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

6 months to
18 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 48 44 53
Rank change year-on-year -4 +9 -10
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,829 1,375 1,662
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.51% 4.48% 3.75%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.19% 5.00% 4.30%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,245 921 1,174
10th Percentile £339 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £488 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.50% -4.76% -6.25%
75th Percentile £575 £623 £625
90th Percentile £688 £738 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £494 £475 £498
% change year-on-year +3.95% -4.52% -5.24%
Number of hourly rates quoted 46 4 63
10th Percentile £23.80 £50.63 £46.25
25th Percentile £45.88 £64.69 £52.50
Median hourly rate £63.00 £75.60 £70.00
Median % change year-on-year -16.66% +7.99% +22.81%
75th Percentile £67.50 £79.77 £90.00
90th Percentile £70.00 £84.41 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £63.75 £75.60 £72.19
% change year-on-year -15.67% +4.72% +26.64%

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 35,252 27,502 38,622
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.92% 89.66% 87.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,364 16,881 25,241
10th Percentile £310 £306 £300
25th Percentile £410 £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 £720 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,119 838 2,150
10th Percentile £14.53 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.87 £21.05 £16.25
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £35.00
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -7.14% -
75th Percentile £60.00 £63.75 £60.75
90th Percentile £70.00 £75.08 £72.97
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £30.78 £35.00
% change year-on-year -18.29% -12.06% +6.22%

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 18 February 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 18 February 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 18 February 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 -4 1,572 £500 - 592
UK excluding London -1 815 £494 +3.95% 520
London -2 781 £500 -4.76% 176
Work from Home -3 544 £492 -1.60% 322
North of England +4 322 £496 +16.71% 121
South East -20 158 £500 - 161
Midlands +2 143 £493 +5.35% 66
Yorkshire -8 138 £525 +18.31% 33
North West +6 136 £447 +11.12% 71
West Midlands 0 113 £515 +6.63% 45
South West 0 79 £525 -11.02% 69
East of England +5 56 £585 +33.71% 64
North East +15 52 £488 +28.09% 17
Scotland -20 38 £445 -1.22% 42
Wales +4 30 £485 -3.00% 12
East Midlands -10 30 £400 -4.48% 21
Northern Ireland +11 17 £475 -2.56%

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
1 110 (6.01%) Confluence
2 47 (2.57%) SAS
3 23 (1.26%) Apache Spark
4 13 (0.71%) SharePoint
5 12 (0.66%) Apache Airflow
6 9 (0.49%) Apache
7 8 (0.44%) Appian
8 6 (0.33%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.33%) nginx
9 5 (0.27%) CMS
9 5 (0.27%) Oracle Application Server
9 5 (0.27%) WebLogic
10 4 (0.22%) Camunda
10 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.22%) OpenStack
10 4 (0.22%) Tomcat
