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

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 100 78 87
Rank change year-on-year -22 +9 -55
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,446 1,717 2,431
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.06% 3.71% 3.10%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.62% 3.98% 3.52%
Number of salaries quoted 884 862 1,721
10th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £48,250 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - +4.17% -4.00%
75th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £76,250
90th Percentile £106,250 £105,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,600 £57,500 £53,000
% change year-on-year -3.30% +8.49% -7.83%

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 55,211 43,138 69,101
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 78.63% 93.12% 88.00%
Number of salaries quoted 33,095 21,773 52,985
10th Percentile £29,000 £33,000 £29,375
25th Percentile £38,750 £45,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £76,250 £81,250 £75,000
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 2 March 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 2 March 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 -21 1,200 £62,500 - 892
UK excluding London -57 736 £55,600 -3.30% 814
Work from Home +14 621 £65,000 +4.00% 496
London +38 575 £80,000 +4.23% 209
South East -62 179 £55,000 - 225
North of England -66 134 £60,000 +9.09% 182
Scotland +4 127 £77,217 +28.70% 59
South West -12 125 £55,000 -8.33% 124
Midlands -64 90 £55,000 -8.33% 99
North West -28 78 £60,000 +14.29% 85
East of England -56 50 £52,500 -25.00% 109
East Midlands -54 46 £55,000 -4.35% 42
West Midlands -45 45 £55,000 -8.33% 54
Yorkshire -65 40 £55,000 -10.01% 65
Wales -8 28 £56,350 +15.55% 25
North East -29 16 £57,600 -5.19% 32
Northern Ireland -43 5 £64,859 +1.74% 8

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 (2.28%) Confluence
2 24 (1.66%) Apache Airflow
3 19 (1.31%) Apache Spark
4 16 (1.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
5 15 (1.04%) Appian
6 12 (0.83%) Apache
7 10 (0.69%) Palantir Foundry
8 9 (0.62%) Jupyter
8 9 (0.62%) SharePoint
9 8 (0.55%) CMS
10 6 (0.41%) WordPress
11 5 (0.35%) IIS
12 4 (0.28%) Apache Solr
13 3 (0.21%) JBoss
13 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
13 3 (0.21%) nginx
13 3 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
14 2 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
14 2 (0.14%) Oracle Application Server
14 2 (0.14%) SAS
Applications
1 19 (1.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 13 (0.90%) Microsoft Office
3 11 (0.76%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.69%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.28%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.28%) PlantUML
6 3 (0.21%) Photoshop
7 2 (0.14%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
7 2 (0.14%) Sketch
8 1 (0.069%) Adobe XD
8 1 (0.069%) Oracle Smart View
8 1 (0.069%) Trello
Business Applications
1 35 (2.42%) Oracle ERP
2 30 (2.07%) SAP S/4HANA
3 20 (1.38%) Dynamics CRM
4 4 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.28%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (0.28%) Shopify
5 3 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.21%) SAP CX
6 2 (0.14%) Oracle Financials
6 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
7 1 (0.069%) Aladdin
7 1 (0.069%) Hyperion Planning
7 1 (0.069%) NEC Housing
7 1 (0.069%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.069%) Oracle General Ledger
7 1 (0.069%) Oracle Receivables
7 1 (0.069%) Postilion
7 1 (0.069%) SAP Hybris
7 1 (0.069%) Siebel CRM
7 1 (0.069%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 490 (33.89%) Azure
2 413 (28.56%) AWS
3 277 (19.16%) Azure DevOps
4 217 (15.01%) GitHub
5 168 (11.62%) GCP
6 113 (7.81%) SaaS
7 87 (6.02%) Serverless
8 73 (5.05%) GitHub Copilot
9 72 (4.98%) GitHub Actions
10 69 (4.77%) Power Platform
11 68 (4.70%) Amazon EKS
