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

6 months to
17 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 46 45 51
Rank change year-on-year -1 +6 -12
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 1,734 1,503 1,745
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 4.71% 4.37% 3.98%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.33% 4.96% 4.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 1,174 1,014 1,263
10th Percentile £331 £325 £363
25th Percentile £400 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £588 £600 £625
90th Percentile £688 £700 £712
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £488 £500
% change year-on-year +2.41% -2.35% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 31 4 51
10th Percentile £41.94 £41.63 £34.75
25th Percentile £47.50 £42.19 £45.88
Median hourly rate £65.00 £47.50 £77.50
Median % change year-on-year +36.84% -38.71% +29.17%
75th Percentile £67.00 £61.25 £90.00
90th Percentile - £77.00 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £65.00 £50.00 £77.50
% change year-on-year +30.00% -35.48% +29.17%

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 32,541 30,291 38,815
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 88.45% 88.04% 88.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,482 18,505 25,899
10th Percentile £300 £306 £308
25th Percentile £406 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £530
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -0.94% -3.64%
75th Percentile £618 £638 £650
90th Percentile £723 £744 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,089 1,000 1,504
10th Percentile £14.53 £15.61 £14.38
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.30 £18.95
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £43.84
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -25.86% +25.25%
75th Percentile £48.75 £62.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £68.00 £73.78 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £23.00 £32.28 £44.50
% change year-on-year -28.75% -27.46% +39.06%

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 17 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 17 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 17 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 0 1,492 £500 - 563
UK excluding London 0 804 £500 +2.41% 520
London -2 718 £505 -2.98% 158
Work from Home +3 526 £500 - 301
North of England +5 303 £488 +8.33% 119
Midlands +12 156 £495 - 60
Yorkshire -7 146 £513 +13.89% 37
South East -30 140 £500 - 174
West Midlands +5 120 £515 -2.60% 32
North West +1 116 £425 +5.07% 64
South West +11 79 £550 +1.38% 70
Scotland -9 61 £500 +6.95% 33
East of England +4 47 £550 +37.50% 62
North East +17 43 £488 +23.81% 19
East Midlands -1 36 £400 -13.51% 28
Wales +4 28 £495 -1.00% 6
Northern Ireland +2 12 £295 -43.13% 8

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 93 (5.36%) Confluence
2 54 (3.11%) SAS
3 26 (1.50%) Apache Spark
4 19 (1.10%) Apache Airflow
5 13 (0.75%) SharePoint
6 12 (0.69%) Apache
7 8 (0.46%) Oracle Application Server
8 6 (0.35%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 6 (0.35%) CMS
8 6 (0.35%) OpenStack
