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 19 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
19 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 101 80 81
Rank change year-on-year -21 +1 -47
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,331 1,844 2,054
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.18% 3.47% 3.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.71% 3.82% 3.85%
Number of salaries quoted 826 847 1,489
10th Percentile £41,250 £41,250 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £47,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - +4.17% -
75th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £79,500
90th Percentile £105,000 £102,500 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,200 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.00% +4.55% -2.62%

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 49,128 48,280 53,389
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.62% 90.90% 89.53%
Number of salaries quoted 28,894 23,393 40,832
10th Percentile £28,500 £35,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £42,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,965
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +3.51% -7.26%
75th Percentile £75,000 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +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 19 January 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 19 January 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 -23 1,101 £62,500 - 1,269
UK excluding London -52 696 £55,200 -4.00% 1,225
Work from Home +9 539 £65,000 +0.78% 617
London +25 531 £80,000 - 202
South East -55 166 £53,750 -2.27% 369
Scotland +16 132 £85,000 +41.67% 51
North of England -70 130 £60,000 +20.00% 230
South West -2 114 £55,000 - 167
Midlands -57 83 £55,000 -8.33% 148
North West -42 77 £60,000 +27.66% 99
West Midlands -26 49 £55,200 -8.00% 54
East of England -42 47 £50,000 -28.57% 201
Yorkshire -52 41 £55,000 +11.11% 96
East Midlands -50 37 £55,000 -8.33% 92
Wales +5 26 £56,350 +15.00% 67
North East -15 12 £57,600 -5.57% 35
Northern Ireland -30 4 £64,859 +8.10% 27

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 36 (2.70%) Confluence
2 21 (1.58%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 17 (1.28%) Apache Airflow
4 15 (1.13%) Apache Spark
5 13 (0.98%) Appian
6 10 (0.75%) Jupyter
7 9 (0.68%) Apache
7 9 (0.68%) SharePoint
8 7 (0.53%) Apache Solr
8 7 (0.53%) CMS
9 4 (0.30%) WordPress
10 3 (0.23%) IIS
10 3 (0.23%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
11 2 (0.15%) nginx
11 2 (0.15%) Oracle Application Server
11 2 (0.15%) SAS
12 1 (0.075%) Anypoint
12 1 (0.075%) JBoss
Applications
1 18 (1.35%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.13%) Microsoft Excel
3 12 (0.90%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 11 (0.83%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.30%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.30%) Oracle Smart View
6 3 (0.23%) Photoshop
6 3 (0.23%) Sketch
7 2 (0.15%) Adobe XD
7 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.075%) Doxygen
8 1 (0.075%) Trello
Business Applications
1 43 (3.23%) Oracle ERP
2 30 (2.25%) SAP S/4HANA
3 19 (1.43%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.30%) Elite 3E
4 4 (0.30%) Hyperion Planning
4 4 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
4 4 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
4 4 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
4 4 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
4 4 (0.30%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
4 4 (0.30%) Shopify
5 3 (0.23%) SAP CX
6 2 (0.15%) Aladdin
6 2 (0.15%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.075%) Dynamics NAV
7 1 (0.075%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.075%) SAP Hybris
7 1 (0.075%) Unit4 Business World
Cloud Services
1 459 (34.49%) Azure
2 330 (24.79%) AWS
3 287 (21.56%) Azure DevOps
4 225 (16.90%) GitHub
5 120 (9.02%) GCP
