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

6 months to
10 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 88 83 100
Rank change year-on-year -5 +17 -51
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,956 1,690 2,623
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.00% 3.45% 2.57%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.70% 3.82% 3.12%
Number of salaries quoted 1,168 828 1,679
10th Percentile £42,125 £38,825 £36,250
25th Percentile £48,750 £47,500 £44,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +8.70% -11.54%
75th Percentile £82,500 £82,751 £71,991
90th Percentile £96,250 £100,000 £86,688
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 72,315 44,278 84,054
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.86% 90.47% 82.35%
Number of salaries quoted 49,904 24,657 59,064
10th Percentile £30,250 £28,822 £29,750
25th Percentile £41,250 £38,500 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £57,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.35% +4.55% -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £77,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £54,772 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +9.54% - -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 10 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 10 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 +3 1,676 £65,000 - 615
UK excluding London -11 1,137 £60,000 +4.35% 487
Work from Home +16 818 £67,500 +12.50% 295
London +10 641 £80,000 +6.31% 239
North of England 0 322 £57,500 -4.17% 121
South East -27 221 £60,000 +9.09% 158
South West -20 193 £55,000 -8.33% 65
Midlands -19 176 £62,500 +4.17% 56
North West -3 170 £62,500 -3.85% 60
West Midlands -15 92 £62,500 -3.85% 26
East Midlands -18 83 £64,000 +34.74% 30
North East 0 82 £52,500 -0.59% 23
Yorkshire -17 70 £69,310 +41.45% 38
East of England -19 66 £55,000 -5.98% 44
Wales -3 62 £54,085 -1.66% 12
Northern Ireland -15 62 £80,000 +45.45% 21
Scotland -43 48 £62,500 -5.66% 19

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 35 (1.79%) Confluence
2 27 (1.38%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.28%) Apache Airflow
4 22 (1.12%) Apache
5 16 (0.82%) Jupyter
5 16 (0.82%) SharePoint
6 13 (0.66%) CMS
7 9 (0.46%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 9 (0.46%) Anypoint
7 9 (0.46%) Mule
8 8 (0.41%) IIS
9 6 (0.31%) Palantir Foundry
10 5 (0.26%) Umbraco
10 5 (0.26%) WordPress
11 4 (0.20%) SAS
12 3 (0.15%) Appian
12 3 (0.15%) Headless CMS
12 3 (0.15%) nginx
13 2 (0.10%) Camunda
13 2 (0.10%) NServiceBus
Applications
1 21 (1.07%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.61%) Simulink
3 11 (0.56%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.31%) PlantUML
6 5 (0.26%) Lightworks
7 3 (0.15%) CANalyzer
7 3 (0.15%) MS Visio
8 2 (0.10%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.10%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.051%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 11 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.26%) Visualfiles
3 4 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
4 3 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.10%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.10%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.10%) Towers Watson Igloo
5 2 (0.10%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.051%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.051%) Endur
6 1 (0.051%) Findur
6 1 (0.051%) Magento
6 1 (0.051%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.051%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.051%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.051%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.051%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.051%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.051%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.051%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 735 (37.58%) AWS
2 618 (31.60%) Azure
3 242 (12.37%) Azure DevOps
4 239 (12.22%) GCP
5 191 (9.76%) SaaS
6 186 (9.51%) Serverless
7 164 (8.38%) GitHub
8 85 (4.35%) GitHub Actions
9 82 (4.19%) AWS CloudFormation
10 81 (4.14%) AWS Lambda
