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 8 April 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
8 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 94 90
Rank change year-on-year -4 -4 -57
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,605 1,286 2,700
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.94% 3.14% 2.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.55% 3.38% 3.44%
Number of salaries quoted 1,007 886 1,796
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £63,076 £60,000 £57,965
Median % change year-on-year +5.13% +3.51% -10.82%
75th Percentile £83,750 £82,000 £73,750
90th Percentile £105,000 £98,474 £91,934
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.55% +4.76% -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 63,052 38,055 78,562
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 76.14% 93.05% 86.27%
Number of salaries quoted 38,936 22,478 58,228
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,237
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,125 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £56,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -6.67% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.41% +8.00% -7.94%

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 8 April 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 8 April 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 -3 1,340 £63,288 +5.48% 674
UK excluding London -31 862 £57,500 +4.55% 573
Work from Home +13 671 £65,000 +5.91% 333
London +37 593 £80,000 +10.34% 183
North of England -44 192 £60,000 +9.09% 162
South East -42 176 £56,250 +7.14% 145
South West -26 152 £55,000 -8.33% 72
Midlands -29 127 £60,500 +5.22% 83
Scotland +9 119 £62,500 +4.17% 30
North West -16 103 £60,000 +14.29% 82
West Midlands -20 65 £61,500 -1.60% 57
East Midlands -29 62 £55,100 +10.20% 26
East of England -14 57 £50,000 -27.27% 65
Yorkshire -61 57 £65,000 +30.00% 41
Wales -3 38 £55,000 +4.76% 27
North East -24 32 £55,000 -9.10% 39
Northern Ireland -37 9 £80,000 +45.45% 7

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 37 (2.31%) Confluence
2 23 (1.43%) Apache Airflow
3 17 (1.06%) Apache Spark
4 13 (0.81%) Appian
5 11 (0.69%) Apache
6 10 (0.62%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.56%) CMS
7 9 (0.56%) IIS
7 9 (0.56%) Jupyter
7 9 (0.56%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.56%) SharePoint
8 7 (0.44%) WordPress
9 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.19%) nginx
9 3 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.12%) Camunda
10 2 (0.12%) JBoss
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
10 2 (0.12%) SAS
11 1 (0.062%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 15 (0.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.87%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (0.56%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.31%) PlantUML
6 4 (0.25%) Fusion 360
7 3 (0.19%) CANalyzer
8 2 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.062%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.062%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 18 (1.12%) Oracle ERP
2 13 (0.81%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.25%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (0.25%) Shopify
5 2 (0.12%) SAP CX
5 2 (0.12%) Visualfiles
6 1 (0.062%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.062%) Endur
6 1 (0.062%) Findur
6 1 (0.062%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.062%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.062%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.062%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.062%) Siebel CRM
6 1 (0.062%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 532 (33.15%) Azure
2 494 (30.78%) AWS
3 252 (15.70%) Azure DevOps
4 201 (12.52%) GitHub
5 200 (12.46%) GCP
6 129 (8.04%) SaaS
7 127 (7.91%) Serverless
8 77 (4.80%) Amazon EKS
9 71 (4.42%) GitHub Actions
10 70 (4.36%) PaaS
11 58 (3.61%) dbt
12 57 (3.55%) GitHub Copilot
13 56 (3.49%) Azure Data Factory
14 53 (3.30%) AWS Lambda
