Test Automation Engineer Job Trends

Automation Test Engineer
UK

The median Automation Test Engineer salary in the UK is £60,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 9 July 2026.

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

6 months to
9 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 669 566 828
Rank change year-on-year -103 +262 -101
Permanent jobs requiring a Test Automation Engineer 87 108 55
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.089% 0.22% 0.054%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.095% 0.25% 0.057%
Number of salaries quoted 68 28 36
10th Percentile £32,575 £42,000 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £55,313 £38,438
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £47,500
Median % change year-on-year - +26.32% -9.52%
75th Percentile £75,000 £63,125 £57,500
90th Percentile £85,000 £70,000 £66,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £56,000 £60,000 £42,500
% change year-on-year -6.67% +41.18% -15.00%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
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 92,011 43,811 97,193
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.18% 89.90% 94.71%
Number of salaries quoted 63,054 25,783 69,790
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £28,750
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 9 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Automation Engineer in the UK

Test Automation Engineer
Top 15 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 9 July 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
England -87 72 £55,000 -8.33% 28
UK excluding London -103 55 £56,000 -6.67% 32
London -8 27 £70,000 +35.92%
Work from Home +1 22 £75,000 +25.00% 9
South East -56 16 £75,000 +25.00% 3
South West -60 12 £42,500 -29.17% 12
North of England -38 9 £55,000 -8.33% 7
Wales - 6 £70,000 -
North West -6 5 £63,000 +5.00% 5
East of England -27 5 £52,500 -12.50% 1
Scotland +9 4 £63,750 -8.93% 4
North East - 4 £55,000 - 2
Midlands -42 3 £50,000 -23.08% 5
East Midlands -39 2 - - 2
West Midlands -25 1 £50,000 -23.08% 3

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

For the 6 months to 9 July 2026, 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 87 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 29 (33.33%) CI/CD
2 29 (33.33%) Playwright
3 28 (32.18%) Agile
3 28 (32.18%) QA
4 26 (29.89%) Software Testing
5 23 (26.44%) Python
6 20 (22.99%) Azure
6 20 (22.99%) Test Strategy
7 19 (21.84%) Selenium
8 17 (19.54%) C#
8 17 (19.54%) DevOps
9 15 (17.24%) Azure DevOps
9 15 (17.24%) JavaScript
10 14 (16.09%) Java
11 13 (14.94%) Cypress.io
11 13 (14.94%) Security Cleared
12 12 (13.79%) API Testing
12 12 (13.79%) Jenkins
13 11 (12.64%) BDD
13 11 (12.64%) TypeScript
13 11 (12.64%) Validation
14 10 (11.49%) AWS
14 10 (11.49%) pytest
14 10 (11.49%) SDET
15 9 (10.34%) .NET
15 9 (10.34%) AI
15 9 (10.34%) Containerisation
15 9 (10.34%) Continuous Improvement
15 9 (10.34%) Git

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:

