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

6 months to
28 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 91 98
Rank change year-on-year +10 +7 -28
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,294 1,628 2,061
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.10% 3.26% 2.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.87% 3.67% 3.06%
Number of salaries quoted 1,264 784 1,212
10th Percentile £41,750 £37,500 £38,750
25th Percentile £48,750 £47,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £80,250 £82,563 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -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 79,979 44,380 67,332
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.09% 88.78% 80.65%
Number of salaries quoted 55,459 25,207 42,110
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,055
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.10% -8.99%

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 August 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 August 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 1,864 £65,000 +4.00% 2,156
UK excluding London +12 1,461 £60,000 +9.09% 1,304
Work from Home +18 865 £67,500 +8.00% 924
London +4 679 £80,000 - 1,164
North of England +21 369 £60,000 +0.17% 282
South East -5 262 £62,000 +12.73% 291
South West 0 241 £60,000 +14.29% 225
Midlands +1 199 £60,000 - 136
North West -14 185 £65,000 - 161
Northern Ireland +6 166 £80,000 +45.45% 53
West Midlands -11 110 £62,500 +2.88% 82
Wales +6 108 £55,000 +2.33% 32
North East +17 104 £55,000 +64.18% 53
East Midlands -23 89 £55,000 -4.35% 54
Yorkshire -16 80 £69,310 +41.45% 69
East of England -34 72 £50,000 -9.09% 139
Scotland -37 57 £62,500 +2.04% 164

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 51 (2.22%) Confluence
2 27 (1.18%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.09%) SharePoint
4 24 (1.05%) Apache
5 20 (0.87%) Apache Airflow
6 17 (0.74%) Jupyter
7 14 (0.61%) Anypoint
7 14 (0.61%) Mule
8 13 (0.57%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 11 (0.48%) CMS
10 6 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
11 5 (0.22%) Cloud Foundry
11 5 (0.22%) IIS
11 5 (0.22%) nginx
11 5 (0.22%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.17%) Camunda
12 4 (0.17%) SAS
13 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
13 3 (0.13%) WordPress
14 2 (0.087%) WebLogic
Applications
1 56 (2.44%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.52%) Simulink
4 7 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.22%) Lightworks
5 5 (0.22%) Moqups
6 3 (0.13%) CANalyzer
6 3 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.087%) PlantUML
8 1 (0.044%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.044%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.044%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 67 (2.92%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.18%) Dynamics GP
3 11 (0.48%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.22%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.087%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.087%) Magento
6 2 (0.087%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.087%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.087%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.044%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.044%) Dynamics AX
7 1 (0.044%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.044%) Endur
7 1 (0.044%) Findur
7 1 (0.044%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.044%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.044%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 791 (34.48%) AWS
2 667 (29.08%) Azure
3 295 (12.86%) SaaS
4 251 (10.94%) Azure DevOps
5 245 (10.68%) GCP
6 195 (8.50%) GitHub
7 180 (7.85%) Serverless
8 101 (4.40%) GitHub Actions
9 97 (4.23%) AWS CloudFormation
10 78 (3.40%) AWS Lambda
11 72 (3.14%) Amazon S3
12 70 (3.05%) Amazon EKS
13 62 (2.70%) Power Platform
14 51 (2.22%) Azure Service Bus
15 49 (2.14%) Azure Logic Apps
16 45 (1.96%) Azure Monitor
17 43 (1.87%) PaaS
18 40 (1.74%) dbt
19 39 (1.70%) Amazon EC2
20 36 (1.57%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 70 (3.05%) Broadband
