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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 86 100
Rank change year-on-year +3 +14 -43
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,075 1,690 2,121
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.04% 3.43% 2.44%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.77% 3.82% 3.00%
Number of salaries quoted 1,189 827 1,319
10th Percentile £42,500 £37,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,231 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £57,965
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +7.82% -10.82%
75th Percentile £82,250 £82,500 £71,991
90th Percentile £96,250 £97,528 £86,688
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £57,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +5.26% +8.57% -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 74,889 44,229 70,800
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.63% 89.64% 81.30%
Number of salaries quoted 51,640 25,065 47,390
10th Percentile £30,500 £28,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £76,250 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,500 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +10.00% - -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 29 July 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 29 July 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 -4 1,724 £65,000 +3.17% 777
UK excluding London -1 1,273 £60,000 +5.26% 536
Work from Home +17 886 £67,500 +12.50% 335
London +1 644 £80,000 +3.23% 330
North of England +7 347 £57,500 -4.01% 148
South East -25 236 £60,000 +9.09% 157
South West -14 210 £59,750 +6.28% 79
Midlands -16 181 £62,500 +4.17% 68
North West -4 179 £60,000 -7.69% 79
Northern Ireland +6 131 £80,000 +45.45% 9
West Midlands -28 95 £62,500 - 43
North East +6 91 £52,500 +31.25% 30
East Midlands -23 85 £60,000 +26.32% 25
Yorkshire -11 77 £69,310 +41.45% 40
Wales -6 70 £55,000 - 8
East of England -40 61 £55,000 -3.51% 56
Scotland -42 50 £62,500 -5.66% 27

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 44 (2.12%) Confluence
2 29 (1.40%) Apache Airflow
2 29 (1.40%) Apache Spark
3 23 (1.11%) Apache
4 22 (1.06%) SharePoint
5 14 (0.67%) Jupyter
6 13 (0.63%) Adobe Experience Manager
6 13 (0.63%) Anypoint
6 13 (0.63%) Mule
7 12 (0.58%) CMS
8 5 (0.24%) IIS
8 5 (0.24%) Umbraco
8 5 (0.24%) WordPress
9 4 (0.19%) Cloud Foundry
9 4 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
9 4 (0.19%) nginx
9 4 (0.19%) Palantir Foundry
10 3 (0.14%) Camunda
10 3 (0.14%) JBoss
10 3 (0.14%) SAS
Applications
1 23 (1.11%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.58%) Microsoft Office
2 12 (0.58%) Simulink
3 7 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 6 (0.29%) PlantUML
5 5 (0.24%) Lightworks
6 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
6 3 (0.14%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.096%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.096%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.096%) Moqups
8 1 (0.048%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 38 (1.83%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.30%) Dynamics GP
3 5 (0.24%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.19%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.19%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.096%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.096%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.096%) Oracle EBS
5 2 (0.096%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.096%) Towers Watson Igloo
5 2 (0.096%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.048%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.048%) Magento
6 1 (0.048%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.048%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.048%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.048%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.048%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.048%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
6 1 (0.048%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 767 (36.96%) AWS
2 652 (31.42%) Azure
3 245 (11.81%) Azure DevOps
4 233 (11.23%) SaaS
5 232 (11.18%) GCP
6 182 (8.77%) Serverless
7 174 (8.39%) GitHub