Applications
1 1 (1.15%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 1 (1.15%) Endur
1 1 (1.15%) Findur
Cloud Services
1 20 (22.99%) Azure
2 15 (17.24%) Azure DevOps
3 10 (11.49%) AWS
4 7 (8.05%) OpenShift
5 6 (6.90%) GitHub
6 4 (4.60%) GitHub Actions
7 3 (3.45%) Azure Pipelines
8 2 (2.30%) Azure Functions
8 2 (2.30%) Serverless
9 1 (1.15%) Anthropic Claude
9 1 (1.15%) AWS Data Pipeline
9 1 (1.15%) Azure Monitor
9 1 (1.15%) BrowserStack
9 1 (1.15%) Dynamics 365
9 1 (1.15%) GCP
9 1 (1.15%) GitHub Copilot
9 1 (1.15%) SaaS
Communications & Networking
1 1 (1.15%) Broadband
Database & Business Intelligence
1 7 (8.05%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 19 (21.84%) Selenium
2 13 (14.94%) Cypress.io
3 12 (13.79%) Jenkins
4 9 (10.34%) Git
5 8 (9.20%) GitLab
6 7 (8.05%) Robot Framework
6 7 (8.05%) SpecFlow
6 7 (8.05%) TestRail
7 4 (4.60%) Cucumber
7 4 (4.60%) JMeter
8 3 (3.45%) Appium
8 3 (3.45%) Postman
8 3 (3.45%) REST Assured
9 1 (1.15%) Burp Suite
9 1 (1.15%) Claude Code
9 1 (1.15%) NUnit
9 1 (1.15%) WebDriver
General
1 8 (9.20%) Games
2 7 (8.05%) Analytical Skills
3 6 (6.90%) Social Skills
4 5 (5.75%) Finance
4 5 (5.75%) Health Technology
5 4 (4.60%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 3 (3.45%) Documentation Skills
6 3 (3.45%) Influencing Skills
7 1 (1.15%) Aviation
7 1 (1.15%) Retail
7 1 (1.15%) Telecoms
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 29 (33.33%) Playwright
2 10 (11.49%) pytest
3 9 (10.34%) .NET
4 7 (8.05%) Elastic Stack
5 4 (4.60%) Gherkin
6 3 (3.45%) Model Context Protocol
6 3 (3.45%) REST
7 2 (2.30%) GraphQL
7 2 (2.30%) React
8 1 (1.15%) .NET Framework
8 1 (1.15%) AngularJS
8 1 (1.15%) Blazor
8 1 (1.15%) Django
8 1 (1.15%) React Native
8 1 (1.15%) RESTful
8 1 (1.15%) Spring
8 1 (1.15%) Spring Boot
8 1 (1.15%) WebAssembly
8 1 (1.15%) WebSockets
8 1 (1.15%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 9 (10.34%) Mobile App
1 9 (10.34%) Product Ownership
2 4 (4.60%) Online Games
3 3 (3.45%) AI Agents
3 3 (3.45%) Distributed Systems
4 2 (2.30%) Cloud Native
4 2 (2.30%) Data Protection Act
5 1 (1.15%) Analytical Mindset
5 1 (1.15%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 9 (10.34%) Windows
2 8 (9.20%) Linux
3 7 (8.05%) CentOS
4 2 (2.30%) Android
4 2 (2.30%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (100.00%) Test Automation
2 29 (33.33%) CI/CD
3 28 (32.18%) Agile
4 26 (29.89%) Software Testing
5 20 (22.99%) Test Strategy
6 17 (19.54%) DevOps
7 12 (13.79%) API Testing
8 11 (12.64%) BDD
8 11 (12.64%) Validation
9 10 (11.49%) SDET
10 9 (10.34%) AI
10 9 (10.34%) Containerisation
10 9 (10.34%) Continuous Improvement
10 9 (10.34%) Performance Testing
10 9 (10.34%) Problem-Solving
11 8 (9.20%) Test Management
12 7 (8.05%) Collaborative Culture
12 7 (8.05%) Infrastructure Engineering
12 7 (8.05%) Integration Testing
12 7 (8.05%) Test Scripting
Programming Languages
1 23 (26.44%) Python
2 17 (19.54%) C#
3 15 (17.24%) JavaScript
4 14 (16.09%) Java
5 11 (12.64%) TypeScript
6 8 (9.20%) PowerShell
7 7 (8.05%) Bash
8 6 (6.90%) SQL
Qualifications
1 13 (14.94%) Security Cleared
2 7 (8.05%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
3 4 (4.60%) ISTQB
4 2 (2.30%) Degree
4 2 (2.30%) SC Cleared
5 1 (1.15%) DV Cleared
5 1 (1.15%) ISEB
5 1 (1.15%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 28 (32.18%) QA
2 3 (3.45%) Accessibility
3 2 (2.30%) WCAG
4 1 (1.15%) Data Quality
System Software
1 8 (9.20%) Virtual Machines
2 7 (8.05%) Docker
2 7 (8.05%) VMware Infrastructure
Systems Management
1 8 (9.20%) Grafana
2 7 (8.05%) Ansible
2 7 (8.05%) Kibana
2 7 (8.05%) Kubernetes
2 7 (8.05%) logstash
2 7 (8.05%) Terraform
2 7 (8.05%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 7 (8.05%) Atlassian
1 7 (8.05%) Red Hat
1 7 (8.05%) Splunk
1 7 (8.05%) VMware
2 2 (2.30%) Microsoft
3 1 (1.15%) HP
3 1 (1.15%) IBM
3 1 (1.15%) OpenLink
3 1 (1.15%) Perfecto Mobile
3 1 (1.15%) ServiceNow