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 7 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
7 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 88 101
Rank change year-on-year +5 +13 -42
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,169 1,667 2,059
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.07% 3.36% 2.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.81% 3.76% 3.04%
Number of salaries quoted 1,222 814 1,254
10th Percentile £42,125 £37,500 £37,650
25th Percentile £48,750 £47,231 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £59,425
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +5.17% -8.58%
75th Percentile £81,250 £81,250 £71,991
90th Percentile £96,250 £97,500 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £53,750
% change year-on-year +9.09% +2.33% -6.52%

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 77,301 44,356 67,625
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.63% 89.43% 81.01%
Number of salaries quoted 53,282 25,229 44,135
10th Percentile £30,750 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £48,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +13.40% -3.00% -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 7 August 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 7 August 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 +2 1,790 £65,000 +4.00% 1,239
UK excluding London +4 1,355 £60,000 +9.09% 738
Work from Home +17 900 £67,500 +12.50% 502
London +2 656 £80,000 +3.23% 598
North of England +11 358 £57,500 -0.86% 179
South East -14 252 £62,250 +13.18% 206
South West -4 225 £59,750 +13.81% 107
Midlands -14 190 £62,500 +4.17% 110
North West 0 185 £63,750 -1.92% 97
Northern Ireland +6 140 £80,000 +45.45% 14
North East +7 97 £52,500 +31.25% 33
West Midlands -29 97 £62,500 - 65
East Midlands -13 92 £55,000 +15.79% 45
Wales +2 85 £55,000 - 19
Yorkshire -7 76 £69,310 +41.45% 49
East of England -43 65 £51,250 -10.09% 69
Scotland -34 53 £62,500 +2.04% 52

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 48 (2.21%) Confluence
2 28 (1.29%) Apache Spark
3 26 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
4 24 (1.11%) Apache
4 24 (1.11%) SharePoint
5 16 (0.74%) Jupyter
6 14 (0.65%) Anypoint
6 14 (0.65%) Mule
7 13 (0.60%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 11 (0.51%) CMS
9 5 (0.23%) Cloud Foundry
9 5 (0.23%) IIS
9 5 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
9 5 (0.23%) nginx
9 5 (0.23%) Umbraco
10 4 (0.18%) Camunda
10 4 (0.18%) SAS
10 4 (0.18%) WordPress
11 2 (0.092%) Headless CMS
11 2 (0.092%) Palantir Foundry
Applications
1 34 (1.57%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.65%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.55%) Simulink
4 7 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.23%) Lightworks
5 5 (0.23%) PlantUML
6 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
6 3 (0.14%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.14%) Moqups
6 3 (0.14%) MS Visio
7 1 (0.046%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 1 (0.046%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 44 (2.03%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.24%) Dynamics GP
3 7 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.23%) Visualfiles
5 4 (0.18%) Dynamics AX
6 3 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
6 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
7 2 (0.092%) FLEXCUBE
7 2 (0.092%) Magento
7 2 (0.092%) Oracle EBS
7 2 (0.092%) Towers Watson Igloo
7 2 (0.092%) Workday HCM
8 1 (0.046%) Elite 3E
8 1 (0.046%) Misys Equation
8 1 (0.046%) Misys Midas
8 1 (0.046%) NetSuite
8 1 (0.046%) Oracle Assets
8 1 (0.046%) Oracle ERP
8 1 (0.046%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
8 1 (0.046%) SAP ERP
Cloud Services
1 793 (36.56%) AWS
2 670 (30.89%) Azure
3 258 (11.89%) SaaS
4 251 (11.57%) Azure DevOps
5 242 (11.16%) GCP
6 184 (8.48%) GitHub
6 184 (8.48%) Serverless
7 94 (4.33%) GitHub Actions
8 93 (4.29%) AWS CloudFormation
9 78 (3.60%) AWS Lambda
10 74 (3.41%) Amazon EKS
11 73 (3.37%) Amazon S3
12 60 (2.77%) Power Platform
13 52 (2.40%) Azure Service Bus
14 48 (2.21%) PaaS
15 46 (2.12%) Azure Logic Apps
16 44 (2.03%) Azure Monitor