8 88 (4.24%) AWS CloudFormation
9 87 (4.19%) GitHub Actions
10 78 (3.76%) AWS Lambda
11 72 (3.47%) Amazon S3
12 69 (3.33%) Amazon EKS
13 56 (2.70%) Power Platform
14 52 (2.51%) Azure Service Bus
15 50 (2.41%) PaaS
16 45 (2.17%) dbt
17 44 (2.12%) Azure Logic Apps
17 44 (2.12%) Azure Monitor
18 41 (1.98%) Amazon EC2
19 34 (1.64%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.42%) Broadband
2 25 (1.20%) Firewall
3 15 (0.72%) Wireless
4 14 (0.67%) DNS
4 14 (0.67%) SSL
5 13 (0.63%) DMARC
6 12 (0.58%) MQTT
6 12 (0.58%) TCP/IP
7 11 (0.53%) Wi-Fi
8 10 (0.48%) LTE
9 9 (0.43%) 3GPP
10 8 (0.39%) HTTP
10 8 (0.39%) WAN
11 7 (0.34%) CHAP
11 7 (0.34%) Network Security
11 7 (0.34%) Radio Access Network
11 7 (0.34%) RANAP
11 7 (0.34%) SS7
11 7 (0.34%) Wireshark
11 7 (0.34%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 133 (6.41%) NoSQL
2 130 (6.27%) PostgreSQL
3 103 (4.96%) MongoDB
4 67 (3.23%) SQL Server
5 46 (2.22%) DynamoDB
6 43 (2.07%) Relational Database
7 37 (1.78%) MySQL
8 29 (1.40%) Data Warehouse
9 27 (1.30%) Redis
10 26 (1.25%) Power BI
11 25 (1.20%) BigQuery
12 18 (0.87%) Amazon RDS
12 18 (0.87%) Spark SQL
13 16 (0.77%) Metadata
13 16 (0.77%) Semantic Layer
14 14 (0.67%) Amazon Athena
14 14 (0.67%) Data Lake
15 13 (0.63%) Oracle Database
16 12 (0.58%) Elasticsearch
17 10 (0.48%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 269 (12.96%) Git
2 187 (9.01%) Jenkins
3 186 (8.96%) GitLab
4 155 (7.47%) Selenium
5 131 (6.31%) JIRA
6 94 (4.53%) Cucumber
7 90 (4.34%) Cypress.io
8 82 (3.95%) Postman
9 56 (2.70%) TeamCity
10 52 (2.51%) JMeter
11 38 (1.83%) JUnit
11 38 (1.83%) REST Assured
12 32 (1.54%) Zephyr
13 25 (1.20%) Gatling
13 25 (1.20%) SpecFlow
13 25 (1.20%) TestRail
14 21 (1.01%) Bitbucket
14 21 (1.01%) fastlane
15 20 (0.96%) Crashlytics
16 19 (0.92%) SonarQube
General
1 550 (26.51%) Social Skills
2 464 (22.36%) Finance
3 223 (10.75%) Analytical Skills
4 210 (10.12%) Public Sector
5 208 (10.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 187 (9.01%) Banking
7 181 (8.72%) Law
8 113 (5.45%) Legal
9 92 (4.43%) Retail
10 70 (3.37%) Manufacturing
11 64 (3.08%) Marketing
12 61 (2.94%) Financial Institution
13 60 (2.89%) Electronics
14 54 (2.60%) Games
15 49 (2.36%) Back Office
16 30 (1.45%) Telecoms
17 29 (1.40%) Front Office
18 24 (1.16%) Aerospace
18 24 (1.16%) Documentation Skills
19 20 (0.96%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 584 (28.14%) Senior
2 328 (15.81%) Lead
3 321 (15.47%) Software Engineer
4 291 (14.02%) Developer
5 221 (10.65%) Test Engineer
6 119 (5.73%) Java Engineer
7 118 (5.69%) Senior Developer
8 98 (4.72%) Senior Software Engineer
9 86 (4.14%) QA Engineer
9 86 (4.14%) Test Automation Engineer
10 84 (4.05%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 78 (3.76%) DevOps Engineer
12 69 (3.33%) Architect
12 69 (3.33%) Test Leader
13 65 (3.13%) Tester
14 64 (3.08%) Data Engineer
15 59 (2.84%) Senior Manager
16 58 (2.80%) Lead Software Engineer
17 56 (2.70%) Analyst
18 54 (2.60%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 213 (10.27%) React
2 200 (9.64%) .NET
3 184 (8.87%) Playwright
4 182 (8.77%) Spring
5 179 (8.63%) REST
6 173 (8.34%) RESTful
7 172 (8.29%) Node.js
8 136 (6.55%) Spring Boot
9 119 (5.73%) Kafka
10 104 (5.01%) AngularJS
11 84 (4.05%) CSS
12 81 (3.90%) HTML
13 67 (3.23%) OAuth
14 65 (3.13%) Middleware
15 60 (2.89%) OAuth2
16 50 (2.41%) JSON
17 45 (2.17%) RabbitMQ
18 43 (2.07%) Next.js
18 43 (2.07%) Vue
19 39 (1.88%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 372 (17.93%) Cloud Native
2 232 (11.18%) Product Ownership
3 174 (8.39%) Distributed Systems
4 106 (5.11%) Mobile App
5 80 (3.86%) Enterprise Software
6 69 (3.33%) Virtual Team
7 68 (3.28%) Public Cloud
8 66 (3.18%) Legacy Systems
9 60 (2.89%) Cyber Threat
10 57 (2.75%) Algorithms
11 51 (2.46%) Blog
11 51 (2.46%) Low-Code
12 48 (2.31%) Management Information System
13 43 (2.07%) Data Structures
14 42 (2.02%) Onboarding
15 41 (1.98%) Greenfield Project
16 38 (1.83%) Self-Motivation
17 35 (1.69%) Embedded Systems
18 34 (1.64%) Marketing Technology
18 34 (1.64%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 181 (8.72%) Linux
2 93 (4.48%) Windows
3 63 (3.04%) Apple iOS
4 54 (2.60%) Android
5 53 (2.55%) Unix
6 11 (0.53%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.34%) CentOS