11 76 (3.89%) Amazon EKS
12 75 (3.83%) Amazon S3
13 52 (2.66%) Azure Service Bus
13 52 (2.66%) PaaS
14 51 (2.61%) Power Platform
15 43 (2.20%) Azure Logic Apps
15 43 (2.20%) Azure Monitor
16 40 (2.04%) Amazon EC2
17 39 (1.99%) dbt
18 33 (1.69%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.63%) Broadband
2 24 (1.23%) Firewall
3 13 (0.66%) DMARC
4 12 (0.61%) MQTT
5 11 (0.56%) Wireless
6 10 (0.51%) DNS
7 9 (0.46%) CHAP
7 9 (0.46%) SSL
8 8 (0.41%) WAN
8 8 (0.41%) Wi-Fi
9 7 (0.36%) LTE
9 7 (0.36%) ZigBee
10 6 (0.31%) 5G
10 6 (0.31%) Bluetooth
10 6 (0.31%) HTTP
10 6 (0.31%) SD-WAN
10 6 (0.31%) TCP/IP
11 5 (0.26%) DHCP
11 5 (0.26%) Ethernet
11 5 (0.26%) SMS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 141 (7.21%) NoSQL
2 132 (6.75%) PostgreSQL
3 102 (5.21%) MongoDB
4 67 (3.43%) SQL Server
5 47 (2.40%) DynamoDB
6 36 (1.84%) Relational Database
7 33 (1.69%) MySQL
8 29 (1.48%) Data Warehouse
9 26 (1.33%) Redis
10 25 (1.28%) Power BI
11 20 (1.02%) BigQuery
12 19 (0.97%) Amazon RDS
13 18 (0.92%) Spark SQL
14 17 (0.87%) Metadata
15 16 (0.82%) Semantic Layer
16 14 (0.72%) Oracle Database
17 13 (0.66%) Amazon Athena
17 13 (0.66%) Elasticsearch
18 11 (0.56%) Data Lake
19 9 (0.46%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 249 (12.73%) Git
2 177 (9.05%) Jenkins
3 170 (8.69%) GitLab
4 148 (7.57%) Selenium
5 116 (5.93%) JIRA
6 92 (4.70%) Cypress.io
7 87 (4.45%) Cucumber
8 73 (3.73%) Postman
9 64 (3.27%) TeamCity
10 52 (2.66%) JMeter
11 40 (2.04%) REST Assured
12 33 (1.69%) JUnit
13 30 (1.53%) SpecFlow
13 30 (1.53%) Zephyr
14 27 (1.38%) TestRail
15 22 (1.12%) CircleCI
15 22 (1.12%) Gatling
16 21 (1.07%) fastlane
17 20 (1.02%) Crashlytics
17 20 (1.02%) LabVIEW
General
1 478 (24.44%) Social Skills
2 440 (22.49%) Finance
3 196 (10.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 194 (9.92%) Public Sector
5 190 (9.71%) Banking
6 177 (9.05%) Law
7 171 (8.74%) Analytical Skills
8 102 (5.21%) Retail
9 65 (3.32%) Manufacturing
10 63 (3.22%) Financial Institution
11 61 (3.12%) Legal
12 54 (2.76%) Electronics
12 54 (2.76%) Games
13 53 (2.71%) Back Office
14 32 (1.64%) Front Office
15 31 (1.58%) Marketing
16 22 (1.12%) Documentation Skills
17 20 (1.02%) Influencing Skills
18 19 (0.97%) Organisational Skills
19 18 (0.92%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 538 (27.51%) Senior
2 318 (16.26%) Lead
3 306 (15.64%) Software Engineer
4 281 (14.37%) Developer
5 217 (11.09%) Test Engineer
6 117 (5.98%) Java Engineer
6 117 (5.98%) Senior Developer
7 90 (4.60%) Senior Software Engineer
8 88 (4.50%) Test Automation Engineer
9 84 (4.29%) QA Engineer
10 80 (4.09%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 76 (3.89%) Test Leader
12 72 (3.68%) Tester
13 71 (3.63%) DevOps Engineer
14 68 (3.48%) Architect
15 62 (3.17%) Data Engineer
16 56 (2.86%) Software Developer
17 54 (2.76%) Senior Test Engineer
18 50 (2.56%) Lead Software Engineer
19 49 (2.51%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 206 (10.53%) React
2 204 (10.43%) .NET
3 171 (8.74%) Playwright
3 171 (8.74%) RESTful
4 167 (8.54%) Spring
5 166 (8.49%) REST
6 164 (8.38%) Node.js
7 124 (6.34%) Spring Boot
8 108 (5.52%) Kafka
9 91 (4.65%) AngularJS
10 71 (3.63%) CSS
10 71 (3.63%) HTML
11 56 (2.86%) OAuth
12 49 (2.51%) OAuth2
13 48 (2.45%) Middleware
14 44 (2.25%) RabbitMQ
15 42 (2.15%) Vue
16 41 (2.10%) JSON
17 40 (2.04%) YAML
18 39 (1.99%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 368 (18.81%) Cloud Native
2 218 (11.15%) Product Ownership
3 161 (8.23%) Distributed Systems
4 96 (4.91%) Mobile App
5 65 (3.32%) Enterprise Software
6 63 (3.22%) Public Cloud
7 54 (2.76%) Algorithms
7 54 (2.76%) Legacy Systems
8 53 (2.71%) Low-Code
8 53 (2.71%) Management Information System
9 45 (2.30%) Virtual Team
10 44 (2.25%) Onboarding
11 41 (2.10%) Data Structures
12 40 (2.04%) Cyber Threat
13 38 (1.94%) Greenfield Project
14 35 (1.79%) Embedded Systems
15 34 (1.74%) Video\Live Streaming
16 30 (1.53%) Self-Motivation
17 29 (1.48%) Blog
18 26 (1.33%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 180 (9.20%) Linux
2 90 (4.60%) Windows
3 61 (3.12%) Apple iOS
4 57 (2.91%) Unix
5 50 (2.56%) Android
6 10 (0.51%) CentOS
7 9 (0.46%) Windows Server
