Test Automation Job Trends in the North of England

Automated Testing
England > North of England

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs advertised in the North of England requiring Test Automation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 14 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
14 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 113 78
Rank change year-on-year +14 -35 +19
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 370 259 362
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 1.58% 2.76% 2.57%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.24% 3.15% 3.29%
Number of salaries quoted 249 107 145
10th Percentile £40,500 £38,400 £38,388
25th Percentile £47,000 £47,365 £46,073
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -4.35%
75th Percentile £75,000 £71,625 £70,000
90th Percentile £83,750 £82,445 £78,750
England median annual salary £63,875 £64,075 £62,500
% change year-on-year -0.31% +2.52% -3.85%

All Process & Methodology Skills
North of England

Test Automation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills in the North of England.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 16,509 8,216 11,012
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 70.32% 87.51% 78.14%
Number of salaries quoted 12,331 4,088 6,191
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £39,390
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £48,318 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +13.83% -3.36% -9.09%
75th Percentile £75,000 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -7.93%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend in the North of England

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Test Automation relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the North of England.

Test Automation job vacancy trend in the North of England

Test Automation
Salary Trend in the North of England

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Test Automation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the North of England citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Salary Histogram in the North of England

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Automation in the North of England over the 6 months to 14 September 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Automation in the North of England

Test Automation
Job Locations in the North of England

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Test Automation within the North of England region over the 6 months to 14 September 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North West -5 184 £60,000 - 187
North East +15 101 £52,500 +50.00% 44
Yorkshire +8 85 £69,310 +38.62% 87
Test Automation
England