6 101 (7.59%) SaaS
7 79 (5.94%) GitHub Copilot
8 72 (5.41%) GitHub Actions
8 72 (5.41%) Power Platform
9 66 (4.96%) Serverless
10 59 (4.43%) PaaS
11 50 (3.76%) Azure Data Factory
12 42 (3.16%) Amazon EKS
13 41 (3.08%) Snowflake
14 39 (2.93%) dbt
14 39 (2.93%) Entra ID
14 39 (2.93%) OCI
15 35 (2.63%) Datadog
16 32 (2.40%) Power Automate
16 32 (2.40%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.58%) DNS
1 21 (1.58%) HTTP
2 20 (1.50%) TCP/IP
3 14 (1.05%) SD-WAN
3 14 (1.05%) WAN
4 11 (0.83%) 5G
4 11 (0.83%) VPN
5 8 (0.60%) Firewall
6 7 (0.53%) CHAP
7 5 (0.38%) Multicast
8 4 (0.30%) 3G
8 4 (0.30%) GPRS
8 4 (0.30%) GSM
8 4 (0.30%) Modbus
8 4 (0.30%) RS-232
8 4 (0.30%) RS-485
8 4 (0.30%) SMTP
8 4 (0.30%) SSL
8 4 (0.30%) Wi-Fi
9 3 (0.23%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 81 (6.09%) SQL Server
2 69 (5.18%) PostgreSQL
3 67 (5.03%) Relational Database
4 55 (4.13%) NoSQL
5 48 (3.61%) Data Warehouse
6 43 (3.23%) MySQL
6 43 (3.23%) Power BI
7 24 (1.80%) MongoDB
8 20 (1.50%) Tableau
9 17 (1.28%) Elasticsearch
9 17 (1.28%) RDBMS
10 16 (1.20%) BigQuery
11 15 (1.13%) DynamoDB
12 14 (1.05%) Snowflake Schema
13 13 (0.98%) DB2
13 13 (0.98%) Pinecone
14 11 (0.83%) Metadata
15 10 (0.75%) Amazon RDS
16 9 (0.68%) Oracle Database
16 9 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 187 (14.05%) Selenium
2 169 (12.70%) JIRA
3 157 (11.80%) Git
4 141 (10.59%) Jenkins
5 74 (5.56%) Cypress.io
6 64 (4.81%) Cucumber
7 57 (4.28%) Postman
8 56 (4.21%) GitLab
9 42 (3.16%) JMeter
10 41 (3.08%) Oracle Forms
11 39 (2.93%) TeamCity
12 27 (2.03%) Robot Framework
12 27 (2.03%) SpecFlow
13 25 (1.88%) eCATT
13 25 (1.88%) JUnit
13 25 (1.88%) WebDriver
14 24 (1.80%) REST Assured
15 23 (1.73%) Snyk
16 21 (1.58%) Bitbucket
16 21 (1.58%) MLflow
General
1 425 (31.93%) Finance
2 413 (31.03%) Social Skills
3 150 (11.27%) Analytical Skills
4 96 (7.21%) Banking
5 89 (6.69%) Law
6 80 (6.01%) Marketing
7 70 (5.26%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 55 (4.13%) Retail
9 53 (3.98%) Public Sector
10 49 (3.68%) Manufacturing
11 44 (3.31%) Financial Institution
12 37 (2.78%) Electronics
13 36 (2.70%) Front Office
14 26 (1.95%) Presentation Skills
15 25 (1.88%) Back Office
15 25 (1.88%) Legal
16 20 (1.50%) Documentation Skills
17 19 (1.43%) Organisational Skills
18 16 (1.20%) Influencing Skills
19 14 (1.05%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 364 (27.35%) Senior
2 243 (18.26%) Developer
3 213 (16.00%) Lead
4 130 (9.77%) Test Engineer
5 109 (8.19%) Software Engineer
6 106 (7.96%) Senior Developer
7 77 (5.79%) Analyst
8 70 (5.26%) QA Engineer
9 65 (4.88%) Tester
10 64 (4.81%) Test Leader
11 59 (4.43%) Test Automation Engineer
12 55 (4.13%) Python Developer
13 50 (3.76%) Applications Engineer
13 50 (3.76%) Cloud Engineer
14 49 (3.68%) Automation Engineer
15 44 (3.31%) Automation Tester
16 43 (3.23%) QA Automation Engineer
17 41 (3.08%) Test Analyst
18 36 (2.70%) Automation Test Lead
19 35 (2.63%) Quality Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 141 (10.59%) React
2 135 (10.14%) RESTful
3 118 (8.87%) .NET
4 111 (8.34%) REST
5 93 (6.99%) Playwright
6 70 (5.26%) Node.js
7 68 (5.11%) JSON
8 66 (4.96%) Spring
9 58 (4.36%) SOAP
10 55 (4.13%) CSS
10 55 (4.13%) HTML
11 54 (4.06%) OAuth
12 51 (3.83%) pytest
13 45 (3.38%) Kafka
14 42 (3.16%) OAuth2
15 39 (2.93%) Spring Boot
15 39 (2.93%) XML
16 36 (2.70%) Elastic Stack
16 36 (2.70%) Flask
17 33 (2.48%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 204 (15.33%) Cloud Native
2 106 (7.96%) Product Ownership
3 60 (4.51%) Self-Motivation
4 48 (3.61%) Enterprise Software
5 45 (3.38%) Management Information System
6 41 (3.08%) Mobile App
7 35 (2.63%) Onboarding
8 30 (2.25%) Legacy Systems
9 29 (2.18%) Hedge funds
10 27 (2.03%) Data Structures
11 24 (1.80%) Low-Code
11 24 (1.80%) Satnav
11 24 (1.80%) Security Posture
12 23 (1.73%) Algorithms
12 23 (1.73%) Distributed Systems
13 22 (1.65%) Equities
13 22 (1.65%) Virtual Team
14 20 (1.50%) GNSS