14 53 (3.30%) Power Platform
15 45 (2.80%) Amazon S3
16 44 (2.74%) AWS CloudFormation
17 42 (2.62%) Datadog
18 35 (2.18%) Entra ID
18 35 (2.18%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.31%) DNS
2 18 (1.12%) Broadband
3 14 (0.87%) HTTP
4 13 (0.81%) CHAP
4 13 (0.81%) WAN
5 12 (0.75%) SD-WAN
6 11 (0.69%) Firewall
7 10 (0.62%) TCP/IP
8 9 (0.56%) 5G
8 9 (0.56%) VPN
9 4 (0.25%) SMTP
9 4 (0.25%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (0.19%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (0.19%) Ethernet
10 3 (0.19%) Multicast
10 3 (0.19%) VLAN
11 2 (0.12%) LTE
11 2 (0.12%) Modbus
11 2 (0.12%) Network Security
11 2 (0.12%) PuTTY
Database & Business Intelligence
1 101 (6.29%) NoSQL
2 98 (6.11%) PostgreSQL
3 88 (5.48%) SQL Server
4 49 (3.05%) MongoDB
5 45 (2.80%) Relational Database
6 37 (2.31%) MySQL
7 36 (2.24%) Data Warehouse
8 35 (2.18%) Power BI
9 25 (1.56%) DynamoDB
10 18 (1.12%) Amazon RDS
11 15 (0.93%) Metadata
12 14 (0.87%) Redis
13 13 (0.81%) DB2
13 13 (0.81%) Pinecone
14 12 (0.75%) BigQuery
14 12 (0.75%) Data Lake
15 11 (0.69%) Tableau
16 10 (0.62%) Oracle Database
16 10 (0.62%) Spark SQL
17 9 (0.56%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 187 (11.65%) Selenium
2 180 (11.21%) Git
3 138 (8.60%) Jenkins
4 131 (8.16%) JIRA
5 91 (5.67%) Cypress.io
6 81 (5.05%) GitLab
7 80 (4.98%) Cucumber
8 68 (4.24%) TeamCity
9 61 (3.80%) Postman
10 53 (3.30%) JMeter
11 36 (2.24%) SpecFlow
12 31 (1.93%) REST Assured
13 27 (1.68%) CircleCI
14 24 (1.50%) JUnit
14 24 (1.50%) MLflow
14 24 (1.50%) TestRail
15 23 (1.43%) Robot Framework
16 20 (1.25%) Bitbucket
17 18 (1.12%) WebDriver
18 17 (1.06%) Visual Studio
General
1 451 (28.10%) Social Skills
2 447 (27.85%) Finance
3 186 (11.59%) Banking
4 149 (9.28%) Analytical Skills
5 133 (8.29%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 125 (7.79%) Law
7 97 (6.04%) Retail
8 92 (5.73%) Public Sector
9 65 (4.05%) Financial Institution
10 47 (2.93%) Back Office
11 42 (2.62%) Electronics
12 40 (2.49%) Legal
13 39 (2.43%) Marketing
14 36 (2.24%) Front Office
14 36 (2.24%) Manufacturing
15 30 (1.87%) Games
16 19 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
17 16 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
18 14 (0.87%) Telecoms
19 13 (0.81%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 416 (25.92%) Senior
2 255 (15.89%) Lead
3 227 (14.14%) Developer
4 215 (13.40%) Software Engineer
5 166 (10.34%) Test Engineer
6 106 (6.60%) Senior Developer
7 96 (5.98%) QA Engineer
8 86 (5.36%) Tester
9 85 (5.30%) Java Engineer
10 77 (4.80%) Test Leader
11 74 (4.61%) Test Automation Engineer
12 71 (4.42%) Senior Software Engineer
13 65 (4.05%) Analyst
14 58 (3.61%) Automation Engineer
15 54 (3.36%) Automation Tester
16 52 (3.24%) Full-Stack Engineer
16 52 (3.24%) Python Developer
17 50 (3.12%) QA Automation Engineer
18 46 (2.87%) Senior Test Engineer
19 45 (2.80%) Java Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 204 (12.71%) React
2 156 (9.72%) .NET
3 147 (9.16%) RESTful
4 145 (9.03%) Playwright
5 131 (8.16%) REST
6 95 (5.92%) Spring
7 86 (5.36%) Node.js
8 70 (4.36%) HTML
9 69 (4.30%) CSS
10 68 (4.24%) Spring Boot
11 66 (4.11%) Kafka
12 56 (3.49%) JSON
13 51 (3.18%) OAuth
14 49 (3.05%) pytest
15 41 (2.55%) AngularJS
15 41 (2.55%) Django
15 41 (2.55%) Elastic Stack
15 41 (2.55%) Web Services
16 38 (2.37%) OAuth2
17 37 (2.31%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 263 (16.39%) Cloud Native
2 134 (8.35%) Product Ownership
3 79 (4.92%) Mobile App
4 66 (4.11%) Distributed Systems
5 58 (3.61%) Management Information System
6 46 (2.87%) Self-Motivation
7 44 (2.74%) Enterprise Software
7 44 (2.74%) Legacy Systems
8 41 (2.55%) Onboarding
9 37 (2.31%) Algorithms
10 33 (2.06%) Data Structures
10 33 (2.06%) Greenfield Project
10 33 (2.06%) Low-Code
11 26 (1.62%) Hedge funds
11 26 (1.62%) Hybrid Cloud
12 25 (1.56%) Equities
13 24 (1.50%) Public Cloud
14 21 (1.31%) Blog
15 20 (1.25%) Client/Server
16 19 (1.18%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 151 (9.41%) Linux
2 81 (5.05%) Windows
3 63 (3.93%) Apple iOS
4 53 (3.30%) Android
