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

6 months to
25 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 82 102
Rank change year-on-year -6 +20 -68
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,845 1,652 2,677
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.94% 3.64% 2.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.65% 3.95% 3.04%
Number of salaries quoted 1,139 803 1,708
10th Percentile £42,000 £39,200 £36,250
25th Percentile £48,750 £47,500 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +8.70% -11.54%
75th Percentile £82,375 £82,625 £72,433
90th Percentile £96,250 £99,350 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.35% +9.52% -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 69,638 41,796 87,970
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.33% 92.22% 82.12%
Number of salaries quoted 48,019 22,539 62,354
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,750 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -9.54%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,679 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.36% - -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 25 June 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 25 June 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 +1 1,623 £64,000 +1.59% 536
UK excluding London -27 1,031 £60,000 +4.35% 428
Work from Home +5 738 £65,000 +8.33% 249
London +18 642 £80,000 +6.67% 200
North of England -7 297 £62,500 +4.34% 110
South East -28 213 £60,000 +9.09% 138
South West -29 184 £55,000 -8.33% 49
Midlands -14 168 £62,500 +8.70% 60
North West -11 158 £65,000 - 48
West Midlands -27 86 £62,500 -3.85% 31
East Midlands -26 81 £57,500 +22.99% 29
North East -2 72 £52,500 -4.55% 30
East of England -18 67 £53,750 -6.93% 53
Yorkshire -24 67 £69,310 +37.40% 33
Wales -4 59 £55,000 - 6
Scotland -48 45 £60,000 - 21
Northern Ireland -35 11 £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 33 (1.79%) Confluence
2 26 (1.41%) Apache Airflow
3 25 (1.36%) Apache Spark
4 22 (1.19%) Apache
5 20 (1.08%) Jupyter
6 14 (0.76%) SharePoint
7 10 (0.54%) CMS
8 9 (0.49%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 9 (0.49%) Palantir Foundry
9 8 (0.43%) IIS
10 6 (0.33%) Appian
11 5 (0.27%) Anypoint
11 5 (0.27%) Mule
11 5 (0.27%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.22%) SAS
13 3 (0.16%) nginx
13 3 (0.16%) WordPress
14 2 (0.11%) Camunda
14 2 (0.11%) Headless CMS
14 2 (0.11%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 17 (0.92%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
2 10 (0.54%) Simulink
3 6 (0.33%) PlantUML
4 5 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.16%) CANalyzer
5 3 (0.16%) Lightworks
6 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.054%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 13 (0.70%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.27%) Visualfiles
3 4 (0.22%) Dynamics AX
4 3 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.11%) Towers Watson Igloo
5 2 (0.11%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.054%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.054%) Endur
6 1 (0.054%) Findur
6 1 (0.054%) Magento
6 1 (0.054%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.054%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.054%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.054%) Shopify
Cloud Services
1 664 (35.99%) AWS
2 560 (30.35%) Azure
3 237 (12.85%) Azure DevOps
4 225 (12.20%) GCP
5 180 (9.76%) Serverless
6 151 (8.18%) GitHub
7 136 (7.37%) SaaS
8 83 (4.50%) AWS Lambda
9 82 (4.44%) GitHub Actions
10 77 (4.17%) Amazon EKS
11 76 (4.12%) Amazon S3
12 74 (4.01%) AWS CloudFormation
13 54 (2.93%) PaaS
14 48 (2.60%) Azure Service Bus
15 45 (2.44%) Power Platform
16 42 (2.28%) Azure Monitor
17 41 (2.22%) Amazon EC2
18 40 (2.17%) dbt
19 38 (2.06%) Amazon CloudWatch
19 38 (2.06%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 70 (3.79%) Broadband
2 23 (1.25%) Firewall
3 13 (0.70%) DMARC
