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 27 May 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
27 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 82 93
Rank change year-on-year -9 +11 -60
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,804 1,536 2,707
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.94% 3.61% 2.73%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.63% 3.87% 3.25%
Number of salaries quoted 1,130 791 1,751
10th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £48,750 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +8.70% -11.54%
75th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £98,750 £98,750 £88,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £57,443 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.45% +9.41% -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 68,715 39,643 83,325
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.91% 93.27% 84.01%
Number of salaries quoted 44,731 20,766 60,219
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £29,250
25th Percentile £40,839 £41,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,375 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.78% +6.14% -9.84%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,410 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £51,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +1.94% +3.00% -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 27 May 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 27 May 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 1,566 £62,500 - 643
UK excluding London -33 985 £60,000 +4.45% 457
Work from Home +10 741 £65,000 +8.33% 306
London +28 650 £80,000 +12.28% 268
North of England -21 264 £62,500 +4.57% 129
South East -19 205 £60,000 +9.09% 110
South West -23 174 £55,000 -8.33% 61
Midlands -29 162 £60,000 +4.35% 63
North West -22 137 £60,000 -7.69% 78
West Midlands -48 81 £61,000 -6.15% 44
East Midlands -30 80 £55,000 +15.79% 19
Scotland -30 72 £60,000 - 25
Yorkshire -33 67 £75,000 +49.34% 26
East of England -30 63 £50,000 -12.28% 44
North East -7 60 £52,500 -11.02% 25
Wales -6 47 £55,000 - 15
Northern Ireland -36 11 £80,000 +45.45% 18

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 40 (2.22%) Confluence
2 25 (1.39%) Apache Airflow
3 18 (1.00%) Apache Spark
4 17 (0.94%) Apache
4 17 (0.94%) Jupyter
5 15 (0.83%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.61%) CMS
7 10 (0.55%) IIS
7 10 (0.55%) Palantir Foundry
8 9 (0.50%) Appian
9 8 (0.44%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 6 (0.33%) Oracle SOA Suite
11 5 (0.28%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.22%) Anypoint
12 4 (0.22%) SAS
12 4 (0.22%) WordPress
13 3 (0.17%) Camunda
13 3 (0.17%) Mule
14 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Exchange
14 2 (0.11%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 14 (0.78%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.33%) PlantUML
3 6 (0.33%) Simulink
4 5 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.17%) CANalyzer
5 3 (0.17%) Fusion 360
5 3 (0.17%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.055%) Lightworks
7 1 (0.055%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 11 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
2 10 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.28%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.22%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.22%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.17%) Shopify
6 2 (0.11%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.11%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.055%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.055%) Endur
7 1 (0.055%) Findur
7 1 (0.055%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.055%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 593 (32.87%) AWS
2 574 (31.82%) Azure
3 266 (14.75%) Azure DevOps
4 211 (11.70%) GCP
5 171 (9.48%) GitHub
6 159 (8.81%) Serverless
7 128 (7.10%) SaaS
8 79 (4.38%) GitHub Actions
9 76 (4.21%) Amazon EKS
10 70 (3.88%) AWS Lambda
11 68 (3.77%) Amazon S3
12 63 (3.49%) AWS CloudFormation
13 56 (3.10%) PaaS
