Test Automation Engineer Job Trends

Automation Test Engineer
UK

The median Automation Test Engineer salary in the UK is £53,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 26 December 2025.

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

6 months to
26 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 600 656 634
Rank change year-on-year +56 -22 +68
Permanent jobs requiring a Test Automation Engineer 54 45 75
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.090% 0.081% 0.15%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.100% 0.086% 0.15%
Number of salaries quoted 50 31 61
10th Percentile £42,500 £46,250 £42,500
25th Percentile £49,750 £47,500 £43,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £53,000 £55,000 £50,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.64% +10.00% -9.09%
75th Percentile £62,500 £66,375 £58,750
90th Percentile £70,000 £72,500 £72,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,500 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -2.73% +10.00% -9.09%

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 54,223 52,219 48,884
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.45% 93.42% 95.22%
Number of salaries quoted 33,503 27,758 37,761
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,174 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,000 £78,656
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,918
% change year-on-year -4.76% +3.11% -3.01%

Test Automation Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Test Automation Engineer job vacancy trend in the UK

Test Automation Engineer
Salary Trend

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

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

Test Automation Engineer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Automation Engineer over the 6 months to 26 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Test Automation Engineer in the UK

Test Automation Engineer
Top 14 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Test Automation Engineer within the UK over the 6 months to 26 December 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 +93 49 £52,500 -4.55% 47
UK excluding London +62 33 £53,500 -2.73% 46
Work from Home +70 26 £52,500 -6.67% 47
London +69 20 £52,500 -19.23% 11
South East +30 9 £52,500 +10.53% 6
East of England +27 9 £60,000 +9.09% 11
North of England +26 5 £53,500 - 16
South West +15 4 £46,250 -26.00% 2
Yorkshire -12 4 £53,500 - 11
West Midlands +33 2 £57,500 +17.95% 1
Midlands +22 2 £57,500 +9.52% 1
Scotland +1 2 £70,000 +27.27% 5
Wales - 2 £41,000 - 4
North East - 1 - -

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

For the 6 months to 26 December 2025, Test Automation Engineer 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 Test Automation Engineer in the job title.

1 54 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 27 (50.00%) Selenium
3 25 (46.30%) Agile
4 23 (42.59%) CI/CD
5 21 (38.89%) Python
5 21 (38.89%) QA
6 17 (31.48%) DevOps
7 16 (29.63%) Playwright
8 14 (25.93%) Manual Testing
8 14 (25.93%) Software Testing
9 13 (24.07%) JavaScript
10 12 (22.22%) Azure
10 12 (22.22%) Java
11 11 (20.37%) Security Testing
11 11 (20.37%) SQL
12 10 (18.52%) Continuous Improvement
12 10 (18.52%) Jenkins
12 10 (18.52%) Postman
13 9 (16.67%) API Testing
13 9 (16.67%) AWS
13 9 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
13 9 (16.67%) C#
13 9 (16.67%) ISTQB
13 9 (16.67%) Test Scripting
13 9 (16.67%) TypeScript
14 8 (14.81%) AI
14 8 (14.81%) Appium
14 8 (14.81%) BDD
14 8 (14.81%) Cypress.io
14 8 (14.81%) JIRA

Test Automation Engineer 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:

Application Platforms
1 2 (3.70%) Confluence
Applications
1 1 (1.85%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 2 (3.70%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (1.85%) Aladdin
Cloud Services
1 12 (22.22%) Azure
2 9 (16.67%) AWS
2 9 (16.67%) Azure DevOps
3 5 (9.26%) GitHub
3 5 (9.26%) Power Platform
4 4 (7.41%) GitHub Actions
5 3 (5.56%) GCP
6 2 (3.70%) SaaS
7 1 (1.85%) Amazon CloudWatch
7 1 (1.85%) Azure Pipelines
7 1 (1.85%) BrowserStack
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.85%) TCP/IP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (12.96%) Relational Database
2 4 (7.41%) Data Warehouse
3 3 (5.56%) MongoDB
4 2 (3.70%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 27 (50.00%) Selenium
2 10 (18.52%) Jenkins
2 10 (18.52%) Postman
3 8 (14.81%) Appium
3 8 (14.81%) Cypress.io
3 8 (14.81%) JIRA
4 6 (11.11%) JMeter
5 5 (9.26%) Git
6 4 (7.41%) Cucumber
6 4 (7.41%) GitLab
7 3 (5.56%) LoadRunner
7 3 (5.56%) NUnit
7 3 (5.56%) REST Assured
7 3 (5.56%) SonarQube
7 3 (5.56%) SpecFlow
7 3 (5.56%) WebDriver
8 2 (3.70%) MSTest
8 2 (3.70%) TestNG
9 1 (1.85%) Android Studio
9 1 (1.85%) Bitbucket
General
1 12 (22.22%) Finance
2 9 (16.67%) Social Skills
3 5 (9.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 3 (5.56%) Public Sector
5 2 (3.70%) Advertising
5 2 (3.70%) Banking
5 2 (3.70%) Electronics
5 2 (3.70%) Games
5 2 (3.70%) Tech for Good
6 1 (1.85%) Analytical Skills
6 1 (1.85%) Financial Institution
6 1 (1.85%) Health Technology
6 1 (1.85%) International Banking
6 1 (1.85%) Investment Banking
6 1 (1.85%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 16 (29.63%) Playwright
2 6 (11.11%) RESTful
3 4 (7.41%) ADO
3 4 (7.41%) JSON
3 4 (7.41%) pytest
3 4 (7.41%) REST
3 4 (7.41%) XML
4 3 (5.56%) .NET
4 3 (5.56%) Kafka
4 3 (5.56%) Middleware
5 2 (3.70%) Web Services
5 2 (3.70%) WebdriverIO
5 2 (3.70%) YAML
6 1 (1.85%) .NET Framework
6 1 (1.85%) Gherkin
6 1 (1.85%) React Native
6 1 (1.85%) SOAP
6 1 (1.85%) Spring
Miscellaneous
1 2 (3.70%) Mobile App
2 1 (1.85%) AI Agents
2 1 (1.85%) Analytical Mindset
2 1 (1.85%) Hackathon
2 1 (1.85%) Hedge funds
2 1 (1.85%) Linux Command Line
Operating Systems
1 1 (1.85%) Android
1 1 (1.85%) Apple iOS
1 1 (1.85%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 54 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 25 (46.30%) Agile
3 23 (42.59%) CI/CD
4 17 (31.48%) DevOps
5 14 (25.93%) Manual Testing
5 14 (25.93%) Software Testing
6 11 (20.37%) Security Testing
7 10 (18.52%) Continuous Improvement
8 9 (16.67%) API Testing
8 9 (16.67%) Test Scripting
9 8 (14.81%) AI
9 8 (14.81%) BDD
10 7 (12.96%) Fintech
10 7 (12.96%) Non-Functional Testing
10 7 (12.96%) Scrum
10 7 (12.96%) Test Management
11 6 (11.11%) Exploratory Testing
11 6 (11.11%) Mentoring
12 5 (9.26%) SDET
12 5 (9.26%) Test Strategy
Programming Languages
1 21 (38.89%) Python
2 13 (24.07%) JavaScript
3 12 (22.22%) Java
4 11 (20.37%) SQL
5 9 (16.67%) C#
5 9 (16.67%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 9 (16.67%) ISTQB
2 6 (11.11%) Security Cleared
3 4 (7.41%) SC Cleared
4 3 (5.56%) Degree
5 2 (3.70%) Master's Degree
6 1 (1.85%) DV Cleared
6 1 (1.85%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
6 1 (1.85%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (38.89%) QA
2 5 (9.26%) Accessibility
3 4 (7.41%) Data Quality
4 1 (1.85%) WCAG
System Software
1 7 (12.96%) Docker
2 1 (1.85%) Firmware
Systems Management
1 7 (12.96%) Kubernetes
2 3 (5.56%) HP Fortify
3 2 (3.70%) Control-M
4 1 (1.85%) Terraform
Vendors
1 5 (9.26%) Microsoft
2 3 (5.56%) IBM
3 2 (3.70%) Oracle
4 1 (1.85%) Guidewire