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

6 months to
6 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 91 84 99
Rank change year-on-year -7 +15 -51
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,888 1,668 2,637
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.94% 3.48% 2.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.63% 3.82% 3.08%
Number of salaries quoted 1,144 816 1,698
10th Percentile £42,227 £38,913 £36,250
25th Percentile £48,750 £47,500 £43,813
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £64,085 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +2.54% +8.70% -11.54%
75th Percentile £81,250 £82,500 £71,991
90th Percentile £95,875 £99,750 £87,500
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 71,660 43,627 85,517
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.61% 90.93% 82.16%
Number of salaries quoted 49,530 24,205 60,378
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 £54,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +8.00% - -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 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 6 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 -2 1,642 £65,000 - 756
UK excluding London -16 1,085 £60,000 +4.35% 557
Work from Home +8 770 £67,500 +12.50% 385
London +13 627 £80,000 +6.67% 309
North of England +1 318 £60,000 - 136
South East -22 219 £60,000 +9.09% 169
South West -26 188 £55,000 -8.33% 72
North West -10 170 £63,750 -1.92% 70
Midlands -18 170 £62,500 +6.38% 79
West Midlands -24 89 £62,500 -3.85% 39
East Midlands -21 80 £63,250 +33.16% 40
North East +3 79 £52,500 -2.61% 24
Yorkshire -14 69 £69,310 +41.45% 42
East of England -22 63 £53,750 -8.12% 57
Wales -9 60 £55,000 - 8
Scotland -42 46 £60,000 -4.00% 26
Northern Ireland -26 34 £80,000 +45.45% 21

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 32 (1.69%) Confluence
2 27 (1.43%) Apache Spark
3 25 (1.32%) Apache Airflow
4 22 (1.17%) Apache
5 18 (0.95%) Jupyter
6 15 (0.79%) SharePoint
7 11 (0.58%) CMS
8 9 (0.48%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 8 (0.42%) Anypoint
9 8 (0.42%) IIS
9 8 (0.42%) Mule
10 7 (0.37%) Palantir Foundry
11 5 (0.26%) Umbraco
12 4 (0.21%) Appian
12 4 (0.21%) SAS
13 3 (0.16%) nginx
13 3 (0.16%) WordPress
14 2 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
14 2 (0.11%) NServiceBus
14 2 (0.11%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 19 (1.01%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.64%) Simulink
3 10 (0.53%) Microsoft Office
4 6 (0.32%) PlantUML
5 5 (0.26%) Lightworks
5 5 (0.26%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.16%) CANalyzer
7 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.053%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 11 (0.58%) Dynamics CRM
2 5 (0.26%) Visualfiles
3 4 (0.21%) Dynamics AX
4 3 (0.16%) SAP S/4HANA
5 2 (0.11%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.11%) Payment Gateway
5 2 (0.11%) Towers Watson Igloo
5 2 (0.11%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.053%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.053%) Endur
6 1 (0.053%) Findur
6 1 (0.053%) Magento
6 1 (0.053%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.053%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle ERP
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.053%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 706 (37.39%) AWS
2 590 (31.25%) Azure
3 238 (12.61%) Azure DevOps
4 231 (12.24%) GCP
5 184 (9.75%) Serverless
6 159 (8.42%) SaaS
7 157 (8.32%) GitHub
8 83 (4.40%) GitHub Actions
9 81 (4.29%) AWS Lambda
10 79 (4.18%) AWS CloudFormation
11 76 (4.03%) Amazon EKS
12 75 (3.97%) Amazon S3
13 52 (2.75%) PaaS
14 50 (2.65%) Azure Service Bus
15 47 (2.49%) Power Platform
16 43 (2.28%) Azure Monitor
17 40 (2.12%) Amazon EC2
17 40 (2.12%) Azure Logic Apps
18 39 (2.07%) dbt
19 34 (1.80%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.76%) Broadband
2 24 (1.27%) Firewall
3 13 (0.69%) DMARC
