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

6 months to
14 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 124 75
Rank change year-on-year +39 -49 +19
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 439 243 340
As % of all permanent jobs in the North of England 1.83% 2.58% 2.62%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.57% 2.93% 3.27%
Number of salaries quoted 305 92 112
10th Percentile £40,000 £39,750 £36,375
25th Percentile £47,000 £50,188 £44,938
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £49,750
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +20.60% -17.08%
75th Percentile £74,985 £70,500 £68,750
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 17,102 8,280 10,385
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the North of England 71.16% 87.81% 80.09%
Number of salaries quoted 12,675 4,092 5,058
10th Percentile £30,000 £26,250 £30,250
25th Percentile £40,000 £32,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £48,720 £50,652
Median % change year-on-year +12.89% -3.81% -7.91%
75th Percentile £74,985 £65,000 £65,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £80,000 £80,000
England median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -1.32%

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 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 14 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 -4 196 £60,000 -3.23% 204
North East +21 136 £55,000 +78.86% 65
Yorkshire +36 116 £69,305 +26.01% 124
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 24 (5.47%) Apache Spark
2 19 (4.33%) Apache
2 19 (4.33%) Apache Airflow
3 16 (3.64%) Jupyter
4 13 (2.96%) Adobe Experience Manager
5 9 (2.05%) Confluence
6 6 (1.37%) nginx
6 6 (1.37%) WebLogic
7 5 (1.14%) Palantir Foundry
8 4 (0.91%) CMS
9 3 (0.68%) Headless CMS
9 3 (0.68%) SharePoint
10 1 (0.23%) Kentico
10 1 (0.23%) Umbraco
Applications
1 3 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 2 (0.46%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.23%) EPLAN
3 1 (0.23%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 4 (0.91%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.23%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 183 (41.69%) AWS
2 126 (28.70%) Azure
3 53 (12.07%) Serverless
4 48 (10.93%) Azure DevOps
5 46 (10.48%) Amazon S3
6 39 (8.88%) GitHub
7 32 (7.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
8 28 (6.38%) AWS Lambda
9 23 (5.24%) Amazon ECS
9 23 (5.24%) GCP
10 22 (5.01%) Amazon EC2
11 21 (4.78%) Amazon ECR
12 20 (4.56%) AWS CloudFormation
12 20 (4.56%) GitHub Actions
13 18 (4.10%) Amazon EMR
14 17 (3.87%) Azure Data Factory
15 15 (3.42%) dbt
16 14 (3.19%) Firebase
17 13 (2.96%) Amazon SQS
17 13 (2.96%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 3 (0.68%) Reverse Proxy
2 2 (0.46%) DNS
2 2 (0.46%) HTTP
2 2 (0.46%) SMS
3 1 (0.23%) BIG-IP
3 1 (0.23%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
3 1 (0.23%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
3 1 (0.23%) Network Security
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (7.52%) MongoDB
