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 28 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
28 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 81 99
Rank change year-on-year -12 +18 -64
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,848 1,647 2,650
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.94% 3.56% 2.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.64% 3.89% 3.05%
Number of salaries quoted 1,136 801 1,701
10th Percentile £42,125 £39,000 £36,250
25th Percentile £48,750 £47,500 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +8.70% -11.54%
75th Percentile £81,250 £82,500 £72,433
90th Percentile £96,250 £99,500 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.35% +9.52% -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 70,129 42,382 86,929
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.45% 91.66% 82.23%
Number of salaries quoted 48,378 23,044 61,478
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.12%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £53,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +6.00% - -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 28 June 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 28 June 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 1,624 £65,000 +3.17% 499
UK excluding London -23 1,037 £60,000 +4.35% 418
Work from Home +8 747 £67,500 +12.50% 228
London +18 636 £80,000 +6.67% 180
North of England -5 305 £60,000 +0.33% 105
South East -25 211 £60,000 +9.09% 139
South West -29 185 £55,000 -8.33% 50
Midlands -25 168 £62,500 +8.70% 55
North West -4 162 £65,000 - 51
West Midlands -26 88 £62,500 -5.66% 27
East Midlands -20 79 £61,250 +28.95% 28
North East +3 76 £52,500 -4.55% 26
Yorkshire -30 67 £69,310 +38.62% 28
East of England -16 66 £52,500 -10.26% 45
Wales +2 59 £55,000 - 6
Scotland -39 45 £60,000 - 17
Northern Ireland -32 11 £80,000 +45.45% 13

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 33 (1.79%) Confluence
2 27 (1.46%) Apache Spark
3 26 (1.41%) Apache Airflow
4 22 (1.19%) Apache
5 18 (0.97%) Jupyter
6 15 (0.81%) SharePoint
7 11 (0.60%) CMS
8 9 (0.49%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 8 (0.43%) IIS
9 8 (0.43%) Palantir Foundry
10 7 (0.38%) Anypoint
10 7 (0.38%) Mule
11 5 (0.27%) Appian
11 5 (0.27%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.22%) SAS
13 3 (0.16%) nginx
13 3 (0.16%) WordPress
14 2 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
14 2 (0.11%) NServiceBus
14 2 (0.11%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 17 (0.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
3 10 (0.54%) Simulink
4 6 (0.32%) PlantUML
5 5 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.16%) CANalyzer
6 3 (0.16%) Lightworks
7 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.054%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (0.65%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.27%) Visualfiles
3 4 (0.22%) Dynamics AX
4 3 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.11%) Towers Watson Igloo
5 2 (0.11%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.054%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.054%) Endur
6 1 (0.054%) Findur
6 1 (0.054%) Magento
6 1 (0.054%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.054%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.054%) Payment Gateway
Cloud Services
1 677 (36.63%) AWS
2 568 (30.74%) Azure
3 238 (12.88%) Azure DevOps
4 228 (12.34%) GCP
5 179 (9.69%) Serverless
6 154 (8.33%) GitHub
7 135 (7.31%) SaaS
8 82 (4.44%) AWS Lambda
8 82 (4.44%) GitHub Actions
9 77 (4.17%) Amazon EKS
10 76 (4.11%) Amazon S3
11 73 (3.95%) AWS CloudFormation
12 53 (2.87%) PaaS
13 49 (2.65%) Azure Service Bus
14 48 (2.60%) Power Platform
15 42 (2.27%) Azure Monitor
16 41 (2.22%) Amazon EC2
17 40 (2.16%) dbt
18 38 (2.06%) Azure Logic Apps
19 37 (2.00%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 70 (3.79%) Broadband
2 25 (1.35%) Firewall
3 13 (0.70%) DMARC
4 11 (0.60%) CHAP
4 11 (0.60%) DNS
5 10 (0.54%) WAN