5 34 (2.12%) Unix
6 10 (0.62%) CentOS
7 8 (0.50%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.31%) Debian
8 5 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.25%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.19%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.12%) FreeRTOS
11 2 (0.12%) Kali Linux
11 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.12%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.062%) AIX
12 1 (0.062%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 824 (51.34%) CI/CD
2 656 (40.87%) Agile
3 552 (34.39%) DevOps
4 392 (24.42%) Continuous Improvement
5 386 (24.05%) Software Engineering
6 349 (21.74%) Mentoring
7 339 (21.12%) Problem-Solving
8 261 (16.26%) AI
9 260 (16.20%) Microservices
10 244 (15.20%) Infrastructure as Code
11 228 (14.21%) Software Testing
12 227 (14.14%) Coaching
13 217 (13.52%) Observability
14 197 (12.27%) Clean Code
15 193 (12.02%) Test Strategy
16 186 (11.59%) Containerisation
17 184 (11.46%) Full-Stack Development
18 155 (9.66%) Validation
19 152 (9.47%) Analytics
19 152 (9.47%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 491 (30.59%) Python
2 415 (25.86%) Java
3 309 (19.25%) SQL
4 243 (15.14%) JavaScript
5 207 (12.90%) TypeScript
6 169 (10.53%) C#
7 79 (4.92%) PowerShell
8 69 (4.30%) C++
9 57 (3.55%) Bash
10 49 (3.05%) Go
11 34 (2.12%) C
12 30 (1.87%) Bicep
13 27 (1.68%) Kotlin
14 26 (1.62%) PL/SQL
15 25 (1.56%) Apex Code
15 25 (1.56%) Shell Script
16 24 (1.50%) Rust
17 20 (1.25%) PHP
18 18 (1.12%) Swift
19 13 (0.81%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 212 (13.21%) Degree
2 146 (9.10%) Security Cleared
3 96 (5.98%) SC Cleared
4 83 (5.17%) Computer Science Degree
5 79 (4.92%) ISTQB
6 32 (1.99%) Master's Degree
7 29 (1.81%) DV Cleared
7 29 (1.81%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 21 (1.31%) AWS Certification
9 19 (1.18%) CISSP
10 18 (1.12%) ISEB
11 14 (0.87%) CEH
11 14 (0.87%) CISA
11 14 (0.87%) HND
12 13 (0.81%) Azure Certification
12 13 (0.81%) CGEIT
12 13 (0.81%) CISM
12 13 (0.81%) FFIEC
12 13 (0.81%) PhD
12 13 (0.81%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 384 (23.93%) QA
2 125 (7.79%) Accessibility
3 65 (4.05%) Data Quality
4 48 (2.99%) GDPR
5 45 (2.80%) NIST
6 35 (2.18%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.62%) WCAG
8 14 (0.87%) ISO 22301
9 13 (0.81%) COBIT
9 13 (0.81%) SLA
10 10 (0.62%) ISO 9001
10 10 (0.62%) NCSC
11 9 (0.56%) Software Quality Assurance
12 7 (0.44%) GRC
12 7 (0.44%) IEC 61508
13 5 (0.31%) ISO 26262
13 5 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 5 (0.31%) SOC 2
14 4 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
14 4 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 232 (14.45%) Docker
2 29 (1.81%) Active Directory
3 21 (1.31%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (0.93%) Hyper-V
5 14 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
6 13 (0.81%) Firmware
6 13 (0.81%) KVM
7 8 (0.50%) Embedded Firmware
8 3 (0.19%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.12%) vSphere
10 1 (0.062%) Xen
Systems Management
1 284 (17.69%) Kubernetes
2 280 (17.45%) Terraform
3 133 (8.29%) Grafana
4 67 (4.17%) Ansible
5 44 (2.74%) Prometheus
6 27 (1.68%) Single Sign-On
7 9 (0.56%) Argo
8 8 (0.50%) logstash
9 6 (0.37%) Kibana
9 6 (0.37%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.31%) HP ALM
10 5 (0.31%) SCCM
10 5 (0.31%) SCOM
11 4 (0.25%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.25%) Packer
12 3 (0.19%) Functional Safety
12 3 (0.19%) Rancher
12 3 (0.19%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.12%) MIIS
13 2 (0.12%) Nessus
Vendors
1 122 (7.60%) Microsoft
2 74 (4.61%) Oracle
3 53 (3.30%) Salesforce
4 51 (3.18%) Databricks
5 45 (2.80%) VMware
6 36 (2.24%) Google
7 20 (1.25%) Commvault
7 20 (1.25%) OpenAI
8 18 (1.12%) SAP
8 18 (1.12%) ServiceNow
9 17 (1.06%) Splunk
10 14 (0.87%) Atlassian
10 14 (0.87%) Palantir
11 13 (0.81%) Foundry
11 13 (0.81%) Pega
11 13 (0.81%) UiPath
12 12 (0.75%) Automation Anywhere
12 12 (0.75%) Black Duck
12 12 (0.75%) Coverity
13 11 (0.69%) Blue Prism