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

6 months to
20 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 49 46 53
Rank change year-on-year -3 +7 -7
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,933 1,354 1,582
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.44% 4.63% 3.57%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.17% 5.12% 4.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,314 939 1,079
10th Percentile £331 £326 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £517
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -3.29% -6.00%
75th Percentile £575 £638 £638
90th Percentile £675 £738 £719
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £479 £495
% change year-on-year -0.73% -3.33% -5.71%
Number of hourly rates quoted 53 7 60
10th Percentile £29.86 £38.81 £44.25
25th Percentile £52.50 £44.51 £52.50
Median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £61.25
Median % change year-on-year +14.54% -7.35% +2.08%
75th Percentile £70.00 £70.01 £81.56
90th Percentile - £76.18 £90.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £56.75 £62.50
% change year-on-year +14.54% -9.20% +6.84%

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 37,403 26,465 38,354
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.99% 90.45% 86.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,742 17,048 24,949
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 £611 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -1.54% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,201 924 2,323
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.25 £12.99
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.00
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.50 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.41 £70.66
UK excluding London median hourly rate £28.00 £31.64 £31.13
% change year-on-year -11.50% +1.65% -11.14%

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 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 20 March 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 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 -3 1,656 £486 -2.90% 692
UK excluding London -4 894 £475 -0.73% 597
London -1 811 £500 - 190
Work from Home -5 554 £475 -5.00% 342
North of England +3 326 £487 +8.22% 168
Midlands +10 190 £475 +1.06% 75
South East -32 170 £500 -13.04% 161
West Midlands +11 161 £480 -3.52% 46
North West +10 149 £463 +2.78% 85
Yorkshire -15 134 £500 +5.26% 45
South West -2 78 £500 -4.76% 80
East of England +10 59 £570 +19.06% 65
North East +5 46 £475 +24.80% 38
Scotland -17 41 £440 -2.22% 37
Wales +1 33 £502 +25.50% 26
East Midlands -28 29 £400 +8.11% 29
Northern Ireland +14 22 £475 -2.56% 4

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
1 134 (6.93%) Confluence
2 58 (3.00%) SAS
3 32 (1.66%) Apache Spark
4 18 (0.93%) Apache Airflow
5 12 (0.62%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.57%) Apache
7 8 (0.41%) Appian
8 6 (0.31%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.31%) nginx
8 6 (0.31%) WebLogic
9 5 (0.26%) CMS
9 5 (0.26%) Tomcat
10 4 (0.21%) Camunda
10 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.21%) Oracle Application Server
11 3 (0.16%) Anypoint