14 49 (2.72%) Power Platform
15 46 (2.55%) Azure Data Factory
15 46 (2.55%) Azure Service Bus
16 43 (2.38%) Azure Monitor
16 43 (2.38%) dbt
17 40 (2.22%) Azure Logic Apps
18 39 (2.16%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 46 (2.55%) Broadband
2 24 (1.33%) Firewall
3 15 (0.83%) DNS
4 13 (0.72%) CHAP
5 12 (0.67%) WAN
6 11 (0.61%) HTTP
6 11 (0.61%) SD-WAN
7 10 (0.55%) 5G
8 7 (0.39%) DMARC
9 6 (0.33%) Bluetooth
9 6 (0.33%) TCP/IP
9 6 (0.33%) Wireless
10 5 (0.28%) MQTT
10 5 (0.28%) SMS
10 5 (0.28%) VPN
10 5 (0.28%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (0.28%) ZigBee
11 4 (0.22%) DHCP
11 4 (0.22%) LTE
12 3 (0.17%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (7.04%) NoSQL
2 115 (6.37%) PostgreSQL
3 88 (4.88%) MongoDB
4 76 (4.21%) SQL Server
5 39 (2.16%) DynamoDB
6 30 (1.66%) Data Warehouse
6 30 (1.66%) MySQL
7 29 (1.61%) Relational Database
8 27 (1.50%) Power BI
9 22 (1.22%) Amazon RDS
10 19 (1.05%) Metadata
11 18 (1.00%) Spark SQL
12 16 (0.89%) Redis
13 15 (0.83%) BigQuery
14 14 (0.78%) Oracle Database
15 11 (0.61%) Data Lake
15 11 (0.61%) Pinecone
16 9 (0.50%) Elasticsearch
16 9 (0.50%) Oracle Reports
17 8 (0.44%) DB2
Development Applications
1 211 (11.70%) Git
2 160 (8.87%) Jenkins
3 150 (8.31%) Selenium
4 135 (7.48%) GitLab
5 123 (6.82%) JIRA
6 85 (4.71%) Cypress.io
7 70 (3.88%) Cucumber
8 64 (3.55%) TeamCity
9 61 (3.38%) Postman
10 45 (2.49%) JMeter
11 35 (1.94%) REST Assured
12 29 (1.61%) SpecFlow
13 28 (1.55%) CircleCI
13 28 (1.55%) JUnit
14 25 (1.39%) TestRail
15 23 (1.27%) LabVIEW
16 21 (1.16%) Zephyr
17 20 (1.11%) MLflow
18 18 (1.00%) Robot Framework
18 18 (1.00%) SonarQube
General
1 463 (25.67%) Social Skills
2 431 (23.89%) Finance
3 188 (10.42%) Banking
4 174 (9.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 156 (8.65%) Analytical Skills
6 149 (8.26%) Public Sector
7 119 (6.60%) Law
8 99 (5.49%) Retail
9 63 (3.49%) Financial Institution
10 59 (3.27%) Electronics
11 58 (3.22%) Manufacturing
12 50 (2.77%) Back Office
13 43 (2.38%) Games
14 33 (1.83%) Front Office
15 32 (1.77%) Legal
15 32 (1.77%) Marketing
16 20 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
17 19 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
17 19 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
18 17 (0.94%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 476 (26.39%) Senior
2 307 (17.02%) Lead
3 257 (14.25%) Software Engineer
4 256 (14.19%) Developer
5 210 (11.64%) Test Engineer
6 118 (6.54%) Senior Developer
7 101 (5.60%) Java Engineer
8 91 (5.04%) QA Engineer
9 86 (4.77%) Test Automation Engineer
10 81 (4.49%) Tester
11 76 (4.21%) Senior Software Engineer
11 76 (4.21%) Test Leader
12 64 (3.55%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 59 (3.27%) Data Engineer
14 57 (3.16%) Architect
15 56 (3.10%) DevOps Engineer
16 52 (2.88%) Senior Test Engineer
17 50 (2.77%) Automation Engineer
18 49 (2.72%) Analyst
19 47 (2.61%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 193 (10.70%) .NET
2 190 (10.53%) React
3 161 (8.92%) RESTful
4 160 (8.87%) REST
5 156 (8.65%) Playwright
6 127 (7.04%) Spring
7 123 (6.82%) Node.js
8 95 (5.27%) Kafka
9 92 (5.10%) Spring Boot
10 65 (3.60%) AngularJS
10 65 (3.60%) HTML
11 63 (3.49%) CSS
12 59 (3.27%) OAuth
13 49 (2.72%) OAuth2
14 48 (2.66%) JSON
15 46 (2.55%) RabbitMQ
16 39 (2.16%) .NET Framework
17 38 (2.11%) pytest
18 35 (1.94%) Web Services
18 35 (1.94%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 312 (17.29%) Cloud Native
2 188 (10.42%) Product Ownership
3 116 (6.43%) Distributed Systems
4 91 (5.04%) Mobile App
5 58 (3.22%) Management Information System
6 52 (2.88%) Enterprise Software
7 48 (2.66%) Onboarding
8 47 (2.61%) Algorithms
9 46 (2.55%) Low-Code
9 46 (2.55%) Public Cloud
10 37 (2.05%) Data Structures
10 37 (2.05%) Greenfield Project
10 37 (2.05%) Legacy Systems
11 36 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
12 27 (1.50%) Embedded Systems
13 25 (1.39%) Blog
13 25 (1.39%) Video\Live Streaming
14 23 (1.27%) Hedge funds
14 23 (1.27%) Hybrid Cloud
15 21 (1.16%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 162 (8.98%) Linux
2 82 (4.55%) Windows
3 70 (3.88%) Apple iOS
4 60 (3.33%) Android
