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

6 months to
16 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 80 94 96
Rank change year-on-year +14 +2 -24
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,366 1,559 2,058
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.07% 3.16% 2.64%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.84% 3.56% 3.26%
Number of salaries quoted 1,280 734 1,022
10th Percentile £41,250 £38,773 £38,750
25th Percentile £47,500 £50,000 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - +4.17% -4.36%
75th Percentile £80,000 £82,751 £77,188
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
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 83,236 43,812 63,193
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 72.95% 88.75% 81.16%
Number of salaries quoted 57,755 24,707 35,897
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,000
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -4.35% -4.17%
75th Percentile £80,000 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

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 16 September 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 16 September 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 1,919 £62,500 -2.46% 3,353
UK excluding London +17 1,501 £57,500 - 2,024
Work from Home +15 853 £65,000 +4.00% 1,483
London +4 700 £80,000 - 1,753
North of England +15 378 £57,500 -4.17% 486
South East -4 266 £60,000 +4.35% 426
South West +14 256 £60,000 +12.38% 266
Midlands 0 201 £55,000 -10.57% 199
North West -1 186 £60,000 - 281
Northern Ireland +13 165 £80,000 +45.45% 96
Wales +9 130 £55,000 +4.76% 36
West Midlands -12 113 £55,000 -2.22% 128
North East +13 104 £52,500 +50.00% 60
Yorkshire +11 88 £69,310 +26.02% 146
East Midlands -24 88 £55,000 -12.00% 70
East of England -36 75 £50,000 -14.53% 214
Scotland -45 45 £60,000 -14.29% 311

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 57 (2.41%) Confluence
2 31 (1.31%) Apache Spark
3 24 (1.01%) Apache
3 24 (1.01%) SharePoint
4 18 (0.76%) Apache Airflow
5 17 (0.72%) Jupyter
6 14 (0.59%) Anypoint
6 14 (0.59%) Mule
7 13 (0.55%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 12 (0.51%) CMS
9 6 (0.25%) Microsoft Exchange
9 6 (0.25%) Umbraco
10 5 (0.21%) Cloud Foundry
10 5 (0.21%) nginx
11 4 (0.17%) Palantir Foundry
11 4 (0.17%) SAS
11 4 (0.17%) WinCC
12 3 (0.13%) Camunda
12 3 (0.13%) IIS
12 3 (0.13%) WordPress
Applications
1 81 (3.42%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
3 13 (0.55%) Simulink
4 9 (0.38%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.25%) Moqups
6 5 (0.21%) Lightworks
7 3 (0.13%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
8 2 (0.085%) CANalyzer
8 2 (0.085%) EPLAN
8 2 (0.085%) PlantUML
9 1 (0.042%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.042%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.042%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 68 (2.87%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.14%) Dynamics GP
3 11 (0.46%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.21%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.13%) Magento
5 3 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.085%) Endur
6 2 (0.085%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.085%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.085%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.085%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.042%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.042%) Findur
7 1 (0.042%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.042%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.042%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.042%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.042%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 801 (33.85%) AWS
