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

6 months to
6 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 96 84 93
Rank change year-on-year -12 +9 -59
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,678 1,564 2,733
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.84% 3.60% 2.85%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.47% 3.87% 3.33%
Number of salaries quoted 1,047 889 1,773
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,306 £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 68,019 40,426 81,982
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 74.51% 93.00% 85.53%
Number of salaries quoted 42,516 22,659 59,588
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,580 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £59,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.83% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £51,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -1.90% +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 6 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 6 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 -15 1,427 £65,000 +8.33% 686
UK excluding London -49 906 £60,000 +9.09% 574
Work from Home -1 712 £67,500 +12.50% 308
London +36 620 £80,000 +14.29% 208
North of England -51 216 £65,000 +18.18% 163
South East -53 177 £60,000 +14.29% 147
South West -24 171 £55,000 -8.33% 69
Midlands -51 142 £62,000 +7.83% 81
North West -46 107 £60,750 +10.45% 72
Scotland -19 99 £60,000 - 29
West Midlands -45 72 £62,500 +4.17% 52
East Midlands -46 69 £60,000 +20.00% 29
Yorkshire -49 65 £69,310 +38.01% 42
East of England -17 57 £52,500 -7.89% 69
Wales -2 46 £55,000 +4.58% 22
North East -14 44 £55,000 -6.78% 49
Northern Ireland -38 9 £80,000 +45.45% 7

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 (2.21%) Confluence
2 23 (1.37%) Apache Airflow
3 18 (1.07%) Apache Spark
4 12 (0.72%) Apache
4 12 (0.72%) Appian
5 11 (0.66%) CMS
5 11 (0.66%) Jupyter
6 10 (0.60%) IIS
6 10 (0.60%) Palantir Foundry
6 10 (0.60%) SharePoint
7 9 (0.54%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 6 (0.36%) WordPress
9 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.18%) nginx
9 3 (0.18%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.12%) Camunda
10 2 (0.12%) JBoss
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
10 2 (0.12%) SAS
11 1 (0.060%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 12 (0.72%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.60%) Microsoft Office
3 7 (0.42%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.36%) MS Visio
4 6 (0.36%) PlantUML
5 4 (0.24%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.18%) CANalyzer
6 3 (0.18%) Simulink
7 2 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.060%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.060%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 17 (1.01%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (0.54%) 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%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.060%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.060%) Endur
6 1 (0.060%) Findur
6 1 (0.060%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.060%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.060%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.060%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.060%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.060%) SAP CX
6 1 (0.060%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.060%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 566 (33.73%) Azure
2 519 (30.93%) AWS
3 267 (15.91%) Azure DevOps
4 195 (11.62%) GCP
5 175 (10.43%) GitHub
6 145 (8.64%) Serverless
7 119 (7.09%) SaaS
8 69 (4.11%) GitHub Actions
9 68 (4.05%) Amazon EKS
10 59 (3.52%) AWS Lambda
