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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 93 96
Rank change year-on-year +13 +3 -26
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,338 1,555 2,007
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.05% 3.16% 2.59%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.82% 3.57% 3.20%
Number of salaries quoted 1,264 735 1,028
10th Percentile £41,250 £38,825 £38,750
25th Percentile £47,500 £50,000 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - +4.17% -4.71%
75th Percentile £80,000 £82,751 £76,063
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
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 82,954 43,576 62,762
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 72.83% 88.69% 80.93%
Number of salaries quoted 57,665 24,452 36,140
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £42,000 £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 £76,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £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 15 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 15 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 -2 1,891 £64,000 -1.54% 3,213
UK excluding London +14 1,482 £57,500 - 1,931
Work from Home +13 847 £66,250 +6.00% 1,443
London +1 692 £80,000 - 1,698
North of England +20 371 £57,500 -4.17% 457
South East -3 263 £60,000 +4.35% 396
South West +7 251 £60,000 +12.38% 259
Midlands -10 199 £55,000 -9.47% 185
North West -8 183 £60,000 - 271
Northern Ireland +12 165 £80,000 +45.45% 98
Wales +13 131 £55,000 +4.76% 36
West Midlands -10 113 £55,000 -2.22% 117
North East +14 102 £52,500 +50.00% 59
Yorkshire -5 86 £70,905 +35.06% 128
East Midlands -25 86 £55,000 -12.00% 67
East of England -32 73 £50,000 -14.53% 210
Scotland -52 44 £60,000 -14.29% 304

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 53 (2.27%) Confluence
2 31 (1.33%) Apache Spark
3 24 (1.03%) SharePoint
4 23 (0.98%) Apache
5 18 (0.77%) Apache Airflow
6 17 (0.73%) Jupyter
7 14 (0.60%) Anypoint
7 14 (0.60%) Mule
8 13 (0.56%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 11 (0.47%) CMS
10 6 (0.26%) Microsoft Exchange
11 5 (0.21%) Cloud Foundry
11 5 (0.21%) nginx
11 5 (0.21%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.17%) IIS
12 4 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
12 4 (0.17%) SAS
12 4 (0.17%) WinCC
13 3 (0.13%) OpenStack
13 3 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 80 (3.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (0.56%) Simulink
4 9 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.21%) Lightworks
5 5 (0.21%) Moqups
6 3 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.086%) CANalyzer
7 2 (0.086%) EPLAN
7 2 (0.086%) PlantUML
8 1 (0.043%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.043%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.043%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 67 (2.87%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.15%) Dynamics GP
3 11 (0.47%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.21%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.086%) Endur
6 2 (0.086%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.086%) Magento
6 2 (0.086%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.086%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.086%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.043%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.043%) Findur
7 1 (0.043%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.043%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.043%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.043%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.043%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 803 (34.35%) AWS
2 667 (28.53%) Azure
3 310 (13.26%) SaaS
4 253 (10.82%) GCP
5 247 (10.56%) Azure DevOps
6 199 (8.51%) GitHub
7 193 (8.25%) Serverless
8 105 (4.49%) GitHub Actions
9 97 (4.15%) AWS CloudFormation
10 91 (3.89%) Amazon EKS
11 88 (3.76%) AWS Lambda
12 81 (3.46%) Amazon S3
