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

6 months to
20 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 82 91 101
Rank change year-on-year +9 +10 -34
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,252 1,636 2,039
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.09% 3.28% 2.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.86% 3.68% 3.04%
Number of salaries quoted 1,242 793 1,228
10th Percentile £42,013 £37,500 £38,750
25th Percentile £48,875 £47,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £80,750 £82,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £88,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -4.35%

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 78,808 44,479 67,117
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.30% 89.14% 80.83%
Number of salaries quoted 54,325 25,171 42,850
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -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 20 August 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 20 August 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 1,827 £65,000 +3.59% 818
UK excluding London +13 1,431 £60,000 +9.09% 631
Work from Home +21 875 £67,500 +12.50% 355
London +2 668 £80,000 +2.89% 304
North of England +19 361 £57,500 - 143
South East -6 258 £62,000 +12.73% 167
South West 0 233 £60,000 +14.29% 102
Midlands -2 195 £60,000 - 83
North West -4 182 £65,000 - 71
Northern Ireland +11 166 £80,000 +45.45% 11
West Midlands -14 105 £62,500 +0.81% 58
North East +5 104 £55,000 +59.42% 30
Wales +10 102 £55,000 - 8
East Midlands -17 90 £55,000 -4.35% 25
Yorkshire -15 75 £69,310 +41.45% 42
East of England -33 69 £50,000 -12.28% 79
Scotland -35 60 £62,500 +4.17% 54

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 50 (2.22%) Confluence
2 28 (1.24%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.11%) Apache
3 25 (1.11%) SharePoint
4 24 (1.07%) Apache Airflow
5 17 (0.75%) Jupyter
6 14 (0.62%) Anypoint
6 14 (0.62%) Mule
7 13 (0.58%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 11 (0.49%) CMS
9 5 (0.22%) Cloud Foundry
9 5 (0.22%) IIS
9 5 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
9 5 (0.22%) nginx
9 5 (0.22%) Umbraco
10 4 (0.18%) Camunda
10 4 (0.18%) SAS
11 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.13%) WordPress
12 2 (0.089%) NServiceBus
Applications
1 48 (2.13%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.62%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.53%) Simulink
4 7 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.22%) Lightworks
5 5 (0.22%) Moqups
6 4 (0.18%) PlantUML
7 3 (0.13%) CANalyzer
7 3 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.044%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.044%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.044%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 67 (2.98%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.20%) Dynamics GP
3 11 (0.49%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.22%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.13%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.089%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.089%) Magento
6 2 (0.089%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.089%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.089%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.044%) Endur
7 1 (0.044%) Findur
7 1 (0.044%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.044%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.044%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.044%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.044%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 786 (34.90%) AWS
2 669 (29.71%) Azure
3 286 (12.70%) SaaS
4 251 (11.15%) Azure DevOps
5 245 (10.88%) GCP
6 188 (8.35%) GitHub
7 186 (8.26%) Serverless
8 96 (4.26%) AWS CloudFormation
9 95 (4.22%) GitHub Actions
10 79 (3.51%) AWS Lambda
11 73 (3.24%) Amazon S3
12 68 (3.02%) Amazon EKS
13 63 (2.80%) Power Platform
14 53 (2.35%) Azure Service Bus
15 49 (2.18%) Azure Logic Apps
15 49 (2.18%) PaaS
16 44 (1.95%) Azure Monitor
