Test Automation Job Trends

Automated Testing
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and salary benchmarking for jobs requiring Test Automation skills. It covers permanent job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 31 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
31 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 85 101
Rank change year-on-year +1 +16 -44
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,099 1,691 2,122
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.04% 3.42% 2.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.77% 3.82% 3.00%
Number of salaries quoted 1,198 827 1,317
10th Percentile £42,500 £37,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,231 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £57,965
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +7.82% -10.82%
75th Percentile £81,250 £82,500 £71,991
90th Percentile £95,375 £97,528 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £56,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +7.14% +6.67% -8.70%

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

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.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 75,768 44,292 70,756
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.64% 89.63% 81.31%
Number of salaries quoted 52,326 25,118 47,262
10th Percentile £30,500 £28,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £76,250 £73,886
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -9.09%

Test Automation
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings citing Test Automation relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Test Automation job vacancy trend in the UK

Test Automation
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Test Automation.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Test Automation

Test Automation
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Test Automation over the 6 months to 31 July 2026.

Salary histogram for Test Automation in the UK

Test Automation
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Test Automation within the UK over the 6 months to 31 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 -6 1,742 £65,000 +3.59% 827
UK excluding London 0 1,290 £60,000 +7.14% 537
Work from Home +24 890 £67,500 +12.50% 323
London +1 651 £80,000 +3.23% 373
North of England +14 350 £57,500 -4.17% 137
South East -25 241 £62,000 +12.73% 165
South West -7 210 £59,500 +8.18% 81
Midlands -21 184 £62,500 +4.17% 68
North West -1 182 £62,500 -3.85% 77
Northern Ireland +6 131 £80,000 +45.45% 12
West Midlands -16 97 £62,500 - 45
North East +6 91 £52,500 +31.25% 24
East Midlands -17 86 £60,000 +26.32% 23
Yorkshire -14 77 £69,310 +41.45% 37
Wales -5 75 £55,000 - 8
East of England -34 62 £55,000 -3.51% 55
Scotland -39 50 £62,500 - 26

