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

6 months to
15 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 85 84 101
Rank change year-on-year -1 +17 -67
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,831 1,625 2,719
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.97% 3.65% 2.52%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.70% 3.94% 3.07%
Number of salaries quoted 1,142 789 1,722
10th Percentile £42,000 £39,000 £36,250
25th Percentile £48,289 £47,500 £44,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +8.70% -11.54%
75th Percentile £82,500 £82,751 £71,991
90th Percentile £97,500 £100,000 £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 67,867 41,257 88,577
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 72.84% 92.63% 82.08%
Number of salaries quoted 46,626 22,001 62,691
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,822 £29,629
25th Percentile £41,250 £39,353 £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 £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +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 15 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 15 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 +2 1,612 £62,500 - 478
UK excluding London -25 1,014 £60,000 +4.35% 402
Work from Home +11 738 £66,250 +10.42% 235
London +20 654 £80,000 +6.67% 146
North of England -10 288 £61,250 +2.25% 107
South East -11 211 £60,000 +9.09% 123
South West -30 179 £55,000 -8.33% 42
Midlands -16 167 £60,000 +4.35% 59
North West -4 152 £61,250 -5.77% 59
West Midlands -31 84 £61,000 -9.63% 39
East Midlands -9 82 £55,000 +20.88% 20
Yorkshire -24 69 £72,500 +43.72% 27
North East -7 67 £52,500 -4.55% 22
East of England -20 66 £52,500 -7.89% 57
Wales -6 56 £55,000 -4.35% 7
Scotland -42 49 £60,000 - 17
Northern Ireland -32 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 (1.80%) Confluence
2 26 (1.42%) Apache Airflow
3 21 (1.15%) Apache Spark
4 20 (1.09%) Jupyter
5 19 (1.04%) Apache
6 15 (0.82%) SharePoint
7 10 (0.55%) CMS
8 9 (0.49%) IIS
8 9 (0.49%) Palantir Foundry
9 8 (0.44%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 7 (0.38%) Appian
11 5 (0.27%) Anypoint
11 5 (0.27%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.22%) Mule
12 4 (0.22%) SAS
13 3 (0.16%) nginx
13 3 (0.16%) WordPress
14 2 (0.11%) JBoss
14 2 (0.11%) Microsoft Exchange
14 2 (0.11%) Oracle SOA Suite
Applications
1 16 (0.87%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
3 8 (0.44%) Simulink
4 6 (0.33%) PlantUML
5 5 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.16%) CANalyzer
7 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.11%) Fusion 360
7 2 (0.11%) Lightworks
7 2 (0.11%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 12 (0.66%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.27%) Visualfiles
3 4 (0.22%) Dynamics AX
4 3 (0.16%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.16%) Oracle ERP
4 3 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.11%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 2 (0.11%) Shopify
5 2 (0.11%) Towers Watson Igloo
5 2 (0.11%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.055%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.055%) Endur
6 1 (0.055%) Findur
6 1 (0.055%) Magento
6 1 (0.055%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.055%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.055%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.055%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.055%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 628 (34.30%) AWS
2 556 (30.37%) Azure
3 240 (13.11%) Azure DevOps
4 216 (11.80%) GCP
5 172 (9.39%) Serverless
6 151 (8.25%) GitHub
7 129 (7.05%) SaaS
8 78 (4.26%) AWS Lambda
9 75 (4.10%) GitHub Actions
10 73 (3.99%) Amazon EKS
10 73 (3.99%) Amazon S3
11 68 (3.71%) AWS CloudFormation
12 56 (3.06%) PaaS
13 46 (2.51%) Azure Service Bus
14 45 (2.46%) Power Platform
15 41 (2.24%) dbt
16 40 (2.18%) Azure Monitor
17 38 (2.08%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 38 (2.08%) Amazon EC2