11 3 (0.16%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.11%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.11%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.11%) WordPress
Applications
1 27 (1.48%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.71%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 9 (0.49%) Microsoft Project
5 8 (0.44%) MS Visio
6 4 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.16%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.055%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.055%) Trello
Business Applications
1 19 (1.04%) Aladdin
2 7 (0.38%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.27%) Workday HCM
4 4 (0.22%) Loan IQ
4 4 (0.22%) Maximo
4 4 (0.22%) SAP HR
5 3 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
5 3 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
5 3 (0.16%) Shopify
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%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.11%) Summit
7 1 (0.055%) CODA-Financials
7 1 (0.055%) Eagle PACE
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.055%) PORTIA
7 1 (0.055%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 531 (29.03%) Azure
2 458 (25.04%) AWS
3 312 (17.06%) GitHub
4 229 (12.52%) Azure DevOps
5 189 (10.33%) GCP
6 164 (8.97%) GitHub Actions
7 125 (6.83%) Serverless
8 78 (4.26%) Power Platform
9 67 (3.66%) OpenShift
10 56 (3.06%) AWS Lambda
11 54 (2.95%) Amazon S3
12 42 (2.30%) AWS CloudFormation
12 42 (2.30%) Azure AKS
13 41 (2.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 41 (2.24%) SaaS
14 37 (2.02%) Snowflake
15 35 (1.91%) Amazon EKS
16 32 (1.75%) Dynamics 365
17 31 (1.69%) Entra ID
18 30 (1.64%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 34 (1.86%) Firewall
2 27 (1.48%) HTTPS
3 26 (1.42%) HTTP
4 25 (1.37%) Wireshark
5 23 (1.26%) SSL
6 21 (1.15%) TCP/IP
6 21 (1.15%) VPN
7 16 (0.87%) Network Security
8 13 (0.71%) SD-WAN
9 11 (0.60%) DNS
9 11 (0.60%) WAN
10 10 (0.55%) Ethernet
10 10 (0.55%) FTP
10 10 (0.55%) MPLS
11 9 (0.49%) Multicast
11 9 (0.49%) VLAN
12 7 (0.38%) AMQP
13 6 (0.33%) BGP
14 5 (0.27%) Cisco IPT
14 5 (0.27%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 100 (5.47%) PostgreSQL
2 89 (4.87%) MongoDB
3 86 (4.70%) NoSQL
4 69 (3.77%) SQL Server
5 63 (3.44%) Relational Database
6 45 (2.46%) Power BI
7 36 (1.97%) Data Warehouse
8 29 (1.59%) BigQuery
9 28 (1.53%) MySQL
10 26 (1.42%) DynamoDB
11 25 (1.37%) Oracle Database
12 22 (1.20%) Pentaho
13 20 (1.09%) Big Data
14 18 (0.98%) Amazon RDS
15 17 (0.93%) Redis
15 17 (0.93%) Star Schema
15 17 (0.93%) Tableau
16 16 (0.87%) Apache Cassandra
16 16 (0.87%) Azure SQL Database
17 15 (0.82%) Metadata
Development Applications
1 331 (18.10%) Jenkins
2 327 (17.88%) JIRA
3 320 (17.50%) Git
4 276 (15.09%) GitLab
5 274 (14.98%) Selenium
6 164 (8.97%) Cucumber
7 161 (8.80%) Postman
8 117 (6.40%) Cypress.io
9 102 (5.58%) REST Assured
10 96 (5.25%) JUnit
11 95 (5.19%) JMeter
12 43 (2.35%) SonarQube
13 41 (2.24%) WebDriver
14 40 (2.19%) Gatling
14 40 (2.19%) Mockito
15 39 (2.13%) SpecFlow
16 36 (1.97%) Maven
16 36 (1.97%) TestRail
17 32 (1.75%) Gradle
18 29 (1.59%) Bitbucket
General
1 459 (25.10%) Social Skills
2 290 (15.86%) Finance
3 264 (14.43%) Public Sector
4 196 (10.72%) Analytical Skills
5 136 (7.44%) Banking