13 62 (2.65%) Power Platform
14 59 (2.52%) Google Ads
14 59 (2.52%) Meta Ads
15 54 (2.31%) Azure Logic Apps
16 52 (2.22%) Azure Service Bus
17 49 (2.10%) Azure Monitor
18 44 (1.88%) Azure Functions
19 40 (1.71%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 56 (2.40%) Broadband
2 28 (1.20%) TCP/IP
3 24 (1.03%) Firewall
4 22 (0.94%) DNS
5 17 (0.73%) SSL
6 15 (0.64%) Wireless
7 13 (0.56%) DMARC
8 12 (0.51%) DHCP
8 12 (0.51%) HTTP
8 12 (0.51%) Modbus
8 12 (0.51%) MQTT
8 12 (0.51%) Wi-Fi
9 11 (0.47%) 5G
9 11 (0.47%) WAN
10 10 (0.43%) LTE
11 9 (0.38%) 3GPP
11 9 (0.38%) Network Security
12 7 (0.30%) Ethernet
12 7 (0.30%) GSM
12 7 (0.30%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (5.82%) PostgreSQL
2 126 (5.39%) NoSQL
3 88 (3.76%) MongoDB
4 77 (3.29%) SQL Server
5 65 (2.78%) Relational Database
6 46 (1.97%) DynamoDB
7 39 (1.67%) Redis
8 38 (1.63%) MySQL
9 36 (1.54%) Data Warehouse
10 35 (1.50%) Power BI
11 32 (1.37%) Data Lake
12 29 (1.24%) BigQuery
13 24 (1.03%) Amazon Athena
14 21 (0.90%) Amazon RDS
14 21 (0.90%) Semantic Layer
15 20 (0.86%) Metadata
16 15 (0.64%) Elasticsearch
17 14 (0.60%) Spark SQL
18 12 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
18 12 (0.51%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 353 (15.10%) Git
2 230 (9.84%) GitLab
3 212 (9.07%) Jenkins
4 159 (6.80%) Selenium
5 147 (6.29%) JIRA
6 105 (4.49%) Cypress.io
7 104 (4.45%) Cucumber
8 94 (4.02%) Postman
9 68 (2.91%) TeamCity
10 52 (2.22%) JMeter
11 46 (1.97%) JUnit
12 39 (1.67%) REST Assured
13 34 (1.45%) Zephyr
14 31 (1.33%) Gatling
15 30 (1.28%) SonarQube
16 25 (1.07%) LabVIEW
16 25 (1.07%) TestRail
17 24 (1.03%) Bitbucket
18 23 (0.98%) Maven
19 22 (0.94%) Robot Framework
General
1 648 (27.72%) Social Skills
2 570 (24.38%) Finance
3 355 (15.18%) Analytical Skills
4 262 (11.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 221 (9.45%) Public Sector
6 202 (8.64%) Law
7 201 (8.60%) Banking
8 161 (6.89%) Marketing
9 144 (6.16%) Legal
10 120 (5.13%) Retail
11 106 (4.53%) Manufacturing
12 83 (3.55%) Electronics
13 77 (3.29%) Financial Institution
14 57 (2.44%) Back Office
15 48 (2.05%) Aerospace
16 43 (1.84%) Telecoms
17 40 (1.71%) Games
18 33 (1.41%) Documentation Skills
19 28 (1.20%) Automotive
20 25 (1.07%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 653 (27.93%) Senior
2 345 (14.76%) Software Engineer
3 328 (14.03%) Lead
4 323 (13.82%) Developer
5 247 (10.56%) Test Engineer
6 120 (5.13%) Senior Developer
7 115 (4.92%) Java Engineer
8 104 (4.45%) DevOps Engineer
9 102 (4.36%) Senior Software Engineer
10 96 (4.11%) QA Engineer
11 85 (3.64%) Test Automation Engineer
12 79 (3.38%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 72 (3.08%) Data Engineer
14 69 (2.95%) Lead Software Engineer
15 68 (2.91%) Analyst
16 62 (2.65%) Architect
17 60 (2.57%) Marketing Manager
17 60 (2.57%) Senior Manager
17 60 (2.57%) Software Developer
18 59 (2.52%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 328 (14.03%) Terraform
2 234 (10.01%) REST
3 227 (9.71%) React
4 216 (9.24%) .NET
5 203 (8.68%) Playwright
6 194 (8.30%) Spring
7 192 (8.21%) RESTful
8 191 (8.17%) Node.js
9 143 (6.12%) Spring Boot
10 132 (5.65%) Kafka
11 118 (5.05%) CSS
12 114 (4.88%) AngularJS
13 111 (4.75%) HTML
14 71 (3.04%) OAuth
15 65 (2.78%) Middleware
15 65 (2.78%) OAuth2
16 60 (2.57%) JSON
17 51 (2.18%) PySpark
18 49 (2.10%) Next.js
18 49 (2.10%) Vue
Miscellaneous
1 418 (17.88%) Cloud Native
2 285 (12.19%) Product Ownership
3 203 (8.68%) Distributed Systems
4 104 (4.45%) Mobile App
5 100 (4.28%) Onboarding
6 94 (4.02%) Enterprise Software
7 88 (3.76%) Public Cloud
8 84 (3.59%) Blog
9 77 (3.29%) Virtual Team
10 66 (2.82%) Legacy Systems
11 64 (2.74%) Marketing Technology
12 53 (2.27%) Cyber Threat
13 52 (2.22%) Algorithms
14 48 (2.05%) Low-Code
15 46 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
16 43 (1.84%) Embedded Systems
17 41 (1.75%) Data Structures
18 39 (1.67%) e-Learning
18 39 (1.67%) Management Information System
19 33 (1.41%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 179 (7.66%) Linux
2 96 (4.11%) Windows