2 24 (5.47%) PostgreSQL
3 23 (5.24%) DynamoDB
4 21 (4.78%) Amazon Athena
5 20 (4.56%) SQL Server
6 18 (4.10%) NoSQL
7 15 (3.42%) Metadata
8 14 (3.19%) Data Warehouse
9 11 (2.51%) Spark SQL
10 10 (2.28%) Relational Database
10 10 (2.28%) Semantic Layer
11 9 (2.05%) Amazon Redshift
11 9 (2.05%) Delta Lake
11 9 (2.05%) MySQL
12 8 (1.82%) Data Lake
13 6 (1.37%) DocumentDB
13 6 (1.37%) Power BI
14 5 (1.14%) Elasticsearch
15 4 (0.91%) Amazon RDS
15 4 (0.91%) BigQuery
Development Applications
1 88 (20.05%) GitLab
2 51 (11.62%) Git
3 39 (8.88%) Jenkins
4 23 (5.24%) Cypress.io
5 21 (4.78%) JIRA
6 16 (3.64%) JUnit
7 15 (3.42%) fastlane
7 15 (3.42%) Maven
8 13 (2.96%) Spock
9 11 (2.51%) Postman
10 10 (2.28%) Selenium
11 9 (2.05%) Bitbucket
11 9 (2.05%) Cucumber
12 8 (1.82%) Atlassian Bamboo
12 8 (1.82%) SonarQube
12 8 (1.82%) Storybook
13 7 (1.59%) JMeter
14 6 (1.37%) Xcode
15 5 (1.14%) Android Studio
15 5 (1.14%) Gradle
General
1 121 (27.56%) Public Sector
2 117 (26.65%) Social Skills
3 74 (16.86%) Finance
4 61 (13.90%) Analytical Skills
5 42 (9.57%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 17 (3.87%) Banking
7 12 (2.73%) Electronics
7 12 (2.73%) Marketing
8 11 (2.51%) Publishing
9 10 (2.28%) Manufacturing
10 8 (1.82%) Legal
11 7 (1.59%) Games
11 7 (1.59%) Retail Banking
12 6 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
12 6 (1.37%) Law
12 6 (1.37%) Retail
13 5 (1.14%) Investment Banking
14 3 (0.68%) Organisational Skills
14 3 (0.68%) Police
14 3 (0.68%) Tech for Good
Job Titles
1 136 (30.98%) Senior
2 76 (17.31%) Developer
3 57 (12.98%) Test Engineer
4 47 (10.71%) DevOps Engineer
5 39 (8.88%) Software Engineer
6 36 (8.20%) Lead
7 35 (7.97%) Data Engineer
8 31 (7.06%) Senior Developer
9 27 (6.15%) Tester
10 26 (5.92%) Senior DevOps
10 26 (5.92%) Senior DevOps Engineer
11 25 (5.69%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 25 (5.69%) QA Engineer
12 21 (4.78%) Analyst
13 19 (4.33%) Java Developer
13 19 (4.33%) QA Tester
14 17 (3.87%) Software Developer
15 16 (3.64%) Automation Engineer
15 16 (3.64%) QA Automation Engineer
16 15 (3.42%) Databricks Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 82 (18.68%) Node.js
2 72 (16.40%) Terraform
3 55 (12.53%) REST
4 52 (11.85%) AngularJS
5 47 (10.71%) Spring
6 41 (9.34%) CSS
6 41 (9.34%) HTML
7 39 (8.88%) React
8 36 (8.20%) PySpark
9 34 (7.74%) Spring Boot
10 33 (7.52%) Playwright
11 32 (7.29%) RESTful
12 29 (6.61%) .NET
13 25 (5.69%) Kafka
14 17 (3.87%) Next.js
15 13 (2.96%) GraphQL
16 12 (2.73%) Vue
17 11 (2.51%) React Native
18 10 (2.28%) Express.js
18 10 (2.28%) Gherkin
Miscellaneous
1 51 (11.62%) Product Ownership
2 49 (11.16%) Cloud Native
3 30 (6.83%) Mobile App
4 22 (5.01%) Distributed Systems
5 20 (4.56%) Private Cloud
6 11 (2.51%) Enterprise Software
7 9 (2.05%) Onboarding
7 9 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
8 8 (1.82%) AI Agents
8 8 (1.82%) Data Structures
8 8 (1.82%) Low-Code
9 7 (1.59%) Legacy Systems
10 6 (1.37%) Driving Licence
10 6 (1.37%) Marketing Technology
10 6 (1.37%) Mobile Banking