6 33 (1.80%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 29 (1.59%) Investment Banking
8 28 (1.53%) Documentation Skills
9 23 (1.26%) Pharmaceutical
9 23 (1.26%) Telecoms
10 22 (1.20%) Front Office
11 18 (0.98%) Military
11 18 (0.98%) Presentation Skills
12 14 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
13 13 (0.71%) Aerospace
13 13 (0.71%) Financial Institution
13 13 (0.71%) Manufacturing
14 12 (0.66%) Electronics
14 12 (0.66%) Legal
15 10 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 427 (23.35%) Developer
2 316 (17.28%) Senior
3 215 (11.76%) Tester
4 206 (11.26%) Test Engineer
5 190 (10.39%) Lead
6 118 (6.45%) Java Developer
7 117 (6.40%) Automation Tester
8 88 (4.81%) Software Engineer
9 86 (4.70%) Analyst
10 85 (4.65%) Test Automation Engineer
11 79 (4.32%) Senior Developer
12 71 (3.88%) DevOps Engineer
13 70 (3.83%) Data Engineer
13 70 (3.83%) QA Engineer
14 68 (3.72%) Test Leader
15 59 (3.23%) Test Manager
16 57 (3.12%) Test Analyst
17 54 (2.95%) Automation Engineer
18 51 (2.79%) Architect
19 50 (2.73%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 250 (13.67%) REST
2 226 (12.36%) Playwright
3 165 (9.02%) React
4 148 (8.09%) Node.js
5 144 (7.87%) RESTful
6 142 (7.76%) .NET
7 137 (7.49%) Spring
8 128 (7.00%) Kafka
9 122 (6.67%) Spring Boot
10 86 (4.70%) pytest
11 66 (3.61%) HTML
12 65 (3.55%) AngularJS
13 62 (3.39%) OAuth
14 60 (3.28%) JSON
15 55 (3.01%) CSS
16 54 (2.95%) Web Services
17 53 (2.90%) Jest
18 52 (2.84%) SOAP
19 50 (2.73%) XML
20 44 (2.41%) GraphQL
Miscellaneous
1 194 (10.61%) Cloud Native
2 125 (6.83%) Product Ownership
3 69 (3.77%) Distributed Systems
4 47 (2.57%) Mobile App
5 43 (2.35%) Legacy Systems
6 41 (2.24%) Algorithms
6 41 (2.24%) Data Protection Act
7 38 (2.08%) Security Posture
8 36 (1.97%) Onboarding
9 28 (1.53%) Virtual Team
10 26 (1.42%) Enterprise Software
11 24 (1.31%) Data Structures
12 23 (1.26%) NHS
13 21 (1.15%) Self-Motivation
14 20 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
14 20 (1.09%) Management Information System
14 20 (1.09%) Public Cloud
15 19 (1.04%) Equities
16 17 (0.93%) Data Centre
17 16 (0.87%) Derivative
Operating Systems
1 162 (8.86%) Linux
2 84 (4.59%) Windows
3 54 (2.95%) Unix
4 43 (2.35%) Android
5 39 (2.13%) Apple iOS
6 25 (1.37%) Mac OS X
7 23 (1.26%) Windows Server
8 11 (0.60%) Kali Linux
9 10 (0.55%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 8 (0.44%) Mac OS
11 4 (0.22%) CentOS
11 4 (0.22%) Solaris
11 4 (0.22%) Windows Server 2008
11 4 (0.22%) Windows Server 2016
11 4 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
12 2 (0.11%) VMS
12 2 (0.11%) Windows 10
13 1 (0.055%) Robot Operating System
13 1 (0.055%) Windows Embedded Compact
13 1 (0.055%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 947 (51.78%) CI/CD
2 893 (48.82%) Agile
3 684 (37.40%) DevOps
4 443 (24.22%) Problem-Solving
5 301 (16.46%) Microservices
6 276 (15.09%) Continuous Improvement
7 274 (14.98%) Test Strategy
8 267 (14.60%) Containerisation
9 243 (13.29%) Scrum
10 233 (12.74%) Infrastructure as Code
11 221 (12.08%) AI
11 221 (12.08%) Software Engineering
11 221 (12.08%) Validation
12 220 (12.03%) TDD
13 216 (11.81%) Test Scripting
14 187 (10.22%) Software Testing
15 185 (10.11%) API Testing
16 179 (9.79%) Observability
17 176 (9.62%) Analytics