Test Automation
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 45 (2.14%) Confluence
2 30 (1.43%) Apache Spark
3 29 (1.38%) Apache Airflow
4 24 (1.14%) Apache
5 22 (1.05%) SharePoint
6 15 (0.71%) Jupyter
7 13 (0.62%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 13 (0.62%) Anypoint
7 13 (0.62%) Mule
8 11 (0.52%) CMS
9 5 (0.24%) IIS
9 5 (0.24%) Umbraco
9 5 (0.24%) WordPress
10 4 (0.19%) Cloud Foundry
10 4 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
10 4 (0.19%) nginx
10 4 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.14%) Camunda
11 3 (0.14%) JBoss
11 3 (0.14%) SAS
Applications
1 26 (1.24%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.57%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.57%) Simulink
3 7 (0.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.29%) PlantUML
5 5 (0.24%) Lightworks
6 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
6 3 (0.14%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.095%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.095%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.095%) Moqups
8 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 38 (1.81%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.29%) Dynamics GP
3 5 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
3 5 (0.24%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.19%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.095%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.095%) Oracle Applications
6 2 (0.095%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.095%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.095%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.048%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.048%) Magento
7 1 (0.048%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.048%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.048%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.048%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.048%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.048%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
7 1 (0.048%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 772 (36.78%) AWS
2 656 (31.25%) Azure
3 245 (11.67%) Azure DevOps
4 241 (11.48%) SaaS
5 234 (11.15%) GCP
6 182 (8.67%) Serverless
7 177 (8.43%) GitHub
8 90 (4.29%) GitHub Actions
9 87 (4.14%) AWS CloudFormation
10 78 (3.72%) AWS Lambda
11 72 (3.43%) Amazon S3
12 69 (3.29%) Amazon EKS
13 57 (2.72%) Power Platform
14 52 (2.48%) Azure Service Bus
15 49 (2.33%) PaaS
16 45 (2.14%) Azure Logic Apps
16 45 (2.14%) dbt
17 44 (2.10%) Azure Monitor
18 41 (1.95%) Amazon EC2
19 34 (1.62%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.38%) Broadband
2 25 (1.19%) Firewall
3 15 (0.71%) Wireless
4 14 (0.67%) DNS
4 14 (0.67%) SSL
5 13 (0.62%) DMARC
6 12 (0.57%) MQTT
6 12 (0.57%) TCP/IP
7 11 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
8 10 (0.48%) LTE
9 9 (0.43%) 3GPP
10 8 (0.38%) HTTP
10 8 (0.38%) WAN
11 7 (0.33%) CHAP
11 7 (0.33%) Network Security
11 7 (0.33%) Radio Access Network
11 7 (0.33%) RANAP
11 7 (0.33%) SS7
11 7 (0.33%) Wireshark
11 7 (0.33%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 133 (6.34%) PostgreSQL
2 131 (6.24%) NoSQL
3 103 (4.91%) MongoDB
4 69 (3.29%) SQL Server
5 49 (2.33%) Relational Database
6 46 (2.19%) DynamoDB
7 40 (1.91%) MySQL
8 30 (1.43%) Data Warehouse
9 28 (1.33%) Redis
10 27 (1.29%) Power BI
11 26 (1.24%) BigQuery
12 18 (0.86%) Amazon RDS
12 18 (0.86%) Spark SQL
13 16 (0.76%) Data Lake
13 16 (0.76%) Metadata
13 16 (0.76%) Semantic Layer
14 14 (0.67%) Amazon Athena
15 13 (0.62%) Elasticsearch
15 13 (0.62%) Oracle Database
16 10 (0.48%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 277 (13.20%) Git
2 189 (9.00%) GitLab
3 188 (8.96%) Jenkins
4 159 (7.58%) Selenium
5 132 (6.29%) JIRA
6 95 (4.53%) Cucumber
7 92 (4.38%) Cypress.io
8 84 (4.00%) Postman
9 56 (2.67%) TeamCity
10 50 (2.38%) JMeter
11 43 (2.05%) JUnit
12 40 (1.91%) REST Assured
13 31 (1.48%) Zephyr
14 27 (1.29%) Gatling
15 25 (1.19%) SpecFlow
15 25 (1.19%) TestRail
16 21 (1.00%) Bitbucket
16 21 (1.00%) fastlane
17 20 (0.95%) Crashlytics
18 19 (0.91%) SonarQube
General
1 556 (26.49%) Social Skills
2 474 (22.58%) Finance
3 230 (10.96%) Analytical Skills
4 213 (10.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 211 (10.05%) Public Sector
6 188 (8.96%) Banking
7 184 (8.77%) Law
8 113 (5.38%) Legal
9 94 (4.48%) Retail
10 71 (3.38%) Manufacturing
11 69 (3.29%) Marketing
12 63 (3.00%) Financial Institution
13 60 (2.86%) Electronics
14 54 (2.57%) Games
15 49 (2.33%) Back Office
16 30 (1.43%) Telecoms
17 29 (1.38%) Front Office
18 24 (1.14%) Aerospace
18 24 (1.14%) Documentation Skills
19 20 (0.95%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 594 (28.30%) Senior
2 331 (15.77%) Lead
3 319 (15.20%) Software Engineer
4 295 (14.05%) Developer
5 222 (10.58%) Test Engineer
6 120 (5.72%) Senior Developer
7 118 (5.62%) Java Engineer
8 96 (4.57%) Senior Software Engineer
9 86 (4.10%) Full-Stack Engineer
9 86 (4.10%) Test Automation Engineer
10 85 (4.05%) QA Engineer
11 78 (3.72%) DevOps Engineer
12 69 (3.29%) Architect
12 69 (3.29%) Test Leader
13 66 (3.14%) Data Engineer
14 64 (3.05%) Tester
15 59 (2.81%) Senior Manager
16 58 (2.76%) Lead Software Engineer
17 57 (2.72%) Analyst
18 54 (2.57%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 218 (10.39%) React
2 203 (9.67%) .NET
3 187 (8.91%) Playwright
4 184 (8.77%) REST
5 183 (8.72%) Spring