17 43 (1.91%) dbt
18 41 (1.82%) Amazon EC2
19 35 (1.55%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 73 (3.24%) Broadband
2 25 (1.11%) Firewall
3 17 (0.75%) DNS
3 17 (0.75%) TCP/IP
4 16 (0.71%) Wireless
5 15 (0.67%) SSL
6 13 (0.58%) DMARC
6 13 (0.58%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (0.53%) MQTT
8 10 (0.44%) LTE
8 10 (0.44%) WAN
9 9 (0.40%) 3GPP
9 9 (0.40%) DHCP
9 9 (0.40%) HTTP
10 8 (0.36%) Network Security
11 7 (0.31%) 5G
11 7 (0.31%) CHAP
11 7 (0.31%) Radio Access Network
11 7 (0.31%) SS7
11 7 (0.31%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 130 (5.77%) PostgreSQL
2 120 (5.33%) NoSQL
3 92 (4.09%) MongoDB
4 76 (3.37%) SQL Server
5 59 (2.62%) Relational Database
6 47 (2.09%) DynamoDB
7 37 (1.64%) MySQL
8 35 (1.55%) Data Warehouse
9 32 (1.42%) Power BI
10 28 (1.24%) Redis
11 27 (1.20%) BigQuery
12 23 (1.02%) Data Lake
13 18 (0.80%) Amazon RDS
13 18 (0.80%) Spark SQL
14 17 (0.75%) Metadata
14 17 (0.75%) Semantic Layer
15 16 (0.71%) Amazon Athena
16 13 (0.58%) Elasticsearch
17 12 (0.53%) Oracle Database
18 11 (0.49%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 315 (13.99%) Git
2 206 (9.15%) GitLab
3 204 (9.06%) Jenkins
4 159 (7.06%) Selenium
5 141 (6.26%) JIRA
6 99 (4.40%) Cucumber
7 98 (4.35%) Cypress.io
8 91 (4.04%) Postman
9 56 (2.49%) TeamCity
10 52 (2.31%) JMeter
11 45 (2.00%) JUnit
12 40 (1.78%) REST Assured
13 36 (1.60%) Zephyr
14 32 (1.42%) Gatling
15 30 (1.33%) SonarQube
16 27 (1.20%) TestRail
17 24 (1.07%) Bitbucket
17 24 (1.07%) SpecFlow
18 20 (0.89%) Claude Code
18 20 (0.89%) fastlane
General
1 637 (28.29%) Social Skills
2 521 (23.13%) Finance
3 301 (13.37%) Analytical Skills
4 241 (10.70%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 218 (9.68%) Public Sector
6 197 (8.75%) Law
7 183 (8.13%) Banking
8 145 (6.44%) Legal
9 130 (5.77%) Marketing
10 97 (4.31%) Retail
11 85 (3.77%) Manufacturing
12 71 (3.15%) Electronics
13 68 (3.02%) Financial Institution
14 52 (2.31%) Back Office
14 52 (2.31%) Games
15 38 (1.69%) Aerospace
16 34 (1.51%) Telecoms
17 27 (1.20%) Documentation Skills
17 27 (1.20%) Front Office
18 20 (0.89%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 636 (28.24%) Senior
2 357 (15.85%) Lead
3 334 (14.83%) Software Engineer
4 319 (14.17%) Developer
5 235 (10.44%) Test Engineer
6 122 (5.42%) Senior Developer
7 108 (4.80%) Java Engineer
8 102 (4.53%) Senior Software Engineer
9 93 (4.13%) QA Engineer
10 92 (4.09%) DevOps Engineer
11 84 (3.73%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 84 (3.73%) Test Automation Engineer
12 70 (3.11%) Lead Software Engineer
13 67 (2.98%) Data Engineer
13 67 (2.98%) Test Leader
14 66 (2.93%) Architect
15 63 (2.80%) Senior Manager
15 63 (2.80%) Software Developer
15 63 (2.80%) Tester
16 60 (2.66%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 319 (14.17%) Terraform
2 238 (10.57%) React
3 215 (9.55%) .NET
3 215 (9.55%) REST
4 191 (8.48%) Node.js
4 191 (8.48%) Playwright
5 186 (8.26%) Spring
6 185 (8.21%) RESTful
7 138 (6.13%) Spring Boot
8 120 (5.33%) Kafka
9 111 (4.93%) AngularJS
10 100 (4.44%) CSS
11 94 (4.17%) HTML
12 67 (2.98%) OAuth
13 64 (2.84%) Middleware
14 61 (2.71%) OAuth2
15 58 (2.58%) JSON
16 51 (2.26%) Next.js
17 48 (2.13%) Vue
18 47 (2.09%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 387 (17.18%) Cloud Native
2 263 (11.68%) Product Ownership
3 197 (8.75%) Distributed Systems
4 114 (5.06%) Mobile App
5 89 (3.95%) Enterprise Software
6 77 (3.42%) Blog
6 77 (3.42%) Public Cloud
6 77 (3.42%) Virtual Team
7 71 (3.15%) Legacy Systems
8 66 (2.93%) Onboarding
9 64 (2.84%) Marketing Technology
10 60 (2.66%) Algorithms
10 60 (2.66%) Cyber Threat
11 54 (2.40%) Low-Code
12 47 (2.09%) Management Information System
13 45 (2.00%) Data Structures
13 45 (2.00%) Self-Motivation
14 38 (1.69%) Embedded Systems
14 38 (1.69%) Greenfield Project
15 34 (1.51%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 187 (8.30%) Linux
2 101 (4.48%) Windows
3 62 (2.75%) Apple iOS
4 59 (2.62%) Android
5 51 (2.26%) Unix
6 12 (0.53%) Windows Server
7 9 (0.40%) Embedded Linux
8 7 (0.31%) CentOS
