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

6 months to
1 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 92 93
Rank change year-on-year -4 +1 -63
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,651 1,355 2,731
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.84% 3.20% 2.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.46% 3.45% 3.33%
Number of salaries quoted 1,030 886 1,771
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,500 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £64,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% +4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £83,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £105,000 £98,474 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% +4.76% -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 67,199 39,303 82,062
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.71% 92.91% 85.63%
Number of salaries quoted 41,762 22,588 59,681
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,946 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.42% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £78,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -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 1 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 1 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 -7 1,403 £65,000 +8.33% 582
UK excluding London -36 892 £60,000 +9.09% 475
Work from Home +7 711 £67,500 +12.50% 260
London +33 609 £80,000 +14.29% 179
North of England -28 214 £63,750 +15.91% 128
South West -28 170 £55,000 -8.33% 61
South East -57 170 £60,000 +11.63% 119
Midlands -31 140 £61,500 +6.96% 73
North West -9 105 £62,000 +12.73% 54
Scotland -4 99 £61,250 +2.08% 29
West Midlands -37 71 £62,000 +3.33% 48
East Midlands -22 68 £60,000 +20.00% 25
Yorkshire -61 65 £69,310 +38.01% 36
East of England -12 57 £50,000 -12.28% 59
Wales -5 44 £55,000 +4.58% 14
North East -19 44 £55,000 -6.78% 38
Northern Ireland -43 9 £80,000 +45.45% 5

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 37 (2.24%) Confluence
2 23 (1.39%) Apache Airflow
3 18 (1.09%) Apache Spark
4 12 (0.73%) Apache
4 12 (0.73%) Appian
5 11 (0.67%) Jupyter
6 10 (0.61%) CMS
6 10 (0.61%) IIS
6 10 (0.61%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.55%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.55%) SharePoint
8 6 (0.36%) WordPress
9 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.18%) nginx
10 2 (0.12%) Camunda
10 2 (0.12%) JBoss
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
10 2 (0.12%) SAS
10 2 (0.12%) Umbraco
11 1 (0.061%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 12 (0.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 7 (0.42%) MS Visio
5 6 (0.36%) PlantUML
6 4 (0.24%) Fusion 360
7 3 (0.18%) CANalyzer
8 2 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.12%) Simulink
9 1 (0.061%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.061%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 17 (1.03%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (0.55%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.30%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.24%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (0.24%) Shopify
5 2 (0.12%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.061%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.061%) Endur
6 1 (0.061%) Findur
6 1 (0.061%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.061%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.061%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.061%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.061%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.061%) SAP CX
6 1 (0.061%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 560 (33.92%) Azure
2 511 (30.95%) AWS
3 265 (16.05%) Azure DevOps
4 195 (11.81%) GCP
5 175 (10.60%) GitHub
6 143 (8.66%) Serverless
7 120 (7.27%) SaaS
8 70 (4.24%) GitHub Actions
9 68 (4.12%) Amazon EKS
10 61 (3.69%) PaaS
11 58 (3.51%) AWS Lambda
12 55 (3.33%) AWS CloudFormation
13 54 (3.27%) Amazon S3
