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

6 months to
4 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 75 86
Rank change year-on-year -24 +11 -54
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,396 1,810 2,371
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.16% 3.55% 3.24%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.70% 3.86% 3.66%
Number of salaries quoted 860 858 1,709
10th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £37,400
25th Percentile £51,094 £48,375 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £63,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -0.79% +5.00% -3.23%
75th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £77,500
90th Percentile £107,500 £105,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +4.55% -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 51,688 46,838 64,785
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.04% 91.77% 88.53%
Number of salaries quoted 30,626 22,631 50,390
10th Percentile £28,750 £35,000 £29,500
25th Percentile £38,000 £46,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +9.09% -12.00%
75th Percentile £75,900 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 4 February 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 4 February 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 -24 1,157 £62,500 -3.10% 681
UK excluding London -55 704 £57,500 - 553
Work from Home +13 575 £65,000 +1.17% 401
London +29 573 £80,000 - 226
South East -59 168 £53,750 -2.27% 192
Scotland +2 133 £83,750 +39.58% 29
North of England -72 126 £60,000 +9.09% 136
South West -6 121 £60,000 - 79
Midlands -67 82 £55,000 -8.33% 55
North West -34 74 £60,000 +14.29% 85
West Midlands -33 48 £55,000 -8.33% 33
East of England -41 48 £55,000 -21.43% 60
Yorkshire -49 40 £57,500 +4.37% 36
East Midlands -45 37 £55,000 -6.38% 22
Wales -2 26 £56,350 +15.55% 13
North East -28 12 £60,000 -1.64% 15
Northern Ireland -35 5 £64,859 +8.10% 2

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 (2.58%) Confluence
2 21 (1.50%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 17 (1.22%) Apache Airflow
4 16 (1.15%) Apache Spark
5 15 (1.07%) Appian
6 12 (0.86%) Jupyter
7 11 (0.79%) Apache
8 9 (0.64%) CMS
8 9 (0.64%) Palantir Foundry
8 9 (0.64%) SharePoint
9 7 (0.50%) Apache Solr
10 5 (0.36%) IIS
10 5 (0.36%) WordPress
11 3 (0.21%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.21%) nginx
11 3 (0.21%) Oracle Workflow
12 2 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 2 (0.14%) Oracle Application Server
12 2 (0.14%) SAS
13 1 (0.072%) Camunda
Applications
1 17 (1.22%) Microsoft Office
2 16 (1.15%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.79%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.29%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Smart View
6 3 (0.21%) Photoshop
6 3 (0.21%) Sketch
7 2 (0.14%) Adobe XD
7 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.072%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 1 (0.072%) Doxygen
8 1 (0.072%) Trello
Business Applications
1 43 (3.08%) Oracle ERP
2 30 (2.15%) SAP S/4HANA
3 19 (1.36%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (0.36%) Oracle Financials
5 4 (0.29%) Elite 3E
5 4 (0.29%) Hyperion Planning
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Assets
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle General Ledger
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
5 4 (0.29%) Shopify
6 3 (0.21%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.072%) Aladdin
8 1 (0.072%) NEC Housing
8 1 (0.072%) Postilion
8 1 (0.072%) SAP Hybris
8 1 (0.072%) Siebel CRM
Cloud Services
1 468 (33.52%) Azure
2 363 (26.00%) AWS
3 282 (20.20%) Azure DevOps
4 228 (16.33%) GitHub
5 139 (9.96%) GCP
6 105 (7.52%) SaaS
7 79 (5.66%) GitHub Copilot
8 74 (5.30%) GitHub Actions
9 72 (5.16%) Serverless
10 70 (5.01%) Power Platform
11 57 (4.08%) PaaS
12 55 (3.94%) Amazon EKS
13 52 (3.72%) Azure Data Factory
14 40 (2.87%) Datadog
14 40 (2.87%) Entra ID
