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 18 September 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 93 96
Rank change year-on-year +12 +3 -24
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,397 1,561 2,092
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.08% 3.16% 2.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.85% 3.56% 3.29%
Number of salaries quoted 1,293 734 1,033
10th Percentile £41,250 £38,825 £38,750
25th Percentile £47,500 £50,000 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £63,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.79% +5.00% -4.71%
75th Percentile £80,000 £83,500 £76,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £101,750 £94,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +4.55% -4.35%

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 84,196 43,853 63,499
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.06% 88.72% 81.26%
Number of salaries quoted 58,302 24,746 35,929
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,750 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

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 18 September 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 18 September 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 +4 1,945 £62,500 -3.85% 2,812
UK excluding London +18 1,529 £57,500 - 1,694
Work from Home +14 859 £65,000 +4.00% 1,160
London 0 701 £80,000 - 1,396
North of England +16 387 £57,500 -4.17% 411
South East +8 272 £60,000 +4.35% 401
South West +8 259 £60,000 +10.53% 226
Midlands -7 203 £54,500 -11.38% 182
North West 0 189 £60,000 - 227
Northern Ireland +13 165 £80,000 +45.45% 48
Wales +12 132 £55,000 +4.76% 32
West Midlands -15 114 £55,000 -2.22% 119
North East +9 109 £55,000 +57.14% 61
Yorkshire +2 92 £69,310 +26.02% 123
East Midlands -32 89 £54,000 -13.60% 63
East of England -32 79 £50,000 -14.53% 180
Scotland -50 47 £61,250 -12.50% 223

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 56 (2.34%) Confluence
2 32 (1.34%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.04%) Apache
4 23 (0.96%) SharePoint
5 19 (0.79%) Apache Airflow
6 18 (0.75%) Jupyter
7 14 (0.58%) Anypoint
7 14 (0.58%) Mule
8 13 (0.54%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 13 (0.54%) CMS
9 6 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
9 6 (0.25%) nginx
9 6 (0.25%) Umbraco
10 5 (0.21%) Cloud Foundry
10 5 (0.21%) SAS
10 5 (0.21%) WinCC
11 4 (0.17%) Headless CMS
11 4 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
12 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
12 3 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 81 (3.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (0.58%) Simulink
3 9 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.25%) Lightworks
4 6 (0.25%) Moqups
5 4 (0.17%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.083%) CANalyzer
7 2 (0.083%) EPLAN
7 2 (0.083%) PlantUML
7 2 (0.083%) SOLIDWORKS
8 1 (0.042%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 68 (2.84%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.13%) Dynamics GP
3 11 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.21%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.13%) Magento
5 3 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.083%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.083%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.083%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.083%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.042%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.042%) Endur
7 1 (0.042%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.042%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.042%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.042%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.042%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 804 (33.54%) AWS
2 676 (28.20%) Azure
3 320 (13.35%) SaaS
4 254 (10.60%) GCP
5 246 (10.26%) Azure DevOps
6 204 (8.51%) GitHub
7 190 (7.93%) Serverless
8 107 (4.46%) GitHub Actions
9 99 (4.13%) AWS CloudFormation
10 95 (3.96%) Amazon EKS
11 87 (3.63%) AWS Lambda
12 83 (3.46%) Amazon S3
13 63 (2.63%) Power Platform