Test Automation
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the North of England 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 16 (4.32%) Apache Spark
2 13 (3.51%) Adobe Experience Manager
2 13 (3.51%) Apache
2 13 (3.51%) Apache Airflow
2 13 (3.51%) Jupyter
3 8 (2.16%) Confluence
4 3 (0.81%) SharePoint
5 2 (0.54%) nginx
6 1 (0.27%) CMS
6 1 (0.27%) Umbraco
6 1 (0.27%) WebLogic
6 1 (0.27%) WordPress
Applications
1 3 (0.81%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.27%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (1.08%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 156 (42.16%) AWS
2 117 (31.62%) Azure
3 62 (16.76%) Azure DevOps
4 56 (15.14%) Serverless
5 35 (9.46%) Amazon S3
6 30 (8.11%) GitHub
7 25 (6.76%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 24 (6.49%) AWS Lambda
9 21 (5.68%) Amazon EC2
9 21 (5.68%) GCP
10 19 (5.14%) Azure Data Factory
10 19 (5.14%) SaaS
11 16 (4.32%) Amazon ECR
12 15 (4.05%) Azure AKS
13 14 (3.78%) Amazon EMR
13 14 (3.78%) Azure Service Bus
13 14 (3.78%) Firebase
13 14 (3.78%) GitHub Actions
14 13 (3.51%) AWS CloudFormation
14 13 (3.51%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 2 (0.54%) HTTP
1 2 (0.54%) SMS
2 1 (0.27%) DNS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (7.03%) MongoDB
2 22 (5.95%) DynamoDB
3 21 (5.68%) PostgreSQL
4 17 (4.59%) NoSQL
5 16 (4.32%) Amazon Athena
6 15 (4.05%) Data Warehouse
6 15 (4.05%) SQL Server
7 13 (3.51%) Spark SQL
8 8 (2.16%) Relational Database
9 7 (1.89%) MySQL
10 6 (1.62%) Amazon Redshift
11 5 (1.35%) Data Lake
11 5 (1.35%) Delta Lake
11 5 (1.35%) Elasticsearch
11 5 (1.35%) Metadata
12 4 (1.08%) Big Data
12 4 (1.08%) DocumentDB
12 4 (1.08%) Neo4j
12 4 (1.08%) Redis
12 4 (1.08%) Semantic Layer
Development Applications
1 71 (19.19%) GitLab
2 40 (10.81%) Git
3 37 (10.00%) Jenkins
4 25 (6.76%) JIRA
5 21 (5.68%) Cypress.io
6 17 (4.59%) Postman
7 15 (4.05%) fastlane
7 15 (4.05%) Maven
8 13 (3.51%) JUnit
8 13 (3.51%) Spock
9 11 (2.97%) Cucumber
9 11 (2.97%) SonarQube
10 10 (2.70%) Bitbucket
11 8 (2.16%) Atlassian Bamboo
11 8 (2.16%) JMeter
11 8 (2.16%) Storybook
12 6 (1.62%) Selenium
12 6 (1.62%) Xcode
13 5 (1.35%) Crashlytics
13 5 (1.35%) Gradle
General
1 93 (25.14%) Social Skills
2 75 (20.27%) Public Sector
3 67 (18.11%) Finance
4 40 (10.81%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (10.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 14 (3.78%) Banking
6 13 (3.51%) Marketing
7 10 (2.70%) Publishing
8 9 (2.43%) Investment Banking
8 9 (2.43%) Legal
9 8 (2.16%) Games
10 7 (1.89%) Documentation Skills
10 7 (1.89%) Electronics
11 6 (1.62%) Law
11 6 (1.62%) Retail
12 5 (1.35%) Manufacturing
13 3 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
13 3 (0.81%) Police
13 3 (0.81%) Tech for Good
14 2 (0.54%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 105 (28.38%) Senior
2 66 (17.84%) Developer
3 57 (15.41%) Test Engineer
4 50 (13.51%) Lead
5 40 (10.81%) DevOps Engineer
6 32 (8.65%) Software Engineer
7 28 (7.57%) Data Engineer
7 28 (7.57%) Full-Stack Engineer
8 27 (7.30%) Senior Developer
9 24 (6.49%) Senior DevOps
9 24 (6.49%) Senior DevOps Engineer
10 18 (4.86%) Analyst
11 17 (4.59%) Java Developer
12 15 (4.05%) Databricks Engineer
12 15 (4.05%) Java Engineer
13 14 (3.78%) Databricks Data Engineer
14 13 (3.51%) Lead Data Engineer
14 13 (3.51%) QA Engineer
15 12 (3.24%) Azure Engineer
16 11 (2.97%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 69 (18.65%) Terraform
2 66 (17.84%) Node.js
3 56 (15.14%) AngularJS
4 50 (13.51%) REST
5 44 (11.89%) Spring
6 39 (10.54%) React
7 33 (8.92%) PySpark
8 32 (8.65%) Playwright
9 31 (8.38%) Spring Boot
10 29 (7.84%) CSS
10 29 (7.84%) HTML
11 24 (6.49%) .NET