11 58 (3.46%) PaaS
12 56 (3.34%) AWS CloudFormation
13 55 (3.28%) Amazon S3
13 55 (3.28%) Azure Data Factory
14 49 (2.92%) dbt
14 49 (2.92%) Power Platform
15 44 (2.62%) GitHub Copilot
16 39 (2.32%) Amazon CloudWatch
17 38 (2.26%) Azure Service Bus
18 35 (2.09%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 32 (1.91%) Broadband
2 17 (1.01%) Firewall
3 16 (0.95%) CHAP
4 15 (0.89%) DNS
5 12 (0.72%) WAN
6 11 (0.66%) HTTP
6 11 (0.66%) SD-WAN
7 9 (0.54%) TCP/IP
8 8 (0.48%) 5G
9 6 (0.36%) VPN
10 4 (0.24%) SMTP
11 3 (0.18%) Cisco ISE
11 3 (0.18%) DHCP
11 3 (0.18%) Ethernet
11 3 (0.18%) LTE
11 3 (0.18%) VLAN
12 2 (0.12%) Modbus
12 2 (0.12%) Multicast
12 2 (0.12%) PuTTY
12 2 (0.12%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 115 (6.85%) NoSQL
2 114 (6.79%) PostgreSQL
3 89 (5.30%) SQL Server
4 77 (4.59%) MongoDB
5 36 (2.15%) Data Warehouse
6 35 (2.09%) MySQL
7 34 (2.03%) DynamoDB
8 32 (1.91%) Relational Database
9 31 (1.85%) Power BI
10 21 (1.25%) Amazon RDS
11 19 (1.13%) Metadata
12 17 (1.01%) Spark SQL
13 14 (0.83%) BigQuery
13 14 (0.83%) Oracle Database
13 14 (0.83%) Pinecone
13 14 (0.83%) Redis
14 11 (0.66%) Data Lake
14 11 (0.66%) DB2
15 10 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
15 10 (0.60%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 195 (11.62%) Git
2 167 (9.95%) Selenium
3 150 (8.94%) Jenkins
4 135 (8.05%) JIRA
5 113 (6.73%) GitLab
6 87 (5.18%) Cypress.io
7 71 (4.23%) Cucumber
8 63 (3.75%) Postman
9 59 (3.52%) TeamCity
10 44 (2.62%) JMeter
11 32 (1.91%) REST Assured
11 32 (1.91%) SpecFlow
12 30 (1.79%) CircleCI
13 27 (1.61%) TestRail
14 25 (1.49%) JUnit
15 23 (1.37%) MLflow
16 21 (1.25%) Bitbucket
17 20 (1.19%) Zephyr
18 19 (1.13%) Oracle Forms
19 18 (1.07%) WebDriver
General
1 467 (27.83%) Social Skills
2 437 (26.04%) Finance
3 180 (10.73%) Banking
4 155 (9.24%) Analytical Skills
5 145 (8.64%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 118 (7.03%) Law
7 112 (6.67%) Public Sector
8 90 (5.36%) Retail
9 58 (3.46%) Financial Institution
10 51 (3.04%) Manufacturing
11 45 (2.68%) Electronics
12 41 (2.44%) Back Office
13 34 (2.03%) Games
14 33 (1.97%) Front Office
14 33 (1.97%) Legal
15 32 (1.91%) Marketing
16 18 (1.07%) Organisational Skills
17 15 (0.89%) Investment Banking
18 14 (0.83%) Presentation Skills
19 13 (0.77%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 438 (26.10%) Senior
2 278 (16.57%) Lead
3 227 (13.53%) Software Engineer
4 226 (13.47%) Developer
5 180 (10.73%) Test Engineer
6 101 (6.02%) Senior Developer
7 94 (5.60%) QA Engineer
8 88 (5.24%) Tester
9 86 (5.13%) Java Engineer
9 86 (5.13%) Test Automation Engineer
10 74 (4.41%) Test Leader
11 71 (4.23%) Senior Software Engineer
12 60 (3.58%) Automation Engineer
13 59 (3.52%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 55 (3.28%) Data Engineer
15 52 (3.10%) DevOps Engineer
16 51 (3.04%) Automation Tester
17 50 (2.98%) QA Automation Engineer
18 49 (2.92%) Senior Test Engineer
19 48 (2.86%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 194 (11.56%) React
2 181 (10.79%) .NET
3 155 (9.24%) RESTful
4 153 (9.12%) REST
5 149 (8.88%) Playwright
6 110 (6.56%) Node.js
7 101 (6.02%) Spring
8 80 (4.77%) Kafka
9 76 (4.53%) Spring Boot
10 62 (3.69%) HTML
11 61 (3.64%) CSS
12 53 (3.16%) OAuth
13 52 (3.10%) JSON
14 45 (2.68%) pytest
15 43 (2.56%) AngularJS
15 43 (2.56%) RabbitMQ
16 40 (2.38%) Elastic Stack
16 40 (2.38%) OAuth2
16 40 (2.38%) Web Services
17 39 (2.32%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 270 (16.09%) Cloud Native
2 153 (9.12%) Product Ownership
3 89 (5.30%) Distributed Systems
4 75 (4.47%) Mobile App
5 62 (3.69%) Management Information System
6 54 (3.22%) Enterprise Software
7 42 (2.50%) Legacy Systems
8 41 (2.44%) Algorithms
9 40 (2.38%) Onboarding
10 39 (2.32%) Greenfield Project
11 38 (2.26%) Low-Code