9 6 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.22%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.18%) AIX
11 4 (0.18%) Debian
12 3 (0.13%) VxWorks
13 2 (0.089%) OpenWrt
13 2 (0.089%) VMS
14 1 (0.044%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.044%) ThreadX
14 1 (0.044%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.044%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.044%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,262 (56.04%) CI/CD
2 987 (43.83%) Agile
3 829 (36.81%) DevOps
4 726 (32.24%) Software Engineering
5 669 (29.71%) Continuous Improvement
6 598 (26.55%) Mentoring
7 522 (23.18%) AI
8 481 (21.36%) Problem-Solving
9 418 (18.56%) Microservices
10 389 (17.27%) Infrastructure as Code
11 383 (17.01%) Software Testing
12 323 (14.34%) Test Strategy
13 283 (12.57%) Full-Stack Development
13 283 (12.57%) Observability
14 279 (12.39%) Containerisation
15 277 (12.30%) Code Quality
16 269 (11.94%) Validation
17 265 (11.77%) Coaching
18 255 (11.32%) Decision-Making
19 239 (10.61%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 689 (30.60%) Python
2 573 (25.44%) Java
3 407 (18.07%) JavaScript
4 377 (16.74%) SQL
5 333 (14.79%) TypeScript
6 324 (14.39%) C#
7 124 (5.51%) C++
8 110 (4.88%) PowerShell
9 96 (4.26%) Go
10 77 (3.42%) C
11 76 (3.37%) Bash
12 40 (1.78%) Kotlin
13 34 (1.51%) Rust
14 32 (1.42%) PHP
15 30 (1.33%) Swift
16 27 (1.20%) Ruby
17 21 (0.93%) Bicep
17 21 (0.93%) MATLAB
18 19 (0.84%) Groovy
19 16 (0.71%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 308 (13.68%) Security Cleared
2 243 (10.79%) Degree
3 187 (8.30%) SC Cleared
4 108 (4.80%) Computer Science Degree
5 76 (3.37%) ISTQB
6 60 (2.66%) ITIL Certification
7 59 (2.62%) CISSP
7 59 (2.62%) DV Cleared
8 56 (2.49%) CISM
9 47 (2.09%) AWS Certification
10 40 (1.78%) Master's Degree
11 33 (1.47%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 29 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
13 23 (1.02%) HNC
14 18 (0.80%) HND
14 18 (0.80%) ISEB
15 16 (0.71%) DBS Check
16 14 (0.62%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
17 12 (0.53%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
18 10 (0.44%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 532 (23.62%) QA
2 209 (9.28%) Accessibility
3 70 (3.11%) Data Quality
4 64 (2.84%) WCAG
5 62 (2.75%) NIST
6 51 (2.26%) ISO 22301
7 44 (1.95%) GDPR
8 14 (0.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.62%) SLA
9 12 (0.53%) GRC
10 10 (0.44%) SOC 2
10 10 (0.44%) Software Quality Assurance
11 8 (0.36%) COBIT
11 8 (0.36%) MISRA
12 7 (0.31%) JTAG
13 6 (0.27%) PMO
14 5 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.22%) ISO 9001
14 5 (0.22%) NCSC
14 5 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 314 (13.94%) Docker
2 35 (1.55%) Firmware
3 16 (0.71%) Active Directory
3 16 (0.71%) Virtual Machines
3 16 (0.71%) VMware Infrastructure
4 10 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
5 8 (0.36%) Hyper-V
6 6 (0.27%) KVM
7 2 (0.089%) ProxySG
7 2 (0.089%) vSphere
8 1 (0.044%) IAG
8 1 (0.044%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.044%) QEMU
8 1 (0.044%) Terminal Server
8 1 (0.044%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 324 (14.39%) Kubernetes
2 132 (5.86%) Grafana
3 86 (3.82%) Ansible
4 55 (2.44%) Prometheus
5 27 (1.20%) Argo
6 16 (0.71%) Kibana
7 14 (0.62%) CloudHub
8 13 (0.58%) Puppet
9 9 (0.40%) logstash
9 9 (0.40%) Microsoft Intune
10 8 (0.36%) HP Fortify
10 8 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (0.27%) Functional Safety
11 6 (0.27%) Progress Chef
11 6 (0.27%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.22%) Packer
13 4 (0.18%) SCCM
13 4 (0.18%) SCOM
14 3 (0.13%) HP ALM
14 3 (0.13%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 214 (9.50%) Microsoft
2 92 (4.09%) Google
3 62 (2.75%) Databricks
4 56 (2.49%) Oracle
5 53 (2.35%) Salesforce
6 40 (1.78%) SAP
6 40 (1.78%) ServiceNow
7 34 (1.51%) Splunk
8 29 (1.29%) VMware
9 25 (1.11%) Dynatrace
10 22 (0.98%) Pega
11 19 (0.84%) AppDynamics
12 17 (0.75%) MuleSoft
13 16 (0.71%) Atlassian
14 15 (0.67%) IBM
14 15 (0.67%) OpenAI
15 14 (0.62%) Adobe
15 14 (0.62%) Braze
15 14 (0.62%) Red Hat
16 13 (0.58%) SendGrid