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

6 months to
6 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 47 44 52
Rank change year-on-year -3 +8 -13
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,701 1,562 1,801
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.67% 4.34% 3.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.24% 4.96% 4.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,162 1,044 1,307
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% -6.25%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £630
90th Percentile £688 £700 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £490 £500
% change year-on-year +2.15% -2.10% -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 32,432 31,463 40,054
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.97% 87.43% 88.54%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,408 19,089 26,807
10th Percentile £300 £309 £312
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 2,095 1,098 1,556
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.24 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.20 £18.93
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.75 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.21% -22.94% +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 6 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 6 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 6 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 -5 1,458 £500 - 857
UK excluding London 0 803 £500 +2.15% 802
London -5 694 £510 -2.95% 178
Work from Home +2 528 £500 - 471
North of England 0 282 £488 +8.33% 180
Midlands +11 153 £500 +2.04% 117
South East -22 148 £496 -0.80% 253
Yorkshire -5 130 £516 +14.72% 70
West Midlands +11 121 £515 -2.60% 67
North West -1 112 £414 -8.06% 88
South West +12 86 £537 -1.69% 103
Scotland -5 67 £500 +11.11% 45
East of England +6 48 £525 +31.25% 101
North East +19 42 £494 +18.26% 22
East Midlands 0 32 £360 -20.88% 47
Wales +4 30 £495 -4.81% 15
Northern Ireland +4 11 £295 -43.13% 5

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 (5.35%) Confluence
2 53 (3.12%) SAS
3 26 (1.53%) Apache Spark
4 19 (1.12%) Apache Airflow
5 14 (0.82%) Apache
6 13 (0.76%) SharePoint
7 8 (0.47%) Oracle Application Server
8 6 (0.35%) CMS
9 5 (0.29%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.24%) Anypoint
10 4 (0.24%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.18%) JBoss
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%) CICS
12 2 (0.12%) IIS
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
Applications
1 20 (1.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.71%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 7 (0.41%) MS Visio
4 5 (0.29%) 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 (1.00%) 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%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.059%) Algo Collateral
6 1 (0.059%) Oracle General Ledger
6 1 (0.059%) Oracle Payables
6 1 (0.059%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.059%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.059%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 475 (27.92%) Azure
2 426 (25.04%) AWS
3 254 (14.93%) GitHub
4 206 (12.11%) Azure DevOps
5 152 (8.94%) GCP
6 131 (7.70%) GitHub Actions
7 130 (7.64%) Serverless
8 62 (3.64%) AWS Lambda
9 57 (3.35%) OpenShift
10 53 (3.12%) Amazon S3
10 53 (3.12%) Power Platform
11 47 (2.76%) AWS CloudFormation
12 45 (2.65%) Azure AKS
13 40 (2.35%) SaaS
14 36 (2.12%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 36 (2.12%) Amazon EKS
