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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 119 74
Rank change year-on-year +31 -45 +19
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 419 244 352
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 1.75% 2.55% 2.63%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.47% 2.89% 3.29%
Number of salaries quoted 293 90 122
10th Percentile £40,000 £39,675 £37,722
25th Percentile £47,000 £50,000 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +14.29% -12.50%
75th Percentile £74,987 £70,000 £68,438
90th Percentile £83,750 £80,000 £72,500
England median annual salary £62,500 £65,000 £62,500
% change year-on-year -3.85% +4.00% -

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 16,979 8,439 10,705
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 70.90% 88.03% 79.91%
Number of salaries quoted 12,630 4,065 5,365
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,250 £30,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £48,720 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year +12.89% -2.56% -9.09%
75th Percentile £74,985 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £78,750
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -1.64%

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 8 October 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 8 October 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 -14 185 £60,000 - 230
North East +30 133 £55,000 +78.86% 75
Yorkshire +34 110 £69,306 +26.01% 140
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 23 (5.49%) Apache Spark
2 18 (4.30%) Apache
2 18 (4.30%) Apache Airflow
3 16 (3.82%) Jupyter
4 13 (3.10%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 8 (1.91%) Confluence
6 6 (1.43%) nginx
7 5 (1.19%) Palantir Foundry
7 5 (1.19%) WebLogic
8 4 (0.95%) CMS
9 3 (0.72%) Headless CMS
9 3 (0.72%) SharePoint
10 1 (0.24%) Kentico
10 1 (0.24%) Umbraco
Applications
1 3 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.24%) EPLAN
3 1 (0.24%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (0.95%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 180 (42.96%) AWS
2 123 (29.36%) Azure
3 51 (12.17%) Serverless
4 50 (11.93%) Azure DevOps
5 43 (10.26%) Amazon S3
6 36 (8.59%) GitHub
7 31 (7.40%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 26 (6.21%) AWS Lambda
9 22 (5.25%) Amazon EC2
9 22 (5.25%) GCP
10 21 (5.01%) Amazon ECR
10 21 (5.01%) Amazon ECS
11 19 (4.53%) GitHub Actions
12 18 (4.30%) AWS CloudFormation
13 17 (4.06%) Amazon EMR
13 17 (4.06%) Azure Data Factory
14 15 (3.58%) Azure AKS
15 14 (3.34%) Azure Service Bus
15 14 (3.34%) Firebase
16 12 (2.86%) Amazon SQS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.72%) Reverse Proxy
2 2 (0.48%) DNS
2 2 (0.48%) HTTP
2 2 (0.48%) SMS
3 1 (0.24%) BIG-IP
3 1 (0.24%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 1 (0.24%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 1 (0.24%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (8.11%) MongoDB
2 25 (5.97%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (5.25%) DynamoDB
4 19 (4.53%) Amazon Athena
4 19 (4.53%) SQL Server
5 18 (4.30%) NoSQL
6 13 (3.10%) Data Warehouse
6 13 (3.10%) Metadata
7 11 (2.63%) Spark SQL
8 9 (2.15%) MySQL
9 8 (1.91%) Amazon Redshift
9 8 (1.91%) Data Lake
9 8 (1.91%) Delta Lake
9 8 (1.91%) Relational Database
9 8 (1.91%) Semantic Layer
10 6 (1.43%) DocumentDB
11 5 (1.19%) Elasticsearch
12 4 (0.95%) Big Data
12 4 (0.95%) BigQuery
12 4 (0.95%) Redis
Development Applications
1 88 (21.00%) GitLab
2 49 (11.69%) Git
3 38 (9.07%) Jenkins
4 22 (5.25%) Cypress.io
5 20 (4.77%) JIRA
6 15 (3.58%) fastlane
6 15 (3.58%) JUnit
6 15 (3.58%) Maven
7 13 (3.10%) Spock
8 12 (2.86%) Postman
9 9 (2.15%) Bitbucket
9 9 (2.15%) Selenium
10 8 (1.91%) Atlassian Bamboo
10 8 (1.91%) Cucumber
10 8 (1.91%) SonarQube
10 8 (1.91%) Storybook
11 7 (1.67%) JMeter
12 6 (1.43%) Xcode
13 5 (1.19%) Android Studio
13 5 (1.19%) Gradle
General
1 119 (28.40%) Public Sector
2 107 (25.54%) Social Skills
3 66 (15.75%) Finance
4 57 (13.60%) Analytical Skills
5 41 (9.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 12 (2.86%) Banking
6 12 (2.86%) Marketing
7 11 (2.63%) Electronics
7 11 (2.63%) Publishing
8 9 (2.15%) Manufacturing
9 8 (1.91%) Legal
10 6 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
10 6 (1.43%) Games
10 6 (1.43%) Law
10 6 (1.43%) Retail
11 5 (1.19%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
12 3 (0.72%) Police
12 3 (0.72%) Tech for Good
13 2 (0.48%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 132 (31.50%) Senior