2 673 (28.44%) Azure
3 315 (13.31%) SaaS
4 252 (10.65%) GCP
5 247 (10.44%) Azure DevOps
6 201 (8.50%) GitHub
7 191 (8.07%) Serverless
8 106 (4.48%) GitHub Actions
9 99 (4.18%) AWS CloudFormation
10 93 (3.93%) Amazon EKS
11 87 (3.68%) AWS Lambda
12 81 (3.42%) Amazon S3
13 63 (2.66%) Power Platform
14 59 (2.49%) Google Ads
14 59 (2.49%) Meta Ads
15 54 (2.28%) Azure Logic Apps
16 53 (2.24%) Azure Service Bus
17 48 (2.03%) Azure Monitor
18 44 (1.86%) Azure Functions
19 40 (1.69%) Amazon EC2
Communications & Networking
1 57 (2.41%) Broadband
2 29 (1.23%) TCP/IP
3 24 (1.01%) Firewall
4 23 (0.97%) DNS
5 17 (0.72%) SSL
6 15 (0.63%) Wireless
7 13 (0.55%) DHCP
7 13 (0.55%) DMARC
7 13 (0.55%) HTTP
7 13 (0.55%) Modbus
7 13 (0.55%) Wi-Fi
8 12 (0.51%) MQTT
9 11 (0.46%) 5G
9 11 (0.46%) WAN
10 10 (0.42%) LTE
11 9 (0.38%) 3GPP
11 9 (0.38%) Network Security
12 7 (0.30%) BGP
12 7 (0.30%) RANAP
12 7 (0.30%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 137 (5.79%) PostgreSQL
2 126 (5.33%) NoSQL
3 88 (3.72%) MongoDB
4 79 (3.34%) SQL Server
5 65 (2.75%) Relational Database
6 46 (1.94%) DynamoDB
7 41 (1.73%) MySQL
8 38 (1.61%) Redis
9 36 (1.52%) Power BI
10 35 (1.48%) Data Warehouse
11 32 (1.35%) Data Lake
12 29 (1.23%) BigQuery
13 24 (1.01%) Amazon Athena
14 21 (0.89%) Amazon RDS
14 21 (0.89%) Semantic Layer
15 20 (0.85%) Metadata
16 16 (0.68%) Elasticsearch
17 13 (0.55%) Spark SQL
18 12 (0.51%) Amazon Redshift
18 12 (0.51%) Delta Lake
Development Applications
1 360 (15.22%) Git
2 235 (9.93%) GitLab
3 214 (9.04%) Jenkins
4 162 (6.85%) Selenium
5 153 (6.47%) JIRA
6 107 (4.52%) Cucumber
6 107 (4.52%) Cypress.io
7 96 (4.06%) Postman
8 70 (2.96%) TeamCity
9 52 (2.20%) JMeter
10 47 (1.99%) JUnit
11 40 (1.69%) REST Assured
12 34 (1.44%) Zephyr
13 31 (1.31%) Gatling
14 30 (1.27%) SonarQube
15 26 (1.10%) LabVIEW
16 25 (1.06%) TestRail
17 24 (1.01%) Bitbucket
18 23 (0.97%) Maven
18 23 (0.97%) Robot Framework
General
1 654 (27.64%) Social Skills
2 580 (24.51%) Finance
3 357 (15.09%) Analytical Skills
4 264 (11.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 222 (9.38%) Public Sector
6 203 (8.58%) Banking
6 203 (8.58%) Law
7 163 (6.89%) Marketing
8 144 (6.09%) Legal
9 124 (5.24%) Retail
10 106 (4.48%) Manufacturing
11 85 (3.59%) Electronics
12 80 (3.38%) Financial Institution
13 59 (2.49%) Back Office
14 48 (2.03%) Aerospace
15 44 (1.86%) Telecoms
16 40 (1.69%) Games
17 33 (1.39%) Documentation Skills
18 29 (1.23%) Automotive
19 25 (1.06%) Front Office
Job Titles
1 660 (27.90%) Senior
2 347 (14.67%) Software Engineer
3 333 (14.07%) Developer
4 328 (13.86%) Lead
5 249 (10.52%) Test Engineer
6 126 (5.33%) Senior Developer
7 116 (4.90%) Java Engineer
8 103 (4.35%) DevOps Engineer
9 102 (4.31%) Senior Software Engineer
10 99 (4.18%) QA Engineer
11 86 (3.63%) Test Automation Engineer
12 79 (3.34%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 74 (3.13%) Analyst
14 71 (3.00%) Data Engineer
15 69 (2.92%) Lead Software Engineer
16 62 (2.62%) Architect
16 62 (2.62%) Principal Engineer
17 61 (2.58%) Marketing Manager
17 61 (2.58%) Software Developer
17 61 (2.58%) Tester
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 329 (13.91%) Terraform
2 239 (10.10%) REST
3 232 (9.81%) React
4 220 (9.30%) .NET
5 203 (8.58%) Playwright
6 195 (8.24%) Node.js
6 195 (8.24%) Spring
7 193 (8.16%) RESTful
8 144 (6.09%) Spring Boot
9 133 (5.62%) Kafka
10 126 (5.33%) CSS
11 118 (4.99%) HTML
12 114 (4.82%) AngularJS
13 72 (3.04%) OAuth
14 66 (2.79%) Middleware
15 65 (2.75%) OAuth2
16 61 (2.58%) JSON
17 52 (2.20%) Vue
18 51 (2.16%) Next.js
19 50 (2.11%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 420 (17.75%) Cloud Native
2 289 (12.21%) Product Ownership
3 204 (8.62%) Distributed Systems
4 102 (4.31%) Mobile App
4 102 (4.31%) Onboarding
5 95 (4.02%) Enterprise Software
