Test Automation Contracts with Hybrid/Remote/WFH Options

Automated Testing
UK > Work from Home

The table below provides summary statistics for remote or hybrid contract work requiring Test Automation skills. It includes a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Test Automation over the 6 months leading up to 21 May 2025, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
21 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 45 44 48
Rank change year-on-year -1 +4 0
Contract jobs citing Test Automation 458 595 1,094
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 4.70% 4.04% 4.42%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 5.14% 4.60% 4.92%
Number of daily rates quoted 337 403 798
10th Percentile £313 £363 £400
25th Percentile £390 £425 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £492 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.60% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £588 £603 £650
90th Percentile £800 £688 £750
UK median daily rate £500 £510 £550
% change year-on-year -1.96% -7.27% +1.38%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 39 19
10th Percentile £34.12 - £48.00
25th Percentile £44.51 £52.50 £54.38
Median hourly rate £55.00 £55.00 £71.00
Median % change year-on-year - -22.54% +18.33%
75th Percentile £64.52 £73.50 £90.00
90th Percentile £66.11 £90.00 -
UK median hourly rate £52.50 £60.00 £69.38
% change year-on-year -12.50% -13.51% +27.88%

All Process and Methodology Skills
Work from Home

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 with remote or hybrid options requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 8,904 12,942 22,217
As % of all contract jobs with a WFH option 91.35% 87.90% 89.66%
Number of daily rates quoted 6,082 8,728 15,724
10th Percentile £331 £325 £363
25th Percentile £413 £425 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £525 £544
Median % change year-on-year -0.95% -3.49% +3.62%
75th Percentile £638 £638 £650
90th Percentile £763 £750 £750
UK median daily rate £513 £525 £550
% change year-on-year -2.38% -4.55% +3.77%
Number of hourly rates quoted 211 567 510
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.70 £18.63
25th Percentile £18.50 £24.13 £26.46
Median hourly rate £37.00 £43.00 £52.50
Median % change year-on-year -13.95% -18.10% +32.91%
75th Percentile £66.75 £60.00 £68.75
90th Percentile £75.00 £75.00 £80.00
UK median hourly rate £27.64 £36.50 £36.00
% change year-on-year -24.27% +1.39% +40.19%

Test Automation
Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

Job vacancies with remote working options citing Test Automation as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised.

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

Test Automation
Daily Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

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

Test Automation daily rate for jobs with a WFH option

Test Automation
Daily Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Daily rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing Test Automation over the 6 months to 21 May 2025.

Test Automation daily rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Trend for Jobs with a WFH Option

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

Test Automation hourly rate for jobs with a WFH option

Test Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram for Jobs with a WFH Option

Hourly rate distribution for jobs with remote working options citing Test Automation over the 6 months to 21 May 2025.

Test Automation hourly rate histogram for jobs with a WFH option

Test Automation
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:

Application Platforms
1 20 (4.37%) Confluence
2 9 (1.97%) Apache Spark
3 2 (0.44%) Anypoint
3 2 (0.44%) Apache
3 2 (0.44%) GeoServer
4 1 (0.22%) Apache Airflow
4 1 (0.22%) CICS
4 1 (0.22%) Drupal
4 1 (0.22%) JBoss
4 1 (0.22%) Oracle Coherence
4 1 (0.22%) SAS
4 1 (0.22%) SharePoint
4 1 (0.22%) WebLogic
4 1 (0.22%) WordPress
Applications
1 10 (2.18%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.44%) MS Visio
2 2 (0.44%) Trello
3 1 (0.22%) Chatbot
3 1 (0.22%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.22%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.09%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (0.44%) Aladdin
2 2 (0.44%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.44%) SAP MM
2 2 (0.44%) SAP SCM
2 2 (0.44%) SimCorp Dimension
3 1 (0.22%) Magento
3 1 (0.22%) Oracle Financials
3 1 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
3 1 (0.22%) SAP CO
3 1 (0.22%) SAP CRM
3 1 (0.22%) SAP FI
3 1 (0.22%) SAP FI/CO
3 1 (0.22%) SAP Hybris
3 1 (0.22%) Temenos T24
3 1 (0.22%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 138 (30.13%) AWS
2 118 (25.76%) Azure
3 60 (13.10%) Azure DevOps
4 51 (11.14%) GCP
5 49 (10.70%) GitHub
6 31 (6.77%) AWS CloudFormation
7 30 (6.55%) Serverless
8 26 (5.68%) SaaS
9 25 (5.46%) AWS Lambda
10 23 (5.02%) GitHub Actions
11 22 (4.80%) Amazon S3
12 21 (4.59%) PaaS
13 20 (4.37%) IaaS
14 17 (3.71%) Amazon SQS
15 12 (2.62%) Azure Cosmos DB
16 10 (2.18%) Azure Service Bus
17 8 (1.75%) BrowserStack
17 8 (1.75%) Google Kubernetes Engine
18 7 (1.53%) AWS CodePipeline
18 7 (1.53%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 39 (8.52%) HTTP
2 23 (5.02%) Firewall
3 21 (4.59%) DNS
4 20 (4.37%) TCP/IP
5 18 (3.93%) BGP
5 18 (3.93%) DHCP
5 18 (3.93%) HTTPS
5 18 (3.93%) OSPF
6 2 (0.44%) FTP
6 2 (0.44%) SMTP
6 2 (0.44%) SSL
7 1 (0.22%) Internet
7 1 (0.22%) Network Security
7 1 (0.22%) SMS
7 1 (0.22%) SNMP
7 1 (0.22%) Software-Defined Radio
7 1 (0.22%) SSH
7 1 (0.22%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 32 (6.99%) PostgreSQL
2 23 (5.02%) Relational Database
3 21 (4.59%) SQL Server
4 16 (3.49%) NoSQL
5 15 (3.28%) Elasticsearch
5 15 (3.28%) MongoDB
6 13 (2.84%) Data Warehouse
7 12 (2.62%) DynamoDB
8 9 (1.97%) Hadoop
9 8 (1.75%) Big Data
10 7 (1.53%) Data Lake
10 7 (1.53%) MS Access
11 6 (1.31%) GIS
11 6 (1.31%) MySQL
12 5 (1.09%) Amazon Aurora
13 4 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
13 4 (0.87%) Apache Cassandra
13 4 (0.87%) DB2
14 3 (0.66%) ObjectStore
14 3 (0.66%) RDBMS
Development Applications
1 75 (16.38%) Selenium
2 65 (14.19%) JIRA
3 62 (13.54%) Jenkins
4 53 (11.57%) Git
5 50 (10.92%) Cypress.io
6 44 (9.61%) Postman
7 43 (9.39%) GitLab
8 37 (8.08%) Cucumber
9 36 (7.86%) REST Assured
10 30 (6.55%) JMeter
11 22 (4.80%) JUnit
12 15 (3.28%) Appium
13 14 (3.06%) SpecFlow
14 13 (2.84%) Bitbucket
15 12 (2.62%) Gatling
15 12 (2.62%) SonarQube
16 8 (1.75%) HP UFT
16 8 (1.75%) QARun
16 8 (1.75%) TestNG
16 8 (1.75%) WinRunner
General
1 122 (26.64%) Social Skills
2 66 (14.41%) Analytical Skills
3 64 (13.97%) Finance
4 51 (11.14%) Public Sector
5 43 (9.39%) Banking
6 18 (3.93%) Front Office
7 12 (2.62%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 12 (2.62%) Investment Banking
8 9 (1.97%) Financial Institution
8 9 (1.97%) Law
9 8 (1.75%) Manufacturing
10 6 (1.31%) Presentation Skills
11 5 (1.09%) Police
12 4 (0.87%) Organisational Skills
12 4 (0.87%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.66%) Automotive
13 3 (0.66%) Electronics
13 3 (0.66%) Legal
13 3 (0.66%) Marketing
13 3 (0.66%) Retail
Job Titles
1 84 (18.34%) Developer
2 60 (13.10%) Analyst
2 60 (13.10%) Tester
3 49 (10.70%) Senior
4 41 (8.95%) Test Engineer
5 38 (8.30%) Test Analyst
6 33 (7.21%) Architect
6 33 (7.21%) Automation Tester
6 33 (7.21%) Software Engineer
7 31 (6.77%) Lead
8 20 (4.37%) QA Engineer
8 20 (4.37%) Test Manager
9 19 (4.15%) Technical Architect
10 18 (3.93%) Cloud Architect
10 18 (3.93%) Cloud Native Architect
11 15 (3.28%) DevOps Engineer
12 14 (3.06%) Pensions Analyst
13 13 (2.84%) Consultant
13 13 (2.84%) Full-Stack Developer
13 13 (2.84%) Test Automation Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (11.79%) Playwright
2 42 (9.17%) REST
3 40 (8.73%) .NET
4 38 (8.30%) RESTful
5 33 (7.21%) React
6 32 (6.99%) Node.js
7 28 (6.11%) CSS
8 26 (5.68%) HTML
9 25 (5.46%) Kafka
10 22 (4.80%) AWS CDK
10 22 (4.80%) Web Services