12 2 (0.10%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.10%) Mendix
12 2 (0.10%) Sitecore CMS
12 2 (0.10%) WordPress
Applications
1 29 (1.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 15 (0.78%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 13 (0.67%) Microsoft Office
4 12 (0.62%) MS Visio
5 11 (0.57%) Microsoft Project
6 4 (0.21%) Spreadsheet
7 3 (0.16%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.10%) Simulink
9 1 (0.052%) Mingle
9 1 (0.052%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 24 (1.24%) Aladdin
2 8 (0.41%) Dynamics CRM
2 8 (0.41%) Oracle EBS
3 6 (0.31%) Findur
3 6 (0.31%) Loan IQ
4 5 (0.26%) Maximo
4 5 (0.26%) Shopify
4 5 (0.26%) Workday HCM
5 4 (0.21%) SAP HR
6 3 (0.16%) BambooHR
6 3 (0.16%) Infor CloudSuite
6 3 (0.16%) Infor LN
6 3 (0.16%) Infor M3
6 3 (0.16%) SAP BRIM
6 3 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
7 2 (0.10%) Advent Geneva
7 2 (0.10%) iTrent
7 2 (0.10%) NetSuite
7 2 (0.10%) SAP FI
7 2 (0.10%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 568 (29.38%) Azure
2 504 (26.07%) AWS
3 350 (18.11%) GitHub
4 265 (13.71%) Azure DevOps
5 192 (9.93%) GitHub Actions
6 183 (9.47%) GCP
7 141 (7.29%) Serverless
8 81 (4.19%) Power Platform
9 73 (3.78%) AWS Lambda
10 70 (3.62%) OpenShift
11 69 (3.57%) Amazon S3
12 50 (2.59%) AWS CloudFormation
13 48 (2.48%) Amazon CloudWatch
14 43 (2.22%) Snowflake
15 41 (2.12%) Azure AKS
16 39 (2.02%) Amazon ECS
17 37 (1.91%) Amazon EKS
18 34 (1.76%) SaaS
19 33 (1.71%) Azure Data Factory
19 33 (1.71%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 28 (1.45%) Firewall
2 23 (1.19%) HTTP
3 17 (0.88%) TCP/IP
3 17 (0.88%) VPN
3 17 (0.88%) Wireshark
4 15 (0.78%) SSL
5 13 (0.67%) Network Security
5 13 (0.67%) SD-WAN
5 13 (0.67%) WAN
6 11 (0.57%) HTTPS
7 10 (0.52%) DNS
7 10 (0.52%) FTP
8 8 (0.41%) Ethernet
8 8 (0.41%) MPLS
8 8 (0.41%) SAN
9 7 (0.36%) Multicast
10 5 (0.26%) AMQP
10 5 (0.26%) Cisco IPT
10 5 (0.26%) VLAN
11 4 (0.21%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (5.95%) PostgreSQL
2 90 (4.66%) NoSQL
3 76 (3.93%) SQL Server
4 74 (3.83%) MongoDB
5 59 (3.05%) Relational Database
6 53 (2.74%) Data Warehouse
7 48 (2.48%) Power BI
8 36 (1.86%) DynamoDB
9 30 (1.55%) BigQuery
10 29 (1.50%) MySQL
10 29 (1.50%) Pentaho
11 25 (1.29%) Oracle Database
12 23 (1.19%) Tableau
13 22 (1.14%) Amazon RDS
14 21 (1.09%) Redis
15 19 (0.98%) Metadata
16 18 (0.93%) Azure SQL Database
16 18 (0.93%) Big Data
16 18 (0.93%) Oracle Reports
17 17 (0.88%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 367 (18.99%) JIRA
2 361 (18.68%) Git
3 354 (18.31%) Jenkins
4 292 (15.11%) GitLab
5 287 (14.85%) Selenium
6 172 (8.90%) Cucumber
7 156 (8.07%) Postman
8 113 (5.85%) JUnit
9 110 (5.69%) Cypress.io
10 107 (5.54%) JMeter
11 100 (5.17%) REST Assured
12 52 (2.69%) WebDriver
13 41 (2.12%) SpecFlow
14 39 (2.02%) Zephyr
15 37 (1.91%) Gatling
16 36 (1.86%) SonarQube
17 34 (1.76%) TestRail
18 33 (1.71%) Maven
19 32 (1.66%) Bitbucket
19 32 (1.66%) Gradle
General
1 516 (26.69%) Social Skills
2 322 (16.66%) Finance
3 287 (14.85%) Public Sector
4 205 (10.61%) Analytical Skills
5 153 (7.92%) Banking
6 35 (1.81%) Documentation Skills
7 31 (1.60%) Investment Banking
8 28 (1.45%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 26 (1.35%) Front Office
