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

6 months to
19 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 84 93
Rank change year-on-year -8 +9 -60
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,748 1,598 2,715
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.90% 3.63% 2.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.58% 3.89% 3.29%
Number of salaries quoted 1,092 870 1,760
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% +4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £83,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £98,474 £88,750
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 67,796 41,102 82,489
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.66% 93.28% 84.85%
Number of salaries quoted 43,826 22,293 59,720
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,500 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.56% +6.36% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -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 19 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 19 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 -5 1,499 £62,500 +4.17% 621
UK excluding London -41 953 £60,000 +9.09% 496
Work from Home +5 721 £65,000 +8.33% 291
London +35 627 £80,000 +14.29% 220
North of England -35 245 £62,500 +13.64% 128
South East -37 193 £60,000 +11.63% 133
South West -24 174 £55,000 -8.33% 70
Midlands -41 152 £62,500 +12.61% 60
North West -19 127 £60,000 +3.45% 74
Scotland -25 80 £60,000 - 25
West Midlands -39 76 £62,500 +4.17% 45
East Midlands -33 75 £57,500 +17.95% 15
Yorkshire -43 66 £69,310 +38.62% 22
East of England -28 60 £50,000 -12.28% 57
North East -17 52 £52,500 -11.02% 32
Wales -3 51 £55,000 +4.58% 19
Northern Ireland -39 10 £80,000 +45.45% 13

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 38 (2.17%) Confluence
2 24 (1.37%) Apache Airflow
3 18 (1.03%) Apache Spark
4 14 (0.80%) Apache
5 13 (0.74%) Jupyter
5 13 (0.74%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.63%) CMS
7 10 (0.57%) Appian
7 10 (0.57%) IIS
7 10 (0.57%) Palantir Foundry
8 7 (0.40%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 5 (0.29%) WordPress
10 4 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.17%) nginx
11 3 (0.17%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.11%) JBoss
12 2 (0.11%) Oracle Application Server
12 2 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 12 (0.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.57%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.34%) PlantUML
4 5 (0.29%) Simulink
5 4 (0.23%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.23%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.17%) CANalyzer
7 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.057%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 13 (0.74%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (0.51%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.29%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.23%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.17%) Shopify
6 2 (0.11%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.057%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.057%) Endur
7 1 (0.057%) Findur
7 1 (0.057%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.057%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.057%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.057%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.057%) Oracle SCM
7 1 (0.057%) Towers Watson Igloo
Cloud Services
1 563 (32.21%) AWS
2 559 (31.98%) Azure
3 261 (14.93%) Azure DevOps
4 206 (11.78%) GCP
5 166 (9.50%) GitHub
6 155 (8.87%) Serverless
7 122 (6.98%) SaaS
8 74 (4.23%) Amazon EKS
9 72 (4.12%) GitHub Actions
10 66 (3.78%) AWS Lambda
11 63 (3.60%) Amazon S3
12 59 (3.38%) AWS CloudFormation
13 53 (3.03%) PaaS
14 49 (2.80%) Azure Data Factory
15 46 (2.63%) Power Platform
16 44 (2.52%) dbt
17 40 (2.29%) Azure Service Bus
18 38 (2.17%) Datadog
19 37 (2.12%) Azure Logic Apps
20 36 (2.06%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 45 (2.57%) Broadband
