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

6 months to
18 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 86 91
Rank change year-on-year -6 +5 -58
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,741 1,590 2,717
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.90% 3.60% 2.80%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.58% 3.86% 3.30%
Number of salaries quoted 1,088 873 1,761
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,765 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,000 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% +4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £83,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £98,474 £88,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +9.09% +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 67,556 41,227 82,428
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.64% 93.27% 84.88%
Number of salaries quoted 43,655 22,384 59,687
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,500 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £59,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +1.69% +7.27% -9.84%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,475 £50,000
% change year-on-year +0.05% +4.95% -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 18 May 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 18 May 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 -7 1,492 £63,625 +6.04% 612
UK excluding London -40 943 £60,000 +9.09% 488
Work from Home +6 722 £65,000 +8.33% 364
London +36 630 £80,000 +14.29% 216
North of England -37 241 £62,500 +13.64% 124
South East -34 189 £60,000 +14.29% 128
South West -27 174 £55,000 -8.33% 70
Midlands -42 152 £62,500 +11.61% 64
North West -21 123 £60,000 +3.45% 69
Scotland -26 81 £60,000 - 27
West Midlands -40 76 £62,500 +4.17% 46
East Midlands -36 75 £57,500 +17.95% 18
Yorkshire -35 66 £69,310 +38.62% 23
East of England -31 59 £50,000 -12.28% 57
North East -13 52 £52,500 -11.02% 32
Wales -1 50 £55,000 +4.58% 17
Northern Ireland -39 9 £80,000 +45.45% 10

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 38 (2.18%) Confluence
2 24 (1.38%) Apache Airflow
3 18 (1.03%) Apache Spark
4 14 (0.80%) Apache
5 13 (0.75%) Jupyter
5 13 (0.75%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.63%) Appian
6 11 (0.63%) CMS
7 10 (0.57%) IIS
7 10 (0.57%) Palantir Foundry
8 7 (0.40%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 5 (0.29%) WordPress
10 4 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.17%) nginx
11 3 (0.17%) Umbraco
12 2 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
12 2 (0.11%) JBoss
12 2 (0.11%) Oracle Application Server
12 2 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 12 (0.69%) Microsoft Excel
2 9 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.34%) PlantUML
4 5 (0.29%) Simulink
5 4 (0.23%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.23%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.23%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.17%) CANalyzer
7 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.057%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 13 (0.75%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (0.52%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.29%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.23%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.23%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.17%) Shopify
6 2 (0.11%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.057%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.057%) Endur
7 1 (0.057%) Findur
7 1 (0.057%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.057%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.057%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.057%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.057%) Oracle SCM
7 1 (0.057%) Towers Watson Igloo
Cloud Services
1 564 (32.40%) Azure
2 560 (32.17%) AWS
3 263 (15.11%) Azure DevOps
4 202 (11.60%) GCP
5 165 (9.48%) GitHub
6 155 (8.90%) Serverless
7 121 (6.95%) SaaS
8 74 (4.25%) Amazon EKS
9 72 (4.14%) GitHub Actions
10 66 (3.79%) AWS Lambda
11 63 (3.62%) Amazon S3