12 37 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
13 34 (2.03%) Public Cloud
14 30 (1.79%) Data Structures
15 27 (1.61%) Hybrid Cloud
16 23 (1.37%) Blog
16 23 (1.37%) Equities
16 23 (1.37%) Hedge funds
17 20 (1.19%) Embedded Systems
18 19 (1.13%) Blockchain
Operating Systems
1 166 (9.89%) Linux
2 86 (5.13%) Windows
3 66 (3.93%) Apple iOS
4 57 (3.40%) Android
5 48 (2.86%) Unix
6 11 (0.66%) CentOS
7 10 (0.60%) 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 (0.060%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.060%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.060%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 879 (52.38%) CI/CD
2 680 (40.52%) Agile
3 591 (35.22%) DevOps
4 428 (25.51%) Software Engineering
5 405 (24.14%) Continuous Improvement
6 376 (22.41%) Mentoring
7 349 (20.80%) Problem-Solving
8 289 (17.22%) Microservices
9 280 (16.69%) Infrastructure as Code
10 274 (16.33%) AI
11 253 (15.08%) Software Testing
12 238 (14.18%) Coaching
12 238 (14.18%) Observability
13 212 (12.63%) Containerisation
14 204 (12.16%) Test Strategy
15 199 (11.86%) Clean Code
16 197 (11.74%) Full-Stack Development
17 178 (10.61%) Validation
18 164 (9.77%) Deployment Automation
19 159 (9.48%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 522 (31.11%) Python
2 429 (25.57%) Java
3 312 (18.59%) SQL
4 232 (13.83%) JavaScript
5 211 (12.57%) C#
5 211 (12.57%) TypeScript
6 79 (4.71%) C++
7 77 (4.59%) PowerShell
8 67 (3.99%) Bash
9 58 (3.46%) Go
10 47 (2.80%) C
11 34 (2.03%) Bicep
12 27 (1.61%) Rust
13 26 (1.55%) Kotlin
13 26 (1.55%) Shell Script
14 24 (1.43%) PL/SQL
15 23 (1.37%) Apex Code
16 20 (1.19%) PHP
17 18 (1.07%) Swift
18 17 (1.01%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 219 (13.05%) Degree
2 164 (9.77%) Security Cleared
3 101 (6.02%) SC Cleared
4 90 (5.36%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (4.65%) ISTQB
6 31 (1.85%) DV Cleared
7 26 (1.55%) Master's Degree
8 23 (1.37%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 22 (1.31%) CISSP
10 21 (1.25%) AWS Certification
11 18 (1.07%) DBS Check
12 16 (0.95%) CGEIT
12 16 (0.95%) CISA
12 16 (0.95%) CISM
12 16 (0.95%) FFIEC
12 16 (0.95%) SANS
13 15 (0.89%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.77%) PhD
15 12 (0.72%) CEH
15 12 (0.72%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 393 (23.42%) QA
2 121 (7.21%) Accessibility
3 76 (4.53%) Data Quality
4 54 (3.22%) GDPR
5 37 (2.21%) NIST
6 25 (1.49%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 19 (1.13%) WCAG
8 17 (1.01%) COBIT
9 14 (0.83%) SLA
10 12 (0.72%) ISO 22301
11 10 (0.60%) 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
16 4 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.24%) ISO 13485
16 4 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 236 (14.06%) Docker
2 27 (1.61%) Active Directory
3 23 (1.37%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (1.07%) Firmware
5 16 (0.95%) Hyper-V
6 15 (0.89%) Virtual Machines
7 13 (0.77%) KVM
8 8 (0.48%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.18%) Terminal Server
10 2 (0.12%) vSphere
11 1 (0.060%) IAG
11 1 (0.060%) Xen
Systems Management
1 291 (17.34%) Terraform
2 286 (17.04%) Kubernetes
3 126 (7.51%) Grafana
4 70 (4.17%) Ansible
5 52 (3.10%) Prometheus
6 27 (1.61%) Single Sign-On
7 25 (1.49%) Argo
8 10 (0.60%) 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
1 133 (7.93%) Microsoft
2 77 (4.59%) Oracle
3 58 (3.46%) Databricks
4 52 (3.10%) Salesforce
5 45 (2.68%) VMware
6 36 (2.15%) Google
7 24 (1.43%) OpenAI
8 18 (1.07%) ServiceNow
9 17 (1.01%) Commvault
9 17 (1.01%) Splunk
10 15 (0.89%) Atlassian
10 15 (0.89%) SAP
11 13 (0.77%) Palantir
12 12 (0.72%) Amplitude
12 12 (0.72%) Automation Anywhere
12 12 (0.72%) Braze
12 12 (0.72%) UiPath
13 11 (0.66%) CrowdStrike
13 11 (0.66%) Dynatrace
13 11 (0.66%) Foundry