17 38 (2.08%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 62 (3.39%) Broadband
2 25 (1.37%) Firewall
3 13 (0.71%) CHAP
4 12 (0.66%) WAN
5 11 (0.60%) DNS
5 11 (0.60%) SD-WAN
6 10 (0.55%) 5G
6 10 (0.55%) DMARC
7 7 (0.38%) Wireless
8 6 (0.33%) HTTP
8 6 (0.33%) MQTT
9 5 (0.27%) Bluetooth
9 5 (0.27%) SMS
9 5 (0.27%) VPN
9 5 (0.27%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.27%) ZigBee
10 4 (0.22%) DHCP
10 4 (0.22%) LTE
10 4 (0.22%) SSL
11 3 (0.16%) Ethernet
Database & Business Intelligence
1 130 (7.10%) NoSQL
2 115 (6.28%) PostgreSQL
3 96 (5.24%) MongoDB
4 68 (3.71%) SQL Server
5 40 (2.18%) DynamoDB
6 30 (1.64%) MySQL
7 29 (1.58%) Data Warehouse
7 29 (1.58%) Relational Database
8 24 (1.31%) Power BI
9 21 (1.15%) Amazon RDS
10 18 (0.98%) Redis
10 18 (0.98%) Spark SQL
11 17 (0.93%) BigQuery
12 16 (0.87%) Oracle Database
13 14 (0.76%) Metadata
14 13 (0.71%) Semantic Layer
15 12 (0.66%) Amazon Athena
16 10 (0.55%) Data Lake
17 9 (0.49%) Elasticsearch
17 9 (0.49%) Pinecone
Development Applications
1 214 (11.69%) Git
2 154 (8.41%) Jenkins
3 146 (7.97%) GitLab
4 142 (7.76%) Selenium
5 110 (6.01%) JIRA
6 87 (4.75%) Cypress.io
7 75 (4.10%) Cucumber
8 67 (3.66%) Postman
9 58 (3.17%) TeamCity
10 45 (2.46%) JMeter
11 37 (2.02%) REST Assured
12 31 (1.69%) JUnit
13 29 (1.58%) SpecFlow
14 23 (1.26%) CircleCI
14 23 (1.26%) LabVIEW
14 23 (1.26%) Zephyr
15 22 (1.20%) TestRail
16 20 (1.09%) Crashlytics
17 19 (1.04%) fastlane
17 19 (1.04%) Gatling
General
1 458 (25.01%) Social Skills
2 412 (22.50%) Finance
3 191 (10.43%) Banking
4 187 (10.21%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 161 (8.79%) Public Sector
6 154 (8.41%) Analytical Skills
7 113 (6.17%) Law
8 93 (5.08%) Retail
9 61 (3.33%) Financial Institution
10 59 (3.22%) Manufacturing
11 52 (2.84%) Electronics
11 52 (2.84%) Games
12 47 (2.57%) Back Office
13 33 (1.80%) Front Office
14 32 (1.75%) Legal
15 31 (1.69%) Marketing
16 20 (1.09%) Documentation Skills
17 18 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
17 18 (0.98%) Investment Banking
17 18 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 483 (26.38%) Senior
2 297 (16.22%) Lead
3 276 (15.07%) Software Engineer
4 261 (14.25%) Developer
5 219 (11.96%) Test Engineer
6 118 (6.44%) Senior Developer
7 109 (5.95%) Java Engineer
8 91 (4.97%) Test Automation Engineer
9 89 (4.86%) QA Engineer
10 82 (4.48%) Senior Software Engineer
10 82 (4.48%) Tester
11 75 (4.10%) Test Leader
12 64 (3.50%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 63 (3.44%) Architect
14 61 (3.33%) Data Engineer
15 56 (3.06%) Senior Test Engineer
16 53 (2.89%) DevOps Engineer
17 52 (2.84%) Python Developer
18 48 (2.62%) Software Developer
19 46 (2.51%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 194 (10.60%) .NET
2 189 (10.32%) React
3 160 (8.74%) RESTful
4 158 (8.63%) Playwright
4 158 (8.63%) REST
5 147 (8.03%) Spring
6 139 (7.59%) Node.js
7 105 (5.73%) Spring Boot
8 99 (5.41%) Kafka
9 73 (3.99%) AngularJS
10 62 (3.39%) HTML
11 61 (3.33%) CSS
12 53 (2.89%) OAuth
13 45 (2.46%) OAuth2
14 44 (2.40%) RabbitMQ
15 39 (2.13%) JSON
16 38 (2.08%) Vue
16 38 (2.08%) YAML
17 37 (2.02%) ASP.NET
17 37 (2.02%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 337 (18.41%) Cloud Native
2 197 (10.76%) Product Ownership
3 141 (7.70%) Distributed Systems
4 99 (5.41%) Mobile App
5 59 (3.22%) Management Information System
6 54 (2.95%) Public Cloud
7 52 (2.84%) Enterprise Software
8 51 (2.79%) Low-Code
9 50 (2.73%) Algorithms
10 48 (2.62%) Onboarding
11 43 (2.35%) Data Structures
12 42 (2.29%) Legacy Systems
13 38 (2.08%) Greenfield Project
14 34 (1.86%) Video\Live Streaming
15 32 (1.75%) Self-Motivation
16 25 (1.37%) Embedded Systems
17 24 (1.31%) Blog
17 24 (1.31%) Hedge funds
18 23 (1.26%) Hybrid Cloud
19 22 (1.20%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 154 (8.41%) Linux
2 77 (4.21%) Windows
3 70 (3.82%) Apple iOS
4 57 (3.11%) Android
5 50 (2.73%) Unix
6 9 (0.49%) CentOS
7 8 (0.44%) Windows Server
8 4 (0.22%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.22%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.16%) AIX