6 8 (0.43%) 5G
6 8 (0.43%) MQTT
6 8 (0.43%) SD-WAN
6 8 (0.43%) Wireless
7 7 (0.38%) SSL
8 6 (0.32%) Bluetooth
8 6 (0.32%) LTE
8 6 (0.32%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.27%) DHCP
9 5 (0.27%) HTTP
9 5 (0.27%) SMS
9 5 (0.27%) ZigBee
10 4 (0.22%) Ethernet
10 4 (0.22%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (7.36%) NoSQL
2 124 (6.71%) PostgreSQL
3 97 (5.25%) MongoDB
4 69 (3.73%) SQL Server
5 46 (2.49%) DynamoDB
6 33 (1.79%) Relational Database
7 30 (1.62%) MySQL
8 27 (1.46%) Data Warehouse
9 24 (1.30%) Power BI
10 21 (1.14%) Redis
11 20 (1.08%) Amazon RDS
12 19 (1.03%) BigQuery
13 18 (0.97%) Spark SQL
14 16 (0.87%) Semantic Layer
15 15 (0.81%) Metadata
15 15 (0.81%) Oracle Database
16 13 (0.70%) Amazon Athena
17 12 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
18 9 (0.49%) Data Lake
19 8 (0.43%) Flink
Development Applications
1 230 (12.45%) Git
2 164 (8.87%) Jenkins
3 155 (8.39%) GitLab
4 141 (7.63%) Selenium
5 110 (5.95%) JIRA
6 87 (4.71%) Cypress.io
7 80 (4.33%) Cucumber
8 68 (3.68%) Postman
9 61 (3.30%) TeamCity
10 48 (2.60%) JMeter
11 40 (2.16%) REST Assured
12 31 (1.68%) JUnit
13 30 (1.62%) SpecFlow
14 26 (1.41%) Zephyr
15 24 (1.30%) TestRail
16 23 (1.24%) CircleCI
17 22 (1.19%) Gatling
18 21 (1.14%) fastlane
18 21 (1.14%) LabVIEW
19 20 (1.08%) Crashlytics
General
1 446 (24.13%) Social Skills
2 426 (23.05%) Finance
3 192 (10.39%) Banking
4 190 (10.28%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 181 (9.79%) Public Sector
6 160 (8.66%) Analytical Skills
7 118 (6.39%) Law
8 95 (5.14%) Retail
9 63 (3.41%) Manufacturing
10 62 (3.35%) Financial Institution
11 56 (3.03%) Games
12 50 (2.71%) Back Office
12 50 (2.71%) Electronics
13 35 (1.89%) Legal
14 32 (1.73%) Front Office
15 31 (1.68%) Marketing
16 20 (1.08%) Documentation Skills
16 20 (1.08%) Influencing Skills
17 18 (0.97%) Investment Banking
18 17 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 498 (26.95%) Senior
2 303 (16.40%) Lead
3 292 (15.80%) Software Engineer
4 273 (14.77%) Developer
5 210 (11.36%) Test Engineer
6 114 (6.17%) Senior Developer
7 110 (5.95%) Java Engineer
8 87 (4.71%) Senior Software Engineer
8 87 (4.71%) Test Automation Engineer
9 82 (4.44%) QA Engineer
10 75 (4.06%) Test Leader
11 73 (3.95%) Tester
12 67 (3.63%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 65 (3.52%) Architect
13 65 (3.52%) DevOps Engineer
14 61 (3.30%) Data Engineer
15 56 (3.03%) Software Developer
16 55 (2.98%) Senior Test Engineer
17 49 (2.65%) Python Developer
18 46 (2.49%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 193 (10.44%) .NET
2 191 (10.34%) React
3 165 (8.93%) REST
3 165 (8.93%) RESTful
4 161 (8.71%) Playwright
5 155 (8.39%) Spring
6 152 (8.23%) Node.js
7 113 (6.11%) Spring Boot
8 100 (5.41%) Kafka
9 81 (4.38%) AngularJS
10 69 (3.73%) CSS
10 69 (3.73%) HTML
11 56 (3.03%) OAuth
12 49 (2.65%) OAuth2
13 44 (2.38%) RabbitMQ
14 40 (2.16%) YAML
15 39 (2.11%) Vue
16 38 (2.06%) ASP.NET
17 37 (2.00%) JSON
18 36 (1.95%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 355 (19.21%) Cloud Native
2 204 (11.04%) Product Ownership
3 148 (8.01%) Distributed Systems
4 95 (5.14%) Mobile App
5 58 (3.14%) Public Cloud
6 56 (3.03%) Enterprise Software
6 56 (3.03%) Management Information System
7 53 (2.87%) Low-Code
8 52 (2.81%) Algorithms
9 47 (2.54%) Legacy Systems
10 46 (2.49%) Onboarding
11 42 (2.27%) Data Structures
12 37 (2.00%) Greenfield Project
13 34 (1.84%) Video\Live Streaming
14 31 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
15 29 (1.57%) Embedded Systems
16 28 (1.52%) Blog
17 23 (1.24%) e-Learning
17 23 (1.24%) Hedge funds
18 21 (1.14%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 173 (9.36%) Linux
2 86 (4.65%) Windows
3 64 (3.46%) Apple iOS
4 58 (3.14%) Unix
5 50 (2.71%) Android
6 9 (0.49%) CentOS
6 9 (0.49%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.22%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.16%) AIX
10 2 (0.11%) Debian
10 2 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.11%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.054%) Embedded Linux