9 5 (0.29%) Anypoint
10 4 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.17%) nginx
11 3 (0.17%) WebLogic
11 3 (0.17%) WordPress
12 2 (0.12%) JBoss
12 2 (0.12%) Magnolia
12 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Exchange
12 2 (0.12%) Sitecore CMS
13 1 (0.058%) IIS
Applications
1 19 (1.10%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
4 8 (0.46%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.23%) Simulink
5 4 (0.23%) Windchill
6 3 (0.17%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.12%) Spreadsheet
7 2 (0.12%) Trello
8 1 (0.058%) Oracle Smart View
Business Applications
1 17 (0.98%) Aladdin
2 11 (0.63%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.23%) SAP HR
3 4 (0.23%) SAP PLM
4 3 (0.17%) Oracle ERP
4 3 (0.17%) SAP BRIM
4 3 (0.17%) 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 (0.058%) CODA-Financials
6 1 (0.058%) Loan IQ
6 1 (0.058%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.058%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.058%) PORTIA
6 1 (0.058%) SAP Payroll
6 1 (0.058%) Summit
Cloud Services
1 492 (28.37%) Azure
2 435 (25.09%) AWS
3 258 (14.88%) GitHub
4 207 (11.94%) Azure DevOps
5 167 (9.63%) GCP
6 134 (7.73%) GitHub Actions
7 122 (7.04%) Serverless
8 59 (3.40%) AWS Lambda
8 59 (3.40%) Power Platform
9 58 (3.34%) OpenShift
10 54 (3.11%) Amazon S3
11 48 (2.77%) AWS CloudFormation
12 45 (2.60%) Azure AKS
12 45 (2.60%) SaaS
13 40 (2.31%) Amazon EKS
14 39 (2.25%) Snowflake
15 36 (2.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
16 29 (1.67%) Tricentis Tosca
17 28 (1.61%) Azure Data Factory
18 27 (1.56%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 42 (2.42%) Firewall
2 36 (2.08%) HTTP
3 34 (1.96%) Wireshark
4 27 (1.56%) HTTPS
4 27 (1.56%) SSL
5 19 (1.10%) TCP/IP
6 18 (1.04%) VPN
7 15 (0.87%) SD-WAN
8 14 (0.81%) Network Security
9 12 (0.69%) DNS
9 12 (0.69%) Ethernet
10 11 (0.63%) Multicast
11 10 (0.58%) WAN
12 9 (0.52%) AMQP
12 9 (0.52%) FTP
13 6 (0.35%) Internet
13 6 (0.35%) VLAN
14 5 (0.29%) Broadband
14 5 (0.29%) Cisco IPT
14 5 (0.29%) MPLS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 112 (6.46%) PostgreSQL
2 94 (5.42%) NoSQL
3 90 (5.19%) MongoDB
4 76 (4.38%) Relational Database
5 63 (3.63%) SQL Server
6 45 (2.60%) Data Warehouse
7 30 (1.73%) Power BI
8 28 (1.61%) Pentaho
9 25 (1.44%) BigQuery
10 24 (1.38%) Amazon RDS
10 24 (1.38%) DynamoDB
11 23 (1.33%) MySQL
12 21 (1.21%) Big Data
12 21 (1.21%) Oracle Database
13 20 (1.15%) Data Lake
14 16 (0.92%) Apache Cassandra
14 16 (0.92%) Redis
15 15 (0.87%) Azure SQL Database
15 15 (0.87%) SAS Enterprise Guide
16 14 (0.81%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 319 (18.40%) Git
2 317 (18.28%) Jenkins
3 310 (17.88%) JIRA
4 276 (15.92%) Selenium
5 238 (13.73%) GitLab
6 155 (8.94%) Cucumber
7 133 (7.67%) Postman
8 116 (6.69%) Cypress.io
9 87 (5.02%) JUnit
10 78 (4.50%) REST Assured
11 75 (4.33%) JMeter
12 51 (2.94%) Bitbucket
13 42 (2.42%) SonarQube
14 39 (2.25%) SpecFlow
15 33 (1.90%) Maven
16 32 (1.85%) Mockito
17 31 (1.79%) TestRail
18 30 (1.73%) Gatling
19 27 (1.56%) WebDriver
20 26 (1.50%) Zephyr
General
1 476 (27.45%) Social Skills
2 303 (17.47%) Finance