10 22 (1.14%) Telecoms
11 21 (1.09%) Presentation Skills
12 19 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
13 18 (0.93%) Pharmaceutical
14 17 (0.88%) Military
15 16 (0.83%) Influencing Skills
16 15 (0.78%) Legal
17 14 (0.72%) Aerospace
17 14 (0.72%) Financial Institution
18 10 (0.52%) Electronics
19 9 (0.47%) Manufacturing
Job Titles
1 404 (20.90%) Developer
2 322 (16.66%) Senior
3 221 (11.43%) Tester
4 215 (11.12%) Test Engineer
5 214 (11.07%) Lead
6 116 (6.00%) Automation Tester
7 98 (5.07%) Data Engineer
8 96 (4.97%) Analyst
9 92 (4.76%) Test Automation Engineer
10 91 (4.71%) Java Developer
11 83 (4.29%) Test Leader
12 82 (4.24%) QA Engineer
13 78 (4.04%) Software Engineer
14 74 (3.83%) DevOps Engineer
15 72 (3.72%) Senior Developer
16 69 (3.57%) Architect
17 65 (3.36%) Test Manager
18 61 (3.16%) Test Analyst
19 58 (3.00%) Automation Engineer
20 49 (2.53%) Full-Stack Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 247 (12.78%) REST
2 237 (12.26%) Playwright
3 167 (8.64%) React
4 148 (7.66%) RESTful
5 146 (7.55%) Spring
6 143 (7.40%) Node.js
7 140 (7.24%) .NET
8 130 (6.73%) Kafka
9 118 (6.10%) Spring Boot
10 88 (4.55%) pytest
11 70 (3.62%) AngularJS
12 65 (3.36%) HTML
13 63 (3.26%) OAuth
14 56 (2.90%) Jest
15 55 (2.85%) CSS
16 52 (2.69%) Web Services
17 46 (2.38%) JSON
18 44 (2.28%) GraphQL
19 42 (2.17%) OpenID
20 40 (2.07%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 202 (10.45%) Cloud Native
2 135 (6.98%) Product Ownership
3 89 (4.60%) Distributed Systems
4 50 (2.59%) Mobile App
5 48 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
6 44 (2.28%) Data Protection Act
7 40 (2.07%) Algorithms
8 37 (1.91%) Onboarding
9 32 (1.66%) Virtual Team
10 28 (1.45%) Security Posture
11 27 (1.40%) Enterprise Software
12 26 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
13 25 (1.29%) NHS
14 24 (1.24%) Data Structures
15 23 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
16 22 (1.14%) Distributed Architecture
16 22 (1.14%) Equities
17 21 (1.09%) Management Information System
18 20 (1.03%) Derivative
19 19 (0.98%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 136 (7.04%) Linux
2 86 (4.45%) Windows
3 46 (2.38%) Android
4 39 (2.02%) Apple iOS
5 35 (1.81%) Unix
6 21 (1.09%) Windows Server
7 16 (0.83%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 11 (0.57%) Kali Linux
8 11 (0.57%) Mac OS X
9 8 (0.41%) Mac OS
10 6 (0.31%) Solaris
11 5 (0.26%) Windows Server 2008
11 5 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
11 5 (0.26%) Windows Server 2019
12 4 (0.21%) CentOS
13 2 (0.10%) Embedded Linux
13 2 (0.10%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.052%) VMS
14 1 (0.052%) Windows Embedded Compact
14 1 (0.052%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,028 (53.18%) CI/CD
2 906 (46.87%) Agile
3 733 (37.92%) DevOps
4 432 (22.35%) Problem-Solving
5 316 (16.35%) Continuous Improvement
6 308 (15.93%) Test Strategy
7 297 (15.36%) Microservices
8 273 (14.12%) Containerisation
9 269 (13.92%) Scrum
10 250 (12.93%) Validation
11 241 (12.47%) Infrastructure as Code
12 234 (12.11%) AI
13 223 (11.54%) Software Engineering
14 220 (11.38%) Test Scripting
15 218 (11.28%) TDD
16 217 (11.23%) Analytics
17 212 (10.97%) Observability
18 204 (10.55%) Regression Testing