4 10 (0.53%) CHAP
4 10 (0.53%) DNS
4 10 (0.53%) MQTT
5 9 (0.48%) WAN
5 9 (0.48%) Wireless
6 8 (0.42%) SSL
7 7 (0.37%) 5G
7 7 (0.37%) SD-WAN
8 6 (0.32%) Bluetooth
8 6 (0.32%) HTTP
8 6 (0.32%) LTE
8 6 (0.32%) Wi-Fi
9 5 (0.26%) DHCP
9 5 (0.26%) Ethernet
9 5 (0.26%) SMS
9 5 (0.26%) TCP/IP
9 5 (0.26%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 137 (7.26%) NoSQL
2 126 (6.67%) PostgreSQL
3 100 (5.30%) MongoDB
4 66 (3.50%) SQL Server
5 46 (2.44%) DynamoDB
6 34 (1.80%) Relational Database
7 32 (1.69%) MySQL
8 27 (1.43%) Data Warehouse
9 24 (1.27%) Power BI
10 22 (1.17%) Redis
11 19 (1.01%) Amazon RDS
11 19 (1.01%) BigQuery
12 18 (0.95%) Spark SQL
13 16 (0.85%) Metadata
13 16 (0.85%) Semantic Layer
14 14 (0.74%) Oracle Database
15 13 (0.69%) Amazon Athena
15 13 (0.69%) Elasticsearch
16 10 (0.53%) Data Lake
17 8 (0.42%) Flink
Development Applications
1 236 (12.50%) Git
2 165 (8.74%) Jenkins
3 159 (8.42%) GitLab
4 136 (7.20%) Selenium
5 108 (5.72%) JIRA
6 85 (4.50%) Cypress.io
7 84 (4.45%) Cucumber
8 67 (3.55%) Postman
9 61 (3.23%) TeamCity
10 49 (2.60%) JMeter
11 39 (2.07%) REST Assured
12 32 (1.69%) JUnit
13 29 (1.54%) SpecFlow
14 27 (1.43%) Zephyr
15 24 (1.27%) TestRail
16 22 (1.17%) CircleCI
16 22 (1.17%) Gatling
17 21 (1.11%) fastlane
17 21 (1.11%) LabVIEW
18 20 (1.06%) Crashlytics
General
1 455 (24.10%) Social Skills
2 430 (22.78%) Finance
3 195 (10.33%) Inclusion and Diversity
4 190 (10.06%) Public Sector
5 188 (9.96%) Banking
6 166 (8.79%) Analytical Skills
7 143 (7.57%) Law
8 98 (5.19%) Retail
9 65 (3.44%) Manufacturing
10 61 (3.23%) Financial Institution
11 54 (2.86%) Games
12 51 (2.70%) Electronics
13 50 (2.65%) Back Office
14 45 (2.38%) Legal
15 31 (1.64%) Front Office
15 31 (1.64%) Marketing
16 22 (1.17%) Documentation Skills
17 20 (1.06%) Influencing Skills
18 19 (1.01%) Organisational Skills
19 18 (0.95%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 516 (27.33%) Senior
2 303 (16.05%) Lead
3 294 (15.57%) Software Engineer
4 277 (14.67%) Developer
5 216 (11.44%) Test Engineer
6 117 (6.20%) Senior Developer
7 113 (5.99%) Java Engineer
8 88 (4.66%) Senior Software Engineer
9 87 (4.61%) Test Automation Engineer
10 84 (4.45%) QA Engineer
11 77 (4.08%) Full-Stack Engineer
12 72 (3.81%) Test Leader
13 70 (3.71%) DevOps Engineer
14 67 (3.55%) Architect
14 67 (3.55%) Tester
15 61 (3.23%) Data Engineer
16 56 (2.97%) Software Developer
17 53 (2.81%) Senior Test Engineer
18 47 (2.49%) Python Developer
19 46 (2.44%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 200 (10.59%) React
2 198 (10.49%) .NET
3 168 (8.90%) RESTful
4 164 (8.69%) REST
5 161 (8.53%) Spring
6 160 (8.47%) Playwright
7 159 (8.42%) Node.js
8 117 (6.20%) Spring Boot
9 103 (5.46%) Kafka
10 89 (4.71%) AngularJS
11 71 (3.76%) CSS
11 71 (3.76%) HTML
12 56 (2.97%) OAuth
13 48 (2.54%) OAuth2
14 44 (2.33%) RabbitMQ
15 40 (2.12%) Vue
15 40 (2.12%) YAML
16 38 (2.01%) ASP.NET
16 38 (2.01%) JSON
17 36 (1.91%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 361 (19.12%) Cloud Native
2 209 (11.07%) Product Ownership
3 158 (8.37%) Distributed Systems
4 95 (5.03%) Mobile App
5 59 (3.13%) Enterprise Software
5 59 (3.13%) Public Cloud
6 54 (2.86%) Management Information System
7 53 (2.81%) Algorithms
7 53 (2.81%) Low-Code
8 49 (2.60%) Legacy Systems
9 45 (2.38%) Onboarding
10 41 (2.17%) Data Structures
11 37 (1.96%) Greenfield Project
12 34 (1.80%) Video\Live Streaming
13 33 (1.75%) Embedded Systems
14 31 (1.64%) Self-Motivation
15 29 (1.54%) Virtual Team
16 28 (1.48%) Blog
17 26 (1.38%) Cyber Threat
18 24 (1.27%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 176 (9.32%) Linux
2 86 (4.56%) Windows
3 62 (3.28%) Apple iOS
4 58 (3.07%) Unix
5 49 (2.60%) Android
6 9 (0.48%) CentOS
6 9 (0.48%) Windows Server
7 6 (0.32%) FreeRTOS
8 4 (0.21%) Kali Linux
9 3 (0.16%) AIX
9 3 (0.16%) Debian
10 2 (0.11%) Embedded Linux
10 2 (0.11%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
