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

6 months to
6 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 98 96 91
Rank change year-on-year -2 -5 -58
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,590 1,289 2,699
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.95% 3.14% 2.97%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.55% 3.38% 3.44%
Number of salaries quoted 998 888 1,795
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £60,502 £57,965
Median % change year-on-year +3.30% +4.38% -10.82%
75th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £73,750
90th Percentile £105,000 £98,474 £91,934
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.55% +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 62,259 38,133 78,393
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 76.22% 93.03% 86.30%
Number of salaries quoted 38,393 22,512 58,144
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,184
25th Percentile £40,000 £43,487 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -7.50% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £54,250 £50,000
% change year-on-year -7.83% +8.50% -7.94%

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 April 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 April 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 1,329 £63,288 +4.60% 674
UK excluding London -31 852 £57,500 +4.55% 573
Work from Home +13 667 £65,000 +5.91% 333
London +35 589 £80,000 +10.34% 183
North of England -41 190 £60,000 +9.09% 162
South East -44 176 £56,250 +2.27% 145
South West -24 150 £55,000 -8.33% 72
Midlands -24 123 £60,000 +4.35% 83
Scotland +4 117 £62,500 +4.17% 30
North West -5 102 £60,000 +14.29% 82
West Midlands -28 62 £61,500 -1.60% 57
East Midlands -17 61 £55,000 +4.76% 26
East of England -7 57 £50,000 -27.27% 65
Yorkshire -59 56 £65,000 +30.00% 41
Wales -5 38 £55,000 +8.37% 27
North East -25 32 £55,000 -9.10% 39
Northern Ireland -37 8 £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 36 (2.26%) Confluence
2 23 (1.45%) Apache Airflow
3 17 (1.07%) Apache Spark
4 13 (0.82%) Appian
5 11 (0.69%) Apache
6 10 (0.63%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.57%) CMS
7 9 (0.57%) Jupyter
7 9 (0.57%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.57%) SharePoint
8 8 (0.50%) IIS
9 7 (0.44%) WordPress
10 3 (0.19%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.19%) nginx
10 3 (0.19%) Oracle Workflow
11 2 (0.13%) Camunda
11 2 (0.13%) JBoss
11 2 (0.13%) Oracle Application Server
11 2 (0.13%) SAS
12 1 (0.063%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 15 (0.94%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.88%) Microsoft Office
3 9 (0.57%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.25%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.25%) PlantUML
6 3 (0.19%) CANalyzer
7 2 (0.13%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.13%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.063%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.063%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 18 (1.13%) Oracle ERP
2 13 (0.82%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (0.25%) Dynamics AX
3 4 (0.25%) Oracle EBS
3 4 (0.25%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
3 4 (0.25%) Shopify
4 2 (0.13%) SAP CX
4 2 (0.13%) Visualfiles
5 1 (0.063%) Elite 3E
5 1 (0.063%) Endur
5 1 (0.063%) Findur
5 1 (0.063%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.063%) Oracle Financials
5 1 (0.063%) Oracle SCM
5 1 (0.063%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.063%) Siebel CRM
5 1 (0.063%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 529 (33.27%) Azure
2 493 (31.01%) AWS
3 250 (15.72%) Azure DevOps
4 200 (12.58%) GCP
4 200 (12.58%) GitHub
5 129 (8.11%) SaaS
6 125 (7.86%) Serverless
7 77 (4.84%) Amazon EKS
8 71 (4.47%) GitHub Actions
9 67 (4.21%) PaaS
10 57 (3.58%) dbt
10 57 (3.58%) GitHub Copilot
11 55 (3.46%) Azure Data Factory
12 53 (3.33%) AWS Lambda
12 53 (3.33%) Power Platform
13 45 (2.83%) Amazon S3
