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (0.76%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 12 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.61%) MS Visio
4 11 (0.56%) Microsoft Project
5 4 (0.20%) Spreadsheet
6 3 (0.15%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.15%) Simulink
7 1 (0.051%) Mingle
7 1 (0.051%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 22 (1.11%) Aladdin
2 9 (0.46%) Oracle EBS
3 8 (0.40%) Dynamics CRM
4 6 (0.30%) Findur
4 6 (0.30%) Loan IQ
5 5 (0.25%) Maximo
5 5 (0.25%) Shopify
5 5 (0.25%) Workday HCM
6 4 (0.20%) SAP HR
7 3 (0.15%) BambooHR
7 3 (0.15%) Distributed Ledger
7 3 (0.15%) Infor CloudSuite
7 3 (0.15%) Infor LN
7 3 (0.15%) Infor M3
7 3 (0.15%) SAP BRIM
7 3 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
8 2 (0.10%) iTrent
8 2 (0.10%) NetSuite
8 2 (0.10%) SAP FI
8 2 (0.10%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 579 (29.29%) Azure
2 509 (25.75%) AWS
3 355 (17.96%) GitHub
4 273 (13.81%) Azure DevOps
5 191 (9.66%) GitHub Actions
6 179 (9.05%) GCP
7 140 (7.08%) Serverless
8 80 (4.05%) OpenShift
9 79 (4.00%) Power Platform
10 75 (3.79%) AWS Lambda
11 70 (3.54%) Amazon S3
12 49 (2.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
12 49 (2.48%) AWS CloudFormation
13 44 (2.23%) Azure AKS
14 40 (2.02%) Snowflake
15 39 (1.97%) Amazon ECS
16 35 (1.77%) SaaS
17 34 (1.72%) Azure Data Factory
18 33 (1.67%) Dynamics 365
19 32 (1.62%) Amazon EKS
Communications & Networking
1 27 (1.37%) Firewall
1 27 (1.37%) HTTP
2 17 (0.86%) TCP/IP
2 17 (0.86%) VPN
3 14 (0.71%) SSL
4 13 (0.66%) Network Security
4 13 (0.66%) SD-WAN
4 13 (0.66%) WAN
5 11 (0.56%) Wireshark
6 10 (0.51%) DNS
6 10 (0.51%) FTP
6 10 (0.51%) SAN
7 9 (0.46%) Ethernet
7 9 (0.46%) HTTPS
8 8 (0.40%) MPLS
8 8 (0.40%) Multicast
9 7 (0.35%) 5G
10 5 (0.25%) AMQP
10 5 (0.25%) Cisco IPT
10 5 (0.25%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 109 (5.51%) PostgreSQL
2 85 (4.30%) NoSQL
3 80 (4.05%) SQL Server
4 76 (3.84%) MongoDB
5 62 (3.14%) Relational Database
6 50 (2.53%) Data Warehouse
7 45 (2.28%) Power BI
8 41 (2.07%) DynamoDB
9 33 (1.67%) Pentaho
10 32 (1.62%) MySQL
11 30 (1.52%) BigQuery
12 25 (1.26%) Oracle Database
13 23 (1.16%) Metadata
13 23 (1.16%) Tableau
14 22 (1.11%) Amazon RDS
14 22 (1.11%) Redis
15 19 (0.96%) Amazon Athena
15 19 (0.96%) Big Data
16 17 (0.86%) Azure SQL Database
17 15 (0.76%) Hadoop
Development Applications
1 380 (19.22%) Git
2 378 (19.12%) JIRA
3 358 (18.11%) Jenkins
4 291 (14.72%) Selenium
5 283 (14.31%) GitLab
6 167 (8.45%) Cucumber
7 161 (8.14%) Postman
8 116 (5.87%) JUnit
9 107 (5.41%) Cypress.io
10 105 (5.31%) JMeter
11 99 (5.01%) REST Assured
12 54 (2.73%) WebDriver
13 45 (2.28%) SonarQube
14 42 (2.12%) SpecFlow
15 39 (1.97%) Zephyr
16 37 (1.87%) Gatling
17 34 (1.72%) Maven
17 34 (1.72%) TestRail
18 32 (1.62%) Bitbucket
18 32 (1.62%) Mockito
General
1 518 (26.20%) Social Skills
2 328 (16.59%) Finance
3 290 (14.67%) Public Sector
4 202 (10.22%) Analytical Skills
5 155 (7.84%) Banking
6 37 (1.87%) Documentation Skills
7 32 (1.62%) Investment Banking
8 29 (1.47%) Front Office
8 29 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 24 (1.21%) Telecoms
10 21 (1.06%) Presentation Skills