10 2 (0.11%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.11%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.053%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.053%) VMS
11 1 (0.053%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.053%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.053%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,086 (57.52%) CI/CD
2 828 (43.86%) Agile
3 688 (36.44%) DevOps
4 573 (30.35%) Software Engineering
5 510 (27.01%) Mentoring
6 492 (26.06%) Continuous Improvement
7 392 (20.76%) Problem-Solving
8 377 (19.97%) Microservices
9 355 (18.80%) Infrastructure as Code
10 325 (17.21%) AI
11 296 (15.68%) Software Testing
12 260 (13.77%) Containerisation
13 254 (13.45%) Observability
14 248 (13.14%) Full-Stack Development
15 244 (12.92%) Coaching
15 244 (12.92%) Test Strategy
16 222 (11.76%) Validation
17 198 (10.49%) Code Quality
18 195 (10.33%) Clean Code
19 190 (10.06%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 604 (31.99%) Python
2 532 (28.18%) Java
3 309 (16.37%) SQL
4 307 (16.26%) JavaScript
5 246 (13.03%) C#
6 245 (12.98%) TypeScript
7 107 (5.67%) C++
8 87 (4.61%) Go
9 77 (4.08%) Bash
10 70 (3.71%) C
11 69 (3.65%) PowerShell
12 36 (1.91%) Rust
13 32 (1.69%) Kotlin
14 28 (1.48%) Swift
15 24 (1.27%) MATLAB
15 24 (1.27%) PHP
16 22 (1.17%) Bicep
17 21 (1.11%) Ruby
18 18 (0.95%) Groovy
19 16 (0.85%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 245 (12.98%) Security Cleared
2 234 (12.39%) Degree
3 145 (7.68%) SC Cleared
4 98 (5.19%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (4.13%) ISTQB
6 48 (2.54%) DV Cleared
7 36 (1.91%) Master's Degree
8 34 (1.80%) AWS Certification
9 33 (1.75%) CISSP
10 27 (1.43%) ITIL Certification
11 25 (1.32%) CISM
12 24 (1.27%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 22 (1.17%) DBS Check
14 16 (0.85%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
15 14 (0.74%) ISEB
16 12 (0.64%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 12 (0.64%) HND
17 11 (0.58%) BPSS Clearance
18 10 (0.53%) CGEIT
18 10 (0.53%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 419 (22.19%) QA
2 171 (9.06%) Accessibility
3 80 (4.24%) Data Quality
4 46 (2.44%) GDPR
5 41 (2.17%) WCAG
6 34 (1.80%) NIST
7 21 (1.11%) ISO 22301
8 15 (0.79%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 14 (0.74%) SLA
10 12 (0.64%) Software Quality Assurance
11 11 (0.58%) COBIT
11 11 (0.58%) GRC
12 7 (0.37%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.32%) MISRA
13 6 (0.32%) PMO
14 5 (0.26%) ISO 9001
14 5 (0.26%) JTAG
15 4 (0.21%) Cyber Essentials
15 4 (0.21%) ECSS
16 3 (0.16%) Automotive SPICE
System Software
1 263 (13.93%) Docker
2 27 (1.43%) Firmware
3 26 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (0.95%) Hyper-V
5 16 (0.85%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (0.74%) KVM
7 12 (0.64%) Active Directory
8 10 (0.53%) Embedded Firmware
9 2 (0.11%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.11%) vSphere
10 1 (0.053%) IAG
10 1 (0.053%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.053%) Xen
Systems Management
1 315 (16.68%) Terraform
2 305 (16.15%) Kubernetes
3 141 (7.47%) Grafana
4 80 (4.24%) Ansible
5 62 (3.28%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.38%) Argo
7 15 (0.79%) Kibana
8 9 (0.48%) logstash
8 9 (0.48%) Single Sign-On
9 8 (0.42%) CloudHub
9 8 (0.42%) Puppet
10 7 (0.37%) HP Fortify
11 6 (0.32%) Functional Safety
11 6 (0.32%) vCenter Server
12 5 (0.26%) Packer
12 5 (0.26%) SCCM
12 5 (0.26%) SCOM
13 4 (0.21%) Microsoft Intune
14 3 (0.16%) Rancher
14 3 (0.16%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 141 (7.47%) Microsoft
2 53 (2.81%) Databricks
3 45 (2.38%) Oracle
4 44 (2.33%) Salesforce
5 42 (2.22%) Google
6 40 (2.12%) VMware
7 35 (1.85%) ServiceNow
8 25 (1.32%) Splunk
9 24 (1.27%) Dynatrace
10 19 (1.01%) OpenAI
11 17 (0.90%) Pega
12 16 (0.85%) Braze
12 16 (0.85%) SAP
13 15 (0.79%) AppDynamics
14 14 (0.74%) Amplitude
15 13 (0.69%) IFS
15 13 (0.69%) SendGrid
16 12 (0.64%) CrowdStrike
16 12 (0.64%) MuleSoft
17 11 (0.58%) Atlassian