5 50 (2.77%) Unix
6 10 (0.55%) CentOS
7 9 (0.50%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.22%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.17%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.11%) AIX
11 2 (0.11%) Debian
12 1 (0.055%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.055%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.055%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.055%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 982 (54.43%) CI/CD
2 749 (41.52%) Agile
3 637 (35.31%) DevOps
4 474 (26.27%) Software Engineering
5 448 (24.83%) Continuous Improvement
6 436 (24.17%) Mentoring
7 363 (20.12%) Problem-Solving
8 324 (17.96%) Microservices
9 318 (17.63%) Infrastructure as Code
10 297 (16.46%) AI
11 276 (15.30%) Software Testing
12 250 (13.86%) Observability
13 241 (13.36%) Coaching
13 241 (13.36%) Containerisation
14 223 (12.36%) Full-Stack Development
15 217 (12.03%) Test Strategy
16 204 (11.31%) Clean Code
17 199 (11.03%) Validation
18 171 (9.48%) Deployment Automation
19 168 (9.31%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 557 (30.88%) Python
2 491 (27.22%) Java
3 308 (17.07%) SQL
4 265 (14.69%) JavaScript
5 229 (12.69%) C#
6 224 (12.42%) TypeScript
7 96 (5.32%) C++
8 80 (4.43%) Bash
9 74 (4.10%) Go
10 72 (3.99%) PowerShell
11 57 (3.16%) C
12 34 (1.88%) Bicep
13 31 (1.72%) Rust
14 30 (1.66%) Kotlin
15 22 (1.22%) Swift
16 21 (1.16%) MATLAB
17 20 (1.11%) PL/SQL
18 19 (1.05%) PHP
19 18 (1.00%) Shell Script
20 17 (0.94%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 238 (13.19%) Degree
2 203 (11.25%) Security Cleared
3 121 (6.71%) SC Cleared
4 94 (5.21%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (4.32%) ISTQB
6 44 (2.44%) DV Cleared
7 31 (1.72%) Master's Degree
8 25 (1.39%) AWS Certification
9 21 (1.16%) CISSP
10 19 (1.05%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 18 (1.00%) DBS Check
12 17 (0.94%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 15 (0.83%) HND
14 13 (0.72%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.72%) CGEIT
14 13 (0.72%) CISA
14 13 (0.72%) CISM
14 13 (0.72%) FFIEC
14 13 (0.72%) PhD
14 13 (0.72%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 410 (22.73%) QA
2 152 (8.43%) Accessibility
3 79 (4.38%) Data Quality
4 51 (2.83%) GDPR
5 25 (1.39%) NIST
5 25 (1.39%) WCAG
6 18 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 15 (0.83%) SLA
8 14 (0.78%) COBIT
9 11 (0.61%) GRC
9 11 (0.61%) Software Quality Assurance
10 9 (0.50%) ISO 22301
11 8 (0.44%) ISO 9001
12 7 (0.39%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.33%) PMO
14 5 (0.28%) JTAG
14 5 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
16 3 (0.17%) ISO 13485
16 3 (0.17%) PERC
System Software
1 254 (14.08%) Docker
2 25 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (1.16%) Active Directory
4 20 (1.11%) Firmware
5 18 (1.00%) Hyper-V
6 15 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
7 14 (0.78%) KVM
8 8 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.17%) Terminal Server
10 2 (0.11%) vSphere
11 1 (0.055%) IAG
11 1 (0.055%) Xen
Systems Management
1 313 (17.35%) Terraform
2 295 (16.35%) Kubernetes
3 139 (7.71%) Grafana
4 76 (4.21%) Ansible
5 66 (3.66%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.44%) Argo
7 21 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.72%) Kibana
9 9 (0.50%) logstash
10 6 (0.33%) HP Fortify
10 6 (0.33%) SCCM
10 6 (0.33%) SCOM
11 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.22%) Packer
11 4 (0.22%) Rancher
11 4 (0.22%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.17%) CloudHub
12 3 (0.17%) Functional Safety
12 3 (0.17%) Puppet
12 3 (0.17%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 142 (7.87%) Microsoft
2 61 (3.38%) Oracle
3 55 (3.05%) Databricks
4 52 (2.88%) Salesforce
5 41 (2.27%) VMware
6 35 (1.94%) Google
7 24 (1.33%) Splunk
8 23 (1.27%) ServiceNow
9 22 (1.22%) OpenAI
10 19 (1.05%) SAP
11 17 (0.94%) Dynatrace
12 15 (0.83%) Braze
13 14 (0.78%) CrowdStrike
14 13 (0.72%) Amplitude
15 12 (0.67%) AppDynamics
15 12 (0.67%) Atlassian
15 12 (0.67%) Commvault
15 12 (0.67%) Foundry
15 12 (0.67%) IFS
15 12 (0.67%) MuleSoft