3 220 (12.69%) Public Sector
4 178 (10.27%) Analytical Skills
5 126 (7.27%) Banking
6 34 (1.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 32 (1.85%) Telecoms
8 29 (1.67%) Documentation Skills
9 24 (1.38%) Front Office
9 24 (1.38%) Investment Banking
10 23 (1.33%) Pharmaceutical
10 23 (1.33%) Presentation Skills
11 22 (1.27%) Manufacturing
12 17 (0.98%) Financial Institution
13 16 (0.92%) Marketing
14 15 (0.87%) Electronics
15 13 (0.75%) Organisational Skills
16 12 (0.69%) Military
17 11 (0.63%) Aerospace
18 10 (0.58%) Legal
Job Titles
1 383 (22.09%) Developer
2 284 (16.38%) Senior
3 208 (12.00%) Tester
4 173 (9.98%) Test Engineer
5 145 (8.36%) Lead
6 120 (6.92%) Automation Tester
7 112 (6.46%) Java Developer
8 80 (4.61%) Software Engineer
9 76 (4.38%) Data Engineer
10 74 (4.27%) Test Automation Engineer
11 72 (4.15%) Analyst
11 72 (4.15%) QA Engineer
12 67 (3.86%) DevOps Engineer
13 66 (3.81%) Senior Developer
14 56 (3.23%) Automation Engineer
15 54 (3.11%) Test Manager
16 53 (3.06%) Test Analyst
17 49 (2.83%) Test Leader
18 42 (2.42%) Full-Stack Developer
19 40 (2.31%) Senior Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 219 (12.63%) REST
2 176 (10.15%) Playwright
3 145 (8.36%) React
4 137 (7.90%) .NET
5 131 (7.55%) RESTful
6 127 (7.32%) Node.js
7 124 (7.15%) Spring
8 123 (7.09%) Kafka
9 116 (6.69%) Spring Boot
10 78 (4.50%) JSON
11 74 (4.27%) HTML
12 72 (4.15%) XML
13 70 (4.04%) pytest
14 68 (3.92%) CSS
15 67 (3.86%) SOAP
16 64 (3.69%) AngularJS
17 47 (2.71%) Jest
18 44 (2.54%) JMS
19 42 (2.42%) Web Services
20 37 (2.13%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 167 (9.63%) Cloud Native
2 118 (6.81%) Product Ownership
3 49 (2.83%) Mobile App
4 48 (2.77%) Distributed Systems
5 44 (2.54%) Security Posture
6 31 (1.79%) Algorithms
6 31 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
6 31 (1.79%) Onboarding
7 30 (1.73%) Public Cloud
8 24 (1.38%) Self-Motivation
8 24 (1.38%) Virtual Team
9 23 (1.33%) Legacy Systems
10 22 (1.27%) Enterprise Software
11 21 (1.21%) Data Structures
12 19 (1.10%) Management Information System
13 17 (0.98%) Greenfield Project
14 16 (0.92%) Data Centre
14 16 (0.92%) Genomics
14 16 (0.92%) Life Science
15 15 (0.87%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 174 (10.03%) Linux
2 82 (4.73%) Windows
3 57 (3.29%) Unix
4 41 (2.36%) Android
5 34 (1.96%) Apple iOS
6 20 (1.15%) Mac OS X
7 17 (0.98%) Windows Server
8 13 (0.75%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 10 (0.58%) Kali Linux
10 8 (0.46%) CentOS
11 3 (0.17%) Mac OS
11 3 (0.17%) Windows 10
12 2 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
12 2 (0.12%) Robot Operating System
12 2 (0.12%) VMS
13 1 (0.058%) Solaris
13 1 (0.058%) Ubuntu
13 1 (0.058%) Windows Embedded Compact
13 1 (0.058%) Windows Server 2019
13 1 (0.058%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 866 (49.94%) CI/CD
2 850 (49.02%) Agile
3 665 (38.35%) DevOps
4 434 (25.03%) Problem-Solving
5 275 (15.86%) Microservices
6 257 (14.82%) Containerisation
6 257 (14.82%) Scrum
7 253 (14.59%) Test Strategy
8 252 (14.53%) Continuous Improvement
9 224 (12.92%) TDD
10 212 (12.23%) Infrastructure as Code
11 207 (11.94%) Test Scripting