2 23 (1.32%) Firewall
3 15 (0.86%) DNS
4 13 (0.74%) CHAP
4 13 (0.74%) WAN
5 12 (0.69%) SD-WAN
6 9 (0.51%) 5G
6 9 (0.51%) HTTP
7 6 (0.34%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.34%) VPN
8 5 (0.29%) Bluetooth
8 5 (0.29%) Wireless
9 4 (0.23%) DHCP
9 4 (0.23%) LTE
9 4 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (0.23%) ZigBee
10 3 (0.17%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (0.17%) Ethernet
10 3 (0.17%) MQTT
10 3 (0.17%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (7.04%) NoSQL
2 114 (6.52%) PostgreSQL
3 89 (5.09%) MongoDB
4 77 (4.41%) SQL Server
5 36 (2.06%) DynamoDB
6 33 (1.89%) MySQL
7 32 (1.83%) Data Warehouse
8 29 (1.66%) Relational Database
9 27 (1.54%) Power BI
10 22 (1.26%) Amazon RDS
11 18 (1.03%) Metadata
11 18 (1.03%) Spark SQL
12 16 (0.92%) Redis
13 15 (0.86%) BigQuery
14 13 (0.74%) Oracle Database
15 12 (0.69%) Pinecone
16 10 (0.57%) Data Lake
17 9 (0.51%) DB2
17 9 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
17 9 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 196 (11.21%) Git
2 156 (8.92%) Selenium
3 154 (8.81%) Jenkins
4 125 (7.15%) GitLab
5 122 (6.98%) JIRA
6 84 (4.81%) Cypress.io
7 66 (3.78%) Cucumber
8 63 (3.60%) TeamCity
9 59 (3.38%) Postman
10 44 (2.52%) JMeter
11 33 (1.89%) REST Assured
12 32 (1.83%) SpecFlow
13 28 (1.60%) CircleCI
14 24 (1.37%) JUnit
14 24 (1.37%) TestRail
15 21 (1.20%) MLflow
16 20 (1.14%) LabVIEW
16 20 (1.14%) Zephyr
17 18 (1.03%) Bitbucket
18 17 (0.97%) Robot Framework
General
1 447 (25.57%) Social Skills
2 427 (24.43%) Finance
3 186 (10.64%) Banking
4 160 (9.15%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 155 (8.87%) Analytical Skills
6 142 (8.12%) Public Sector
7 117 (6.69%) Law
8 94 (5.38%) Retail
9 60 (3.43%) Financial Institution
10 56 (3.20%) Manufacturing
11 53 (3.03%) Electronics
12 48 (2.75%) Back Office
13 43 (2.46%) Games
14 33 (1.89%) Legal
15 32 (1.83%) Front Office
16 29 (1.66%) Marketing
17 20 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
18 18 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
19 16 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
19 16 (0.92%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 461 (26.37%) Senior
2 293 (16.76%) Lead
3 247 (14.13%) Software Engineer
4 233 (13.33%) Developer
5 207 (11.84%) Test Engineer
6 108 (6.18%) Senior Developer
7 92 (5.26%) Java Engineer
8 90 (5.15%) QA Engineer
9 88 (5.03%) Test Automation Engineer
10 86 (4.92%) Tester
11 76 (4.35%) Test Leader
12 75 (4.29%) Senior Software Engineer
13 65 (3.72%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 56 (3.20%) DevOps Engineer
15 55 (3.15%) Architect
15 55 (3.15%) Data Engineer
16 52 (2.97%) Automation Engineer
17 51 (2.92%) Senior Test Engineer
18 49 (2.80%) Automation Tester
19 48 (2.75%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 190 (10.87%) React
2 189 (10.81%) .NET
3 160 (9.15%) RESTful
4 155 (8.87%) Playwright
5 154 (8.81%) REST
6 113 (6.46%) Node.js
7 109 (6.24%) Spring
8 86 (4.92%) Kafka
9 79 (4.52%) Spring Boot
10 60 (3.43%) HTML
11 59 (3.38%) CSS
12 58 (3.32%) AngularJS
13 52 (2.97%) OAuth
14 48 (2.75%) JSON
15 45 (2.57%) RabbitMQ
16 41 (2.35%) OAuth2
17 40 (2.29%) .NET Framework
18 39 (2.23%) Web Services
19 38 (2.17%) pytest
20 34 (1.95%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 297 (16.99%) Cloud Native
2 171 (9.78%) Product Ownership
3 108 (6.18%) Distributed Systems
4 88 (5.03%) Mobile App
5 57 (3.26%) Management Information System
6 51 (2.92%) Enterprise Software
7 46 (2.63%) Low-Code
7 46 (2.63%) Onboarding
8 42 (2.40%) Public Cloud
9 41 (2.35%) Algorithms
10 39 (2.23%) Greenfield Project
11 36 (2.06%) Self-Motivation
12 34 (1.95%) Legacy Systems
13 31 (1.77%) Data Structures
14 25 (1.43%) Blog
15 24 (1.37%) Embedded Systems
15 24 (1.37%) Video\Live Streaming
16 23 (1.32%) Hybrid Cloud
17 22 (1.26%) Hedge funds
18 21 (1.20%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 162 (9.27%) Linux
2 83 (4.75%) Windows
3 68 (3.89%) Apple iOS
4 58 (3.32%) Android
5 49 (2.80%) Unix
6 10 (0.57%) CentOS
6 10 (0.57%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.23%) Kali Linux