2 26 (1.13%) Firewall
3 22 (0.96%) TCP/IP
4 20 (0.87%) DNS
5 16 (0.70%) SSL
5 16 (0.70%) Wireless
6 13 (0.57%) DMARC
6 13 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (0.52%) MQTT
8 11 (0.48%) DHCP
8 11 (0.48%) WAN
9 10 (0.44%) HTTP
9 10 (0.44%) LTE
10 9 (0.39%) 3GPP
10 9 (0.39%) Network Security
11 8 (0.35%) 5G
12 7 (0.31%) GSM
12 7 (0.31%) Modbus
12 7 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
12 7 (0.31%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 131 (5.71%) PostgreSQL
2 120 (5.23%) NoSQL
3 91 (3.97%) MongoDB
4 77 (3.36%) SQL Server
5 61 (2.66%) Relational Database
6 47 (2.05%) DynamoDB
7 40 (1.74%) MySQL
8 36 (1.57%) Data Warehouse
9 34 (1.48%) Power BI
10 27 (1.18%) BigQuery
10 27 (1.18%) Redis
11 23 (1.00%) Data Lake
12 19 (0.83%) Metadata
12 19 (0.83%) Semantic Layer
13 18 (0.78%) Spark SQL
14 17 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
15 16 (0.70%) Amazon Athena
16 12 (0.52%) Elasticsearch
17 11 (0.48%) Big Data
17 11 (0.48%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 330 (14.39%) Git
2 218 (9.50%) GitLab
3 212 (9.24%) Jenkins
4 167 (7.28%) Selenium
5 144 (6.28%) JIRA
6 105 (4.58%) Cypress.io
7 101 (4.40%) Cucumber
8 96 (4.18%) Postman
9 59 (2.57%) TeamCity
10 53 (2.31%) JMeter
11 48 (2.09%) REST Assured
12 46 (2.01%) JUnit
13 37 (1.61%) Zephyr
14 36 (1.57%) Gatling
15 30 (1.31%) SonarQube
16 27 (1.18%) TestRail
17 25 (1.09%) Bitbucket
18 22 (0.96%) LabVIEW
18 22 (0.96%) Robot Framework
18 22 (0.96%) SpecFlow
General
1 644 (28.07%) Social Skills
2 531 (23.15%) Finance
3 316 (13.78%) Analytical Skills
4 245 (10.68%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 217 (9.46%) Public Sector
6 197 (8.59%) Law
7 191 (8.33%) Banking
8 145 (6.32%) Legal
9 135 (5.88%) Marketing
10 101 (4.40%) Retail
11 91 (3.97%) Manufacturing
12 78 (3.40%) Electronics
13 71 (3.10%) Financial Institution
14 55 (2.40%) Back Office
15 50 (2.18%) Games
16 40 (1.74%) Aerospace
17 36 (1.57%) Telecoms
18 29 (1.26%) Documentation Skills
19 27 (1.18%) Front Office
20 21 (0.92%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 643 (28.03%) Senior
2 355 (15.48%) Lead
3 342 (14.91%) Software Engineer
4 328 (14.30%) Developer
5 247 (10.77%) Test Engineer
6 125 (5.45%) Senior Developer
7 109 (4.75%) Java Engineer
8 101 (4.40%) Senior Software Engineer
9 95 (4.14%) QA Engineer
10 94 (4.10%) DevOps Engineer
11 86 (3.75%) Test Automation Engineer
12 82 (3.57%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 70 (3.05%) Lead Software Engineer
14 65 (2.83%) Data Engineer
15 64 (2.79%) Test Leader
16 63 (2.75%) Analyst
16 63 (2.75%) Senior Manager
16 63 (2.75%) Software Developer
16 63 (2.75%) Tester
17 62 (2.70%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 313 (13.64%) Terraform
2 239 (10.42%) React
3 232 (10.11%) REST
4 216 (9.42%) .NET
5 200 (8.72%) Playwright
6 192 (8.37%) Node.js
7 190 (8.28%) Spring
8 188 (8.20%) RESTful
9 139 (6.06%) Spring Boot
10 123 (5.36%) Kafka
11 111 (4.84%) AngularJS
12 103 (4.49%) CSS
13 97 (4.23%) HTML
14 70 (3.05%) OAuth
15 66 (2.88%) Middleware
16 64 (2.79%) OAuth2
17 57 (2.48%) JSON
18 50 (2.18%) Next.js
18 50 (2.18%) Vue
19 48 (2.09%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 398 (17.35%) Cloud Native
2 281 (12.25%) Product Ownership
3 202 (8.81%) Distributed Systems
4 114 (4.97%) Mobile App
5 90 (3.92%) Enterprise Software
6 81 (3.53%) Public Cloud
7 78 (3.40%) Virtual Team
8 77 (3.36%) Blog
9 74 (3.23%) Onboarding
10 69 (3.01%) Legacy Systems
11 64 (2.79%) Marketing Technology
12 60 (2.62%) Algorithms
13 57 (2.48%) Cyber Threat
14 54 (2.35%) Low-Code
15 45 (1.96%) Data Structures
15 45 (1.96%) Self-Motivation
16 44 (1.92%) Management Information System
17 41 (1.79%) Embedded Systems
18 38 (1.66%) Greenfield Project
19 35 (1.53%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 189 (8.24%) Linux
2 103 (4.49%) Windows
3 65 (2.83%) Apple iOS
4 63 (2.75%) Android
5 52 (2.27%) Unix
6 11 (0.48%) Windows Server
7 9 (0.39%) Embedded Linux
8 8 (0.35%) CentOS
9 6 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.22%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.17%) AIX
11 4 (0.17%) Debian
