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 25 November 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Nov 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 103 85 74
Rank change year-on-year -18 -11 -34
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,342 2,029 2,010
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.51% 3.02% 3.90%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.96% 3.57% 4.16%
Number of salaries quoted 771 947 1,588
10th Percentile £40,000 £38,750 £41,250
25th Percentile £50,500 £47,000 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £62,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% - +4.17%
75th Percentile £85,000 £80,000 £80,000
90th Percentile £105,000 £103,500 £98,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +4.55% -

All Process and 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 45,329 56,886 48,300
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 84.95% 84.65% 93.78%
Number of salaries quoted 27,632 29,709 37,183
10th Percentile £28,250 £34,000 £32,500
25th Percentile £36,250 £45,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £79,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £98,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £47,500 £54,439 £52,500
% change year-on-year -12.75% +3.69% -

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 25 November 2025.

Salary histogram for Test Automation in the UK

Test Automation
Top 18 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 25 November 2025. 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 -25 1,115 £65,000 +4.00% 562
UK excluding London -36 710 £57,500 - 500
London +21 532 £85,000 +8.97% 211
Work from Home 0 476 £65,000 +1.56% 305
South East -39 193 £55,000 - 200
North of England -55 141 £60,000 +21.21% 67
Scotland +10 121 £77,359 +37.36% 42
South West 0 95 £52,500 -12.50% 82
Midlands -31 92 £60,000 - 51
North West -32 84 £60,000 +28.34% 38
West Midlands -1 60 £57,500 -4.17% 34
Yorkshire -23 44 £55,000 +11.11% 18
East of England -54 42 £60,000 +4.35% 51
East Midlands -22 35 £60,000 +9.09% 16
Wales +12 28 £55,100 +12.99% 16
North East -4 13 £52,600 -10.82% 11
Northern Ireland -21 5 £67,500 +14.89% 4
Isle of Man - 1 £52,500 -

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 28 (2.09%) Apache Spark
2 25 (1.86%) Confluence
3 22 (1.64%) Apache Airflow
4 20 (1.49%) SharePoint
5 16 (1.19%) Apache
5 16 (1.19%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 9 (0.67%) Appian
7 8 (0.60%) Headless CMS
8 7 (0.52%) Apache Solr
9 6 (0.45%) Jupyter
10 5 (0.37%) CMS
10 5 (0.37%) nginx
11 3 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
11 3 (0.22%) WordPress
12 2 (0.15%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 1 (0.075%) IIS
13 1 (0.075%) JBoss
13 1 (0.075%) SAS
13 1 (0.075%) Umbraco
13 1 (0.075%) WebLogic
Applications
1 15 (1.12%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (1.04%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.82%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 8 (0.60%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.30%) Blender