8 6 (0.31%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.20%) Embedded Linux
9 4 (0.20%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.15%) AIX
10 3 (0.15%) Debian
11 2 (0.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 2 (0.10%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.10%) Windows Server 2019
12 1 (0.051%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.051%) VMS
12 1 (0.051%) VxWorks
12 1 (0.051%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.051%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,122 (57.36%) CI/CD
2 866 (44.27%) Agile
3 731 (37.37%) DevOps
4 608 (31.08%) Software Engineering
5 544 (27.81%) Mentoring
6 520 (26.58%) Continuous Improvement
7 396 (20.25%) Problem-Solving
8 394 (20.14%) Microservices
9 363 (18.56%) Infrastructure as Code
10 332 (16.97%) AI
11 320 (16.36%) Software Testing
12 266 (13.60%) Test Strategy
13 263 (13.45%) Containerisation
14 255 (13.04%) Observability
15 253 (12.93%) Full-Stack Development
16 250 (12.78%) Coaching
17 228 (11.66%) Validation
18 207 (10.58%) Code Quality
19 201 (10.28%) Clean Code
20 197 (10.07%) Event-Driven
Programming Languages
1 630 (32.21%) Python
2 548 (28.02%) Java
3 330 (16.87%) JavaScript
4 322 (16.46%) SQL
5 270 (13.80%) C#
6 265 (13.55%) TypeScript
7 109 (5.57%) C++
8 88 (4.50%) Go
8 88 (4.50%) PowerShell
9 81 (4.14%) Bash
10 71 (3.63%) C
11 36 (1.84%) Kotlin
12 35 (1.79%) Rust
13 28 (1.43%) Swift
14 27 (1.38%) PHP
15 23 (1.18%) MATLAB
16 22 (1.12%) Bicep
16 22 (1.12%) Ruby
17 18 (0.92%) Groovy
18 16 (0.82%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 251 (12.83%) Security Cleared
2 237 (12.12%) Degree
3 146 (7.46%) SC Cleared
4 101 (5.16%) Computer Science Degree
5 82 (4.19%) ISTQB
6 48 (2.45%) DV Cleared
7 46 (2.35%) CISSP
8 41 (2.10%) ITIL Certification
9 39 (1.99%) Master's Degree
10 38 (1.94%) CISM
11 36 (1.84%) AWS Certification
12 26 (1.33%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 21 (1.07%) DBS Check
14 16 (0.82%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 15 (0.77%) ISEB
16 14 (0.72%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
17 11 (0.56%) BPSS Clearance
17 11 (0.56%) HND
18 10 (0.51%) HNC
19 9 (0.46%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 447 (22.85%) QA
2 172 (8.79%) Accessibility
3 80 (4.09%) Data Quality
4 47 (2.40%) NIST
5 46 (2.35%) GDPR
6 42 (2.15%) WCAG
7 35 (1.79%) ISO 22301
8 15 (0.77%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 13 (0.66%) SLA
10 12 (0.61%) Software Quality Assurance
11 11 (0.56%) GRC
12 10 (0.51%) COBIT
13 7 (0.36%) JTAG
13 7 (0.36%) SOC 2
14 6 (0.31%) MISRA
14 6 (0.31%) PMO
15 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
15 4 (0.20%) ECSS
15 4 (0.20%) ISO 9001
16 3 (0.15%) ISO/IEC 12207
System Software
1 269 (13.75%) Docker
2 29 (1.48%) Firmware
3 26 (1.33%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (0.87%) Hyper-V
4 17 (0.87%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (0.66%) KVM
6 12 (0.61%) Active Directory
7 10 (0.51%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.10%) Terminal Server
8 2 (0.10%) vSphere
9 1 (0.051%) IAG
9 1 (0.051%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.051%) Xen
Systems Management
1 321 (16.41%) Terraform
2 313 (16.00%) Kubernetes
3 144 (7.36%) Grafana
4 84 (4.29%) Ansible
5 62 (3.17%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.33%) Argo
7 16 (0.82%) Kibana
8 10 (0.51%) logstash
9 9 (0.46%) CloudHub
10 8 (0.41%) Puppet
10 8 (0.41%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.36%) HP Fortify
11 7 (0.36%) vCenter Server
12 6 (0.31%) Functional Safety
13 5 (0.26%) Packer
13 5 (0.26%) SCCM
13 5 (0.26%) SCOM
14 4 (0.20%) Microsoft Intune
15 3 (0.15%) Rancher
15 3 (0.15%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 146 (7.46%) Microsoft
2 53 (2.71%) Databricks
3 48 (2.45%) Oracle
4 45 (2.30%) Google
4 45 (2.30%) Salesforce
5 40 (2.04%) VMware
6 36 (1.84%) ServiceNow
7 27 (1.38%) Splunk
8 24 (1.23%) Dynatrace
9 19 (0.97%) SAP
10 18 (0.92%) Pega
11 17 (0.87%) OpenAI
12 16 (0.82%) Braze
13 15 (0.77%) AppDynamics
14 14 (0.72%) Amplitude
15 13 (0.66%) Atlassian
15 13 (0.66%) IFS
15 13 (0.66%) MuleSoft
15 13 (0.66%) SendGrid
16 12 (0.61%) CrowdStrike