10 6 (1.37%) Virtual Team
11 5 (1.14%) Culture of Ownership
11 5 (1.14%) Greenfield Project
12 3 (0.68%) Analogue Electronics
12 3 (0.68%) Replication
Operating Systems
1 33 (7.52%) Linux
2 24 (5.47%) Windows
3 23 (5.24%) Unix
4 13 (2.96%) Apple iOS
5 9 (2.05%) Android
6 4 (0.91%) VMS
7 1 (0.23%) Windows Server
Processes & Methodologies
1 296 (67.43%) CI/CD
2 250 (56.95%) Agile
3 191 (43.51%) DevOps
4 151 (34.40%) Mentoring
5 142 (32.35%) Continuous Improvement
6 114 (25.97%) Problem-Solving
7 112 (25.51%) Software Engineering
8 87 (19.82%) Coaching
9 86 (19.59%) Scrum
10 82 (18.68%) Microservices
11 81 (18.45%) Infrastructure as Code
12 76 (17.31%) AI
13 74 (16.86%) Observability
14 71 (16.17%) TDD
15 69 (15.72%) Technical Leadership
16 66 (15.03%) Full-Stack Development
16 66 (15.03%) Software Testing
17 65 (14.81%) Validation
18 62 (14.12%) Continuous Integration
19 53 (12.07%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 129 (29.38%) Java
1 129 (29.38%) Python
2 109 (24.83%) JavaScript
3 101 (23.01%) SQL
4 85 (19.36%) TypeScript
5 43 (9.79%) C#
6 21 (4.78%) Bash
7 14 (3.19%) Kotlin
8 12 (2.73%) Go
8 12 (2.73%) Swift
9 10 (2.28%) C++
10 9 (2.05%) Groovy
10 9 (2.05%) PowerShell
11 8 (1.82%) Ruby
12 6 (1.37%) Rust
13 5 (1.14%) C
14 4 (0.91%) PHP
15 3 (0.68%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 3 (0.68%) VB
15 3 (0.68%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 85 (19.36%) Security Cleared
2 72 (16.40%) SC Cleared
3 29 (6.61%) Degree
4 15 (3.42%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (2.73%) AWS Certification
5 12 (2.73%) HNC
6 7 (1.59%) Master's Degree
7 6 (1.37%) Azure Certification
7 6 (1.37%) DBS Check
8 5 (1.14%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
8 5 (1.14%) DV Cleared
9 4 (0.91%) HND
10 3 (0.68%) NVQ Level 3
11 2 (0.46%) BPSS Clearance
11 2 (0.46%) ISTQB
11 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Certification
12 1 (0.23%) CISM
12 1 (0.23%) CISSP
12 1 (0.23%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.23%) PMI Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 114 (25.97%) QA
2 50 (11.39%) Accessibility
3 33 (7.52%) Data Quality
4 26 (5.92%) WCAG
5 8 (1.82%) GDPR
6 4 (0.91%) GRC
7 2 (0.46%) PMO
8 1 (0.23%) ISO 22301
8 1 (0.23%) NIST
System Software
1 86 (19.59%) Docker
2 1 (0.23%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 53 (12.07%) Kubernetes
2 10 (2.28%) Argo
3 8 (1.82%) Ansible
4 5 (1.14%) Grafana
5 3 (0.68%) Progress Chef
5 3 (0.68%) Prometheus
5 3 (0.68%) Puppet
6 2 (0.46%) Kibana
6 2 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
7 1 (0.23%) Fluentd
7 1 (0.23%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 33 (7.52%) Microsoft
2 30 (6.83%) Databricks
3 18 (4.10%) Dynatrace
3 18 (4.10%) Splunk
4 14 (3.19%) Google
5 13 (2.96%) Adobe
5 13 (2.96%) AppDynamics
6 8 (1.82%) Apple
7 6 (1.37%) Confluent
7 6 (1.37%) Pega
8 5 (1.14%) Foundry
8 5 (1.14%) Oracle
8 5 (1.14%) Palantir
9 4 (0.91%) Allen-Bradley
9 4 (0.91%) Sage
9 4 (0.91%) Salesforce
9 4 (0.91%) Siemens
10 3 (0.68%) Keysight
10 3 (0.68%) SAP
11 2 (0.46%) YouTube