5 4 (0.30%) Oracle Smart View
6 3 (0.22%) Photoshop
6 3 (0.22%) Simulink
7 2 (0.15%) Adobe XD
7 2 (0.15%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.15%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.15%) Sketch
8 1 (0.075%) Doxygen
8 1 (0.075%) Trello
Business Applications
1 34 (2.53%) SAP S/4HANA
2 33 (2.46%) Oracle ERP
3 19 (1.42%) Dynamics CRM
4 12 (0.89%) Dynamics NAV
5 9 (0.67%) Shopify
6 7 (0.52%) Elite 3E
7 4 (0.30%) Hyperion Planning
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Assets
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Financials
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle General Ledger
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Payables
7 4 (0.30%) Oracle Receivables
8 3 (0.22%) Payment Gateway
8 3 (0.22%) Salesforce CRM
8 3 (0.22%) SAP CX
8 3 (0.22%) Unit4 Business World
9 2 (0.15%) Aladdin
10 1 (0.075%) Oracle BPM
10 1 (0.075%) Postilion
10 1 (0.075%) SAP Hybris
Cloud Services
1 439 (32.71%) Azure
2 375 (27.94%) AWS
3 262 (19.52%) Azure DevOps
4 199 (14.83%) GitHub
5 114 (8.49%) GCP
6 113 (8.42%) SaaS
7 81 (6.04%) Serverless
8 75 (5.59%) PaaS
9 68 (5.07%) GitHub Actions
9 68 (5.07%) Power Platform
10 57 (4.25%) GitHub Copilot
11 38 (2.83%) Amazon S3
11 38 (2.83%) AWS Lambda
12 37 (2.76%) Datadog
12 37 (2.76%) Snowflake
13 36 (2.68%) dbt
14 34 (2.53%) Amazon EKS
15 33 (2.46%) Azure Data Factory
16 32 (2.38%) Entra ID
17 30 (2.24%) Dynamics 365
Communications & Networking
1 23 (1.71%) DNS
2 18 (1.34%) HTTP
3 16 (1.19%) TCP/IP
4 13 (0.97%) SD-WAN
4 13 (0.97%) WAN
5 12 (0.89%) 5G
6 10 (0.75%) Firewall
6 10 (0.75%) VPN
7 9 (0.67%) Wi-Fi
8 7 (0.52%) Network Security
8 7 (0.52%) VLAN
9 6 (0.45%) DHCP
9 6 (0.45%) Modbus
9 6 (0.45%) Multicast
10 5 (0.37%) SSL
11 4 (0.30%) 3G
11 4 (0.30%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
11 4 (0.30%) GPRS
11 4 (0.30%) RS-232
11 4 (0.30%) RS-485
Database & Business Intelligence
1 97 (7.23%) Relational Database
2 82 (6.11%) SQL Server
3 72 (5.37%) NoSQL
4 70 (5.22%) PostgreSQL
5 43 (3.20%) Data Warehouse
6 41 (3.06%) MySQL
7 37 (2.76%) Power BI
8 23 (1.71%) MongoDB
9 22 (1.64%) RDBMS
10 20 (1.49%) DynamoDB
11 18 (1.34%) Big Data
12 15 (1.12%) Tableau
13 14 (1.04%) Snowflake Schema
14 13 (0.97%) Amazon RDS
14 13 (0.97%) Elasticsearch
15 11 (0.82%) BigQuery
16 10 (0.75%) MariaDB
17 9 (0.67%) Azure SQL Database
17 9 (0.67%) DB2
18 8 (0.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 187 (13.93%) Selenium
2 181 (13.49%) Git
3 159 (11.85%) JIRA
4 131 (9.76%) Jenkins
5 81 (6.04%) Cypress.io
6 65 (4.84%) Cucumber
6 65 (4.84%) Postman
7 49 (3.65%) GitLab
8 41 (3.06%) JMeter
9 35 (2.61%) TeamCity
10 31 (2.31%) JUnit
10 31 (2.31%) Oracle Forms
11 28 (2.09%) eCATT
12 24 (1.79%) Snyk
13 23 (1.71%) Appium
14 22 (1.64%) Robot Framework
15 21 (1.56%) REST Assured
16 20 (1.49%) NeoLoad
16 20 (1.49%) SpecFlow
17 18 (1.34%) WebDriver
General