2 72 (17.18%) Developer
3 54 (12.89%) Test Engineer
4 49 (11.69%) DevOps Engineer
5 37 (8.83%) Lead
6 35 (8.35%) Software Engineer
7 32 (7.64%) Data Engineer
8 29 (6.92%) Senior Developer
8 29 (6.92%) Senior DevOps
8 29 (6.92%) Senior DevOps Engineer
9 25 (5.97%) Full-Stack Engineer
9 25 (5.97%) Tester
10 22 (5.25%) QA Engineer
11 20 (4.77%) Analyst
12 18 (4.30%) Java Developer
12 18 (4.30%) QA Tester
13 16 (3.82%) Software Developer
14 14 (3.34%) Databricks Engineer
15 13 (3.10%) Automation Engineer
15 13 (3.10%) Databricks Data Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 81 (19.33%) Node.js
2 71 (16.95%) Terraform
3 52 (12.41%) AngularJS
3 52 (12.41%) REST
4 45 (10.74%) Spring
5 39 (9.31%) CSS
5 39 (9.31%) HTML
6 38 (9.07%) React
7 34 (8.11%) PySpark
8 32 (7.64%) Playwright
8 32 (7.64%) Spring Boot
9 29 (6.92%) .NET
9 29 (6.92%) RESTful
10 21 (5.01%) Kafka
11 16 (3.82%) Next.js
12 12 (2.86%) GraphQL
12 12 (2.86%) Vue
13 11 (2.63%) React Native
14 10 (2.39%) .NET Core
15 9 (2.15%) Jest
Miscellaneous
1 48 (11.46%) Product Ownership
2 47 (11.22%) Cloud Native
3 30 (7.16%) Mobile App
4 20 (4.77%) Private Cloud
5 19 (4.53%) Distributed Systems
6 9 (2.15%) Enterprise Software
6 9 (2.15%) Onboarding
6 9 (2.15%) Self-Motivation
7 8 (1.91%) AI Agents
7 8 (1.91%) Data Structures
7 8 (1.91%) Low-Code
8 6 (1.43%) Driving Licence
8 6 (1.43%) Legacy Systems
8 6 (1.43%) Marketing Technology
8 6 (1.43%) Virtual Team
9 5 (1.19%) Culture of Ownership
9 5 (1.19%) Greenfield Project
10 3 (0.72%) Replication
11 2 (0.48%) Online Games
11 2 (0.48%) Robotics
Operating Systems
1 35 (8.35%) Linux
2 27 (6.44%) Windows
3 26 (6.21%) Unix
4 13 (3.10%) Apple iOS
5 9 (2.15%) Android
6 4 (0.95%) VMS
7 1 (0.24%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 285 (68.02%) CI/CD
2 240 (57.28%) Agile
3 184 (43.91%) DevOps
4 150 (35.80%) Mentoring
5 132 (31.50%) Continuous Improvement
6 108 (25.78%) Problem-Solving
7 104 (24.82%) Software Engineering
8 89 (21.24%) Coaching
9 84 (20.05%) Scrum
10 81 (19.33%) Microservices
11 78 (18.62%) Infrastructure as Code
12 71 (16.95%) Observability
13 67 (15.99%) AI
13 67 (15.99%) TDD
14 64 (15.27%) Continuous Integration
14 64 (15.27%) Full-Stack Development
14 64 (15.27%) Technical Leadership
15 63 (15.04%) Software Testing
16 61 (14.56%) Validation
17 50 (11.93%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 125 (29.83%) Java
2 122 (29.12%) Python
3 106 (25.30%) JavaScript
4 95 (22.67%) SQL
5 79 (18.85%) TypeScript
6 43 (10.26%) C#
7 20 (4.77%) Bash
8 12 (2.86%) Swift
9 10 (2.39%) C++
9 10 (2.39%) Kotlin
10 9 (2.15%) Groovy
10 9 (2.15%) PowerShell
11 8 (1.91%) Ruby
12 7 (1.67%) Go
13 5 (1.19%) C
14 4 (0.95%) PHP
15 3 (0.72%) VB
15 3 (0.72%) VB.NET
16 2 (0.48%) Data Analysis Expressions
16 2 (0.48%) Shell Script
Qualifications
1 78 (18.62%) Security Cleared
2 66 (15.75%) SC Cleared
3 29 (6.92%) Degree
4 15 (3.58%) Computer Science Degree
5 11 (2.63%) AWS Certification
5 11 (2.63%) HNC
6 7 (1.67%) Master's Degree
7 6 (1.43%) DBS Check
8 5 (1.19%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
9 4 (0.95%) DV Cleared
9 4 (0.95%) HND
10 3 (0.72%) NVQ Level 3
11 2 (0.48%) Azure Certification
11 2 (0.48%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.48%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.24%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
12 1 (0.24%) CISM
12 1 (0.24%) CISSP
12 1 (0.24%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.24%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 108 (25.78%) QA
2 48 (11.46%) Accessibility
3 30 (7.16%) Data Quality
4 27 (6.44%) WCAG
5 8 (1.91%) GDPR
6 4 (0.95%) GRC
7 2 (0.48%) PMO
8 1 (0.24%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.24%) NIST
System Software
1 80 (19.09%) Docker
2 1 (0.24%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 49 (11.69%) Kubernetes
2 13 (3.10%) Argo
3 8 (1.91%) Ansible
4 5 (1.19%) Grafana
5 3 (0.72%) Progress Chef
5 3 (0.72%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.72%) Puppet
6 2 (0.48%) Kibana
6 2 (0.48%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.24%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.24%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 33 (7.88%) Microsoft
2 28 (6.68%) Databricks
3 18 (4.30%) Dynatrace
3 18 (4.30%) Splunk
4 13 (3.10%) Adobe
4 13 (3.10%) AppDynamics
5 10 (2.39%) Google
6 8 (1.91%) Apple
7 6 (1.43%) Confluent
7 6 (1.43%) Pega
8 5 (1.19%) Foundry
8 5 (1.19%) Palantir
9 4 (0.95%) Allen-Bradley
9 4 (0.95%) Oracle
9 4 (0.95%) Sage
9 4 (0.95%) Salesforce
9 4 (0.95%) Siemens
10 3 (0.72%) Keysight
10 3 (0.72%) SAP
11 2 (0.48%) UiPath