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 18 October 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.
| 6 months to 18 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | 42 | 48 | 45 |
| Rank change year-on-year | +6 | -3 | +5 |
| Contract jobs citing Test Automation | 2,608 | 1,552 | 1,586 |
| As % of all contract jobs in the UK | 4.74% | 4.66% | 4.24% |
| As % of the Processes & Methodologies category | 5.59% | 5.15% | 4.93% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 1,700 | 1,069 | 1,072 |
| 10th Percentile | £322 | £321 | £340 |
| 25th Percentile | £403 | £400 | £406 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £475 | £500 | £500 |
| Median % change year-on-year | -5.00% | - | -4.76% |
| 75th Percentile | £575 | £588 | £600 |
| 90th Percentile | £669 | £688 | £688 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £450 | £492 | £494 |
| % change year-on-year | -8.54% | -0.40% | -1.20% |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 115 | 33 | 15 |
| 10th Percentile | £40.00 | £42.05 | £41.75 |
| 25th Percentile | £55.00 | £46.25 | £45.00 |
| Median hourly rate | £70.00 | £65.00 | £57.50 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +7.69% | +13.04% | -23.33% |
| 75th Percentile | £75.00 | £67.00 | £71.88 |
| 90th Percentile | £77.50 | £75.00 | £80.80 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £68.22 | £65.00 | £57.50 |
| % change year-on-year | +4.95% | +13.04% | -22.03% |
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.
| 6 months to 18 Oct 2026 |
Same period 2025 | Same period 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills | 46,663 | 30,144 | 32,201 |
| As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK | 84.90% | 90.54% | 86.02% |
| Number of daily rates quoted | 28,020 | 18,740 | 19,349 |
| 10th Percentile | £325 | £300 | £310 |
| 25th Percentile | £425 | £405 | £413 |
| Median daily rate (50th Percentile) | £525 | £500 | £525 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +5.00% | -4.76% | -2.33% |
| 75th Percentile | £638 | £625 | £638 |
| 90th Percentile | £736 | £725 | £750 |
| UK excluding London median daily rate | £500 | £475 | £500 |
| % change year-on-year | +5.26% | -5.00% | - |
| Number of hourly rates quoted | 3,483 | 1,926 | 1,223 |
| 10th Percentile | £13.51 | £14.38 | £15.00 |
| 25th Percentile | £16.75 | £17.30 | £20.12 |
| Median hourly rate | £37.24 | £25.08 | £40.00 |
| Median % change year-on-year | +48.51% | -37.31% | -9.60% |
| 75th Percentile | £65.00 | £42.50 | £65.00 |
| 90th Percentile | £78.75 | £65.25 | £73.75 |
| UK excluding London median hourly rate | £37.24 | £22.27 | £40.00 |
| % change year-on-year | +67.26% | -44.34% | -8.73% |
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 Daily Rate Trend
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 18 October 2026.
Test Automation Hourly Rate Trend
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 18 October 2026.
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 18 October 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 | +8 | 2,192 | £475 | -5.00% | 2,688 |
| UK excluding London | 0 | 1,276 | £450 | -8.54% | 1,701 |
| London | +7 | 993 | £500 | -2.44% | 1,163 |
| Work from Home | +2 | 697 | £476 | -4.90% | 1,208 |
| North of England | 0 | 450 | £460 | -3.16% | 450 |
| Midlands | +10 | 278 | £450 | -6.83% | 205 |
| West Midlands | +18 | 259 | £450 | -13.21% | 126 |
| South East | 0 | 248 | £449 | -9.53% | 351 |
| Yorkshire | -1 | 193 | £475 | -7.32% | 145 |
| North West | -9 | 167 | £480 | +13.74% | 223 |
| Scotland | -6 | 109 | £473 | -5.50% | 188 |
| South West | -15 | 104 | £450 | -16.28% | 168 |
| East of England | +3 | 95 | £367 | -11.03% | 216 |
| North East | -1 | 95 | £450 | -6.49% | 82 |
| Wales | -12 | 25 | £413 | -16.67% | 54 |
| East Midlands | -39 | 19 | £418 | +17.61% | 79 |
| Northern Ireland | +2 | 7 | £513 | +345.65% | 81 |
| Channel Islands | - | 1 | £450 | - |
Test Automation Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category
The table below expands on the one above by listing co-occurrences one category at a time. It covers the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences in each category.
Processes & Methodologies
| Rank | Skill | Share | Job Ads |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CI/CD | 64.0% | 1,669 |
| 2 | Agile | 49.0% | 1,278 |
| 3 | DevOps | 37.9% | 989 |
| 4 | Microservices | 21.1% | 549 |
| 5 | Continuous Improvement | 20.2% | 527 |
| 6 | Software Engineering | 19.7% | 515 |
| 7 | Problem-Solving | 19.4% | 506 |
| 8 | Validation | 17.9% | 467 |
| 9 | AI | 17.6% | 458 |
| 10 | Infrastructure as Code | 17.4% | 454 |
| 11 | Scrum | 17.0% | 443 |
| 12 | Containerisation | 15.3% | 398 |
| 13 | Test Strategy | 14.5% | 378 |
| 14 | Observability | 14.0% | 365 |
| 15 | TDD | 13.3% | 346 |
| 16 | Stakeholder Management | 13.1% | 342 |
| 17 | SDLC | 12.5% | 326 |
| 18 | Software Testing | 12.5% | 325 |
| 19 | Deployment Automation | 10.7% | 279 |
| 20 | Mentoring | 10.4% | 271 |