19 194 (10.04%) API Testing
19 194 (10.04%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 601 (31.09%) Python
2 461 (23.85%) Java
3 408 (21.11%) SQL
4 292 (15.11%) JavaScript
5 272 (14.07%) TypeScript
6 200 (10.35%) C#
7 82 (4.24%) PowerShell
8 81 (4.19%) Bash
9 49 (2.53%) C++
10 30 (1.55%) Go
10 30 (1.55%) Kotlin
11 28 (1.45%) C
12 27 (1.40%) PL/SQL
13 26 (1.35%) Ruby
14 25 (1.29%) Bicep
15 24 (1.24%) Scala
16 21 (1.09%) Apex Code
17 18 (0.93%) Swift
18 16 (0.83%) Groovy
19 15 (0.78%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 563 (29.13%) Security Cleared
2 434 (22.45%) SC Cleared
3 101 (5.23%) Degree
4 96 (4.97%) ISTQB
5 75 (3.88%) BPSS Clearance
6 59 (3.05%) Computer Science Degree
7 56 (2.90%) DV Cleared
8 35 (1.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 24 (1.24%) Master's Degree
10 15 (0.78%) AWS Certification
11 14 (0.72%) Cisco Certification
11 14 (0.72%) OSCP
12 12 (0.62%) Azure Certification
12 12 (0.62%) CEH
13 11 (0.57%) Microsoft Certification
14 10 (0.52%) CISSP
14 10 (0.52%) ISEB
14 10 (0.52%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
15 9 (0.47%) CCNP
15 9 (0.47%) GPEN
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 440 (22.76%) QA
2 151 (7.81%) Accessibility
3 108 (5.59%) Data Quality
4 54 (2.79%) WCAG
5 39 (2.02%) GDPR
6 28 (1.45%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.29%) NIST
8 16 (0.83%) NCSC
8 16 (0.83%) SLA
9 14 (0.72%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 12 (0.62%) EU AI Act
11 11 (0.57%) PCI DSS
12 10 (0.52%) ISO 20022
12 10 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 9 (0.47%) Def Stans
14 8 (0.41%) PSD2
15 6 (0.31%) HIPAA
15 6 (0.31%) SEPA
15 6 (0.31%) SOC 2
16 5 (0.26%) HL7
System Software
1 392 (20.28%) Docker
2 30 (1.55%) Active Directory
3 11 (0.57%) VMware Infrastructure
4 8 (0.41%) Firmware
4 8 (0.41%) VMware ESXi
5 7 (0.36%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
6 5 (0.26%) Virtual Machines
7 4 (0.21%) Oracle RAC
7 4 (0.21%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.16%) ISA Server
9 2 (0.10%) SRDF
10 1 (0.052%) Embedded Firmware
10 1 (0.052%) HDFS
10 1 (0.052%) KVM
10 1 (0.052%) Squid
10 1 (0.052%) Time Sharing Option
10 1 (0.052%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.052%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 364 (18.83%) Kubernetes
2 223 (11.54%) Terraform
3 114 (5.90%) Grafana
4 102 (5.28%) Ansible
5 85 (4.40%) Prometheus
6 25 (1.29%) HP ALM
7 21 (1.09%) Argo
7 21 (1.09%) Puppet
8 15 (0.78%) Progress Chef
8 15 (0.78%) Single Sign-On
9 14 (0.72%) Nmap
10 13 (0.67%) NetBackup
11 11 (0.57%) HP Quality Center
12 8 (0.41%) Forefront Identity Manager
12 8 (0.41%) NetIQ Identity Manager
13 7 (0.36%) Kibana
13 7 (0.36%) Podman
14 6 (0.31%) Rancher
15 4 (0.21%) Dell DRAC
15 4 (0.21%) Istio
Vendors
1 170 (8.79%) Microsoft
2 148 (7.66%) Oracle
3 73 (3.78%) Databricks
4 65 (3.36%) Salesforce
5 64 (3.31%) Google
6 59 (3.05%) ServiceNow
7 58 (3.00%) Splunk
8 50 (2.59%) SAP
9 42 (2.17%) Red Hat
10 33 (1.71%) Talend
11 28 (1.45%) HP
12 27 (1.40%) VMware
13 25 (1.29%) Denodo
13 25 (1.29%) IBM
14 23 (1.19%) Cisco
15 20 (1.03%) Dynatrace
16 16 (0.83%) Atlassian
16 16 (0.83%) MuleSoft
16 16 (0.83%) Workday
17 15 (0.78%) UiPath