4 11 (0.60%) CHAP
5 10 (0.54%) DNS
6 9 (0.49%) WAN
7 8 (0.43%) 5G
7 8 (0.43%) MQTT
7 8 (0.43%) SD-WAN
7 8 (0.43%) Wireless
8 6 (0.33%) Bluetooth
8 6 (0.33%) LTE
9 5 (0.27%) HTTP
9 5 (0.27%) SMS
9 5 (0.27%) SSL
9 5 (0.27%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.27%) ZigBee
10 4 (0.22%) DHCP
10 4 (0.22%) Ethernet
10 4 (0.22%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 137 (7.43%) NoSQL
2 122 (6.61%) PostgreSQL
3 97 (5.26%) MongoDB
4 65 (3.52%) SQL Server
5 47 (2.55%) DynamoDB
6 31 (1.68%) MySQL
6 31 (1.68%) Relational Database
7 28 (1.52%) Data Warehouse
8 24 (1.30%) Power BI
9 22 (1.19%) Amazon RDS
10 20 (1.08%) Redis
11 19 (1.03%) BigQuery
12 18 (0.98%) Spark SQL
13 16 (0.87%) Semantic Layer
14 15 (0.81%) Oracle Database
15 14 (0.76%) Metadata
16 13 (0.70%) Amazon Athena
17 12 (0.65%) Elasticsearch
18 9 (0.49%) Data Lake
19 8 (0.43%) Flink
Development Applications
1 226 (12.25%) Git
2 163 (8.83%) Jenkins
3 154 (8.35%) GitLab
4 141 (7.64%) Selenium
5 109 (5.91%) JIRA
6 88 (4.77%) Cypress.io
7 79 (4.28%) Cucumber
8 68 (3.69%) Postman
9 61 (3.31%) TeamCity
10 47 (2.55%) JMeter
11 39 (2.11%) REST Assured
12 31 (1.68%) JUnit
13 30 (1.63%) SpecFlow
14 25 (1.36%) Zephyr
15 24 (1.30%) CircleCI
15 24 (1.30%) TestRail
16 21 (1.14%) Gatling
16 21 (1.14%) LabVIEW
17 20 (1.08%) Crashlytics
17 20 (1.08%) fastlane
General
1 450 (24.39%) Social Skills
2 423 (22.93%) Finance
3 193 (10.46%) Banking
4 192 (10.41%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 169 (9.16%) Public Sector
6 155 (8.40%) Analytical Skills
7 115 (6.23%) Law
8 93 (5.04%) Retail
9 62 (3.36%) Financial Institution
9 62 (3.36%) Manufacturing
10 54 (2.93%) Games
11 50 (2.71%) Back Office
11 50 (2.71%) Electronics
12 36 (1.95%) Legal
13 32 (1.73%) Front Office
14 31 (1.68%) Marketing
15 20 (1.08%) Documentation Skills
16 19 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
17 18 (0.98%) Investment Banking
18 17 (0.92%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 491 (26.61%) Senior
2 303 (16.42%) Lead
3 292 (15.83%) Software Engineer
4 267 (14.47%) Developer
5 211 (11.44%) Test Engineer
6 113 (6.12%) Senior Developer
7 112 (6.07%) Java Engineer
8 87 (4.72%) Senior Software Engineer
8 87 (4.72%) Test Automation Engineer
9 85 (4.61%) QA Engineer
10 75 (4.07%) Test Leader
11 73 (3.96%) Tester
12 67 (3.63%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 65 (3.52%) Architect
14 62 (3.36%) Data Engineer
15 58 (3.14%) DevOps Engineer
16 55 (2.98%) Senior Test Engineer
17 53 (2.87%) Software Developer
18 49 (2.66%) Python Developer
19 48 (2.60%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 191 (10.35%) .NET
2 188 (10.19%) React
3 166 (9.00%) RESTful
4 165 (8.94%) REST
5 162 (8.78%) Playwright
6 155 (8.40%) Spring
7 149 (8.08%) Node.js
8 113 (6.12%) Spring Boot
9 101 (5.47%) Kafka
10 78 (4.23%) AngularJS
11 64 (3.47%) CSS
11 64 (3.47%) HTML
12 55 (2.98%) OAuth
13 48 (2.60%) OAuth2
14 45 (2.44%) RabbitMQ
15 40 (2.17%) YAML
16 39 (2.11%) Vue
17 38 (2.06%) JSON
18 37 (2.01%) ASP.NET
19 36 (1.95%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 354 (19.19%) Cloud Native
2 202 (10.95%) Product Ownership
3 148 (8.02%) Distributed Systems
4 97 (5.26%) Mobile App
5 58 (3.14%) Public Cloud
6 56 (3.04%) Management Information System
7 54 (2.93%) Enterprise Software
8 52 (2.82%) Algorithms
8 52 (2.82%) Low-Code
9 48 (2.60%) Onboarding
10 46 (2.49%) Legacy Systems
11 42 (2.28%) Data Structures
12 37 (2.01%) Greenfield Project
13 34 (1.84%) Video\Live Streaming
14 31 (1.68%) Self-Motivation
15 28 (1.52%) Embedded Systems
16 26 (1.41%) Blog
17 23 (1.25%) e-Learning
17 23 (1.25%) Hedge funds
18 21 (1.14%) Hybrid Cloud
Operating Systems
1 168 (9.11%) Linux
2 81 (4.39%) Windows
3 64 (3.47%) Apple iOS
4 53 (2.87%) Unix
5 51 (2.76%) Android
6 9 (0.49%) CentOS
7 8 (0.43%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.22%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.16%) AIX