15 39 (2.79%) OCI
15 39 (2.79%) Snowflake
16 36 (2.58%) dbt
17 33 (2.36%) Power Automate
18 32 (2.29%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.50%) DNS
2 20 (1.43%) HTTP
2 20 (1.43%) TCP/IP
3 16 (1.15%) WAN
4 15 (1.07%) SD-WAN
5 12 (0.86%) 5G
6 11 (0.79%) VPN
7 9 (0.64%) CHAP
8 7 (0.50%) Firewall
9 5 (0.36%) Multicast
10 4 (0.29%) 3G
10 4 (0.29%) GPRS
10 4 (0.29%) GSM
10 4 (0.29%) Modbus
10 4 (0.29%) RS-232
10 4 (0.29%) RS-485
10 4 (0.29%) SMTP
10 4 (0.29%) SSL
11 3 (0.21%) VLAN
11 3 (0.21%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (6.09%) SQL Server
2 76 (5.44%) PostgreSQL
3 69 (4.94%) NoSQL
4 64 (4.58%) Relational Database
5 47 (3.37%) Data Warehouse
6 45 (3.22%) MySQL
7 42 (3.01%) Power BI
8 27 (1.93%) MongoDB
9 21 (1.50%) Tableau
10 17 (1.22%) Elasticsearch
11 16 (1.15%) DynamoDB
12 15 (1.07%) BigQuery
12 15 (1.07%) Pinecone
12 15 (1.07%) RDBMS
13 14 (1.00%) DB2
13 14 (1.00%) Snowflake Schema
14 11 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
14 11 (0.79%) Metadata
15 9 (0.64%) Data Lake
15 9 (0.64%) MariaDB
Development Applications
1 185 (13.25%) Selenium
2 164 (11.75%) Git
2 164 (11.75%) JIRA
3 142 (10.17%) Jenkins
4 74 (5.30%) Cypress.io
5 65 (4.66%) Cucumber
6 61 (4.37%) GitLab
7 53 (3.80%) TeamCity
8 51 (3.65%) Postman
9 41 (2.94%) JMeter
9 41 (2.94%) Oracle Forms
10 27 (1.93%) Robot Framework
11 26 (1.86%) SpecFlow
12 25 (1.79%) eCATT
12 25 (1.79%) JUnit
12 25 (1.79%) WebDriver
13 23 (1.65%) MLflow
13 23 (1.65%) Snyk
14 22 (1.58%) REST Assured
15 21 (1.50%) CircleCI
General
1 450 (32.23%) Finance
2 426 (30.52%) Social Skills
3 158 (11.32%) Analytical Skills
4 122 (8.74%) Banking
5 103 (7.38%) Law
6 88 (6.30%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 76 (5.44%) Marketing
8 70 (5.01%) Retail
9 57 (4.08%) Public Sector
10 56 (4.01%) Financial Institution
11 42 (3.01%) Manufacturing
12 40 (2.87%) Front Office
13 36 (2.58%) Electronics
14 32 (2.29%) Back Office
15 28 (2.01%) Legal
16 27 (1.93%) Presentation Skills
17 20 (1.43%) Organisational Skills
18 19 (1.36%) Documentation Skills
19 18 (1.29%) Influencing Skills
20 14 (1.00%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 389 (27.87%) Senior
2 243 (17.41%) Developer
3 218 (15.62%) Lead
4 133 (9.53%) Test Engineer
5 132 (9.46%) Software Engineer
6 106 (7.59%) Senior Developer
7 77 (5.52%) Analyst
8 76 (5.44%) QA Engineer
9 67 (4.80%) Test Leader
9 67 (4.80%) Tester
10 63 (4.51%) Test Automation Engineer
11 55 (3.94%) Python Developer
12 54 (3.87%) Automation Engineer
13 51 (3.65%) Applications Engineer
13 51 (3.65%) Cloud Engineer
14 47 (3.37%) Java Engineer
14 47 (3.37%) QA Automation Engineer
15 46 (3.30%) Automation Tester
15 46 (3.30%) Senior Software Engineer
16 40 (2.87%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 151 (10.82%) React
2 142 (10.17%) RESTful
3 129 (9.24%) .NET
4 115 (8.24%) REST
5 99 (7.09%) Playwright
6 77 (5.52%) Node.js
7 73 (5.23%) Spring
8 66 (4.73%) JSON
9 63 (4.51%) HTML
10 62 (4.44%) CSS
11 57 (4.08%) OAuth
12 56 (4.01%) pytest
12 56 (4.01%) SOAP
13 49 (3.51%) Kafka
14 45 (3.22%) Spring Boot
15 43 (3.08%) OAuth2
16 38 (2.72%) XML
17 37 (2.65%) Elastic Stack
17 37 (2.65%) Flask
18 34 (2.44%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 238 (17.05%) Cloud Native
2 111 (7.95%) Product Ownership
3 61 (4.37%) Self-Motivation
4 50 (3.58%) Management Information System
5 49 (3.51%) Enterprise Software
6 41 (2.94%) Mobile App
7 40 (2.87%) Onboarding
8 35 (2.51%) Legacy Systems
9 29 (2.08%) Hedge funds
10 28 (2.01%) Data Structures
10 28 (2.01%) Distributed Systems
11 27 (1.93%) Algorithms
11 27 (1.93%) Low-Code
12 23 (1.65%) Equities
12 23 (1.65%) Satnav
13 22 (1.58%) Virtual Team
14 21 (1.50%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
14 21 (1.50%) Security Posture
15 20 (1.43%) GNSS
16 18 (1.29%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 133 (9.53%) Linux
2 78 (5.59%) Windows
3 38 (2.72%) Apple iOS
4 37 (2.65%) Android
5 33 (2.36%) Unix