12 61 (4.22%) PaaS
13 49 (3.39%) Azure Data Factory
14 45 (3.11%) dbt
15 41 (2.84%) Datadog
15 41 (2.84%) Snowflake
16 37 (2.56%) AWS CloudFormation
16 37 (2.56%) Entra ID
17 36 (2.49%) Amazon S3
17 36 (2.49%) AWS Lambda
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.45%) DNS
2 18 (1.24%) HTTP
2 18 (1.24%) TCP/IP
3 16 (1.11%) WAN
4 15 (1.04%) SD-WAN
5 12 (0.83%) 5G
6 10 (0.69%) CHAP
6 10 (0.69%) VPN
7 8 (0.55%) Firewall
8 4 (0.28%) 3G
8 4 (0.28%) Broadband
8 4 (0.28%) GPRS
8 4 (0.28%) GSM
8 4 (0.28%) Modbus
8 4 (0.28%) Multicast
8 4 (0.28%) RS-232
8 4 (0.28%) RS-485
8 4 (0.28%) SMTP
8 4 (0.28%) SSL
9 3 (0.21%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 87 (6.02%) PostgreSQL
2 78 (5.39%) NoSQL
2 78 (5.39%) SQL Server
3 53 (3.67%) Relational Database
4 47 (3.25%) MySQL
5 42 (2.90%) Data Warehouse
6 40 (2.77%) Power BI
7 38 (2.63%) MongoDB
8 19 (1.31%) DynamoDB
9 18 (1.24%) Tableau
10 14 (0.97%) Amazon RDS
10 14 (0.97%) DB2
10 14 (0.97%) Elasticsearch
11 13 (0.90%) Metadata
12 12 (0.83%) Pinecone
12 12 (0.83%) Snowflake Schema
13 11 (0.76%) BigQuery
14 10 (0.69%) Data Lake
14 10 (0.69%) Oracle Database
15 9 (0.62%) Redis
Development Applications
1 185 (12.79%) Selenium
2 151 (10.44%) Git
3 147 (10.17%) JIRA
4 136 (9.41%) Jenkins
5 80 (5.53%) Cypress.io
6 71 (4.91%) Cucumber
7 66 (4.56%) GitLab
8 62 (4.29%) TeamCity
9 48 (3.32%) Postman
10 46 (3.18%) JMeter
11 32 (2.21%) Oracle Forms
12 27 (1.87%) Robot Framework
12 27 (1.87%) SpecFlow
13 25 (1.73%) CircleCI
13 25 (1.73%) eCATT
13 25 (1.73%) JUnit
14 24 (1.66%) MLflow
15 23 (1.59%) WebDriver
16 22 (1.52%) REST Assured
17 21 (1.45%) Snyk
General
1 469 (32.43%) Finance
2 436 (30.15%) Social Skills
3 152 (10.51%) Banking
4 151 (10.44%) Analytical Skills
5 114 (7.88%) Law
6 109 (7.54%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 87 (6.02%) Retail
8 73 (5.05%) Marketing
9 71 (4.91%) Public Sector
10 62 (4.29%) Financial Institution
11 45 (3.11%) Manufacturing
12 40 (2.77%) Back Office
13 34 (2.35%) Front Office
14 29 (2.01%) Electronics
15 27 (1.87%) Legal
16 25 (1.73%) Presentation Skills
17 21 (1.45%) Influencing Skills
18 20 (1.38%) Documentation Skills
19 18 (1.24%) Games
20 17 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 399 (27.59%) Senior
2 222 (15.35%) Lead
3 220 (15.21%) Developer
4 167 (11.55%) Software Engineer
5 133 (9.20%) Test Engineer
6 101 (6.98%) Senior Developer
7 85 (5.88%) QA Engineer
8 73 (5.05%) Test Leader
9 71 (4.91%) Analyst
9 71 (4.91%) Tester
10 68 (4.70%) Java Engineer
11 66 (4.56%) Test Automation Engineer
12 59 (4.08%) Automation Engineer
13 54 (3.73%) Senior Software Engineer
14 50 (3.46%) Applications Engineer
14 50 (3.46%) QA Automation Engineer
15 46 (3.18%) Automation Tester
16 45 (3.11%) Python Developer
17 44 (3.04%) Cloud Engineer
18 41 (2.84%) Full-Stack Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 154 (10.65%) React
2 149 (10.30%) RESTful
3 132 (9.13%) .NET
4 115 (7.95%) Playwright
5 105 (7.26%) REST
6 84 (5.81%) Spring
7 70 (4.84%) Node.js
8 64 (4.43%) JSON
9 63 (4.36%) Kafka
10 60 (4.15%) Spring Boot
11 59 (4.08%) CSS
11 59 (4.08%) HTML
12 55 (3.80%) OAuth
13 53 (3.67%) pytest
14 51 (3.53%) SOAP
15 42 (2.90%) OAuth2
16 37 (2.56%) Elastic Stack
16 37 (2.56%) XML
17 32 (2.21%) PyTorch
18 31 (2.14%) AngularJS
Miscellaneous
1 252 (17.43%) Cloud Native
2 109 (7.54%) Product Ownership
3 55 (3.80%) Self-Motivation
4 53 (3.67%) Mobile App
5 52 (3.60%) Enterprise Software
6 51 (3.53%) Management Information System
7 40 (2.77%) Legacy Systems
8 36 (2.49%) Onboarding
9 35 (2.42%) Distributed Systems
10 27 (1.87%) Algorithms
10 27 (1.87%) Data Structures
10 27 (1.87%) Low-Code
11 26 (1.80%) Greenfield Project
11 26 (1.80%) Hedge funds
12 23 (1.59%) Equities
12 23 (1.59%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
13 21 (1.45%) GNSS
13 21 (1.45%) Hybrid Cloud
14 20 (1.38%) Satnav
15 19 (1.31%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 135 (9.34%) Linux
2 73 (5.05%) Windows
3 47 (3.25%) Apple iOS
4 44 (3.04%) Android