12 3 (0.13%) VMS
12 3 (0.13%) VxWorks
13 2 (0.087%) OpenWrt
14 1 (0.044%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.044%) ThreadX
14 1 (0.044%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.044%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.044%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,288 (56.15%) CI/CD
2 996 (43.42%) Agile
3 829 (36.14%) DevOps
4 742 (32.35%) Software Engineering
5 678 (29.56%) Continuous Improvement
6 603 (26.29%) Mentoring
7 538 (23.45%) AI
8 504 (21.97%) Problem-Solving
9 424 (18.48%) Microservices
10 393 (17.13%) Software Testing
11 385 (16.78%) Infrastructure as Code
12 327 (14.25%) Test Strategy
13 283 (12.34%) Code Quality
13 283 (12.34%) Full-Stack Development
13 283 (12.34%) Observability
14 277 (12.07%) Validation
15 273 (11.90%) Containerisation
16 269 (11.73%) Coaching
17 252 (10.99%) Decision-Making
18 245 (10.68%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 684 (29.82%) Python
2 582 (25.37%) Java
3 410 (17.87%) JavaScript
4 390 (17.00%) SQL
5 335 (14.60%) TypeScript
6 327 (14.25%) C#
7 127 (5.54%) C++
8 109 (4.75%) PowerShell
9 102 (4.45%) Go
10 81 (3.53%) C
11 77 (3.36%) Bash
12 41 (1.79%) Kotlin
13 34 (1.48%) PHP
13 34 (1.48%) Rust
14 29 (1.26%) Ruby
14 29 (1.26%) Swift
15 22 (0.96%) Bicep
16 21 (0.92%) MATLAB
17 20 (0.87%) Groovy
18 16 (0.70%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 312 (13.60%) Security Cleared
2 244 (10.64%) Degree
3 183 (7.98%) SC Cleared
4 108 (4.71%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (3.40%) ISTQB
6 64 (2.79%) DV Cleared
7 58 (2.53%) CISSP
8 57 (2.48%) ITIL Certification
9 55 (2.40%) CISM
10 50 (2.18%) AWS Certification
11 42 (1.83%) Master's Degree
12 35 (1.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 31 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
14 27 (1.18%) HNC
15 22 (0.96%) HND
16 18 (0.78%) ISEB
17 16 (0.70%) DBS Check
18 14 (0.61%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
19 13 (0.57%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
20 11 (0.48%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 541 (23.58%) QA
2 207 (9.02%) Accessibility
3 70 (3.05%) Data Quality
4 61 (2.66%) WCAG
5 59 (2.57%) NIST
6 50 (2.18%) ISO 22301
7 43 (1.87%) GDPR
8 14 (0.61%) SLA
9 13 (0.57%) GRC
10 12 (0.52%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 10 (0.44%) Software Quality Assurance
12 9 (0.39%) SOC 2
13 8 (0.35%) MISRA
14 7 (0.31%) COBIT
14 7 (0.31%) JTAG
15 5 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
15 5 (0.22%) NCSC
15 5 (0.22%) PCI DSS
15 5 (0.22%) PMO
16 4 (0.17%) ISO 20022
System Software
1 311 (13.56%) Docker
2 39 (1.70%) Firmware
3 16 (0.70%) Active Directory
3 16 (0.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (0.65%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (0.48%) Embedded Firmware
6 8 (0.35%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.26%) KVM
8 2 (0.087%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.044%) IAG
9 1 (0.044%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.044%) QEMU
9 1 (0.044%) Terminal Server
9 1 (0.044%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.044%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 320 (13.95%) Kubernetes
2 132 (5.75%) Grafana
3 81 (3.53%) Ansible
4 52 (2.27%) Prometheus
5 27 (1.18%) Argo
6 16 (0.70%) Kibana
7 14 (0.61%) CloudHub
8 13 (0.57%) Puppet
9 9 (0.39%) logstash
9 9 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
10 8 (0.35%) HP Fortify
11 7 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.26%) Functional Safety
12 6 (0.26%) Progress Chef
12 6 (0.26%) vCenter Server
13 5 (0.22%) Packer
14 4 (0.17%) SCCM
14 4 (0.17%) SCOM
15 3 (0.13%) HP ALM
15 3 (0.13%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 223 (9.72%) Microsoft
2 100 (4.36%) Google
3 61 (2.66%) Databricks
4 56 (2.44%) Salesforce
5 54 (2.35%) Oracle
6 46 (2.01%) SAP
7 37 (1.61%) ServiceNow
8 36 (1.57%) Splunk
9 26 (1.13%) VMware
10 25 (1.09%) Dynatrace
11 23 (1.00%) Pega
12 20 (0.87%) AppDynamics
13 17 (0.74%) IBM
13 17 (0.74%) MuleSoft
14 16 (0.70%) Atlassian
15 15 (0.65%) OpenAI
15 15 (0.65%) Red Hat
16 14 (0.61%) Adobe
17 13 (0.57%) Braze
17 13 (0.57%) SendGrid