11 2 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.11%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.054%) Debian
12 1 (0.054%) Embedded Linux
12 1 (0.054%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.054%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.054%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.054%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,048 (56.80%) CI/CD
2 776 (42.06%) Agile
3 641 (34.74%) DevOps
4 546 (29.59%) Software Engineering
5 481 (26.07%) Mentoring
6 468 (25.37%) Continuous Improvement
7 375 (20.33%) Problem-Solving
8 362 (19.62%) Microservices
9 341 (18.48%) Infrastructure as Code
10 315 (17.07%) AI
11 284 (15.39%) Software Testing
12 253 (13.71%) Containerisation
13 246 (13.33%) Observability
14 235 (12.74%) Full-Stack Development
15 234 (12.68%) Coaching
16 232 (12.57%) Test Strategy
17 218 (11.82%) Validation
18 196 (10.62%) Clean Code
19 187 (10.14%) Technical Leadership
20 184 (9.97%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 581 (31.49%) Python
2 522 (28.29%) Java
3 304 (16.48%) SQL
4 282 (15.28%) JavaScript
5 236 (12.79%) C#
6 232 (12.57%) TypeScript
7 105 (5.69%) C++
8 88 (4.77%) Go
9 76 (4.12%) Bash
10 67 (3.63%) C
11 59 (3.20%) PowerShell
12 34 (1.84%) Rust
13 33 (1.79%) Kotlin
14 28 (1.52%) Swift
15 23 (1.25%) MATLAB
15 23 (1.25%) PHP
16 22 (1.19%) Bicep
17 20 (1.08%) Ruby
18 17 (0.92%) Groovy
19 16 (0.87%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 232 (12.57%) Degree
2 228 (12.36%) Security Cleared
3 135 (7.32%) SC Cleared
4 96 (5.20%) Computer Science Degree
5 81 (4.39%) ISTQB
6 45 (2.44%) DV Cleared
7 32 (1.73%) AWS Certification
7 32 (1.73%) Master's Degree
8 23 (1.25%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
9 19 (1.03%) CISSP
9 19 (1.03%) DBS Check
10 18 (0.98%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 13 (0.70%) HND
12 12 (0.65%) ISEB
12 12 (0.65%) ITIL Certification
13 11 (0.60%) BPSS Clearance
13 11 (0.60%) CGEIT
13 11 (0.60%) CISA
13 11 (0.60%) CISM
13 11 (0.60%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 408 (22.11%) QA
2 169 (9.16%) Accessibility
3 84 (4.55%) Data Quality
4 45 (2.44%) GDPR
5 39 (2.11%) WCAG
6 20 (1.08%) NIST
7 15 (0.81%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.76%) SLA
9 13 (0.70%) Software Quality Assurance
10 12 (0.65%) COBIT
11 11 (0.60%) GRC
12 7 (0.38%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.33%) ISO 22301
13 6 (0.33%) ISO 9001
13 6 (0.33%) PMO
14 5 (0.27%) JTAG
14 5 (0.27%) MISRA
15 4 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
16 3 (0.16%) ECSS
16 3 (0.16%) MISRA C
System Software
1 255 (13.82%) Docker
2 26 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (1.25%) Firmware
4 18 (0.98%) Hyper-V
5 16 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (0.76%) KVM
7 10 (0.54%) Active Directory
7 10 (0.54%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.11%) Terminal Server
8 2 (0.11%) vSphere
9 1 (0.054%) IAG
9 1 (0.054%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.054%) Xen
Systems Management
1 305 (16.53%) Terraform
2 292 (15.83%) Kubernetes
3 139 (7.53%) Grafana
4 77 (4.17%) Ansible
5 64 (3.47%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.30%) Argo
7 15 (0.81%) Kibana
8 10 (0.54%) Single Sign-On
9 9 (0.49%) logstash
10 6 (0.33%) Functional Safety
10 6 (0.33%) HP Fortify
10 6 (0.33%) vCenter Server
11 5 (0.27%) CloudHub
11 5 (0.27%) Packer
11 5 (0.27%) SCCM
11 5 (0.27%) SCOM
12 4 (0.22%) Puppet
13 3 (0.16%) Microsoft Intune
13 3 (0.16%) Rancher
13 3 (0.16%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 140 (7.59%) Microsoft
2 53 (2.87%) Databricks
3 45 (2.44%) Oracle
4 44 (2.38%) Salesforce
5 39 (2.11%) Google
5 39 (2.11%) VMware
6 30 (1.63%) ServiceNow
7 24 (1.30%) Splunk
8 22 (1.19%) Dynatrace
9 20 (1.08%) OpenAI
10 16 (0.87%) Braze
11 14 (0.76%) Amplitude
12 13 (0.70%) AppDynamics
12 13 (0.70%) IFS
12 13 (0.70%) MuleSoft
12 13 (0.70%) SAP
12 13 (0.70%) SendGrid
13 12 (0.65%) CrowdStrike
13 12 (0.65%) Foundry
14 11 (0.60%) Pega