14 59 (2.46%) Google Ads
14 59 (2.46%) Meta Ads
15 54 (2.25%) Azure Logic Apps
16 53 (2.21%) Azure Service Bus
17 48 (2.00%) Azure Monitor
18 44 (1.84%) Azure Functions
19 40 (1.67%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 57 (2.38%) Broadband
2 30 (1.25%) TCP/IP
3 25 (1.04%) DNS
4 24 (1.00%) Firewall
5 17 (0.71%) SSL
6 16 (0.67%) Wireless
7 14 (0.58%) Modbus
8 13 (0.54%) DHCP
8 13 (0.54%) DMARC
8 13 (0.54%) HTTP
8 13 (0.54%) MQTT
8 13 (0.54%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (0.46%) 5G
9 11 (0.46%) WAN
10 10 (0.42%) LTE
11 9 (0.38%) 3GPP
11 9 (0.38%) Ethernet
11 9 (0.38%) Network Security
12 7 (0.29%) RANAP
12 7 (0.29%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 138 (5.76%) PostgreSQL
2 124 (5.17%) NoSQL
3 90 (3.75%) MongoDB
4 80 (3.34%) SQL Server
5 66 (2.75%) Relational Database
6 45 (1.88%) DynamoDB
7 41 (1.71%) MySQL
8 40 (1.67%) Redis
9 36 (1.50%) Power BI
10 35 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
11 33 (1.38%) Data Lake
12 29 (1.21%) BigQuery
13 24 (1.00%) Amazon Athena
14 22 (0.92%) Semantic Layer
15 21 (0.88%) Metadata
16 20 (0.83%) Amazon RDS
17 16 (0.67%) Elasticsearch
18 13 (0.54%) Delta Lake
18 13 (0.54%) Spark SQL
19 12 (0.50%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 364 (15.19%) Git
2 239 (9.97%) GitLab
3 213 (8.89%) Jenkins
4 164 (6.84%) Selenium
5 152 (6.34%) JIRA
6 108 (4.51%) Cucumber
7 106 (4.42%) Cypress.io
8 95 (3.96%) Postman
9 71 (2.96%) TeamCity
10 51 (2.13%) JMeter
11 47 (1.96%) JUnit
12 41 (1.71%) REST Assured
13 33 (1.38%) Zephyr
14 32 (1.34%) Gatling
15 30 (1.25%) SonarQube
16 28 (1.17%) LabVIEW
17 24 (1.00%) Bitbucket
17 24 (1.00%) Robot Framework
17 24 (1.00%) TestRail
18 23 (0.96%) Maven
General
1 668 (27.87%) Social Skills
2 582 (24.28%) Finance
3 368 (15.35%) Analytical Skills
4 268 (11.18%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 232 (9.68%) Public Sector
6 203 (8.47%) Law
7 202 (8.43%) Banking
8 167 (6.97%) Marketing
9 143 (5.97%) Legal
10 125 (5.21%) Retail
11 113 (4.71%) Manufacturing
12 89 (3.71%) Electronics
13 80 (3.34%) Financial Institution
14 60 (2.50%) Back Office
15 50 (2.09%) Aerospace
16 44 (1.84%) Telecoms
17 39 (1.63%) Games
18 33 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
19 29 (1.21%) Automotive
20 24 (1.00%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 661 (27.58%) Senior
2 353 (14.73%) Software Engineer
3 338 (14.10%) Developer
4 326 (13.60%) Lead
5 251 (10.47%) Test Engineer
6 125 (5.21%) Senior Developer
7 114 (4.76%) Java Engineer
8 107 (4.46%) DevOps Engineer
9 103 (4.30%) Senior Software Engineer
10 101 (4.21%) QA Engineer
11 87 (3.63%) Test Automation Engineer
12 80 (3.34%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 75 (3.13%) Analyst
14 73 (3.05%) Data Engineer
15 69 (2.88%) Lead Software Engineer
16 63 (2.63%) Architect
17 62 (2.59%) Principal Engineer
17 62 (2.59%) Software Developer
18 61 (2.54%) Marketing Manager
19 60 (2.50%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 334 (13.93%) Terraform
2 244 (10.18%) REST
3 235 (9.80%) React
4 223 (9.30%) .NET
5 209 (8.72%) Playwright
6 198 (8.26%) Node.js
7 195 (8.14%) RESTful
8 192 (8.01%) Spring
9 141 (5.88%) Spring Boot
10 134 (5.59%) Kafka
11 128 (5.34%) CSS
12 120 (5.01%) HTML
13 116 (4.84%) AngularJS
14 73 (3.05%) OAuth
15 66 (2.75%) Middleware
15 66 (2.75%) OAuth2
16 61 (2.54%) JSON
17 53 (2.21%) Vue
18 52 (2.17%) Next.js
18 52 (2.17%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 422 (17.61%) Cloud Native
2 290 (12.10%) Product Ownership
3 206 (8.59%) Distributed Systems
4 105 (4.38%) Onboarding
5 102 (4.26%) Mobile App
6 96 (4.01%) Enterprise Software
7 90 (3.75%) Public Cloud
8 84 (3.50%) Blog
9 79 (3.30%) Virtual Team
10 64 (2.67%) Legacy Systems
10 64 (2.67%) Marketing Technology
11 54 (2.25%) Algorithms
12 53 (2.21%) Cyber Threat
13 49 (2.04%) Low-Code
13 49 (2.04%) Self-Motivation
14 47 (1.96%) Embedded Systems
15 43 (1.79%) Data Structures
16 41 (1.71%) e-Learning
17 38 (1.59%) Management Information System
18 35 (1.46%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 185 (7.72%) Linux
2 102 (4.26%) Windows
3 63 (2.63%) Android
4 57 (2.38%) Unix