11 19 (0.96%) Organisational Skills
12 18 (0.91%) Influencing Skills
13 17 (0.86%) Aerospace
13 17 (0.86%) Legal
13 17 (0.86%) Pharmaceutical
14 16 (0.81%) Military
15 14 (0.71%) Financial Institution
16 11 (0.56%) Publishing
17 10 (0.51%) Back Office
Job Titles
1 415 (20.99%) Developer
2 324 (16.39%) Senior
3 223 (11.28%) Tester
4 221 (11.18%) Test Engineer
5 212 (10.72%) Lead
6 119 (6.02%) Automation Tester
7 101 (5.11%) Analyst
8 100 (5.06%) Java Developer
9 98 (4.96%) Data Engineer
10 95 (4.81%) Test Automation Engineer
11 85 (4.30%) Test Leader
12 84 (4.25%) Software Engineer
13 82 (4.15%) QA Engineer
14 80 (4.05%) DevOps Engineer
15 74 (3.74%) Senior Developer
16 71 (3.59%) Architect
17 65 (3.29%) Test Analyst
18 61 (3.09%) Test Manager
19 60 (3.03%) Automation Engineer
20 52 (2.63%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 258 (13.05%) REST
2 240 (12.14%) Playwright
3 171 (8.65%) React
4 159 (8.04%) RESTful
5 150 (7.59%) Node.js
6 147 (7.44%) Spring
7 143 (7.23%) .NET
8 129 (6.53%) Kafka
9 117 (5.92%) Spring Boot
10 93 (4.70%) pytest
11 82 (4.15%) AngularJS
12 66 (3.34%) HTML
13 61 (3.09%) OAuth
14 59 (2.98%) Jest
15 54 (2.73%) CSS
16 51 (2.58%) Web Services
17 46 (2.33%) JSON
18 43 (2.18%) GraphQL
19 40 (2.02%) Gherkin
19 40 (2.02%) OpenID
Miscellaneous
1 211 (10.67%) Cloud Native
2 144 (7.28%) Product Ownership
3 97 (4.91%) Distributed Systems
4 49 (2.48%) Mobile App
5 44 (2.23%) Legacy Systems
6 43 (2.18%) Data Protection Act
7 41 (2.07%) Algorithms
8 37 (1.87%) Onboarding
8 37 (1.87%) Virtual Team
9 32 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
10 31 (1.57%) Self-Motivation
11 30 (1.52%) NHS
12 27 (1.37%) Security Posture
13 22 (1.11%) Data Structures
14 21 (1.06%) Equities
14 21 (1.06%) Greenfield Project
14 21 (1.06%) Management Information System
15 19 (0.96%) Data Centre
15 19 (0.96%) Derivative
15 19 (0.96%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 138 (6.98%) Linux
2 89 (4.50%) Windows
3 48 (2.43%) Android
4 39 (1.97%) Apple iOS
5 36 (1.82%) Unix
6 22 (1.11%) Windows Server
7 18 (0.91%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (0.56%) Mac OS X
9 9 (0.46%) Mac OS
10 8 (0.40%) Solaris
11 7 (0.35%) Kali Linux
11 7 (0.35%) Windows Server 2008
12 6 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
12 6 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
13 4 (0.20%) CentOS
14 3 (0.15%) Embedded Linux
15 2 (0.10%) Windows 10
16 1 (0.051%) FreeRTOS
16 1 (0.051%) Robot Operating System
16 1 (0.051%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,047 (52.96%) CI/CD
2 932 (47.14%) Agile
3 746 (37.73%) DevOps
4 435 (22.00%) Problem-Solving
5 324 (16.39%) Continuous Improvement
6 307 (15.53%) Test Strategy
7 296 (14.97%) Microservices
8 283 (14.31%) Scrum
9 276 (13.96%) Containerisation
10 259 (13.10%) Validation
11 252 (12.75%) Infrastructure as Code
12 237 (11.99%) AI
13 228 (11.53%) Software Engineering
14 225 (11.38%) Analytics
15 223 (11.28%) Test Scripting
16 220 (11.13%) Observability
17 212 (10.72%) TDD
18 205 (10.37%) SDLC
19 204 (10.32%) Regression Testing
20 199 (10.07%) API Testing
Programming Languages
1 605 (30.60%) Python
2 474 (23.98%) Java
3 414 (20.94%) SQL
4 293 (14.82%) JavaScript