12 60 (3.45%) AWS CloudFormation
13 54 (3.10%) PaaS
14 50 (2.87%) Azure Data Factory
15 46 (2.64%) Power Platform
16 44 (2.53%) dbt
17 40 (2.30%) Azure Service Bus
18 38 (2.18%) Datadog
19 37 (2.13%) Azure Logic Apps
20 36 (2.07%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 42 (2.41%) Broadband
2 23 (1.32%) Firewall
3 16 (0.92%) DNS
4 14 (0.80%) CHAP
5 12 (0.69%) WAN
6 11 (0.63%) SD-WAN
7 10 (0.57%) HTTP
8 8 (0.46%) 5G
9 7 (0.40%) TCP/IP
10 6 (0.34%) VPN
11 5 (0.29%) Bluetooth
11 5 (0.29%) Wireless
12 4 (0.23%) DHCP
12 4 (0.23%) LTE
12 4 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
12 4 (0.23%) ZigBee
13 3 (0.17%) Cisco ISE
13 3 (0.17%) Ethernet
13 3 (0.17%) MQTT
13 3 (0.17%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 123 (7.06%) NoSQL
2 115 (6.61%) PostgreSQL
3 89 (5.11%) MongoDB
4 79 (4.54%) SQL Server
5 37 (2.13%) DynamoDB
6 33 (1.90%) MySQL
7 32 (1.84%) Data Warehouse
8 30 (1.72%) Relational Database
9 27 (1.55%) Power BI
10 22 (1.26%) Amazon RDS
11 19 (1.09%) Metadata
12 18 (1.03%) Spark SQL
13 16 (0.92%) Redis
14 13 (0.75%) Oracle Database
14 13 (0.75%) Pinecone
15 12 (0.69%) BigQuery
16 10 (0.57%) Data Lake
16 10 (0.57%) Elasticsearch
17 9 (0.52%) Azure SQL Database
17 9 (0.52%) DB2
Development Applications
1 198 (11.37%) Git
2 156 (8.96%) Selenium
3 154 (8.85%) Jenkins
4 125 (7.18%) GitLab
5 122 (7.01%) JIRA
6 86 (4.94%) Cypress.io
7 66 (3.79%) Cucumber
8 63 (3.62%) TeamCity
9 59 (3.39%) Postman
10 44 (2.53%) JMeter
11 33 (1.90%) REST Assured
12 32 (1.84%) SpecFlow
13 29 (1.67%) CircleCI
14 25 (1.44%) TestRail
15 24 (1.38%) JUnit
16 22 (1.26%) MLflow
17 20 (1.15%) Zephyr
18 19 (1.09%) Bitbucket
18 19 (1.09%) LabVIEW
19 17 (0.98%) WebDriver
General
1 448 (25.73%) Social Skills
2 430 (24.70%) Finance
3 187 (10.74%) Banking
4 157 (9.02%) Analytical Skills
4 157 (9.02%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 142 (8.16%) Public Sector
6 119 (6.84%) Law
7 94 (5.40%) Retail
8 61 (3.50%) Financial Institution
9 55 (3.16%) Manufacturing
10 50 (2.87%) Electronics
11 48 (2.76%) Back Office
12 43 (2.47%) Games
13 33 (1.90%) Legal
14 32 (1.84%) Front Office
15 29 (1.67%) Marketing
16 20 (1.15%) Organisational Skills
17 17 (0.98%) Influencing Skills
18 16 (0.92%) Documentation Skills
18 16 (0.92%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 457 (26.25%) Senior
2 292 (16.77%) Lead
3 244 (14.01%) Software Engineer
4 233 (13.38%) Developer
5 203 (11.66%) Test Engineer
6 108 (6.20%) Senior Developer
7 92 (5.28%) Java Engineer
8 91 (5.23%) QA Engineer
9 88 (5.05%) Test Automation Engineer
10 85 (4.88%) Tester
11 76 (4.37%) Test Leader
12 75 (4.31%) Senior Software Engineer
13 64 (3.68%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 56 (3.22%) DevOps Engineer
15 55 (3.16%) Data Engineer
16 54 (3.10%) Automation Engineer
17 53 (3.04%) Architect
18 50 (2.87%) Senior Test Engineer
19 48 (2.76%) Analyst
19 48 (2.76%) Automation Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 191 (10.97%) React
2 189 (10.86%) .NET
3 161 (9.25%) RESTful
4 156 (8.96%) REST
5 155 (8.90%) Playwright
6 111 (6.38%) Node.js
7 108 (6.20%) Spring
8 86 (4.94%) Kafka
9 79 (4.54%) Spring Boot
10 62 (3.56%) HTML
11 61 (3.50%) CSS
12 57 (3.27%) AngularJS
13 53 (3.04%) OAuth
14 48 (2.76%) JSON
15 45 (2.58%) RabbitMQ
16 41 (2.35%) OAuth2
17 40 (2.30%) .NET Framework
18 39 (2.24%) Web Services
19 38 (2.18%) pytest
20 35 (2.01%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 291 (16.71%) Cloud Native
2 165 (9.48%) Product Ownership
3 106 (6.09%) Distributed Systems
4 84 (4.82%) Mobile App
5 58 (3.33%) Management Information System
6 51 (2.93%) Enterprise Software
7 46 (2.64%) Low-Code
7 46 (2.64%) Onboarding
8 41 (2.35%) Algorithms
8 41 (2.35%) Public Cloud
9 39 (2.24%) Greenfield Project
10 37 (2.13%) Self-Motivation
11 35 (2.01%) Legacy Systems
12 31 (1.78%) Data Structures
13 25 (1.44%) Blog
13 25 (1.44%) Hybrid Cloud
14 24 (1.38%) Video\Live Streaming
15 23 (1.32%) Embedded Systems
16 22 (1.26%) Hedge funds
17 21 (1.21%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 162 (9.30%) Linux
2 83 (4.77%) Windows
3 67 (3.85%) Apple iOS
4 57 (3.27%) Android
5 48 (2.76%) Unix