17 176 (9.62%) BDD
Programming Languages
1 552 (30.18%) Python
2 467 (25.53%) Java
3 337 (18.43%) SQL
4 289 (15.80%) JavaScript
5 267 (14.60%) TypeScript
6 179 (9.79%) C#
7 81 (4.43%) Bash
8 67 (3.66%) PowerShell
9 42 (2.30%) C++
10 38 (2.08%) Go
11 25 (1.37%) Bicep
11 25 (1.37%) PL/SQL
12 23 (1.26%) Kotlin
12 23 (1.26%) Scala
13 19 (1.04%) Ruby
14 17 (0.93%) C
15 16 (0.87%) Apex Code
15 16 (0.87%) Swift
16 12 (0.66%) Groovy
16 12 (0.66%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 511 (27.94%) Security Cleared
2 393 (21.49%) SC Cleared
3 109 (5.96%) Degree
4 80 (4.37%) ISTQB
5 73 (3.99%) BPSS Clearance
6 58 (3.17%) Computer Science Degree
7 57 (3.12%) DV Cleared
8 31 (1.69%) Master's Degree
9 29 (1.59%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 18 (0.98%) OSCP
11 16 (0.87%) AWS Certification
12 15 (0.82%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
13 13 (0.71%) Cisco Certification
13 13 (0.71%) GPEN
13 13 (0.71%) Microsoft Certified Professional
14 12 (0.66%) Azure Certification
14 12 (0.66%) CEH
14 12 (0.66%) CISSP
14 12 (0.66%) Microsoft Certification
15 11 (0.60%) Oracle Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 393 (21.49%) QA
2 151 (8.26%) Accessibility
3 89 (4.87%) Data Quality
4 50 (2.73%) WCAG
5 41 (2.24%) GDPR
6 35 (1.91%) NIST
7 22 (1.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 19 (1.04%) NCSC
9 18 (0.98%) EU AI Act
10 14 (0.77%) ISO 20022
11 13 (0.71%) SLA
12 12 (0.66%) PSD2
13 10 (0.55%) PCI DSS
13 10 (0.55%) SEPA
14 9 (0.49%) NIST 800
14 9 (0.49%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 7 (0.38%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 7 (0.38%) SOC 2
16 6 (0.33%) HIPAA
17 5 (0.27%) Def Stans
System Software
1 386 (21.10%) Docker
2 33 (1.80%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
4 7 (0.38%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 5 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
5 5 (0.27%) VMware Infrastructure
6 4 (0.22%) Firmware
6 4 (0.22%) Virtual Servers
7 3 (0.16%) ISA Server
7 3 (0.16%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.11%) QEMU
9 1 (0.055%) Embedded Firmware
9 1 (0.055%) HDFS
9 1 (0.055%) KVM
9 1 (0.055%) Squid
9 1 (0.055%) Time Sharing Option
9 1 (0.055%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.055%) vSphere
9 1 (0.055%) zsh
Systems Management
1 338 (18.48%) Kubernetes
2 217 (11.86%) Terraform
3 102 (5.58%) Ansible
4 94 (5.14%) Grafana
5 64 (3.50%) Prometheus
6 20 (1.09%) HP ALM
7 19 (1.04%) Nmap
8 18 (0.98%) Argo
9 17 (0.93%) Puppet
9 17 (0.93%) Single Sign-On
10 16 (0.87%) Progress Chef
11 11 (0.60%) NetBackup
12 9 (0.49%) CSIRT
12 9 (0.49%) HP Quality Center
13 7 (0.38%) Kibana
13 7 (0.38%) Nessus
13 7 (0.38%) Podman
14 6 (0.33%) Forefront Identity Manager
14 6 (0.33%) NetIQ Identity Manager
15 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
Vendors
1 165 (9.02%) Microsoft
2 135 (7.38%) Oracle
3 64 (3.50%) Databricks
4 63 (3.44%) ServiceNow
5 61 (3.34%) Salesforce
6 60 (3.28%) Google
7 58 (3.17%) Splunk
8 55 (3.01%) SAP
9 30 (1.64%) Red Hat
10 24 (1.31%) VMware
11 23 (1.26%) Cisco
11 23 (1.26%) Talend
12 22 (1.20%) Denodo
13 21 (1.15%) IBM
14 20 (1.09%) HP
14 20 (1.09%) webMethods
15 17 (0.93%) MuleSoft
16 16 (0.87%) OpenAI
16 16 (0.87%) Workday
17 14 (0.77%) UiPath