15 19 (1.43%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 19 (1.43%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 123 (9.24%) Linux
2 75 (5.63%) Windows
3 33 (2.48%) Apple iOS
4 32 (2.40%) Android
5 31 (2.33%) Unix
6 13 (0.98%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.60%) CentOS
8 5 (0.38%) Debian
8 5 (0.38%) Embedded Linux
8 5 (0.38%) FreeRTOS
8 5 (0.38%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.23%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.15%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.15%) Solaris
10 2 (0.15%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.075%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 690 (51.84%) CI/CD
2 598 (44.93%) Agile
3 480 (36.06%) DevOps
4 315 (23.67%) Problem-Solving
5 287 (21.56%) Mentoring
6 285 (21.41%) Continuous Improvement
7 231 (17.36%) Software Engineering
8 216 (16.23%) AI
9 212 (15.93%) Coaching
10 171 (12.85%) Microservices
11 162 (12.17%) Observability
12 161 (12.10%) Software Testing
13 155 (11.65%) Analytics
14 151 (11.34%) Test Strategy
15 148 (11.12%) Clean Code
16 136 (10.22%) Infrastructure as Code
17 122 (9.17%) Asset Management
18 120 (9.02%) Containerisation
19 119 (8.94%) Scrum
20 116 (8.72%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 397 (29.83%) Python
2 296 (22.24%) Java
3 294 (22.09%) SQL
4 183 (13.75%) JavaScript
5 158 (11.87%) C#
6 140 (10.52%) TypeScript
7 75 (5.63%) PowerShell
8 53 (3.98%) C++
9 46 (3.46%) PL/SQL
10 43 (3.23%) Shell Script
11 35 (2.63%) Bash
12 33 (2.48%) Go
12 33 (2.48%) PHP
13 31 (2.33%) Bicep
14 24 (1.80%) Apex Code
14 24 (1.80%) C
15 19 (1.43%) Kotlin
16 13 (0.98%) MATLAB
16 13 (0.98%) T-SQL
16 13 (0.98%) VBA
Qualifications
1 182 (13.67%) Degree
2 115 (8.64%) Security Cleared
3 73 (5.48%) ISTQB
4 72 (5.41%) Computer Science Degree
5 71 (5.33%) SC Cleared
6 43 (3.23%) Master's Degree
7 33 (2.48%) DV Cleared
8 28 (2.10%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 21 (1.58%) DBS Check
9 21 (1.58%) HND
10 20 (1.50%) AWS Certification
11 18 (1.35%) Azure Certification
12 16 (1.20%) ISEB
13 13 (0.98%) PhD
14 9 (0.68%) CEH
15 8 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
15 8 (0.60%) CISA
16 7 (0.53%) CGEIT
16 7 (0.53%) CISM
16 7 (0.53%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 319 (23.97%) QA
2 82 (6.16%) Accessibility
3 47 (3.53%) Data Quality
4 44 (3.31%) NIST
5 43 (3.23%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 31 (2.33%) GDPR
7 24 (1.80%) WCAG
8 20 (1.50%) NCSC
9 14 (1.05%) SLA
10 10 (0.75%) ISO 9001
11 9 (0.68%) ISO 22301
12 7 (0.53%) COBIT
12 7 (0.53%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.30%) IEC 61508
13 4 (0.30%) ISO 13485
13 4 (0.30%) ISO 26262
13 4 (0.30%) MISRA
13 4 (0.30%) PCI DSS
14 3 (0.23%) Section 508
14 3 (0.23%) Software Quality Assurance
System Software
1 180 (13.52%) Docker
2 42 (3.16%) Active Directory
3 16 (1.20%) Firmware
4 13 (0.98%) Embedded Firmware
5 9 (0.68%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.23%) Hyper-V
7 3 (0.23%) KVM
7 3 (0.23%) vSphere
8 2 (0.15%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 202 (15.18%) Terraform
2 193 (14.50%) Kubernetes
3 73 (5.48%) Grafana
4 54 (4.06%) Ansible
5 42 (3.16%) Single Sign-On
6 28 (2.10%) HP ALM
6 28 (2.10%) Prometheus
7 7 (0.53%) Argo
8 6 (0.45%) Microsoft Intune
9 5 (0.38%) logstash
10 3 (0.23%) Control-M
10 3 (0.23%) HP Fortify
10 3 (0.23%) Progress Chef
10 3 (0.23%) Rancher
10 3 (0.23%) SCCM
10 3 (0.23%) SCOM
11 2 (0.15%) HP Quality Center
11 2 (0.15%) Kibana
11 2 (0.15%) Nessus
11 2 (0.15%) Puppet
Vendors
1 129 (9.69%) Microsoft
2 97 (7.29%) Oracle
3 69 (5.18%) Salesforce
4 50 (3.76%) SAP
5 35 (2.63%) Databricks
6 32 (2.40%) Google
7 28 (2.10%) HP
7 28 (2.10%) VMware
8 20 (1.50%) Okta
9 19 (1.43%) Splunk
10 18 (1.35%) Black Duck
10 18 (1.35%) Coverity
11 16 (1.20%) Guidewire
11 16 (1.20%) OpenAI
12 14 (1.05%) Ab Initio
12 14 (1.05%) UiPath
13 13 (0.98%) Commvault
14 11 (0.83%) Blue Prism
14 11 (0.83%) MuleSoft
14 11 (0.83%) Palantir