14 36 (2.12%) Snowflake
15 28 (1.65%) Amazon ECS
16 27 (1.59%) Entra ID
16 27 (1.59%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 43 (2.53%) Firewall
2 35 (2.06%) HTTP
3 34 (2.00%) Wireshark
4 27 (1.59%) HTTPS
5 23 (1.35%) SSL
6 18 (1.06%) VPN
7 17 (1.00%) TCP/IP
8 15 (0.88%) SD-WAN
9 13 (0.76%) DNS
9 13 (0.76%) Network Security
10 12 (0.71%) Ethernet
11 11 (0.65%) Multicast
11 11 (0.65%) WAN
12 9 (0.53%) FTP
13 7 (0.41%) AMQP
14 6 (0.35%) Bluetooth
14 6 (0.35%) Internet
15 5 (0.29%) 5G
15 5 (0.29%) Broadband
15 5 (0.29%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (6.23%) PostgreSQL
2 94 (5.53%) NoSQL
3 88 (5.17%) MongoDB
4 73 (4.29%) Relational Database
5 59 (3.47%) SQL Server
6 43 (2.53%) Data Warehouse
7 28 (1.65%) Pentaho
8 27 (1.59%) Power BI
9 26 (1.53%) Amazon RDS
10 24 (1.41%) BigQuery
10 24 (1.41%) DynamoDB
11 22 (1.29%) Oracle Database
12 20 (1.18%) Big Data
12 20 (1.18%) Data Lake
13 18 (1.06%) MySQL
14 17 (1.00%) Apache Cassandra
15 15 (0.88%) Azure SQL Database
15 15 (0.88%) Redis
15 15 (0.88%) SAS Enterprise Guide
16 13 (0.76%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 319 (18.75%) Git
2 315 (18.52%) JIRA
3 309 (18.17%) Jenkins
4 270 (15.87%) Selenium
5 229 (13.46%) GitLab
6 150 (8.82%) Cucumber
7 127 (7.47%) Postman
8 114 (6.70%) Cypress.io
9 93 (5.47%) JUnit
10 74 (4.35%) JMeter
11 66 (3.88%) REST Assured
12 59 (3.47%) Bitbucket
13 45 (2.65%) SonarQube
14 39 (2.29%) SpecFlow
15 34 (2.00%) Maven
15 34 (2.00%) Mockito
16 30 (1.76%) Gatling
17 26 (1.53%) TestRail
17 26 (1.53%) Zephyr
18 25 (1.47%) Appium
General
1 470 (27.63%) Social Skills
2 299 (17.58%) Finance
3 213 (12.52%) Public Sector
4 177 (10.41%) Analytical Skills
5 120 (7.05%) Banking
6 33 (1.94%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 32 (1.88%) Telecoms
8 30 (1.76%) Documentation Skills
9 22 (1.29%) Front Office
9 22 (1.29%) Investment Banking
9 22 (1.29%) Manufacturing
9 22 (1.29%) Pharmaceutical
10 19 (1.12%) Presentation Skills
11 17 (1.00%) Financial Institution
12 16 (0.94%) Marketing
13 15 (0.88%) Electronics
14 13 (0.76%) Organisational Skills
15 12 (0.71%) Legal
15 12 (0.71%) Military
15 12 (0.71%) Retail
Job Titles
1 382 (22.46%) Developer
2 269 (15.81%) Senior
3 210 (12.35%) Tester
4 158 (9.29%) Test Engineer
5 145 (8.52%) Lead
6 120 (7.05%) Automation Tester
6 120 (7.05%) Java Developer
7 79 (4.64%) Analyst
7 79 (4.64%) Software Engineer
8 75 (4.41%) Data Engineer
9 68 (4.00%) QA Engineer
10 66 (3.88%) DevOps Engineer
11 62 (3.64%) Senior Developer
11 62 (3.64%) Test Automation Engineer
12 61 (3.59%) Test Analyst
13 54 (3.17%) Automation Engineer
14 49 (2.88%) Test Leader
14 49 (2.88%) Test Manager
15 39 (2.29%) Senior Tester
16 37 (2.18%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 214 (12.58%) REST
2 165 (9.70%) Playwright
3 146 (8.58%) React
4 130 (7.64%) RESTful
5 127 (7.47%) .NET
6 124 (7.29%) Node.js
7 121 (7.11%) Kafka
7 121 (7.11%) Spring
8 115 (6.76%) Spring Boot
9 80 (4.70%) JSON
10 75 (4.41%) XML
11 73 (4.29%) HTML
11 73 (4.29%) SOAP
12 72 (4.23%) CSS
13 70 (4.12%) AngularJS
14 66 (3.88%) pytest
15 49 (2.88%) Jest
16 44 (2.59%) JMS
16 44 (2.59%) Web Services
17 37 (2.18%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 160 (9.41%) Cloud Native
2 119 (7.00%) Product Ownership
3 52 (3.06%) Mobile App
4 47 (2.76%) Distributed Systems
5 45 (2.65%) Security Posture
6 32 (1.88%) Data Protection Act
6 32 (1.88%) Public Cloud
7 31 (1.82%) Algorithms
8 29 (1.70%) Onboarding
9 27 (1.59%) Self-Motivation
10 26 (1.53%) Virtual Team