14 44 (2.77%) AWS CloudFormation
15 42 (2.64%) Datadog
16 35 (2.20%) Entra ID
16 35 (2.20%) Snowflake
Communications & Networking
1 22 (1.38%) DNS
2 18 (1.13%) Broadband
3 14 (0.88%) HTTP
4 13 (0.82%) WAN
5 12 (0.75%) CHAP
5 12 (0.75%) SD-WAN
6 11 (0.69%) Firewall
7 10 (0.63%) TCP/IP
8 9 (0.57%) 5G
8 9 (0.57%) VPN
9 4 (0.25%) SMTP
9 4 (0.25%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (0.19%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (0.19%) Multicast
10 3 (0.19%) VLAN
11 2 (0.13%) LTE
11 2 (0.13%) Network Security
11 2 (0.13%) PuTTY
11 2 (0.13%) VSAN
11 2 (0.13%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 99 (6.23%) PostgreSQL
2 98 (6.16%) NoSQL
3 88 (5.53%) SQL Server
4 50 (3.14%) MongoDB
5 47 (2.96%) Relational Database
6 39 (2.45%) MySQL
7 35 (2.20%) Data Warehouse
7 35 (2.20%) Power BI
8 25 (1.57%) DynamoDB
9 18 (1.13%) Amazon RDS
10 15 (0.94%) Metadata
11 13 (0.82%) DB2
11 13 (0.82%) Pinecone
11 13 (0.82%) Redis
12 12 (0.75%) Data Lake
13 11 (0.69%) BigQuery
13 11 (0.69%) Tableau
14 10 (0.63%) Oracle Database
15 9 (0.57%) Elasticsearch
15 9 (0.57%) Spark SQL
Development Applications
1 185 (11.64%) Selenium
2 174 (10.94%) Git
3 135 (8.49%) Jenkins
4 129 (8.11%) JIRA
5 90 (5.66%) Cypress.io
6 81 (5.09%) GitLab
7 79 (4.97%) Cucumber
8 68 (4.28%) TeamCity
9 62 (3.90%) Postman
10 52 (3.27%) JMeter
11 36 (2.26%) SpecFlow
12 30 (1.89%) REST Assured
13 27 (1.70%) CircleCI
14 24 (1.51%) MLflow
14 24 (1.51%) Robot Framework
14 24 (1.51%) TestRail
15 23 (1.45%) JUnit
16 19 (1.19%) Bitbucket
17 18 (1.13%) Appium
17 18 (1.13%) WebDriver
General
1 448 (28.18%) Social Skills
2 446 (28.05%) Finance
3 183 (11.51%) Banking
4 146 (9.18%) Analytical Skills
5 133 (8.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 125 (7.86%) Law
7 97 (6.10%) Retail
8 92 (5.79%) Public Sector
9 64 (4.03%) Financial Institution
10 47 (2.96%) Back Office
11 41 (2.58%) Electronics
12 40 (2.52%) Legal
13 39 (2.45%) Marketing
14 36 (2.26%) Manufacturing
15 35 (2.20%) Front Office
16 30 (1.89%) Games
17 19 (1.19%) Documentation Skills
18 16 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
19 14 (0.88%) Telecoms
20 12 (0.75%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 412 (25.91%) Senior
2 250 (15.72%) Lead
3 228 (14.34%) Developer
4 211 (13.27%) Software Engineer
5 167 (10.50%) Test Engineer
6 105 (6.60%) Senior Developer
7 96 (6.04%) QA Engineer
8 84 (5.28%) Tester
9 83 (5.22%) Java Engineer
10 75 (4.72%) Test Automation Engineer
10 75 (4.72%) Test Leader
11 70 (4.40%) Senior Software Engineer
12 64 (4.03%) Analyst
13 59 (3.71%) Automation Engineer
14 52 (3.27%) Automation Tester
14 52 (3.27%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 52 (3.27%) Python Developer
15 51 (3.21%) QA Automation Engineer
16 46 (2.89%) Senior Test Engineer
17 45 (2.83%) Java Software Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 201 (12.64%) React
2 155 (9.75%) .NET
3 148 (9.31%) RESTful
4 142 (8.93%) Playwright
5 128 (8.05%) REST
6 93 (5.85%) Spring
7 85 (5.35%) Node.js
8 71 (4.47%) HTML
9 70 (4.40%) CSS
10 67 (4.21%) Spring Boot
11 63 (3.96%) Kafka
12 55 (3.46%) JSON
13 51 (3.21%) pytest
14 50 (3.14%) OAuth
15 42 (2.64%) Django
16 41 (2.58%) Elastic Stack
16 41 (2.58%) Web Services
17 40 (2.52%) AngularJS
18 37 (2.33%) OAuth2
18 37 (2.33%) SOAP
Miscellaneous
1 260 (16.35%) Cloud Native
2 134 (8.43%) Product Ownership
3 79 (4.97%) Mobile App
4 62 (3.90%) Distributed Systems
5 56 (3.52%) Management Information System
6 46 (2.89%) Self-Motivation
7 44 (2.77%) Enterprise Software
7 44 (2.77%) Legacy Systems
8 40 (2.52%) Onboarding
9 36 (2.26%) Algorithms
10 33 (2.08%) Greenfield Project
10 33 (2.08%) Low-Code
11 32 (2.01%) Data Structures
12 26 (1.64%) Hybrid Cloud
13 25 (1.57%) Hedge funds
14 24 (1.51%) Equities
15 23 (1.45%) Public Cloud
16 21 (1.32%) Blog
17 20 (1.26%) Client/Server
18 19 (1.19%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
Operating Systems
1 149 (9.37%) Linux
2 80 (5.03%) Windows
3 62 (3.90%) Apple iOS
4 52 (3.27%) Android
5 33 (2.08%) Unix
6 10 (0.63%) CentOS