17 43 (1.98%) dbt
18 42 (1.94%) Amazon EC2
19 35 (1.61%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 73 (3.37%) Broadband
2 26 (1.20%) Firewall
3 16 (0.74%) DNS
4 15 (0.69%) SSL
4 15 (0.69%) Wireless
5 13 (0.60%) DMARC
5 13 (0.60%) TCP/IP
6 12 (0.55%) MQTT
6 12 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
7 10 (0.46%) LTE
8 9 (0.41%) 3GPP
8 9 (0.41%) HTTP
8 9 (0.41%) WAN
9 8 (0.37%) DHCP
9 8 (0.37%) Network Security
10 7 (0.32%) Radio Access Network
10 7 (0.32%) RANAP
10 7 (0.32%) UMTS
10 7 (0.32%) Wireshark
10 7 (0.32%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 135 (6.22%) PostgreSQL
2 132 (6.09%) NoSQL
3 103 (4.75%) MongoDB
4 73 (3.37%) SQL Server
5 51 (2.35%) Relational Database
6 46 (2.12%) DynamoDB
7 42 (1.94%) MySQL
8 31 (1.43%) Data Warehouse
9 30 (1.38%) Redis
10 29 (1.34%) Power BI
11 26 (1.20%) BigQuery
12 19 (0.88%) Amazon RDS
13 18 (0.83%) Data Lake
13 18 (0.83%) Spark SQL
14 16 (0.74%) Metadata
14 16 (0.74%) Semantic Layer
15 15 (0.69%) Amazon Athena
16 13 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
17 12 (0.55%) Oracle Database
18 10 (0.46%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 290 (13.37%) Git
2 195 (8.99%) GitLab
3 193 (8.90%) Jenkins
4 159 (7.33%) Selenium
5 139 (6.41%) JIRA
6 96 (4.43%) Cucumber
7 94 (4.33%) Cypress.io
8 88 (4.06%) Postman
9 59 (2.72%) TeamCity
10 52 (2.40%) JMeter
11 44 (2.03%) JUnit
12 40 (1.84%) REST Assured
13 34 (1.57%) Zephyr
14 27 (1.24%) Gatling
15 26 (1.20%) TestRail
16 25 (1.15%) SpecFlow
17 23 (1.06%) Bitbucket
17 23 (1.06%) SonarQube
18 21 (0.97%) fastlane
19 20 (0.92%) Crashlytics
General
1 581 (26.79%) Social Skills
2 502 (23.14%) Finance
3 254 (11.71%) Analytical Skills
4 228 (10.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 217 (10.00%) Public Sector
6 197 (9.08%) Law
7 189 (8.71%) Banking
8 122 (5.62%) Legal
9 98 (4.52%) Retail
10 89 (4.10%) Marketing
11 80 (3.69%) Manufacturing
12 66 (3.04%) Financial Institution
13 64 (2.95%) Electronics
14 53 (2.44%) Games
15 51 (2.35%) Back Office
16 32 (1.48%) Telecoms
17 30 (1.38%) Aerospace
18 29 (1.34%) Front Office
19 26 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
20 21 (0.97%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 617 (28.45%) Senior
2 346 (15.95%) Lead
3 339 (15.63%) Software Engineer
4 305 (14.06%) Developer
5 227 (10.47%) Test Engineer
6 122 (5.62%) Senior Developer
7 118 (5.44%) Java Engineer
8 102 (4.70%) Senior Software Engineer
9 89 (4.10%) QA Engineer
10 87 (4.01%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 84 (3.87%) DevOps Engineer
11 84 (3.87%) Test Automation Engineer
12 70 (3.23%) Architect
13 68 (3.14%) Lead Software Engineer
13 68 (3.14%) Test Leader
14 65 (3.00%) Tester
15 64 (2.95%) Data Engineer
16 62 (2.86%) Senior Manager
17 59 (2.72%) Analyst
17 59 (2.72%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 226 (10.42%) React
2 216 (9.96%) .NET
3 192 (8.85%) REST
4 187 (8.62%) Playwright
5 184 (8.48%) Spring
6 182 (8.39%) Node.js
6 182 (8.39%) RESTful
7 134 (6.18%) Spring Boot
8 122 (5.62%) Kafka
9 109 (5.03%) AngularJS
10 87 (4.01%) CSS
11 84 (3.87%) HTML
12 69 (3.18%) OAuth
13 63 (2.90%) Middleware
13 63 (2.90%) OAuth2
14 52 (2.40%) JSON
15 48 (2.21%) Vue
16 47 (2.17%) RabbitMQ
17 43 (1.98%) .NET Core
17 43 (1.98%) Next.js
Miscellaneous
1 388 (17.89%) Cloud Native
2 245 (11.30%) Product Ownership
3 184 (8.48%) Distributed Systems
4 114 (5.26%) Mobile App
5 84 (3.87%) Enterprise Software
6 73 (3.37%) Virtual Team
7 72 (3.32%) Legacy Systems
8 71 (3.27%) Public Cloud
9 61 (2.81%) Algorithms
10 60 (2.77%) Cyber Threat
11 58 (2.67%) Blog
12 53 (2.44%) Onboarding
13 52 (2.40%) Low-Code
14 51 (2.35%) Management Information System
15 44 (2.03%) Data Structures
16 43 (1.98%) Self-Motivation
17 41 (1.89%) Greenfield Project
18 40 (1.84%) Marketing Technology
19 36 (1.66%) Embedded Systems
20 34 (1.57%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 187 (8.62%) Linux
2 99 (4.56%) Windows
3 68 (3.14%) Apple iOS
4 59 (2.72%) Android
5 53 (2.44%) Unix
6 12 (0.55%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.32%) CentOS
7 7 (0.32%) Embedded Linux
8 6 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.18%) Debian
