Automation Test Lead Job Trends

Test Automation Leader
UK

The median Test Automation Leader salary in the UK is £67,500 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 4 November 2025.

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

6 months to
4 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 616 729 694
Rank change year-on-year +113 -35 +315
Permanent jobs requiring an Automation Test Lead 37 18 27
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.074% 0.027% 0.051%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.082% 0.028% 0.053%
Number of salaries quoted 15 5 15
10th Percentile £52,650 £60,500 £50,500
25th Percentile £57,500 £61,250 £53,125
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £67,500 £80,000 £65,000
Median % change year-on-year -15.63% +23.08% +8.33%
75th Percentile £71,250 £83,750 £68,750
90th Percentile £78,250 £84,500 £80,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £62,500 £82,500 £65,000
% change year-on-year -24.24% +26.92% +8.33%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. 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 UK with a recognized job title 45,308 64,292 50,905
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.13% 95.05% 95.50%
Number of salaries quoted 27,732 36,346 39,519
10th Percentile £28,250 £31,250 £31,592
25th Percentile £35,000 £42,027 £42,796
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £52,500 £57,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.89% -5.00% -
75th Percentile £73,750 £75,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £92,500 £95,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £46,000 £50,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year -8.00% -4.76% -

Automation Test Lead
Job Vacancy Trend

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.

Automation Test Lead job vacancy trend in the UK

Automation Test Lead
Salary Trend

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

Salary distribution trend for Automation Test Lead job vacancies in the UK

Automation Test Lead
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Automation Test Lead over the 6 months to 4 November 2025.

Salary histogram for Automation Test Lead in the UK

Automation Test Lead
Top 11 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Automation Test Lead within the UK over the 6 months to 4 November 2025. 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
England +118 37 £67,500 -15.63% 13
UK excluding London +92 33 £62,500 -24.24% 9
South East +54 26 £67,500 - 6
Work from Home +73 11 £62,500 -25.37% 6
North of England +16 5 £53,500 -10.83% 1
London +53 4 £76,250 -4.69% 8
North West - 3 £62,500 -
Midlands +46 2 £63,750 - 2
Yorkshire - 2 £52,750 - 1
West Midlands +44 1 £65,000 - 2
East Midlands - 1 £62,500 -

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 4 November 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 featuring Automation Test Lead in the job title.

1 37 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 29 (78.38%) Test Strategy
3 25 (67.57%) Azure DevOps
4 21 (56.76%) Roadmaps
4 21 (56.76%) Test Management
5 20 (54.05%) Performance Testing
5 20 (54.05%) SAP
5 20 (54.05%) SAP S/4HANA
6 19 (51.35%) Product Roadmap
6 19 (51.35%) Source to Pay
7 18 (48.65%) ERP
7 18 (48.65%) NeoLoad
8 16 (43.24%) Continuous Delivery
8 16 (43.24%) eCATT
8 16 (43.24%) HP
8 16 (43.24%) HP ALM
8 16 (43.24%) JIRA
8 16 (43.24%) Requirements Gathering
9 11 (29.73%) DevOps
9 11 (29.73%) Mentoring
10 10 (27.03%) CI/CD
11 9 (24.32%) Agile
11 9 (24.32%) Azure
11 9 (24.32%) C#
11 9 (24.32%) QA
11 9 (24.32%) User Acceptance Testing
12 8 (21.62%) Continuous Improvement
12 8 (21.62%) End-to-End Testing
12 8 (21.62%) Software Testing
13 7 (18.92%) Selenium

Automation Test Lead Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities 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:

Business Applications
1 20 (54.05%) SAP S/4HANA
2 2 (5.41%) Oracle ERP
Cloud Services
1 25 (67.57%) Azure DevOps
2 9 (24.32%) Azure
3 3 (8.11%) SaaS
4 2 (5.41%) AWS
4 2 (5.41%) BrowserStack
4 2 (5.41%) GCP
4 2 (5.41%) Tricentis Tosca
Communications & Networking
1 2 (5.41%) Modbus
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (5.41%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 18 (48.65%) NeoLoad
2 16 (43.24%) eCATT
2 16 (43.24%) JIRA
3 7 (18.92%) Selenium
4 4 (10.81%) JMeter
5 3 (8.11%) Cypress.io
5 3 (8.11%) GitLab
5 3 (8.11%) Jenkins
6 2 (5.41%) Appium
6 2 (5.41%) Cucumber
6 2 (5.41%) Gatling
6 2 (5.41%) HP UFT
6 2 (5.41%) LoadRunner
6 2 (5.41%) Ranorex
6 2 (5.41%) SonarQube
6 2 (5.41%) SpecFlow
6 2 (5.41%) Tricentis qTest
6 2 (5.41%) WebDriver
7 1 (2.70%) Postman
7 1 (2.70%) REST Assured
General
1 25 (67.57%) Finance
2 21 (56.76%) Manufacturing
3 19 (51.35%) Marketing
4 7 (18.92%) Legal
5 6 (16.22%) Social Skills
6 3 (8.11%) Retail
7 2 (5.41%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (16.22%) .NET
2 3 (8.11%) Playwright
3 2 (5.41%) Kafka
3 2 (5.41%) Middleware
4 1 (2.70%) REST
Miscellaneous
1 3 (8.11%) Enterprise Software
2 2 (5.41%) Biopharmaceutical
2 2 (5.41%) Operational Technology
2 2 (5.41%) Product Ownership
2 2 (5.41%) Renewable Energy
2 2 (5.41%) SCADA
3 1 (2.70%) Hackathon
Processes & Methodologies
1 37 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 29 (78.38%) Test Strategy
3 21 (56.76%) Roadmaps
3 21 (56.76%) Test Management
4 20 (54.05%) Performance Testing
5 19 (51.35%) Product Roadmap
5 19 (51.35%) Source to Pay
6 18 (48.65%) ERP
7 16 (43.24%) Continuous Delivery
7 16 (43.24%) Requirements Gathering
8 11 (29.73%) DevOps
8 11 (29.73%) Mentoring
9 10 (27.03%) CI/CD
10 9 (24.32%) Agile
10 9 (24.32%) User Acceptance Testing
11 8 (21.62%) Continuous Improvement
11 8 (21.62%) End-to-End Testing
11 8 (21.62%) Software Testing
12 6 (16.22%) Business Analysis
12 6 (16.22%) Service Delivery
Programming Languages
1 9 (24.32%) C#
2 3 (8.11%) JavaScript
3 2 (5.41%) Python
4 1 (2.70%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 4 (10.81%) ISTQB
2 2 (5.41%) DBS Check
2 2 (5.41%) Degree
2 2 (5.41%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
2 2 (5.41%) Security Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 9 (24.32%) QA
2 2 (5.41%) ISO 9001
Systems Management
1 16 (43.24%) HP ALM
2 2 (5.41%) Control-M
2 2 (5.41%) Functional Safety
2 2 (5.41%) HP Fortify
Vendors
1 20 (54.05%) SAP
2 16 (43.24%) HP
3 2 (5.41%) IBM
3 2 (5.41%) Oracle