11 24 (6.49%) RESTful
12 16 (4.32%) Next.js
12 16 (4.32%) Vue
13 11 (2.97%) GraphQL
13 11 (2.97%) Kafka
14 10 (2.70%) React Native
15 9 (2.43%) ARM Templates
16 8 (2.16%) SwiftUI
Miscellaneous
1 46 (12.43%) Product Ownership
2 42 (11.35%) Cloud Native
3 31 (8.38%) Mobile App
4 20 (5.41%) Distributed Systems
4 20 (5.41%) Private Cloud
5 11 (2.97%) Data Structures
6 8 (2.16%) Low-Code
7 7 (1.89%) AI Agents
7 7 (1.89%) Onboarding
8 6 (1.62%) Driving Licence
8 6 (1.62%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.62%) Marketing Technology
8 6 (1.62%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.35%) Greenfield Project
9 5 (1.35%) Self-Motivation
10 4 (1.08%) Enterprise Software
10 4 (1.08%) Online Games
11 3 (0.81%) PKI
11 3 (0.81%) Replication
12 2 (0.54%) Data Protection Act
Operating Systems
1 31 (8.38%) Linux
2 23 (6.22%) Windows
3 20 (5.41%) Unix
4 13 (3.51%) Apple iOS
5 9 (2.43%) Android
6 4 (1.08%) VMS
7 1 (0.27%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 251 (67.84%) CI/CD
2 209 (56.49%) Agile
3 168 (45.41%) DevOps
4 129 (34.86%) Mentoring
5 104 (28.11%) Continuous Improvement
6 94 (25.41%) Problem-Solving
7 92 (24.86%) Software Engineering
8 76 (20.54%) Scrum
9 73 (19.73%) Full-Stack Development
10 72 (19.46%) Microservices
11 71 (19.19%) Coaching
11 71 (19.19%) Infrastructure as Code
12 65 (17.57%) AI
13 63 (17.03%) Continuous Integration
13 63 (17.03%) TDD
14 60 (16.22%) Observability
15 51 (13.78%) Technical Leadership
16 47 (12.70%) Software Testing
17 45 (12.16%) Test Strategy
18 43 (11.62%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 129 (34.86%) Java
2 115 (31.08%) Python
3 95 (25.68%) JavaScript
4 90 (24.32%) SQL
5 70 (18.92%) TypeScript
6 39 (10.54%) C#
7 15 (4.05%) Bash
8 12 (3.24%) Groovy
8 12 (3.24%) Swift
9 10 (2.70%) C++
10 8 (2.16%) Kotlin
10 8 (2.16%) PowerShell
10 8 (2.16%) Ruby
11 6 (1.62%) C
12 5 (1.35%) Go
13 4 (1.08%) PHP
14 3 (0.81%) Bicep
14 3 (0.81%) VB
14 3 (0.81%) VB.NET
15 2 (0.54%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 54 (14.59%) Security Cleared
2 43 (11.62%) SC Cleared
3 29 (7.84%) Degree
4 17 (4.59%) Computer Science Degree
5 10 (2.70%) HNC
6 6 (1.62%) DBS Check
7 5 (1.35%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.35%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
7 5 (1.35%) Master's Degree
8 4 (1.08%) HND
9 3 (0.81%) ISTQB
9 3 (0.81%) NVQ Level 3
10 2 (0.54%) DV Cleared
10 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Certification
11 1 (0.27%) BPSS Clearance
11 1 (0.27%) CISM
11 1 (0.27%) CISSP
11 1 (0.27%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 1 (0.27%) ITIL Certification
11 1 (0.27%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 89 (24.05%) QA
2 44 (11.89%) Accessibility
3 26 (7.03%) WCAG
4 22 (5.95%) Data Quality
5 14 (3.78%) GDPR
6 3 (0.81%) GRC
7 2 (0.54%) PMO
8 1 (0.27%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.27%) NIST
System Software
1 68 (18.38%) Docker
Systems Management
1 39 (10.54%) Kubernetes
2 13 (3.51%) Argo
3 7 (1.89%) Ansible
4 4 (1.08%) Grafana
5 3 (0.81%) Packer
5 3 (0.81%) Progress Chef
5 3 (0.81%) Puppet
6 2 (0.54%) Kibana
6 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.27%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.27%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 32 (8.65%) Microsoft
2 24 (6.49%) Databricks
3 18 (4.86%) Splunk
4 16 (4.32%) AppDynamics
4 16 (4.32%) Dynatrace
5 13 (3.51%) Adobe
6 11 (2.97%) Google
7 9 (2.43%) Salesforce
8 8 (2.16%) Apple
9 7 (1.89%) Pega
10 4 (1.08%) Allen-Bradley
10 4 (1.08%) Confluent
10 4 (1.08%) Sage
10 4 (1.08%) Siemens
11 3 (0.81%) IBM
11 3 (0.81%) Keysight
12 2 (0.54%) dotdigital
12 2 (0.54%) Oracle
12 2 (0.54%) SAP
12 2 (0.54%) UiPath