7 7 (0.44%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.31%) Debian
8 5 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.25%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.25%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.19%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.13%) Kali Linux
11 2 (0.13%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.13%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.063%) AIX
12 1 (0.063%) FreeRTOS
12 1 (0.063%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 814 (51.19%) CI/CD
2 653 (41.07%) Agile
3 548 (34.47%) DevOps
4 390 (24.53%) Continuous Improvement
5 378 (23.77%) Software Engineering
6 348 (21.89%) Mentoring
7 333 (20.94%) Problem-Solving
8 260 (16.35%) AI
9 256 (16.10%) Microservices
10 240 (15.09%) Infrastructure as Code
11 225 (14.15%) Coaching
11 225 (14.15%) Software Testing
12 211 (13.27%) Observability
13 197 (12.39%) Clean Code
14 190 (11.95%) Test Strategy
15 185 (11.64%) Full-Stack Development
16 184 (11.57%) Containerisation
17 152 (9.56%) Validation
18 150 (9.43%) Analytics
18 150 (9.43%) Deployment Automation
Programming Languages
1 487 (30.63%) Python
2 410 (25.79%) Java
3 307 (19.31%) SQL
4 244 (15.35%) JavaScript
5 206 (12.96%) TypeScript
6 167 (10.50%) C#
7 77 (4.84%) PowerShell
8 67 (4.21%) C++
9 56 (3.52%) Bash
10 50 (3.14%) Go
11 33 (2.08%) C
12 30 (1.89%) Bicep
13 27 (1.70%) Kotlin
14 26 (1.64%) PL/SQL
15 25 (1.57%) Apex Code
15 25 (1.57%) Shell Script
16 24 (1.51%) Rust
17 21 (1.32%) PHP
18 18 (1.13%) Swift
19 12 (0.75%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 210 (13.21%) Degree
2 146 (9.18%) Security Cleared
3 96 (6.04%) SC Cleared
4 81 (5.09%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (4.91%) ISTQB
6 32 (2.01%) Master's Degree
7 29 (1.82%) DV Cleared
7 29 (1.82%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
8 21 (1.32%) AWS Certification
9 18 (1.13%) CISSP
9 18 (1.13%) ISEB
10 14 (0.88%) CEH
10 14 (0.88%) HND
11 13 (0.82%) Azure Certification
11 13 (0.82%) CISA
11 13 (0.82%) PhD
12 12 (0.75%) CISM
12 12 (0.75%) DBS Check
12 12 (0.75%) FFIEC
12 12 (0.75%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 379 (23.84%) QA
2 125 (7.86%) Accessibility
3 65 (4.09%) Data Quality
4 47 (2.96%) GDPR
5 44 (2.77%) NIST
6 35 (2.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 26 (1.64%) WCAG
8 14 (0.88%) ISO 22301
9 13 (0.82%) SLA
10 12 (0.75%) COBIT
11 10 (0.63%) ISO 9001
11 10 (0.63%) NCSC
12 9 (0.57%) Software Quality Assurance
13 7 (0.44%) GRC
14 6 (0.38%) IEC 61508
15 5 (0.31%) ISO 26262
15 5 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 5 (0.31%) SOC 2
16 4 (0.25%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.25%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 228 (14.34%) Docker
2 29 (1.82%) Active Directory
3 21 (1.32%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (0.94%) Hyper-V
5 14 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
6 13 (0.82%) KVM
7 12 (0.75%) Firmware
8 7 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.19%) Terminal Server
10 2 (0.13%) vSphere
11 1 (0.063%) Xen
Systems Management
1 281 (17.67%) Kubernetes
2 278 (17.48%) Terraform
3 132 (8.30%) Grafana
4 66 (4.15%) Ansible
5 44 (2.77%) Prometheus
6 27 (1.70%) Single Sign-On
7 9 (0.57%) Argo
8 7 (0.44%) logstash
9 6 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.31%) HP ALM
11 4 (0.25%) HP Fortify
11 4 (0.25%) Kibana
11 4 (0.25%) Packer
11 4 (0.25%) SCCM
11 4 (0.25%) SCOM
12 3 (0.19%) Rancher
12 3 (0.19%) vCenter Server
13 2 (0.13%) MIIS
13 2 (0.13%) Nessus
13 2 (0.13%) VxRail
Vendors
1 120 (7.55%) Microsoft
2 73 (4.59%) Oracle
3 53 (3.33%) Salesforce
4 50 (3.14%) Databricks
5 45 (2.83%) VMware
6 35 (2.20%) Google
7 20 (1.26%) Commvault
7 20 (1.26%) OpenAI
8 18 (1.13%) SAP
8 18 (1.13%) ServiceNow
9 17 (1.07%) Splunk
10 14 (0.88%) Atlassian
10 14 (0.88%) Palantir
11 13 (0.82%) Black Duck
11 13 (0.82%) Coverity
11 13 (0.82%) Foundry
11 13 (0.82%) Pega
11 13 (0.82%) UiPath
12 12 (0.75%) Automation Anywhere
13 11 (0.69%) Blue Prism