8 4 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.17%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.11%) AIX
10 2 (0.11%) Debian
11 1 (0.057%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.057%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.057%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.057%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 931 (53.26%) CI/CD
2 720 (41.19%) Agile
3 613 (35.07%) DevOps
4 455 (26.03%) Software Engineering
5 430 (24.60%) Continuous Improvement
6 414 (23.68%) Mentoring
7 359 (20.54%) Problem-Solving
8 307 (17.56%) Infrastructure as Code
9 302 (17.28%) Microservices
10 294 (16.82%) AI
11 265 (15.16%) Software Testing
12 249 (14.24%) Observability
13 239 (13.67%) Coaching
14 220 (12.59%) Containerisation
15 219 (12.53%) Full-Stack Development
16 213 (12.19%) Test Strategy
17 205 (11.73%) Clean Code
18 189 (10.81%) Validation
19 170 (9.73%) Deployment Automation
20 164 (9.38%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 541 (30.95%) Python
2 463 (26.49%) Java
3 303 (17.33%) SQL
4 247 (14.13%) JavaScript
5 222 (12.70%) C#
6 214 (12.24%) TypeScript
7 89 (5.09%) C++
8 75 (4.29%) Bash
9 72 (4.12%) PowerShell
10 68 (3.89%) Go
11 55 (3.15%) C
12 34 (1.95%) Bicep
13 29 (1.66%) Rust
14 28 (1.60%) Kotlin
15 20 (1.14%) PL/SQL
15 20 (1.14%) Shell Script
15 20 (1.14%) Swift
16 19 (1.09%) Apex Code
16 19 (1.09%) MATLAB
17 18 (1.03%) PHP
Qualifications
1 225 (12.87%) Degree
2 189 (10.81%) Security Cleared
3 111 (6.35%) SC Cleared
4 89 (5.09%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (4.46%) ISTQB
6 40 (2.29%) DV Cleared
7 28 (1.60%) Master's Degree
8 25 (1.43%) AWS Certification
9 21 (1.20%) CISSP
10 20 (1.14%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 17 (0.97%) DBS Check
12 15 (0.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 15 (0.86%) Azure Certification
13 13 (0.74%) CGEIT
13 13 (0.74%) CISA
13 13 (0.74%) FFIEC
13 13 (0.74%) HND
13 13 (0.74%) ISEB
13 13 (0.74%) PhD
13 13 (0.74%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 395 (22.60%) QA
2 142 (8.12%) Accessibility
3 76 (4.35%) Data Quality
4 50 (2.86%) GDPR
5 27 (1.54%) NIST
6 22 (1.26%) WCAG
7 19 (1.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.80%) COBIT
8 14 (0.80%) SLA
9 11 (0.63%) Software Quality Assurance
10 10 (0.57%) GRC
10 10 (0.57%) ISO 22301
11 8 (0.46%) ISO 9001
12 7 (0.40%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.34%) PMO
14 5 (0.29%) IEC 61508
14 5 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
15 4 (0.23%) ISO 13485
15 4 (0.23%) JTAG
System Software
1 244 (13.96%) Docker
2 25 (1.43%) Active Directory
2 25 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 19 (1.09%) Firmware
4 18 (1.03%) Hyper-V
5 15 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (0.80%) KVM
7 8 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
8 3 (0.17%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.11%) vSphere
10 1 (0.057%) IAG
10 1 (0.057%) Xen
Systems Management
1 306 (17.51%) Terraform
2 289 (16.53%) Kubernetes
3 133 (7.61%) Grafana
4 74 (4.23%) Ansible
5 63 (3.60%) Prometheus
6 25 (1.43%) Argo
7 23 (1.32%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (0.57%) logstash
9 9 (0.51%) Kibana
10 7 (0.40%) SCCM
10 7 (0.40%) SCOM
11 5 (0.29%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (0.23%) Packer
12 4 (0.23%) Rancher
12 4 (0.23%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.17%) Functional Safety
13 3 (0.17%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.17%) Puppet
13 3 (0.17%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 136 (7.78%) Microsoft
2 62 (3.55%) Oracle
3 57 (3.26%) Databricks
4 50 (2.86%) Salesforce
5 43 (2.46%) VMware
6 38 (2.17%) Google
7 23 (1.32%) OpenAI
8 22 (1.26%) Splunk
9 19 (1.09%) ServiceNow
10 16 (0.92%) SAP
11 15 (0.86%) Dynatrace
12 14 (0.80%) Braze
13 13 (0.74%) Amplitude
13 13 (0.74%) Atlassian
13 13 (0.74%) Commvault
13 13 (0.74%) CrowdStrike
14 12 (0.69%) AppDynamics
14 12 (0.69%) Foundry
14 12 (0.69%) Palantir
15 11 (0.63%) IFS