1 467 (34.80%) Finance
2 398 (29.66%) Social Skills
3 156 (11.62%) Analytical Skills
4 153 (11.40%) Law
5 132 (9.84%) Marketing
6 123 (9.17%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 108 (8.05%) Banking
8 68 (5.07%) Manufacturing
9 61 (4.55%) Public Sector
10 41 (3.06%) Front Office
10 41 (3.06%) Retail
11 39 (2.91%) Back Office
12 35 (2.61%) Legal
13 34 (2.53%) Financial Institution
14 33 (2.46%) Electronics
15 27 (2.01%) Presentation Skills
16 25 (1.86%) Documentation Skills
17 19 (1.42%) Automotive
17 19 (1.42%) Games
18 17 (1.27%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 375 (27.94%) Senior
2 320 (23.85%) Developer
3 247 (18.41%) Lead
4 137 (10.21%) Senior Developer
5 129 (9.61%) Software Engineer
6 103 (7.68%) Test Engineer
7 74 (5.51%) Analyst
8 64 (4.77%) Python Developer
9 59 (4.40%) QA Engineer
10 54 (4.02%) Test Leader
11 53 (3.95%) Test Automation Engineer
12 51 (3.80%) Java Developer
13 49 (3.65%) Java Engineer
13 49 (3.65%) Tester
14 48 (3.58%) Full-Stack Developer
15 47 (3.50%) Test Analyst
16 42 (3.13%) Software Developer
17 41 (3.06%) Lead Developer
18 39 (2.91%) Quality Engineer
18 39 (2.91%) Senior Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 170 (12.67%) React
2 132 (9.84%) .NET
2 132 (9.84%) RESTful
3 106 (7.90%) Playwright
3 106 (7.90%) REST
4 96 (7.15%) CSS
5 95 (7.08%) HTML
6 83 (6.18%) Node.js
7 75 (5.59%) Kafka
8 73 (5.44%) Spring
9 64 (4.77%) JSON
10 49 (3.65%) SOAP
11 45 (3.35%) AngularJS
11 45 (3.35%) Spring Boot
11 45 (3.35%) XML
12 40 (2.98%) OAuth
13 39 (2.91%) GraphQL
13 39 (2.91%) pytest
14 38 (2.83%) YAML
15 35 (2.61%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 211 (15.72%) Cloud Native
2 81 (6.04%) Product Ownership
3 56 (4.17%) Onboarding
4 55 (4.10%) Mobile App
5 54 (4.02%) Management Information System
6 50 (3.73%) Self-Motivation
7 47 (3.50%) Data Structures
8 45 (3.35%) Enterprise Software
9 42 (3.13%) Algorithms
10 35 (2.61%) Hedge funds
11 32 (2.38%) Security Posture
12 30 (2.24%) Equities
13 26 (1.94%) Distributed Systems
14 25 (1.86%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 25 (1.86%) Legacy Systems
14 25 (1.86%) Public Cloud
15 23 (1.71%) Virtual Team
16 18 (1.34%) GNSS
16 18 (1.34%) Satnav
17 17 (1.27%) Low-Code
Operating Systems
1 110 (8.20%) Linux
2 61 (4.55%) Windows
3 29 (2.16%) Unix
4 19 (1.42%) Apple iOS
4 19 (1.42%) Windows Server
5 12 (0.89%) Android
6 5 (0.37%) Embedded Linux
6 5 (0.37%) FreeRTOS
7 4 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
8 3 (0.22%) Debian
8 3 (0.22%) VMS
8 3 (0.22%) Windows 10
9 2 (0.15%) CentOS
9 2 (0.15%) Mac OS
9 2 (0.15%) Solaris
10 1 (0.075%) Kali Linux
10 1 (0.075%) VxWorks
Processes & Methodologies
1 694 (51.71%) Agile
2 689 (51.34%) CI/CD
3 499 (37.18%) DevOps
4 350 (26.08%) Problem-Solving
5 302 (22.50%) Mentoring
6 270 (20.12%) Software Engineering
7 241 (17.96%) Continuous Improvement
8 195 (14.53%) Coaching
9 186 (13.86%) AI
10 181 (13.49%) SDLC
11 159 (11.85%) Microservices
12 149 (11.10%) Computer Science
