Automation Test Lead Contracts with Hybrid/Remote/WFH Options

Test Automation Leader
UK > Work from Home

The median Test Automation Leader daily rate for remote or hybrid work is £475, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 298 336 466
Rank change year-on-year +38 +130 +136
Contract jobs requiring an Automation Test Lead 6 9 11
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 0.061% 0.059% 0.043%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.065% 0.063% 0.045%
Number of daily rates quoted 6 2 5
10th Percentile - £418 £405
25th Percentile - £445 £525
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £490 £563
Median % change year-on-year -3.06% -12.89% +8.17%
75th Percentile £531 £535 £638
90th Percentile £550 £562 £649
UK median daily rate £475 £500 £600
% change year-on-year -5.00% -16.67% +17.07%

All Contract IT Job Vacancies
Work from Home

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies with WFH or hybrid options. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

Contract vacancies in Work from Home with a recognized job title 9,288 14,354 24,650
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 93.77% 93.54% 95.33%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,350 9,595 17,415
10th Percentile £337 £325 £360
25th Percentile £414 £425 £444
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year - -2.69% +2.76%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £763 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 228 579 565
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.38 £18.50
25th Percentile £18.19 £23.39 £26.00
Median hourly rate £38.00 £44.74 £55.00
Median % change year-on-year -15.06% -18.65% +57.14%
75th Percentile £66.00 £63.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.25 £80.25
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Automation Test Lead
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options which featured Automation Test Lead in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

Automation Test Lead trend for jobs with Hybrid/Remote/WFH options

Automation Test Lead
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in job vacancies with remote working options citing Automation Test Lead.

Automation Test Lead daily rate for jobs with a WFH option

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in Job Vacancies with WFH Options

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Automation Test Lead contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract jobs with a WFH option featuring Automation Test Lead in the job title.

1 6 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 5 (83.33%) Test Strategy
2 5 (83.33%) Problem-Solving
2 5 (83.33%) CI/CD
3 3 (50.00%) Technical Leadership
3 3 (50.00%) Software Delivery
3 3 (50.00%) Component Testing
3 3 (50.00%) DevOps
3 3 (50.00%) Cypress.io
3 3 (50.00%) AWS
3 3 (50.00%) JMeter
3 3 (50.00%) Law
3 3 (50.00%) JIRA
3 3 (50.00%) Test Scripting
3 3 (50.00%) Continuous Integration
3 3 (50.00%) Stakeholder Management
3 3 (50.00%) SC Cleared
3 3 (50.00%) Security Cleared
4 2 (33.33%) Finance
4 2 (33.33%) CRM
4 2 (33.33%) Mentoring
4 2 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
4 2 (33.33%) Deployment Automation
4 2 (33.33%) Social Skills
5 1 (16.67%) Data-Driven Testing
5 1 (16.67%) Data Analytics
5 1 (16.67%) Analytics
5 1 (16.67%) Data Warehouse
5 1 (16.67%) ETL
5 1 (16.67%) SQL

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities with WFH Options by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Cloud Services
1 3 (50.00%) AWS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 1 (16.67%) Data Warehouse
Development Applications
1 3 (50.00%) Cypress.io
1 3 (50.00%) JIRA
1 3 (50.00%) JMeter
General
1 3 (50.00%) Law
2 2 (33.33%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (33.33%) Finance
2 2 (33.33%) Social Skills
Processes & Methodologies
1 6 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 5 (83.33%) CI/CD
2 5 (83.33%) Problem-Solving
2 5 (83.33%) Test Strategy
3 3 (50.00%) Component Testing
3 3 (50.00%) Continuous Integration
3 3 (50.00%) DevOps
3 3 (50.00%) Software Delivery
3 3 (50.00%) Stakeholder Management
3 3 (50.00%) Technical Leadership
3 3 (50.00%) Test Scripting
4 2 (33.33%) CRM
4 2 (33.33%) Deployment Automation
4 2 (33.33%) Mentoring
5 1 (16.67%) Analytics
5 1 (16.67%) Data Analytics
5 1 (16.67%) Data Cleansing
5 1 (16.67%) Data Management
5 1 (16.67%) Data-Driven Testing
5 1 (16.67%) ETL
Programming Languages
1 1 (16.67%) Python
1 1 (16.67%) SQL
Qualifications
1 3 (50.00%) SC Cleared
1 3 (50.00%) Security Cleared