5 35 (2.42%) Unix
6 9 (0.62%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.55%) CentOS
8 5 (0.35%) Debian
8 5 (0.35%) Embedded Linux
8 5 (0.35%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.28%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.21%) Windows 10
10 3 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
11 2 (0.14%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.14%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.14%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.069%) AIX
12 1 (0.069%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 737 (50.97%) CI/CD
2 609 (42.12%) Agile
3 500 (34.58%) DevOps
4 329 (22.75%) Continuous Improvement
4 329 (22.75%) Mentoring
5 319 (22.06%) Problem-Solving
6 315 (21.78%) Software Engineering
7 235 (16.25%) AI
8 232 (16.04%) Coaching
9 231 (15.98%) Microservices
10 187 (12.93%) Observability
11 183 (12.66%) Software Testing
12 182 (12.59%) Infrastructure as Code
13 180 (12.45%) Clean Code
14 163 (11.27%) Test Strategy
15 153 (10.58%) Analytics
16 147 (10.17%) Containerisation
17 135 (9.34%) Full-Stack Development
18 126 (8.71%) Deployment Automation
19 122 (8.44%) Validation
Programming Languages
1 424 (29.32%) Python
2 368 (25.45%) Java
3 302 (20.89%) SQL
4 196 (13.55%) JavaScript
5 173 (11.96%) TypeScript
6 144 (9.96%) C#
7 79 (5.46%) PowerShell
8 59 (4.08%) C++
9 49 (3.39%) Bash
10 41 (2.84%) PL/SQL
11 39 (2.70%) Go
12 38 (2.63%) Shell Script
13 28 (1.94%) Bicep
13 28 (1.94%) C
13 28 (1.94%) PHP
14 26 (1.80%) Apex Code
15 21 (1.45%) Kotlin
16 19 (1.31%) Rust
17 13 (0.90%) MATLAB
17 13 (0.90%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 185 (12.79%) Degree
2 136 (9.41%) Security Cleared
3 92 (6.36%) SC Cleared
4 69 (4.77%) Computer Science Degree
5 65 (4.50%) ISTQB
6 33 (2.28%) DV Cleared
7 32 (2.21%) Master's Degree
8 24 (1.66%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 22 (1.52%) AWS Certification
10 16 (1.11%) CISSP
10 16 (1.11%) DBS Check
10 16 (1.11%) HND
11 15 (1.04%) ISEB
12 14 (0.97%) Azure Certification
12 14 (0.97%) PhD
13 13 (0.90%) CEH
14 11 (0.76%) CISA
15 10 (0.69%) BPSS Clearance
15 10 (0.69%) CGEIT
15 10 (0.69%) CISM
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 334 (23.10%) QA
2 102 (7.05%) Accessibility
3 61 (4.22%) Data Quality
4 45 (3.11%) NIST
5 42 (2.90%) GDPR
6 35 (2.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 25 (1.73%) WCAG
8 16 (1.11%) SLA
9 14 (0.97%) NCSC
10 13 (0.90%) ISO 22301
11 10 (0.69%) COBIT
11 10 (0.69%) ISO 9001
12 6 (0.41%) Software Quality Assurance
13 5 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 4 (0.28%) IEC 61508
14 4 (0.28%) ISO 13485
14 4 (0.28%) ISO 26262
14 4 (0.28%) MISRA
15 3 (0.21%) Section 508
15 3 (0.21%) SEPA
System Software
1 210 (14.52%) Docker
2 37 (2.56%) Active Directory
3 16 (1.11%) Firmware
4 14 (0.97%) VMware Infrastructure
5 13 (0.90%) Embedded Firmware
6 10 (0.69%) Hyper-V
7 9 (0.62%) KVM
8 5 (0.35%) Virtual Machines
9 2 (0.14%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.14%) vSphere
10 1 (0.069%) Xen
Systems Management
1 254 (17.57%) Terraform
2 253 (17.50%) Kubernetes
3 114 (7.88%) Grafana
4 63 (4.36%) Ansible
5 41 (2.84%) Single Sign-On
6 39 (2.70%) Prometheus
7 28 (1.94%) HP ALM
8 8 (0.55%) Argo
9 6 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.35%) logstash
11 3 (0.21%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.21%) Rancher
11 3 (0.21%) SCCM
11 3 (0.21%) SCOM
12 2 (0.14%) Control-M
12 2 (0.14%) Kibana
12 2 (0.14%) Nessus
12 2 (0.14%) Progress Chef
13 1 (0.069%) Puppet
13 1 (0.069%) Rundeck
Vendors
1 111 (7.68%) Microsoft
2 89 (6.15%) Oracle
3 55 (3.80%) Salesforce
4 48 (3.32%) SAP
5 40 (2.77%) VMware
6 36 (2.49%) Databricks
7 33 (2.28%) Google
8 29 (2.01%) HP
9 19 (1.31%) Commvault
9 19 (1.31%) OpenAI
10 18 (1.24%) Black Duck
10 18 (1.24%) Coverity
11 17 (1.18%) Okta
11 17 (1.18%) Splunk
12 15 (1.04%) ServiceNow
12 15 (1.04%) UiPath
13 14 (0.97%) Ab Initio
13 14 (0.97%) Palantir
14 13 (0.90%) Foundry
15 12 (0.83%) Automation Anywhere