11 23 (1.35%) Enterprise Software
11 23 (1.35%) Legacy Systems
12 19 (1.12%) Data Structures
12 19 (1.12%) Management Information System
13 17 (1.00%) Greenfield Project
14 16 (0.94%) Genomics
15 15 (0.88%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 15 (0.88%) Life Science
16 14 (0.82%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 172 (10.11%) Linux
2 83 (4.88%) Windows
3 57 (3.35%) Unix
4 45 (2.65%) Android
5 38 (2.23%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.18%) Mac OS X
7 17 (1.00%) Windows Server
8 13 (0.76%) 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
1 853 (50.15%) CI/CD
2 847 (49.79%) Agile
3 660 (38.80%) DevOps
4 425 (24.99%) Problem-Solving
5 274 (16.11%) Microservices
6 259 (15.23%) Scrum
7 251 (14.76%) Containerisation
8 245 (14.40%) Test Strategy
9 240 (14.11%) Continuous Improvement
10 220 (12.93%) TDD
11 210 (12.35%) Infrastructure as Code
12 209 (12.29%) Software Engineering
13 206 (12.11%) Test Scripting
14 191 (11.23%) SDLC
15 173 (10.17%) AI
15 173 (10.17%) Software Testing
16 165 (9.70%) BDD
17 162 (9.52%) Validation
18 150 (8.82%) Analytics
19 147 (8.64%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 492 (28.92%) Python
2 406 (23.87%) Java
3 311 (18.28%) SQL
4 236 (13.87%) JavaScript
5 199 (11.70%) TypeScript
6 181 (10.64%) C#
7 99 (5.82%) Bash
8 65 (3.82%) PowerShell
9 40 (2.35%) C++
9 40 (2.35%) Go
10 22 (1.29%) Kotlin
11 21 (1.23%) Bicep
12 17 (1.00%) PL/SQL
13 16 (0.94%) Ruby
14 15 (0.88%) Scala
15 13 (0.76%) Shell Script
16 12 (0.71%) Groovy
16 12 (0.71%) Perl
16 12 (0.71%) Swift
17 11 (0.65%) PHP
Qualifications
1 423 (24.87%) Security Cleared
2 329 (19.34%) SC Cleared
3 110 (6.47%) Degree
4 68 (4.00%) ISTQB
5 57 (3.35%) Computer Science Degree
6 46 (2.70%) DV Cleared
7 45 (2.65%) BPSS Clearance
8 27 (1.59%) AWS Certification
9 25 (1.47%) Master's Degree
10 22 (1.29%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 20 (1.18%) CISSP
12 18 (1.06%) OSCP
13 15 (0.88%) Azure Certification
14 14 (0.82%) Cisco Certification
14 14 (0.82%) CISM
14 14 (0.82%) MCP
15 13 (0.76%) CEH
15 13 (0.76%) GPEN
15 13 (0.76%) ISEB
16 12 (0.71%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 378 (22.22%) QA
2 131 (7.70%) Accessibility
3 73 (4.29%) Data Quality
4 42 (2.47%) NIST
5 38 (2.23%) GDPR
6 36 (2.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 33 (1.94%) WCAG
8 19 (1.12%) NCSC
8 19 (1.12%) PCI DSS
9 18 (1.06%) EU AI Act
10 16 (0.94%) NIST 800
11 14 (0.82%) 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 (21.11%) Docker
2 28 (1.65%) 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 Desktop
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 Machines
7 2 (0.12%) vSphere
8 1 (0.059%) HDFS
8 1 (0.059%) Time Sharing Option
Systems Management
1 324 (19.05%) Kubernetes
2 221 (12.99%) Terraform
3 134 (7.88%) Ansible
4 83 (4.88%) Grafana
5 50 (2.94%) Prometheus
6 16 (0.94%) CSIRT
6 16 (0.94%) HP ALM
6 16 (0.94%) Nmap
6 16 (0.94%) Progress Chef
7 15 (0.88%) Argo
8 13 (0.76%) 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 (0.35%) Podman
13 5 (0.29%) RSA Archer
14 4 (0.24%) Rancher
14 4 (0.24%) SCCM
14 4 (0.24%) vRealize
Vendors
1 174 (10.23%) Microsoft
2 154 (9.05%) Oracle
3 67 (3.94%) Splunk
4 64 (3.76%) SAP
5 63 (3.70%) ServiceNow
6 60 (3.53%) Databricks
7 57 (3.35%) Salesforce
8 48 (2.82%) Google
9 30 (1.76%) Talend
10 28 (1.65%) Denodo
11 27 (1.59%) VMware
12 24 (1.41%) Cisco
13 22 (1.29%) F5
13 22 (1.29%) webMethods
14 20 (1.18%) IBM
15 19 (1.12%) Atlassian
15 19 (1.12%) Red Hat
16 17 (1.00%) Dynatrace
16 17 (1.00%) HP
17 15 (0.88%) Workday