12 206 (11.88%) Software Engineering
13 180 (10.38%) SDLC
14 176 (10.15%) AI
15 172 (9.92%) Validation
16 170 (9.80%) BDD
16 170 (9.80%) Software Testing
17 157 (9.05%) Analytics
18 150 (8.65%) Regression Testing
Programming Languages
1 514 (29.64%) Python
2 417 (24.05%) Java
3 331 (19.09%) SQL
4 238 (13.73%) JavaScript
5 201 (11.59%) TypeScript
6 173 (9.98%) C#
7 98 (5.65%) Bash
8 65 (3.75%) PowerShell
9 43 (2.48%) C++
10 38 (2.19%) Go
11 24 (1.38%) Kotlin
12 22 (1.27%) Bicep
13 21 (1.21%) PL/SQL
14 16 (0.92%) PHP
14 16 (0.92%) Ruby
15 15 (0.87%) Scala
16 13 (0.75%) Shell Script
16 13 (0.75%) Swift
17 12 (0.69%) Groovy
17 12 (0.69%) Perl
Qualifications
1 437 (25.20%) Security Cleared
2 338 (19.49%) SC Cleared
3 110 (6.34%) Degree
4 70 (4.04%) ISTQB
5 57 (3.29%) Computer Science Degree
6 50 (2.88%) BPSS Clearance
7 49 (2.83%) DV Cleared
8 27 (1.56%) AWS Certification
9 24 (1.38%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 24 (1.38%) Master's Degree
10 21 (1.21%) CISSP
11 18 (1.04%) OSCP
12 15 (0.87%) Azure Certification
12 15 (0.87%) CISM
13 14 (0.81%) Cisco Certification
13 14 (0.81%) MCP
14 13 (0.75%) CEH
15 12 (0.69%) CISA
15 12 (0.69%) GPEN
15 12 (0.69%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 391 (22.55%) QA
2 135 (7.79%) Accessibility
3 74 (4.27%) Data Quality
4 42 (2.42%) NIST
5 38 (2.19%) GDPR
6 37 (2.13%) WCAG
7 35 (2.02%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 19 (1.10%) NCSC
9 18 (1.04%) EU AI Act
10 17 (0.98%) PCI DSS
11 16 (0.92%) NIST 800
12 14 (0.81%) PSD2
13 9 (0.52%) ISO 20022
13 9 (0.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 9 (0.52%) SEPA
14 8 (0.46%) COBIT
14 8 (0.46%) SLA
15 7 (0.40%) HMG Security Policy Framework
15 7 (0.40%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
16 6 (0.35%) Actionable Recommendations
System Software
1 371 (21.40%) Docker
2 29 (1.67%) Active Directory
3 8 (0.46%) Firmware
4 5 (0.29%) VMware ESXi
4 5 (0.29%) VMware Infrastructure
5 3 (0.17%) Active Directory Lightweight Directory Services
5 3 (0.17%) ISA Server
5 3 (0.17%) QEMU
5 3 (0.17%) Virtual Machines
5 3 (0.17%) Virtual Servers
5 3 (0.17%) zsh
6 2 (0.12%) Embedded Firmware
6 2 (0.12%) vSphere
7 1 (0.058%) HDFS
7 1 (0.058%) KVM
7 1 (0.058%) Time Sharing Option
7 1 (0.058%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 329 (18.97%) Kubernetes
2 219 (12.63%) Terraform
3 133 (7.67%) Ansible
4 87 (5.02%) Grafana
5 51 (2.94%) Prometheus
6 17 (0.98%) Progress Chef
7 16 (0.92%) CSIRT
7 16 (0.92%) Nmap
8 15 (0.87%) Argo
8 15 (0.87%) HP ALM
9 13 (0.75%) NetBackup
9 13 (0.75%) Single Sign-On
10 12 (0.69%) Puppet
11 7 (0.40%) Kibana
11 7 (0.40%) Nessus
11 7 (0.40%) Podman
12 5 (0.29%) RSA Archer
13 4 (0.23%) Rancher
13 4 (0.23%) SCCM
13 4 (0.23%) vRealize
Vendors
1 169 (9.75%) Microsoft
2 159 (9.17%) Oracle
3 70 (4.04%) ServiceNow
4 68 (3.92%) Splunk
5 66 (3.81%) SAP
6 64 (3.69%) Databricks
7 59 (3.40%) Salesforce
8 44 (2.54%) Google
9 30 (1.73%) Talend
10 28 (1.61%) Denodo
11 27 (1.56%) VMware
12 24 (1.38%) Cisco
13 23 (1.33%) F5
14 22 (1.27%) webMethods
15 20 (1.15%) IBM
15 20 (1.15%) Red Hat
16 18 (1.04%) Atlassian
17 17 (0.98%) MuleSoft
18 16 (0.92%) Dynatrace
18 16 (0.92%) HP