13 143 (10.66%) Analytics
13 143 (10.66%) Test Strategy
14 140 (10.43%) Scrum
15 134 (9.99%) Infrastructure as Code
16 133 (9.91%) Clean Code
17 131 (9.76%) Software Testing
18 127 (9.46%) Roadmaps
19 124 (9.24%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 390 (29.06%) Python
2 321 (23.92%) SQL
3 309 (23.03%) Java
4 218 (16.24%) JavaScript
5 191 (14.23%) C#
6 137 (10.21%) TypeScript
7 77 (5.74%) C++
8 75 (5.59%) PowerShell
9 44 (3.28%) C
9 44 (3.28%) Shell Script
10 39 (2.91%) Go
10 39 (2.91%) PHP
11 37 (2.76%) PL/SQL
12 24 (1.79%) Bicep
13 23 (1.71%) Kotlin
14 22 (1.64%) Bash
15 17 (1.27%) MATLAB
16 14 (1.04%) Apex Code
17 13 (0.97%) Swift
18 12 (0.89%) VBA
Qualifications
1 203 (15.13%) Degree
2 106 (7.90%) Computer Science Degree
3 93 (6.93%) Security Cleared
4 75 (5.59%) ISTQB
5 67 (4.99%) SC Cleared
6 52 (3.87%) Master's Degree
7 30 (2.24%) AWS Certification
8 27 (2.01%) DV Cleared
9 26 (1.94%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
10 25 (1.86%) DBS Check
11 19 (1.42%) ISEB
12 17 (1.27%) HND
13 11 (0.82%) BPSS Clearance
14 10 (0.75%) Azure Certification
15 9 (0.67%) ITIL Certification
16 8 (0.60%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
17 6 (0.45%) HNC
18 5 (0.37%) CEH
18 5 (0.37%) CRISC
18 5 (0.37%) ISTQB Advanced Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 295 (21.98%) QA
2 71 (5.29%) Accessibility
3 70 (5.22%) ISO/IEC 27001
4 51 (3.80%) NIST
5 34 (2.53%) Data Quality
6 32 (2.38%) NCSC
7 27 (2.01%) GDPR
8 23 (1.71%) WCAG
9 19 (1.42%) ISO 9001
10 10 (0.75%) SLA
11 5 (0.37%) ISO 22301
11 5 (0.37%) PCI DSS
12 4 (0.30%) Cyber Essentials
12 4 (0.30%) IEC 61508
12 4 (0.30%) ISO 26262
12 4 (0.30%) MISRA
12 4 (0.30%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 3 (0.22%) COBIT
13 3 (0.22%) GRC
13 3 (0.22%) Section 508
System Software
1 173 (12.89%) Docker
2 40 (2.98%) Active Directory
3 21 (1.56%) Firmware
4 17 (1.27%) Embedded Firmware
5 10 (0.75%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.45%) Virtual Machines
6 6 (0.45%) vSphere
7 4 (0.30%) HDFS
7 4 (0.30%) zsh
8 3 (0.22%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 184 (13.71%) Kubernetes
2 174 (12.97%) Terraform
3 55 (4.10%) Grafana
4 47 (3.50%) Ansible
5 28 (2.09%) HP ALM
5 28 (2.09%) Single Sign-On
6 20 (1.49%) Prometheus
7 10 (0.75%) Microsoft Intune
8 4 (0.30%) Control-M
8 4 (0.30%) Mesos
8 4 (0.30%) SCCM
8 4 (0.30%) SCOM
9 3 (0.22%) HP Quality Center
9 3 (0.22%) Kubeflow
9 3 (0.22%) Nessus
9 3 (0.22%) Progress Chef
10 2 (0.15%) Argo
10 2 (0.15%) Functional Safety
10 2 (0.15%) HP Fortify
11 1 (0.075%) Jamf Pro
Vendors
1 156 (11.62%) Microsoft
2 80 (5.96%) Oracle
3 63 (4.69%) Salesforce
4 55 (4.10%) Google
5 52 (3.87%) SAP
6 37 (2.76%) Databricks
7 28 (2.09%) HP
8 26 (1.94%) VMware
9 21 (1.56%) Guidewire
10 18 (1.34%) Black Duck
11 17 (1.27%) Coverity
12 16 (1.19%) Apple
13 15 (1.12%) Okta
14 14 (1.04%) Blue Prism
15 13 (0.97%) Splunk
16 12 (0.89%) Pega
17 10 (0.75%) Atlassian
17 10 (0.75%) UiPath
18 9 (0.67%) Ab Initio
18 9 (0.67%) ServiceNow