3 61 (2.61%) Android
4 55 (2.35%) Apple iOS
5 53 (2.27%) Unix
6 9 (0.38%) Embedded Linux
6 9 (0.38%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.34%) CentOS
8 6 (0.26%) 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 (0.086%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.043%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.043%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.043%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,313 (56.16%) CI/CD
2 988 (42.26%) Agile
3 843 (36.06%) DevOps
4 757 (32.38%) Software Engineering
5 688 (29.43%) Continuous Improvement
6 611 (26.13%) Mentoring
7 576 (24.64%) AI
8 532 (22.75%) Problem-Solving
9 435 (18.61%) Microservices
10 407 (17.41%) Software Testing
11 384 (16.42%) Infrastructure as Code
12 317 (13.56%) Test Strategy
13 291 (12.45%) Validation
14 285 (12.19%) Code Quality
15 284 (12.15%) Observability
16 280 (11.98%) Coaching
17 270 (11.55%) Full-Stack Development
18 266 (11.38%) Containerisation
19 258 (11.04%) Technical Leadership
20 252 (10.78%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 667 (28.53%) Python
2 577 (24.68%) Java
3 445 (19.03%) SQL
4 420 (17.96%) JavaScript
5 338 (14.46%) TypeScript
6 326 (13.94%) C#
7 123 (5.26%) C++
8 106 (4.53%) PowerShell
9 98 (4.19%) Go
10 89 (3.81%) Bash
11 79 (3.38%) C
12 35 (1.50%) Kotlin
13 32 (1.37%) PHP
14 31 (1.33%) Rust
15 29 (1.24%) Ruby
16 27 (1.15%) Groovy
17 24 (1.03%) MATLAB
18 23 (0.98%) Bicep
19 22 (0.94%) Swift
20 15 (0.64%) Scala
Qualifications
1 344 (14.71%) Security Cleared
2 245 (10.48%) Degree
3 211 (9.02%) SC Cleared
4 106 (4.53%) Computer Science Degree
5 80 (3.42%) ISTQB
6 64 (2.74%) DV Cleared
7 57 (2.44%) CISSP
8 55 (2.35%) AWS Certification
9 54 (2.31%) CISM
9 54 (2.31%) ITIL Certification
10 46 (1.97%) Master's Degree
11 39 (1.67%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 36 (1.54%) HNC
13 32 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
13 32 (1.37%) HND
14 17 (0.73%) DBS Check
14 17 (0.73%) ISEB
15 13 (0.56%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 12 (0.51%) Azure Certification
17 11 (0.47%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 543 (23.22%) QA
2 203 (8.68%) Accessibility
3 80 (3.42%) Data Quality
4 67 (2.87%) WCAG
5 56 (2.40%) NIST
6 48 (2.05%) ISO 22301
7 41 (1.75%) GDPR
8 13 (0.56%) SLA
9 12 (0.51%) GRC
10 9 (0.38%) SOC 2
10 9 (0.38%) Software Quality Assurance
11 8 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 8 (0.34%) MISRA
12 6 (0.26%) COBIT
12 6 (0.26%) JTAG
12 6 (0.26%) PMO
13 5 (0.21%) NCSC
14 4 (0.17%) ISO 20022
14 4 (0.17%) PCI DSS
15 3 (0.13%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 324 (13.86%) Docker
2 42 (1.80%) Firmware
3 14 (0.60%) Active Directory
4 13 (0.56%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.47%) Embedded Firmware
6 9 (0.38%) Virtual Machines
7 6 (0.26%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.17%) KVM
9 2 (0.086%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.043%) IAG
10 1 (0.043%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.043%) QEMU
10 1 (0.043%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 337 (14.41%) Kubernetes
2 148 (6.33%) Grafana
3 79 (3.38%) Ansible
4 62 (2.65%) Prometheus
5 29 (1.24%) Argo
6 17 (0.73%) Kibana
7 15 (0.64%) Puppet
8 14 (0.60%) CloudHub
9 9 (0.38%) logstash
9 9 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
9 9 (0.38%) Rancher
10 8 (0.34%) HP Fortify
10 8 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.30%) Functional Safety
12 6 (0.26%) Progress Chef
12 6 (0.26%) 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
1 255 (10.91%) Microsoft
2 124 (5.30%) Google
3 62 (2.65%) Databricks
4 57 (2.44%) Salesforce
5 53 (2.27%) Oracle
6 49 (2.10%) SAP
7 44 (1.88%) ServiceNow
8 36 (1.54%) Splunk
9 29 (1.24%) Dynatrace
10 24 (1.03%) Pega
11 20 (0.86%) VMware
12 19 (0.81%) AppDynamics
13 18 (0.77%) MuleSoft
14 17 (0.73%) IBM
15 16 (0.68%) OpenAI
16 15 (0.64%) Allen-Bradley
16 15 (0.64%) Atlassian
16 15 (0.64%) Red Hat
17 14 (0.60%) Adobe
18 13 (0.56%) SendGrid