6 10 (0.57%) CentOS
6 10 (0.57%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.23%) Kali Linux
8 4 (0.23%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.17%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.11%) AIX
10 2 (0.11%) Debian
11 1 (0.057%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.057%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.057%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.057%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 930 (53.42%) CI/CD
2 717 (41.18%) Agile
3 616 (35.38%) DevOps
4 451 (25.90%) Software Engineering
5 427 (24.53%) Continuous Improvement
6 405 (23.26%) Mentoring
7 354 (20.33%) Problem-Solving
8 309 (17.75%) Infrastructure as Code
9 304 (17.46%) Microservices
10 291 (16.71%) AI
11 264 (15.16%) Software Testing
12 246 (14.13%) Observability
13 239 (13.73%) Coaching
14 220 (12.64%) Containerisation
15 217 (12.46%) Full-Stack Development
16 214 (12.29%) Test Strategy
17 207 (11.89%) Clean Code
18 188 (10.80%) Validation
19 172 (9.88%) Deployment Automation
20 165 (9.48%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 540 (31.02%) Python
2 463 (26.59%) Java
3 303 (17.40%) SQL
4 251 (14.42%) JavaScript
5 221 (12.69%) C#
6 215 (12.35%) TypeScript
7 87 (5.00%) C++
8 75 (4.31%) Bash
9 74 (4.25%) PowerShell
10 68 (3.91%) Go
11 52 (2.99%) C
12 34 (1.95%) Bicep
13 28 (1.61%) Kotlin
13 28 (1.61%) Rust
14 20 (1.15%) Apex Code
14 20 (1.15%) PL/SQL
14 20 (1.15%) Shell Script
14 20 (1.15%) Swift
15 18 (1.03%) MATLAB
16 17 (0.98%) PHP
Qualifications
1 224 (12.87%) Degree
2 187 (10.74%) Security Cleared
3 109 (6.26%) SC Cleared
4 89 (5.11%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (4.48%) ISTQB
6 40 (2.30%) DV Cleared
7 28 (1.61%) Master's Degree
8 25 (1.44%) AWS Certification
9 22 (1.26%) CISSP
10 21 (1.21%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 17 (0.98%) DBS Check
12 15 (0.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 15 (0.86%) Azure Certification
13 14 (0.80%) CGEIT
13 14 (0.80%) CISA
13 14 (0.80%) CISM
13 14 (0.80%) FFIEC
13 14 (0.80%) SANS
14 13 (0.75%) ISEB
14 13 (0.75%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 396 (22.75%) QA
2 142 (8.16%) Accessibility
3 74 (4.25%) Data Quality
4 51 (2.93%) GDPR
5 30 (1.72%) NIST
6 22 (1.26%) WCAG
7 21 (1.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 15 (0.86%) COBIT
9 14 (0.80%) SLA
10 11 (0.63%) ISO 22301
10 11 (0.63%) Software Quality Assurance
11 9 (0.52%) GRC
12 8 (0.46%) ISO 9001
13 7 (0.40%) SOC 2
14 6 (0.34%) PMO
15 5 (0.29%) IEC 61508
15 5 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
16 4 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.23%) ISO 13485
16 4 (0.23%) JTAG
System Software
1 244 (14.01%) Docker
2 25 (1.44%) Active Directory
3 24 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 18 (1.03%) Firmware
5 17 (0.98%) Hyper-V
6 15 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
7 13 (0.75%) KVM
8 7 (0.40%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.17%) Terminal Server
10 2 (0.11%) vSphere
11 1 (0.057%) IAG
11 1 (0.057%) Xen
Systems Management
1 307 (17.63%) Terraform
2 291 (16.71%) Kubernetes
3 133 (7.64%) Grafana
4 75 (4.31%) Ansible
5 63 (3.62%) Prometheus
6 25 (1.44%) Argo
7 23 (1.32%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (0.57%) logstash
9 9 (0.52%) Kibana
10 7 (0.40%) SCCM
10 7 (0.40%) SCOM
11 5 (0.29%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (0.23%) Packer
12 4 (0.23%) Rancher
12 4 (0.23%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.17%) Functional Safety
13 3 (0.17%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.17%) Puppet
13 3 (0.17%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 137 (7.87%) Microsoft
2 62 (3.56%) Oracle
3 57 (3.27%) Databricks
4 51 (2.93%) Salesforce
5 44 (2.53%) VMware
6 38 (2.18%) Google
7 24 (1.38%) OpenAI
8 22 (1.26%) Splunk
9 18 (1.03%) ServiceNow
10 16 (0.92%) SAP
11 15 (0.86%) Commvault
11 15 (0.86%) Dynatrace
12 14 (0.80%) Braze
13 13 (0.75%) Amplitude
13 13 (0.75%) Atlassian
14 12 (0.69%) AppDynamics
14 12 (0.69%) CrowdStrike
14 12 (0.69%) Foundry
14 12 (0.69%) Palantir
15 11 (0.63%) Automation Anywhere