9 3 (0.16%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.16%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.11%) Debian
10 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.055%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.055%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.055%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.055%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,005 (54.89%) CI/CD
2 762 (41.62%) Agile
3 622 (33.97%) DevOps
4 515 (28.13%) Software Engineering
5 462 (25.23%) Continuous Improvement
6 446 (24.36%) Mentoring
7 367 (20.04%) Problem-Solving
8 340 (18.57%) Microservices
9 329 (17.97%) Infrastructure as Code
10 311 (16.99%) AI
11 284 (15.51%) Software Testing
12 249 (13.60%) Observability
13 238 (13.00%) Containerisation
14 233 (12.73%) Full-Stack Development
15 228 (12.45%) Coaching
15 228 (12.45%) Test Strategy
16 214 (11.69%) Validation
17 193 (10.54%) Clean Code
18 179 (9.78%) Technical Leadership
19 172 (9.39%) Code Quality
Programming Languages
1 572 (31.24%) Python
2 507 (27.69%) Java
3 298 (16.28%) SQL
4 269 (14.69%) JavaScript
5 232 (12.67%) C#
6 228 (12.45%) TypeScript
7 98 (5.35%) C++
8 85 (4.64%) Go
9 76 (4.15%) Bash
10 63 (3.44%) PowerShell
11 61 (3.33%) C
12 33 (1.80%) Kotlin
13 32 (1.75%) Rust
14 27 (1.47%) Swift
15 24 (1.31%) Bicep
16 23 (1.26%) MATLAB
16 23 (1.26%) PHP
17 19 (1.04%) Ruby
18 17 (0.93%) Groovy
19 15 (0.82%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 235 (12.83%) Degree
2 211 (11.52%) Security Cleared
3 127 (6.94%) SC Cleared
4 94 (5.13%) Computer Science Degree
5 83 (4.53%) ISTQB
6 43 (2.35%) DV Cleared
7 31 (1.69%) AWS Certification
8 30 (1.64%) Master's Degree
9 22 (1.20%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
10 21 (1.15%) CISSP
11 19 (1.04%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
12 18 (0.98%) DBS Check
13 15 (0.82%) HND
14 13 (0.71%) CGEIT
14 13 (0.71%) CISA
14 13 (0.71%) CISM
14 13 (0.71%) FFIEC
14 13 (0.71%) PhD
14 13 (0.71%) SANS
15 12 (0.66%) BPSS Clearance
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 414 (22.61%) QA
2 166 (9.07%) Accessibility
3 82 (4.48%) Data Quality
4 48 (2.62%) GDPR
5 34 (1.86%) WCAG
6 24 (1.31%) NIST
7 17 (0.93%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 15 (0.82%) SLA
9 14 (0.76%) COBIT
10 13 (0.71%) Software Quality Assurance
11 11 (0.60%) GRC
12 8 (0.44%) ISO 22301
12 8 (0.44%) ISO 9001
13 7 (0.38%) SOC 2
14 6 (0.33%) PMO
15 5 (0.27%) JTAG
16 4 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
17 3 (0.16%) IEC 61508
17 3 (0.16%) MISRA
17 3 (0.16%) PERC
System Software
1 251 (13.71%) Docker
2 25 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (1.15%) Firmware
4 18 (0.98%) Hyper-V
5 16 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (0.76%) KVM
7 13 (0.71%) Active Directory
8 9 (0.49%) Embedded Firmware
9 2 (0.11%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.11%) vSphere
10 1 (0.055%) IAG
10 1 (0.055%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.055%) Xen
Systems Management
1 295 (16.11%) Terraform
2 283 (15.46%) Kubernetes
3 133 (7.26%) Grafana
4 75 (4.10%) Ansible
5 65 (3.55%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.31%) Argo
7 14 (0.76%) Kibana
8 13 (0.71%) Single Sign-On
9 7 (0.38%) logstash
10 5 (0.27%) HP Fortify
10 5 (0.27%) Packer
10 5 (0.27%) SCCM
10 5 (0.27%) SCOM
10 5 (0.27%) vCenter Server
11 4 (0.22%) CloudHub
11 4 (0.22%) Functional Safety
11 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
12 3 (0.16%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.16%) Puppet
12 3 (0.16%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 139 (7.59%) Microsoft
2 53 (2.89%) Databricks
3 51 (2.79%) Oracle
4 45 (2.46%) Salesforce
5 40 (2.18%) VMware
6 38 (2.08%) Google
7 25 (1.37%) ServiceNow
7 25 (1.37%) Splunk
8 22 (1.20%) Dynatrace
9 20 (1.09%) OpenAI
10 16 (0.87%) Braze
10 16 (0.87%) SAP
11 14 (0.76%) Amplitude
11 14 (0.76%) AppDynamics
12 13 (0.71%) CrowdStrike
12 13 (0.71%) IFS
12 13 (0.71%) MuleSoft
13 11 (0.60%) Atlassian
13 11 (0.60%) Commvault
13 11 (0.60%) Foundry