9 4 (0.18%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.14%) AIX
11 2 (0.092%) VMS
11 2 (0.092%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.046%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.046%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.046%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.046%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.046%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,235 (56.94%) CI/CD
2 965 (44.49%) Agile
3 824 (37.99%) DevOps
4 710 (32.73%) Software Engineering
5 628 (28.95%) Continuous Improvement
6 602 (27.75%) Mentoring
7 455 (20.98%) AI
8 446 (20.56%) Problem-Solving
9 413 (19.04%) Microservices
10 376 (17.34%) Infrastructure as Code
11 363 (16.74%) Software Testing
12 309 (14.25%) Test Strategy
13 276 (12.72%) Observability
14 275 (12.68%) Coaching
15 274 (12.63%) Containerisation
16 273 (12.59%) Full-Stack Development
17 258 (11.89%) Code Quality
18 242 (11.16%) Validation
19 226 (10.42%) Decision-Making
20 222 (10.24%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 673 (31.03%) Python
2 574 (26.46%) Java
3 385 (17.75%) JavaScript
4 348 (16.04%) SQL
5 319 (14.71%) TypeScript
6 316 (14.57%) C#
7 126 (5.81%) C++
8 106 (4.89%) PowerShell
9 89 (4.10%) Go
10 79 (3.64%) C
11 74 (3.41%) Bash
12 43 (1.98%) Kotlin
13 35 (1.61%) Rust
14 33 (1.52%) Swift
15 31 (1.43%) PHP
16 26 (1.20%) Ruby
17 22 (1.01%) Bicep
18 21 (0.97%) MATLAB
19 19 (0.88%) Groovy
20 16 (0.74%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 287 (13.23%) Security Cleared
2 244 (11.25%) Degree
3 178 (8.21%) SC Cleared
4 111 (5.12%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (3.60%) ISTQB
6 63 (2.90%) CISSP
7 60 (2.77%) ITIL Certification
8 58 (2.67%) DV Cleared
9 56 (2.58%) CISM
10 44 (2.03%) AWS Certification
11 35 (1.61%) Master's Degree
12 30 (1.38%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 22 (1.01%) BPSS Clearance
14 19 (0.88%) HNC
15 17 (0.78%) DBS Check
15 17 (0.78%) ISEB
16 14 (0.65%) HND
17 13 (0.60%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
18 12 (0.55%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
19 8 (0.37%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 511 (23.56%) QA
2 196 (9.04%) Accessibility
3 70 (3.23%) Data Quality
4 63 (2.90%) NIST
5 59 (2.72%) WCAG
6 52 (2.40%) ISO 22301
7 48 (2.21%) GDPR
8 14 (0.65%) SLA
9 13 (0.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 12 (0.55%) GRC
10 12 (0.55%) Software Quality Assurance
11 9 (0.41%) SOC 2
12 8 (0.37%) COBIT
12 8 (0.37%) MISRA
13 7 (0.32%) JTAG
14 6 (0.28%) PMO
15 5 (0.23%) ISO 9001
15 5 (0.23%) NCSC
16 4 (0.18%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.18%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 300 (13.83%) Docker
2 32 (1.48%) Firmware
3 21 (0.97%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (0.74%) Active Directory
4 16 (0.74%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (0.60%) Hyper-V
6 11 (0.51%) KVM
7 10 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.092%) ProxySG
8 2 (0.092%) vSphere
9 1 (0.046%) IAG
9 1 (0.046%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.046%) Terminal Server
9 1 (0.046%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 323 (14.89%) Kubernetes
2 320 (14.75%) Terraform
3 136 (6.27%) Grafana
4 82 (3.78%) Ansible
5 59 (2.72%) Prometheus
6 27 (1.24%) Argo
7 16 (0.74%) Kibana
8 14 (0.65%) CloudHub
9 11 (0.51%) Puppet
10 9 (0.41%) logstash
10 9 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
11 8 (0.37%) Single Sign-On
12 7 (0.32%) HP Fortify
13 6 (0.28%) Functional Safety
13 6 (0.28%) vCenter Server
14 5 (0.23%) Packer
15 4 (0.18%) SCCM
15 4 (0.18%) SCOM
16 3 (0.14%) Progress Chef
16 3 (0.14%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 190 (8.76%) Microsoft
2 73 (3.37%) Google
3 58 (2.67%) Databricks
4 56 (2.58%) Oracle
5 52 (2.40%) Salesforce
6 40 (1.84%) ServiceNow
7 35 (1.61%) VMware
8 33 (1.52%) Splunk
9 32 (1.48%) SAP
10 26 (1.20%) Dynatrace
11 21 (0.97%) Pega
12 19 (0.88%) AppDynamics
13 17 (0.78%) MuleSoft
14 16 (0.74%) Atlassian
14 16 (0.74%) Braze
15 15 (0.69%) Adobe
16 14 (0.65%) Amplitude
16 14 (0.65%) IBM
17 13 (0.60%) OpenAI
17 13 (0.60%) Red Hat