13 54 (3.27%) Azure Data Factory
14 49 (2.97%) dbt
15 48 (2.91%) Power Platform
16 45 (2.73%) GitHub Copilot
17 39 (2.36%) Amazon CloudWatch
18 36 (2.18%) Azure Service Bus
19 35 (2.12%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 31 (1.88%) Broadband
2 16 (0.97%) CHAP
2 16 (0.97%) Firewall
3 15 (0.91%) DNS
4 12 (0.73%) WAN
5 11 (0.67%) HTTP
5 11 (0.67%) SD-WAN
6 9 (0.55%) TCP/IP
7 8 (0.48%) 5G
8 6 (0.36%) VPN
9 4 (0.24%) SMTP
10 3 (0.18%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (0.18%) DHCP
10 3 (0.18%) Ethernet
10 3 (0.18%) LTE
10 3 (0.18%) VLAN
11 2 (0.12%) Multicast
11 2 (0.12%) Network Security
11 2 (0.12%) PuTTY
11 2 (0.12%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 114 (6.90%) NoSQL
2 113 (6.84%) PostgreSQL
3 91 (5.51%) SQL Server
4 76 (4.60%) MongoDB
5 36 (2.18%) MySQL
6 35 (2.12%) Data Warehouse
7 34 (2.06%) DynamoDB
8 32 (1.94%) Relational Database
9 31 (1.88%) Power BI
10 21 (1.27%) Amazon RDS
11 20 (1.21%) Metadata
12 15 (0.91%) Spark SQL
13 14 (0.85%) BigQuery
13 14 (0.85%) Oracle Database
13 14 (0.85%) Pinecone
13 14 (0.85%) Redis
14 12 (0.73%) Data Lake
14 12 (0.73%) DB2
15 10 (0.61%) Elasticsearch
15 10 (0.61%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 192 (11.63%) Git
2 167 (10.12%) Selenium
3 149 (9.02%) Jenkins
4 133 (8.06%) JIRA
5 111 (6.72%) GitLab
6 87 (5.27%) Cypress.io
7 70 (4.24%) Cucumber
8 61 (3.69%) Postman
9 60 (3.63%) TeamCity
10 45 (2.73%) JMeter
11 33 (2.00%) SpecFlow
12 31 (1.88%) REST Assured
13 30 (1.82%) CircleCI
14 27 (1.64%) TestRail
15 25 (1.51%) JUnit
16 24 (1.45%) MLflow
17 22 (1.33%) Bitbucket
18 19 (1.15%) Oracle Forms
18 19 (1.15%) Zephyr
19 18 (1.09%) WebDriver
General
1 461 (27.92%) Social Skills
2 435 (26.35%) Finance
3 179 (10.84%) Banking
4 150 (9.09%) Analytical Skills
5 145 (8.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 120 (7.27%) Law
7 113 (6.84%) Public Sector
8 89 (5.39%) Retail
9 57 (3.45%) Financial Institution
10 50 (3.03%) Manufacturing
11 44 (2.67%) Electronics
12 41 (2.48%) Back Office
13 33 (2.00%) Front Office
13 33 (2.00%) Games
13 33 (2.00%) Legal
14 31 (1.88%) Marketing
15 18 (1.09%) Organisational Skills
16 15 (0.91%) Investment Banking
17 14 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
18 13 (0.79%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 428 (25.92%) Senior
2 274 (16.60%) Lead
3 227 (13.75%) Developer
4 220 (13.33%) Software Engineer
5 174 (10.54%) Test Engineer
6 100 (6.06%) Senior Developer
7 89 (5.39%) QA Engineer
8 87 (5.27%) Tester
9 84 (5.09%) Java Engineer
10 81 (4.91%) Test Automation Engineer
11 72 (4.36%) Test Leader
12 70 (4.24%) Senior Software Engineer
13 59 (3.57%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 58 (3.51%) Automation Engineer
15 54 (3.27%) Data Engineer
16 52 (3.15%) DevOps Engineer
17 51 (3.09%) Automation Tester
18 48 (2.91%) QA Automation Engineer
19 47 (2.85%) Analyst
20 46 (2.79%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 197 (11.93%) React
2 178 (10.78%) .NET
3 154 (9.33%) RESTful
4 149 (9.02%) REST
5 147 (8.90%) Playwright
6 108 (6.54%) Node.js
7 99 (6.00%) Spring
8 77 (4.66%) Kafka
9 75 (4.54%) Spring Boot
10 64 (3.88%) HTML
11 63 (3.82%) CSS
12 51 (3.09%) JSON
12 51 (3.09%) OAuth
13 45 (2.73%) pytest
14 43 (2.60%) AngularJS
15 41 (2.48%) Elastic Stack
15 41 (2.48%) RabbitMQ
16 40 (2.42%) .NET Framework
16 40 (2.42%) Web Services
17 38 (2.30%) OAuth2
Miscellaneous
1 268 (16.23%) Cloud Native
2 148 (8.96%) Product Ownership
3 85 (5.15%) Distributed Systems
4 75 (4.54%) Mobile App
5 62 (3.76%) Management Information System
6 52 (3.15%) Enterprise Software
7 41 (2.48%) Legacy Systems
8 40 (2.42%) Greenfield Project
9 39 (2.36%) Algorithms
9 39 (2.36%) Onboarding
10 38 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
11 36 (2.18%) Low-Code
12 32 (1.94%) Public Cloud
13 29 (1.76%) Data Structures
14 27 (1.64%) Hybrid Cloud
15 23 (1.39%) Blog
15 23 (1.39%) Equities
15 23 (1.39%) Hedge funds
16 20 (1.21%) Embedded Systems
17 19 (1.15%) Blockchain
Operating Systems
1 166 (10.05%) Linux
2 85 (5.15%) Windows