6 13 (0.93%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.57%) CentOS
8 5 (0.36%) Debian
8 5 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
8 5 (0.36%) FreeRTOS
8 5 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.21%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.21%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.14%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.14%) Solaris
10 2 (0.14%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.14%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.072%) AIX
11 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 733 (52.51%) CI/CD
2 606 (43.41%) Agile
3 489 (35.03%) DevOps
4 331 (23.71%) Problem-Solving
5 302 (21.63%) Mentoring
6 297 (21.28%) Continuous Improvement
7 275 (19.70%) Software Engineering
8 233 (16.69%) AI
9 221 (15.83%) Coaching
10 199 (14.26%) Microservices
11 171 (12.25%) Software Testing
12 169 (12.11%) Observability
13 166 (11.89%) Clean Code
14 163 (11.68%) Analytics
15 156 (11.17%) Test Strategy
16 153 (10.96%) Infrastructure as Code
17 132 (9.46%) Containerisation
18 122 (8.74%) Asset Management
18 122 (8.74%) Full-Stack Development
19 119 (8.52%) Computer Science
Programming Languages
1 426 (30.52%) Python
2 330 (23.64%) Java
3 303 (21.70%) SQL
4 191 (13.68%) JavaScript
5 159 (11.39%) C#
6 153 (10.96%) TypeScript
7 77 (5.52%) PowerShell
8 57 (4.08%) C++
9 46 (3.30%) PL/SQL
10 44 (3.15%) Shell Script
11 43 (3.08%) Bash
12 36 (2.58%) Go
13 35 (2.51%) PHP
14 32 (2.29%) Bicep
15 25 (1.79%) C
16 24 (1.72%) Apex Code
17 19 (1.36%) Kotlin
18 14 (1.00%) MATLAB
19 13 (0.93%) T-SQL
19 13 (0.93%) VBA
Qualifications
1 190 (13.61%) Degree
2 123 (8.81%) Security Cleared
3 80 (5.73%) SC Cleared
4 73 (5.23%) Computer Science Degree
5 68 (4.87%) ISTQB
6 41 (2.94%) Master's Degree
7 32 (2.29%) DV Cleared
8 26 (1.86%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 22 (1.58%) AWS Certification
10 20 (1.43%) HND
11 19 (1.36%) DBS Check
12 16 (1.15%) Azure Certification
12 16 (1.15%) ISEB
13 15 (1.07%) PhD
14 11 (0.79%) CEH
14 11 (0.79%) CISSP
15 10 (0.72%) BPSS Clearance
15 10 (0.72%) CISA
16 9 (0.64%) CGEIT
16 9 (0.64%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 321 (22.99%) QA
2 89 (6.38%) Accessibility
3 50 (3.58%) Data Quality
4 43 (3.08%) NIST
5 40 (2.87%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 37 (2.65%) GDPR
7 24 (1.72%) WCAG
8 16 (1.15%) NCSC
9 15 (1.07%) SLA
10 11 (0.79%) ISO 22301
11 9 (0.64%) COBIT
11 9 (0.64%) ISO 9001
12 5 (0.36%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.29%) IEC 61508
13 4 (0.29%) ISO 13485
13 4 (0.29%) ISO 26262
13 4 (0.29%) MISRA
13 4 (0.29%) Software Quality Assurance
14 3 (0.21%) Section 508
14 3 (0.21%) SEPA
System Software
1 195 (13.97%) Docker
2 41 (2.94%) Active Directory
3 16 (1.15%) Firmware
4 13 (0.93%) Embedded Firmware
5 10 (0.72%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.36%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.29%) KVM
9 3 (0.21%) vSphere
10 2 (0.14%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 228 (16.33%) Terraform
2 218 (15.62%) Kubernetes
3 90 (6.45%) Grafana
4 56 (4.01%) Ansible
5 45 (3.22%) Single Sign-On
6 30 (2.15%) Prometheus
7 28 (2.01%) HP ALM
8 7 (0.50%) Argo
9 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.36%) logstash
11 3 (0.21%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.21%) Progress Chef
11 3 (0.21%) Rancher
11 3 (0.21%) SCCM
11 3 (0.21%) SCOM
12 2 (0.14%) Control-M
12 2 (0.14%) Kibana
12 2 (0.14%) Nessus
12 2 (0.14%) Puppet
13 1 (0.072%) CA Service Virtualization
Vendors
1 122 (8.74%) Microsoft
2 94 (6.73%) Oracle
3 64 (4.58%) Salesforce
4 51 (3.65%) SAP
5 33 (2.36%) Databricks
5 33 (2.36%) Google
6 32 (2.29%) VMware
7 29 (2.08%) HP
8 20 (1.43%) Okta
9 18 (1.29%) Black Duck
9 18 (1.29%) Coverity
9 18 (1.29%) OpenAI
9 18 (1.29%) Splunk
10 16 (1.15%) Commvault
11 15 (1.07%) Guidewire
11 15 (1.07%) UiPath
12 14 (1.00%) Ab Initio
13 13 (0.93%) Palantir
14 12 (0.86%) Foundry
14 12 (0.86%) ServiceNow