11 1 (0.054%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.054%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.054%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.054%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,067 (57.74%) CI/CD
2 791 (42.80%) Agile
3 652 (35.28%) DevOps
4 550 (29.76%) Software Engineering
5 490 (26.52%) Mentoring
6 477 (25.81%) Continuous Improvement
7 385 (20.83%) Problem-Solving
8 363 (19.64%) Microservices
9 344 (18.61%) Infrastructure as Code
10 315 (17.05%) AI
11 283 (15.31%) Software Testing
12 254 (13.74%) Containerisation
13 249 (13.47%) Observability
14 242 (13.10%) Coaching
15 237 (12.82%) Full-Stack Development
16 235 (12.72%) Test Strategy
17 219 (11.85%) Validation
18 195 (10.55%) Clean Code
19 186 (10.06%) Technical Leadership
20 184 (9.96%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 582 (31.49%) Python
2 522 (28.25%) Java
3 308 (16.67%) SQL
4 288 (15.58%) JavaScript
5 235 (12.72%) C#
6 231 (12.50%) TypeScript
7 105 (5.68%) C++
8 87 (4.71%) Go
9 77 (4.17%) Bash
10 67 (3.63%) C
11 59 (3.19%) PowerShell
12 34 (1.84%) Rust
13 32 (1.73%) Kotlin
14 29 (1.57%) Swift
15 23 (1.24%) MATLAB
15 23 (1.24%) PHP
16 22 (1.19%) Bicep
17 20 (1.08%) Ruby
18 17 (0.92%) Groovy
19 16 (0.87%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 234 (12.66%) Security Cleared
2 228 (12.34%) Degree
3 138 (7.47%) SC Cleared
4 96 (5.19%) Computer Science Degree
5 82 (4.44%) ISTQB
6 45 (2.44%) DV Cleared
7 32 (1.73%) AWS Certification
7 32 (1.73%) Master's Degree
8 23 (1.24%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 22 (1.19%) DBS Check
10 19 (1.03%) CISSP
11 18 (0.97%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 13 (0.70%) HND
13 12 (0.65%) ISEB
13 12 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
14 11 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
14 11 (0.60%) CGEIT
14 11 (0.60%) CISA
14 11 (0.60%) CISM
14 11 (0.60%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 409 (22.13%) QA
2 172 (9.31%) Accessibility
3 81 (4.38%) Data Quality
4 46 (2.49%) GDPR
5 40 (2.16%) WCAG
6 20 (1.08%) NIST
7 15 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.76%) SLA
9 12 (0.65%) COBIT
9 12 (0.65%) Software Quality Assurance
10 11 (0.60%) GRC
11 7 (0.38%) SOC 2
12 6 (0.32%) ISO 22301
12 6 (0.32%) ISO 9001
12 6 (0.32%) PMO
13 5 (0.27%) JTAG
13 5 (0.27%) MISRA
14 4 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
15 3 (0.16%) ECSS
15 3 (0.16%) MISRA C
System Software
1 256 (13.85%) Docker
2 26 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (1.24%) Firmware
4 18 (0.97%) Hyper-V
5 16 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (0.76%) KVM
7 12 (0.65%) Active Directory
8 10 (0.54%) Embedded Firmware
9 2 (0.11%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.11%) vSphere
10 1 (0.054%) IAG
10 1 (0.054%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.054%) Xen
Systems Management
1 307 (16.61%) Terraform
2 296 (16.02%) Kubernetes
3 140 (7.58%) Grafana
4 79 (4.27%) Ansible
5 64 (3.46%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.30%) Argo
7 15 (0.81%) Kibana
8 9 (0.49%) logstash
8 9 (0.49%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (0.38%) CloudHub
9 7 (0.38%) HP Fortify
10 6 (0.32%) Functional Safety
10 6 (0.32%) Puppet
10 6 (0.32%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.27%) Packer
11 5 (0.27%) SCCM
11 5 (0.27%) SCOM
12 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
13 3 (0.16%) Rancher
13 3 (0.16%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 142 (7.68%) Microsoft
2 54 (2.92%) Databricks
3 47 (2.54%) Oracle
4 45 (2.44%) Salesforce
5 42 (2.27%) Google
6 40 (2.16%) VMware
7 33 (1.79%) ServiceNow
8 24 (1.30%) Dynatrace
8 24 (1.30%) Splunk
9 19 (1.03%) OpenAI
10 17 (0.92%) SAP
11 16 (0.87%) Braze
11 16 (0.87%) Pega
12 14 (0.76%) Amplitude
13 13 (0.70%) AppDynamics
13 13 (0.70%) IFS
13 13 (0.70%) MuleSoft
13 13 (0.70%) SendGrid
14 12 (0.65%) CrowdStrike
15 11 (0.60%) Atlassian