8 6 (0.29%) Embedded Linux
8 6 (0.29%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.19%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.14%) AIX
10 3 (0.14%) Debian
11 1 (0.048%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.048%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.048%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.048%) VMS
11 1 (0.048%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.048%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.048%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,189 (57.30%) CI/CD
2 927 (44.67%) Agile
3 793 (38.22%) DevOps
4 666 (32.10%) Software Engineering
5 596 (28.72%) Continuous Improvement
6 588 (28.34%) Mentoring
7 422 (20.34%) Problem-Solving
8 410 (19.76%) AI
9 403 (19.42%) Microservices
10 371 (17.88%) Infrastructure as Code
11 350 (16.87%) Software Testing
12 294 (14.17%) Test Strategy
13 268 (12.92%) Coaching
14 267 (12.87%) Containerisation
14 267 (12.87%) Observability
15 265 (12.77%) Full-Stack Development
16 238 (11.47%) Code Quality
17 233 (11.23%) Validation
18 214 (10.31%) Scrum
19 212 (10.22%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 655 (31.57%) Python
2 562 (27.08%) Java
3 365 (17.59%) JavaScript
4 328 (15.81%) SQL
5 304 (14.65%) TypeScript
6 299 (14.41%) C#
7 118 (5.69%) C++
8 102 (4.92%) PowerShell
9 85 (4.10%) Go
10 75 (3.61%) Bash
10 75 (3.61%) C
11 41 (1.98%) Kotlin
12 33 (1.59%) Rust
13 30 (1.45%) Swift
14 27 (1.30%) PHP
15 25 (1.20%) Ruby
16 21 (1.01%) Bicep
16 21 (1.01%) MATLAB
17 18 (0.87%) Groovy
18 16 (0.77%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 261 (12.58%) Security Cleared
2 238 (11.47%) Degree
3 161 (7.76%) SC Cleared
4 106 (5.11%) Computer Science Degree
5 81 (3.90%) ISTQB
6 62 (2.99%) CISSP
7 60 (2.89%) ITIL Certification
8 56 (2.70%) CISM
9 51 (2.46%) DV Cleared
10 42 (2.02%) AWS Certification
11 36 (1.73%) Master's Degree
12 30 (1.45%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 18 (0.87%) BPSS Clearance
14 17 (0.82%) DBS Check
14 17 (0.82%) ISEB
15 13 (0.63%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
16 12 (0.58%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 12 (0.58%) HNC
17 9 (0.43%) HND
18 8 (0.39%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 484 (23.33%) QA
2 186 (8.96%) Accessibility
3 74 (3.57%) Data Quality
4 61 (2.94%) NIST
5 54 (2.60%) WCAG
6 52 (2.51%) ISO 22301
7 45 (2.17%) GDPR
8 14 (0.67%) SLA
9 13 (0.63%) Software Quality Assurance
10 12 (0.58%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 11 (0.53%) GRC
12 9 (0.43%) SOC 2
13 8 (0.39%) COBIT
14 7 (0.34%) JTAG
14 7 (0.34%) MISRA
15 6 (0.29%) PMO
16 4 (0.19%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.19%) ISO 9001
16 4 (0.19%) NCSC
17 3 (0.14%) ISO/IEC 12207
System Software
1 283 (13.64%) Docker
2 30 (1.45%) Firmware
3 22 (1.06%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (0.77%) Virtual Machines
5 14 (0.67%) Active Directory
6 13 (0.63%) Hyper-V
7 11 (0.53%) KVM
8 10 (0.48%) Embedded Firmware
9 2 (0.096%) vSphere
10 1 (0.048%) IAG
10 1 (0.048%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.048%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.048%) Terminal Server
10 1 (0.048%) Virtual Desktop
10 1 (0.048%) Xen
Systems Management
1 314 (15.13%) Terraform
2 309 (14.89%) Kubernetes
3 131 (6.31%) Grafana
4 80 (3.86%) Ansible
5 61 (2.94%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.25%) Argo
7 16 (0.77%) Kibana
8 13 (0.63%) CloudHub
9 9 (0.43%) logstash
9 9 (0.43%) Puppet
9 9 (0.43%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (0.34%) HP Fortify
10 7 (0.34%) Microsoft Intune
11 6 (0.29%) Functional Safety
11 6 (0.29%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.24%) Packer
13 4 (0.19%) SCCM
13 4 (0.19%) SCOM
14 3 (0.14%) Progress Chef
14 3 (0.14%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 164 (7.90%) Microsoft
2 58 (2.80%) Databricks
3 53 (2.55%) Google
4 51 (2.46%) Oracle
5 49 (2.36%) Salesforce
6 43 (2.07%) ServiceNow
7 35 (1.69%) VMware
8 30 (1.45%) Splunk
9 27 (1.30%) SAP
10 25 (1.20%) Dynatrace
11 21 (1.01%) Pega
12 17 (0.82%) AppDynamics
13 16 (0.77%) Braze
13 16 (0.77%) MuleSoft
14 15 (0.72%) Adobe
14 15 (0.72%) Atlassian
14 15 (0.72%) OpenAI
15 14 (0.67%) Amplitude
15 14 (0.67%) IBM
16 13 (0.63%) SendGrid