5 56 (2.34%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.38%) Embedded Linux
6 9 (0.38%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.33%) CentOS
8 7 (0.29%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.17%) AIX
9 4 (0.17%) Debian
9 4 (0.17%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.17%) VMS
10 3 (0.13%) VxWorks
11 2 (0.083%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.042%) Mac OS
12 1 (0.042%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.042%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,346 (56.15%) CI/CD
2 1,005 (41.93%) Agile
3 862 (35.96%) DevOps
4 774 (32.29%) Software Engineering
5 702 (29.29%) Continuous Improvement
6 621 (25.91%) Mentoring
7 593 (24.74%) AI
8 550 (22.95%) Problem-Solving
9 440 (18.36%) Microservices
10 418 (17.44%) Software Testing
11 388 (16.19%) Infrastructure as Code
12 322 (13.43%) Test Strategy
13 302 (12.60%) Validation
14 294 (12.27%) Code Quality
15 290 (12.10%) Coaching
15 290 (12.10%) Observability
16 272 (11.35%) Full-Stack Development
17 265 (11.06%) Containerisation
18 261 (10.89%) Technical Leadership
19 257 (10.72%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 687 (28.66%) Python
2 578 (24.11%) Java
3 451 (18.82%) SQL
4 438 (18.27%) JavaScript
5 347 (14.48%) TypeScript
6 334 (13.93%) C#
7 125 (5.21%) C++
8 104 (4.34%) PowerShell
9 97 (4.05%) Go
10 90 (3.75%) Bash
11 81 (3.38%) C
12 36 (1.50%) Kotlin
13 35 (1.46%) PHP
14 33 (1.38%) Rust
15 29 (1.21%) Ruby
16 27 (1.13%) Groovy
17 25 (1.04%) MATLAB
18 24 (1.00%) Bicep
19 21 (0.88%) Swift
20 15 (0.63%) Scala
Qualifications
1 356 (14.85%) Security Cleared
2 250 (10.43%) Degree
3 219 (9.14%) SC Cleared
4 105 (4.38%) Computer Science Degree
5 81 (3.38%) ISTQB
6 64 (2.67%) DV Cleared
7 58 (2.42%) AWS Certification
8 56 (2.34%) CISSP
9 54 (2.25%) ITIL Certification
10 53 (2.21%) CISM
11 47 (1.96%) Master's Degree
12 41 (1.71%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 39 (1.63%) HNC
14 33 (1.38%) HND
15 32 (1.34%) BPSS Clearance
16 17 (0.71%) DBS Check
17 16 (0.67%) ISEB
18 13 (0.54%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
19 12 (0.50%) Azure Certification
20 11 (0.46%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 555 (23.15%) QA
2 205 (8.55%) Accessibility
3 84 (3.50%) Data Quality
4 69 (2.88%) WCAG
5 55 (2.29%) NIST
6 48 (2.00%) ISO 22301
7 40 (1.67%) GDPR
8 13 (0.54%) SLA
9 11 (0.46%) GRC
10 9 (0.38%) MISRA
10 9 (0.38%) SOC 2
10 9 (0.38%) Software Quality Assurance
11 8 (0.33%) ISO/IEC 27001
12 6 (0.25%) JTAG
12 6 (0.25%) PMO
13 5 (0.21%) COBIT
13 5 (0.21%) NCSC
14 4 (0.17%) ECSS
14 4 (0.17%) ISO 20022
14 4 (0.17%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 328 (13.68%) Docker
2 44 (1.84%) Firmware
3 14 (0.58%) Active Directory
4 12 (0.50%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
6 8 (0.33%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.21%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.13%) KVM
9 2 (0.083%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.042%) IAG
10 1 (0.042%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.042%) QEMU
10 1 (0.042%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 339 (14.14%) Kubernetes
2 152 (6.34%) Grafana
3 79 (3.30%) Ansible
4 63 (2.63%) Prometheus
5 29 (1.21%) Argo
6 17 (0.71%) Kibana
7 15 (0.63%) Puppet
8 14 (0.58%) CloudHub
9 11 (0.46%) Microsoft Intune
10 9 (0.38%) logstash
10 9 (0.38%) Rancher
11 8 (0.33%) Functional Safety
11 8 (0.33%) HP Fortify
11 8 (0.33%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.25%) Progress Chef
12 6 (0.25%) vCenter Server
13 5 (0.21%) Packer
14 3 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.13%) SCCM
14 3 (0.13%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 258 (10.76%) Microsoft
2 126 (5.26%) Google
3 64 (2.67%) Databricks
4 61 (2.54%) Salesforce
5 53 (2.21%) Oracle
6 49 (2.04%) SAP
7 43 (1.79%) ServiceNow
8 36 (1.50%) Splunk
9 29 (1.21%) Dynatrace
10 24 (1.00%) Pega
11 20 (0.83%) MuleSoft
12 19 (0.79%) AppDynamics
12 19 (0.79%) VMware
13 17 (0.71%) IBM
14 16 (0.67%) OpenAI
15 15 (0.63%) Allen-Bradley
15 15 (0.63%) Atlassian
15 15 (0.63%) Red Hat
16 14 (0.58%) Adobe
17 13 (0.54%) SendGrid