3 66 (4.00%) Apple iOS
4 57 (3.45%) Android
5 48 (2.91%) Unix
6 11 (0.67%) CentOS
7 10 (0.61%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.30%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.24%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.18%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.12%) AIX
11 2 (0.12%) Debian
11 2 (0.12%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.061%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.061%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 869 (52.63%) CI/CD
2 671 (40.64%) Agile
3 581 (35.19%) DevOps
4 414 (25.08%) Software Engineering
5 401 (24.29%) Continuous Improvement
6 377 (22.83%) Mentoring
7 349 (21.14%) Problem-Solving
8 282 (17.08%) Microservices
9 275 (16.66%) Infrastructure as Code
10 273 (16.54%) AI
11 245 (14.84%) Software Testing
12 238 (14.42%) Observability
13 235 (14.23%) Coaching
14 206 (12.48%) Containerisation
15 200 (12.11%) Clean Code
16 198 (11.99%) Test Strategy
17 196 (11.87%) Full-Stack Development
18 175 (10.60%) Validation
19 162 (9.81%) Deployment Automation
20 159 (9.63%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 515 (31.19%) Python
2 421 (25.50%) Java
3 310 (18.78%) SQL
4 228 (13.81%) JavaScript
5 208 (12.60%) TypeScript
6 202 (12.24%) C#
7 78 (4.72%) PowerShell
8 77 (4.66%) C++
9 66 (4.00%) Bash
10 56 (3.39%) Go
11 44 (2.67%) C
12 33 (2.00%) Bicep
13 27 (1.64%) Kotlin
14 26 (1.57%) Rust
14 26 (1.57%) Shell Script
15 24 (1.45%) PL/SQL
16 23 (1.39%) Apex Code
17 20 (1.21%) PHP
18 18 (1.09%) Swift
19 16 (0.97%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 217 (13.14%) Degree
2 158 (9.57%) Security Cleared
3 101 (6.12%) SC Cleared
4 88 (5.33%) Computer Science Degree
5 77 (4.66%) ISTQB
6 28 (1.70%) DV Cleared
6 28 (1.70%) Master's Degree
7 24 (1.45%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 22 (1.33%) CISSP
9 20 (1.21%) AWS Certification
10 18 (1.09%) DBS Check
11 16 (0.97%) CGEIT
11 16 (0.97%) CISA
11 16 (0.97%) CISM
11 16 (0.97%) FFIEC
11 16 (0.97%) SANS
12 15 (0.91%) Azure Certification
13 13 (0.79%) PhD
14 12 (0.73%) CEH
14 12 (0.73%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 385 (23.32%) QA
2 120 (7.27%) Accessibility
3 76 (4.60%) Data Quality
4 51 (3.09%) GDPR
5 39 (2.36%) NIST
6 27 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 19 (1.15%) WCAG
8 17 (1.03%) COBIT
9 14 (0.85%) SLA
10 12 (0.73%) ISO 22301
11 10 (0.61%) Software Quality Assurance
12 8 (0.48%) GRC
12 8 (0.48%) ISO 9001
13 7 (0.42%) IEC 61508
14 6 (0.36%) PMO
14 6 (0.36%) SOC 2
15 5 (0.30%) ISO 26262
15 5 (0.30%) NCSC
16 4 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 236 (14.29%) Docker
2 28 (1.70%) Active Directory
3 23 (1.39%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (0.97%) Firmware
4 16 (0.97%) Hyper-V
5 15 (0.91%) Virtual Machines
6 13 (0.79%) KVM
7 7 (0.42%) Embedded Firmware
8 3 (0.18%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.12%) vSphere
10 1 (0.061%) IAG
10 1 (0.061%) Xen
Systems Management
1 288 (17.44%) Terraform
2 286 (17.32%) Kubernetes
3 125 (7.57%) Grafana
4 68 (4.12%) Ansible
5 51 (3.09%) Prometheus
6 27 (1.64%) Single Sign-On
7 25 (1.51%) Argo
8 10 (0.61%) logstash
9 8 (0.48%) Kibana
10 7 (0.42%) SCCM
10 7 (0.42%) SCOM
11 5 (0.30%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.30%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (0.24%) Packer
12 4 (0.24%) Rancher
12 4 (0.24%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.18%) Functional Safety
13 3 (0.18%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.18%) Puppet
13 3 (0.18%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 131 (7.93%) Microsoft
2 77 (4.66%) Oracle
3 58 (3.51%) Databricks
4 51 (3.09%) Salesforce
5 45 (2.73%) VMware
6 36 (2.18%) Google
7 24 (1.45%) OpenAI
8 17 (1.03%) Commvault
8 17 (1.03%) SAP
8 17 (1.03%) ServiceNow
8 17 (1.03%) Splunk
9 15 (0.91%) Atlassian
10 14 (0.85%) Palantir
11 12 (0.73%) Amplitude
11 12 (0.73%) Automation Anywhere
11 12 (0.73%) Braze
11 12 (0.73%) IBM
11 12 (0.73%) UiPath
12 11 (0.67%) CrowdStrike
12 11 (0.67%) IFS