Automation Test Lead Job Trends in the South West

Test Automation Leader
England > South West

The median Test Automation Leader salary in the South West is £74,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 25 December 2025.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 178 - 208
Rank change year-on-year - - +83
Permanent jobs requiring an Automation Test Lead 1 0 5
As % of all permanent jobs in the South West 0.020% - 0.12%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.021% - 0.12%
Number of salaries quoted 1 0 5
10th Percentile - - £58,000
25th Percentile £69,750 - £66,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £74,500 - £67,500
Median % change year-on-year - - +12.50%
75th Percentile £79,250 - £68,750
90th Percentile - - £80,000
England median annual salary £67,500 £62,500 £66,250
% change year-on-year +8.00% -5.66% +6.00%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
South West

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies in the South West. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the South West with a recognized job title 4,710 4,117 4,122
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 93.05% 93.72% 95.64%
Number of salaries quoted 3,233 2,310 3,202
10th Percentile £28,000 £30,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £34,250 £40,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £50,000 £51,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year -1.96% -2.86% +5.00%
75th Percentile £65,000 £65,631 £67,500
90th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £80,627
England median annual salary £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
% change year-on-year -8.33% - -

Automation Test Lead
Job Vacancy Trend in the South West

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Automation Test Lead' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised in the South West.

Automation Test Lead job vacancy trend in the South West

Automation Test Lead
Salary Trend in the South West

Salary distribution trend for Automation Test Lead job vacancies in the South West.

Salary distribution trend for Automation Test Lead job vacancies in the South West

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West

For the 6 months to 25 December 2025, Automation Test Lead job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads across the South West region featuring Automation Test Lead in the job title.

1 1 (100.00%) Accessibility
1 1 (100.00%) Azure
1 1 (100.00%) Azure Pipelines
1 1 (100.00%) Backends for Frontends
1 1 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 1 (100.00%) Collaborative Culture
1 1 (100.00%) Collaborative Engineering
1 1 (100.00%) Community of Practice
1 1 (100.00%) Containerisation
1 1 (100.00%) Continuous Improvement
1 1 (100.00%) Data Management
1 1 (100.00%) DevOps
1 1 (100.00%) DevSecOps
1 1 (100.00%) Docker
1 1 (100.00%) End-to-End Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Functional Testing
1 1 (100.00%) GCP
1 1 (100.00%) GitLab
1 1 (100.00%) Guidewire
1 1 (100.00%) ISTQB
1 1 (100.00%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
1 1 (100.00%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
1 1 (100.00%) Java
1 1 (100.00%) Kubernetes
1 1 (100.00%) Micro Frontends
1 1 (100.00%) Microservices
1 1 (100.00%) Non-Functional Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Playwright
1 1 (100.00%) QA
1 1 (100.00%) REST Assured

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities in the South West 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:

Cloud Services
1 1 (100.00%) Azure
1 1 (100.00%) Azure Pipelines
1 1 (100.00%) GCP
Development Applications
1 1 (100.00%) GitLab
1 1 (100.00%) REST Assured
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (100.00%) Playwright
1 1 (100.00%) RESTful
Processes & Methodologies
1 1 (100.00%) Backends for Frontends
1 1 (100.00%) CI/CD
1 1 (100.00%) Collaborative Engineering
1 1 (100.00%) Community of Practice
1 1 (100.00%) Containerisation
1 1 (100.00%) Continuous Improvement
1 1 (100.00%) Data Management
1 1 (100.00%) DevOps
1 1 (100.00%) DevSecOps
1 1 (100.00%) End-to-End Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Functional Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Micro Frontends
1 1 (100.00%) Microservices
1 1 (100.00%) Non-Functional Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Security Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Software Engineering
1 1 (100.00%) Software Testing
1 1 (100.00%) Technical Leadership
1 1 (100.00%) Test Automation
1 1 (100.00%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 1 (100.00%) Java
1 1 (100.00%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 1 (100.00%) ISTQB
1 1 (100.00%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
1 1 (100.00%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (100.00%) Accessibility
1 1 (100.00%) QA
System Software
1 1 (100.00%) Docker
Systems Management
1 1 (100.00%) Kubernetes
1 1 (100.00%) Terraform
Vendors
1 1 (100.00%) Guidewire