11 17 (3.71%) Jest
12 16 (3.49%) Spring
13 15 (3.28%) pytest
14 14 (3.06%) AngularJS
14 14 (3.06%) OpenTelemetry
15 13 (2.84%) Spring Boot
16 12 (2.62%) OAuth
17 11 (2.40%) JSON
17 11 (2.40%) Swagger
Miscellaneous
1 31 (6.77%) Cloud Native
2 24 (5.24%) Product Ownership
3 14 (3.06%) Fixed Income
4 11 (2.40%) Data Structures
5 10 (2.18%) Mobile App
6 9 (1.97%) Legacy Systems
7 7 (1.53%) Algorithms
8 6 (1.31%) Renewable Energy
9 5 (1.09%) Greenfield Project
10 4 (0.87%) Distributed Systems
10 4 (0.87%) Hedge funds
10 4 (0.87%) Linux Command Line
10 4 (0.87%) Management Information System
10 4 (0.87%) Reference Data
10 4 (0.87%) Self-Motivation
10 4 (0.87%) Virtual Team
11 3 (0.66%) Analytical Mindset
11 3 (0.66%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
11 3 (0.66%) Life Science
11 3 (0.66%) Vector Graphics
Operating Systems
1 35 (7.64%) Linux
2 21 (4.59%) Windows
3 20 (4.37%) Unix
4 12 (2.62%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 7 (1.53%) Android
6 6 (1.31%) Apple iOS
7 1 (0.22%) Mac OS X
7 1 (0.22%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (41.48%) CI/CD
2 189 (41.27%) Agile
3 138 (30.13%) DevOps
4 98 (21.40%) Problem-Solving
5 73 (15.94%) Microservices
6 65 (14.19%) Containerisation
7 64 (13.97%) Infrastructure as Code
8 63 (13.76%) Software Engineering
9 55 (12.01%) Test Strategy
10 53 (11.57%) Migration
11 52 (11.35%) Test Scripting
12 48 (10.48%) TDD
12 48 (10.48%) User Acceptance Testing
13 47 (10.26%) Scrum
14 45 (9.83%) Manual Testing
14 45 (9.83%) Software Testing
15 44 (9.61%) Continuous Integration
15 44 (9.61%) Mentoring
16 43 (9.39%) API Testing
17 42 (9.17%) Performance Testing
Programming Languages
1 132 (28.82%) Python
2 106 (23.14%) Java
3 98 (21.40%) JavaScript
4 89 (19.43%) SQL
5 64 (13.97%) C#
6 56 (12.23%) TypeScript
7 24 (5.24%) Bash
8 21 (4.59%) Bicep
9 14 (3.06%) PowerShell
10 12 (2.62%) C++
11 9 (1.97%) Go
12 8 (1.75%) Ruby
13 7 (1.53%) PHP
13 7 (1.53%) T-SQL
14 6 (1.31%) Scala
15 5 (1.09%) F#
15 5 (1.09%) Rust
16 4 (0.87%) Groovy
16 4 (0.87%) Shell Script
16 4 (0.87%) VB
Qualifications
1 101 (22.05%) Security Cleared
2 93 (20.31%) SC Cleared
3 35 (7.64%) Degree
4 15 (3.28%) ISTQB
5 13 (2.84%) Computer Science Degree
6 6 (1.31%) DV Cleared
7 5 (1.09%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 4 (0.87%) BPSS Clearance
8 4 (0.87%) ISEB
9 3 (0.66%) CEH
9 3 (0.66%) CISSP
9 3 (0.66%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.44%) AWS Certification
10 2 (0.44%) Azure Certification
10 2 (0.44%) CISA
10 2 (0.44%) CRISC
10 2 (0.44%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
10 2 (0.44%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.22%) CREST Certified
11 1 (0.22%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 91 (19.87%) QA
2 28 (6.11%) Accessibility
3 9 (1.97%) WCAG
4 6 (1.31%) Data Quality
4 6 (1.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 2 (0.44%) GMP
5 2 (0.44%) Government Security Classifications
5 2 (0.44%) GRC
5 2 (0.44%) ITGC
5 2 (0.44%) PMO
5 2 (0.44%) SEPA
5 2 (0.44%) Software Quality Assurance
5 2 (0.44%) SOX 404
6 1 (0.22%) GDPR
6 1 (0.22%) GxP
6 1 (0.22%) HL7
6 1 (0.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 1 (0.22%) NIST
6 1 (0.22%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.22%) SLA
System Software
1 68 (14.85%) Docker
2 3 (0.66%) Active Directory
2 3 (0.66%) VMware Infrastructure
3 2 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
3 2 (0.44%) VMware ESXi
3 2 (0.44%) VMware NSX
3 2 (0.44%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 72 (15.72%) Kubernetes
2 61 (13.32%) Terraform
3 29 (6.33%) Ansible
4 24 (5.24%) Grafana
5 8 (1.75%) Argo
5 8 (1.75%) Puppet
6 7 (1.53%) Prometheus
7 5 (1.09%) Docker Swarm
7 5 (1.09%) Podman
8 4 (0.87%) Progress Chef
9 3 (0.66%) HP ALM
9 3 (0.66%) Kibana
10 2 (0.44%) CloudHub
10 2 (0.44%) Nessus
11 1 (0.22%) Functional Safety
11 1 (0.22%) Istio
11 1 (0.22%) Rancher
11 1 (0.22%) Single Sign-On
Vendors
1 21 (4.59%) Microsoft
2 19 (4.15%) Oracle
3 18 (3.93%) CheckPoint
3 18 (3.93%) Cisco
3 18 (3.93%) Fortinet
3 18 (3.93%) Palo Alto
4 16 (3.49%) SAP
5 15 (3.28%) Google
6 9 (1.97%) ION Trading
7 8 (1.75%) Splunk
8 7 (1.53%) ServiceNow
9 6 (1.31%) Citrix
9 6 (1.31%) Databricks
10 5 (1.09%) Salesforce
11 4 (0.87%) Atlassian
11 4 (0.87%) Bloomberg
11 4 (0.87%) Reuters
12 3 (0.66%) CyberArk
12 3 (0.66%) TOWER Software
12 3 (0.66%) VMware