5 272 (13.76%) TypeScript
6 211 (10.67%) C#
7 81 (4.10%) PowerShell
8 77 (3.89%) Bash
9 48 (2.43%) C++
10 30 (1.52%) C
10 30 (1.52%) Kotlin
11 29 (1.47%) Ruby
12 28 (1.42%) PL/SQL
13 26 (1.32%) Bicep
13 26 (1.32%) Go
14 25 (1.26%) Apex Code
15 23 (1.16%) Scala
16 18 (0.91%) Swift
17 17 (0.86%) Groovy
18 15 (0.76%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 592 (29.94%) Security Cleared
2 461 (23.32%) SC Cleared
3 100 (5.06%) Degree
4 97 (4.91%) ISTQB
5 79 (4.00%) BPSS Clearance
6 60 (3.03%) DV Cleared
7 55 (2.78%) Computer Science Degree
8 37 (1.87%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 23 (1.16%) Master's Degree
10 14 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
11 13 (0.66%) AWS Certification
11 13 (0.66%) Azure Certification
12 11 (0.56%) Microsoft Certification
13 10 (0.51%) CISSP
13 10 (0.51%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 10 (0.51%) OSCP
14 9 (0.46%) CCNP
14 9 (0.46%) ISEB
15 8 (0.40%) CEH
15 8 (0.40%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 441 (22.31%) QA
2 145 (7.33%) Accessibility
3 112 (5.67%) Data Quality
4 55 (2.78%) WCAG
5 40 (2.02%) GDPR
6 29 (1.47%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 20 (1.01%) NIST
8 16 (0.81%) SLA
9 15 (0.76%) NCSC
10 14 (0.71%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 11 (0.56%) PCI DSS
12 10 (0.51%) Def Stans
12 10 (0.51%) EU AI Act
12 10 (0.51%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.46%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 8 (0.40%) PSD2
15 6 (0.30%) HIPAA
15 6 (0.30%) SEPA
15 6 (0.30%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.25%) HL7
System Software
1 392 (19.83%) Docker
2 30 (1.52%) Active Directory
3 13 (0.66%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (0.56%) Firmware
5 10 (0.51%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (0.35%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
7 6 (0.30%) Oracle RAC
8 4 (0.20%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.20%) Virtual Machines
9 3 (0.15%) ISA Server
10 2 (0.10%) SRDF
11 1 (0.051%) Embedded Firmware
11 1 (0.051%) HDFS
11 1 (0.051%) KVM
11 1 (0.051%) Squid
11 1 (0.051%) Time Sharing Option
11 1 (0.051%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.051%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 368 (18.61%) Kubernetes
2 232 (11.73%) Terraform
3 114 (5.77%) Grafana
4 96 (4.86%) Ansible
5 88 (4.45%) Prometheus
6 29 (1.47%) Argo
7 25 (1.26%) HP ALM
8 22 (1.11%) Puppet
9 16 (0.81%) Progress Chef
10 15 (0.76%) Single Sign-On
11 13 (0.66%) NetBackup
12 10 (0.51%) HP Quality Center
12 10 (0.51%) Nmap
13 9 (0.46%) Forefront Identity Manager
13 9 (0.46%) NetIQ Identity Manager
14 7 (0.35%) Podman
15 6 (0.30%) Kibana
15 6 (0.30%) Oracle RMAN
15 6 (0.30%) Rancher
16 5 (0.25%) Dell DRAC
Vendors
1 173 (8.75%) Microsoft
2 156 (7.89%) Oracle
3 73 (3.69%) Databricks
3 73 (3.69%) Salesforce
4 65 (3.29%) Google
5 61 (3.09%) ServiceNow
6 59 (2.98%) Splunk
7 51 (2.58%) Red Hat
7 51 (2.58%) SAP
8 38 (1.92%) Talend
9 29 (1.47%) Denodo
9 29 (1.47%) VMware
10 28 (1.42%) HP
10 28 (1.42%) IBM
11 23 (1.16%) Cisco
12 20 (1.01%) Dynatrace
13 16 (0.81%) MuleSoft
13 16 (0.81%) Workday
14 15 (0.76%) UiPath
15 14 (0.71%) OpenAI