6 177 (8.43%) RESTful
7 173 (8.24%) Node.js
8 135 (6.43%) Spring Boot
9 120 (5.72%) Kafka
10 108 (5.15%) AngularJS
11 87 (4.14%) CSS
12 84 (4.00%) HTML
13 66 (3.14%) OAuth
14 65 (3.10%) Middleware
15 60 (2.86%) OAuth2
16 51 (2.43%) JSON
17 46 (2.19%) RabbitMQ
18 45 (2.14%) Vue
19 43 (2.05%) Next.js
20 39 (1.86%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 373 (17.77%) Cloud Native
2 237 (11.29%) Product Ownership
3 178 (8.48%) Distributed Systems
4 110 (5.24%) Mobile App
5 81 (3.86%) Enterprise Software
6 70 (3.33%) Virtual Team
7 68 (3.24%) Legacy Systems
7 68 (3.24%) Public Cloud
8 60 (2.86%) Cyber Threat
9 58 (2.76%) Algorithms
10 52 (2.48%) Blog
11 50 (2.38%) Low-Code
12 49 (2.33%) Management Information System
13 45 (2.14%) Onboarding
14 43 (2.05%) Data Structures
15 40 (1.91%) Greenfield Project
16 39 (1.86%) Self-Motivation
17 35 (1.67%) Embedded Systems
18 34 (1.62%) Marketing Technology
18 34 (1.62%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 183 (8.72%) Linux
2 94 (4.48%) Windows
3 64 (3.05%) Apple iOS
4 55 (2.62%) Android
5 53 (2.53%) Unix
6 11 (0.52%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.33%) CentOS
8 6 (0.29%) Embedded Linux
8 6 (0.29%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.19%) Debian
9 4 (0.19%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.14%) AIX
11 2 (0.095%) VMS
12 1 (0.048%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.048%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.048%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.048%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.048%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.048%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,202 (57.27%) CI/CD
2 937 (44.64%) Agile
3 800 (38.11%) DevOps
4 674 (32.11%) Software Engineering
5 601 (28.63%) Continuous Improvement
6 589 (28.06%) Mentoring
7 424 (20.20%) Problem-Solving
8 422 (20.10%) AI
9 405 (19.29%) Microservices
10 368 (17.53%) Infrastructure as Code
11 355 (16.91%) Software Testing
12 298 (14.20%) Test Strategy
13 272 (12.96%) Observability
14 270 (12.86%) Coaching
15 269 (12.82%) Full-Stack Development
16 264 (12.58%) Containerisation
17 243 (11.58%) Code Quality
18 234 (11.15%) Validation
19 219 (10.43%) Scrum
20 215 (10.24%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 660 (31.44%) Python
2 565 (26.92%) Java
3 370 (17.63%) JavaScript
4 335 (15.96%) SQL
5 308 (14.67%) TypeScript
6 303 (14.44%) C#
7 119 (5.67%) C++
8 102 (4.86%) PowerShell
9 85 (4.05%) Go
10 75 (3.57%) Bash
10 75 (3.57%) C
11 43 (2.05%) Kotlin
12 33 (1.57%) Rust
13 32 (1.52%) Swift
14 30 (1.43%) PHP
15 25 (1.19%) Ruby
16 21 (1.00%) Bicep
16 21 (1.00%) MATLAB
17 19 (0.91%) Groovy
18 16 (0.76%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 266 (12.67%) Security Cleared
2 242 (11.53%) Degree
3 166 (7.91%) SC Cleared
4 109 (5.19%) Computer Science Degree
5 80 (3.81%) ISTQB
6 62 (2.95%) CISSP
7 60 (2.86%) ITIL Certification
8 56 (2.67%) CISM
9 51 (2.43%) DV Cleared
10 41 (1.95%) AWS Certification
11 36 (1.72%) Master's Degree
12 29 (1.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 19 (0.91%) BPSS Clearance
14 17 (0.81%) DBS Check
14 17 (0.81%) ISEB
15 13 (0.62%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 12 (0.57%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 12 (0.57%) HNC
17 9 (0.43%) HND
18 8 (0.38%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 489 (23.30%) QA
2 191 (9.10%) Accessibility
3 74 (3.53%) Data Quality
4 61 (2.91%) NIST
5 57 (2.72%) WCAG
6 52 (2.48%) ISO 22301
7 46 (2.19%) GDPR
8 14 (0.67%) SLA
9 13 (0.62%) Software Quality Assurance
10 12 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 11 (0.52%) GRC
12 9 (0.43%) SOC 2
13 8 (0.38%) COBIT
14 7 (0.33%) JTAG
14 7 (0.33%) MISRA
15 6 (0.29%) PMO
16 4 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.19%) ISO 9001
16 4 (0.19%) NCSC
16 4 (0.19%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 286 (13.63%) Docker
2 30 (1.43%) Firmware
3 22 (1.05%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (0.76%) Virtual Machines
5 14 (0.67%) Active Directory
6 13 (0.62%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.52%) KVM
8 10 (0.48%) Embedded Firmware
9 2 (0.095%) vSphere
10 1 (0.048%) IAG
10 1 (0.048%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.048%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.048%) Terminal Server
10 1 (0.048%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.048%) Xen
Systems Management
1 314 (14.96%) Terraform
2 308 (14.67%) Kubernetes
3 132 (6.29%) Grafana
4 80 (3.81%) Ansible
5 60 (2.86%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.24%) Argo
7 16 (0.76%) Kibana
8 13 (0.62%) CloudHub
9 10 (0.48%) Puppet
10 9 (0.43%) logstash
10 9 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.33%) HP Fortify
11 7 (0.33%) Microsoft Intune
12 6 (0.29%) Functional Safety
12 6 (0.29%) vCenter Server
13 5 (0.24%) Packer
14 4 (0.19%) SCCM
14 4 (0.19%) SCOM
15 3 (0.14%) Progress Chef
15 3 (0.14%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 171 (8.15%) Microsoft
2 62 (2.95%) Google
3 59 (2.81%) Databricks
4 53 (2.53%) Oracle
5 49 (2.33%) Salesforce
6 41 (1.95%) ServiceNow
7 35 (1.67%) VMware
8 32 (1.52%) Splunk
9 28 (1.33%) SAP
10 25 (1.19%) Dynatrace
11 21 (1.00%) Pega
12 19 (0.91%) AppDynamics
13 16 (0.76%) Braze
13 16 (0.76%) MuleSoft
14 15 (0.71%) Adobe
14 15 (0.71%) Atlassian
15 14 (0.67%) Amplitude
15 14 (0.67%) IBM
15 14 (0.67%) OpenAI
16 13 (0.62%) SendGrid