6 90 (3.80%) Public Cloud
7 84 (3.55%) Blog
8 77 (3.25%) Virtual Team
9 66 (2.79%) Legacy Systems
10 64 (2.70%) Marketing Technology
11 53 (2.24%) Cyber Threat
12 52 (2.20%) Algorithms
13 48 (2.03%) Low-Code
14 46 (1.94%) Self-Motivation
15 43 (1.82%) Data Structures
15 43 (1.82%) Embedded Systems
16 41 (1.73%) e-Learning
17 39 (1.65%) Management Information System
18 33 (1.39%) AI Agents
Operating Systems
1 182 (7.69%) Linux
2 99 (4.18%) Windows
3 61 (2.58%) Android
4 55 (2.32%) Unix
5 54 (2.28%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.38%) Embedded Linux
6 9 (0.38%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.34%) CentOS
8 6 (0.25%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.17%) AIX
9 4 (0.17%) Debian
9 4 (0.17%) Kali Linux
9 4 (0.17%) VMS
10 3 (0.13%) VxWorks
11 2 (0.085%) OpenWrt
12 1 (0.042%) Mac OS
12 1 (0.042%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.042%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.042%) Ubuntu
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,330 (56.21%) CI/CD
2 996 (42.10%) Agile
3 851 (35.97%) DevOps
4 765 (32.33%) Software Engineering
5 689 (29.12%) Continuous Improvement
6 616 (26.04%) Mentoring
7 586 (24.77%) AI
8 533 (22.53%) Problem-Solving
9 441 (18.64%) Microservices
10 412 (17.41%) Software Testing
11 384 (16.23%) Infrastructure as Code
12 319 (13.48%) Test Strategy
13 296 (12.51%) Validation
14 288 (12.17%) Code Quality
15 287 (12.13%) Coaching
16 282 (11.92%) Observability
17 273 (11.54%) Full-Stack Development
18 263 (11.12%) Containerisation
19 259 (10.95%) Technical Leadership
20 254 (10.74%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 680 (28.74%) Python
2 582 (24.60%) Java
3 452 (19.10%) SQL
4 435 (18.39%) JavaScript
5 343 (14.50%) TypeScript
6 331 (13.99%) C#
7 123 (5.20%) C++
8 105 (4.44%) PowerShell
9 98 (4.14%) Go
10 90 (3.80%) Bash
11 79 (3.34%) C
12 35 (1.48%) Kotlin
12 35 (1.48%) PHP
13 31 (1.31%) Rust
14 28 (1.18%) Ruby
15 27 (1.14%) Groovy
16 24 (1.01%) Bicep
16 24 (1.01%) MATLAB
17 21 (0.89%) Swift
18 15 (0.63%) Scala
Qualifications
1 346 (14.62%) Security Cleared
2 244 (10.31%) Degree
3 212 (8.96%) SC Cleared
4 105 (4.44%) Computer Science Degree
5 80 (3.38%) ISTQB
6 63 (2.66%) DV Cleared
7 57 (2.41%) AWS Certification
7 57 (2.41%) CISSP
8 54 (2.28%) CISM
8 54 (2.28%) ITIL Certification
9 46 (1.94%) Master's Degree
10 41 (1.73%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 36 (1.52%) HNC
12 32 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
12 32 (1.35%) HND
13 17 (0.72%) DBS Check
14 16 (0.68%) ISEB
15 13 (0.55%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
16 12 (0.51%) Azure Certification
17 11 (0.46%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 549 (23.20%) QA
2 203 (8.58%) Accessibility
3 83 (3.51%) Data Quality
4 69 (2.92%) WCAG
5 56 (2.37%) NIST
6 48 (2.03%) ISO 22301
7 41 (1.73%) GDPR
8 13 (0.55%) SLA
9 11 (0.46%) GRC
10 9 (0.38%) SOC 2
10 9 (0.38%) Software Quality Assurance
11 8 (0.34%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 8 (0.34%) MISRA
12 6 (0.25%) COBIT
12 6 (0.25%) JTAG
12 6 (0.25%) PMO
13 5 (0.21%) NCSC
14 4 (0.17%) ISO 20022
14 4 (0.17%) PCI DSS
15 3 (0.13%) IEC 61508
System Software
1 327 (13.82%) Docker
2 43 (1.82%) Firmware
3 14 (0.59%) Active Directory
4 12 (0.51%) VMware Infrastructure
5 11 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
6 8 (0.34%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.21%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.13%) KVM
9 2 (0.085%) ProxySG
10 1 (0.042%) IAG
10 1 (0.042%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.042%) QEMU
10 1 (0.042%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 340 (14.37%) Kubernetes
2 150 (6.34%) Grafana
3 79 (3.34%) Ansible
4 63 (2.66%) Prometheus
5 29 (1.23%) Argo
6 17 (0.72%) Kibana
7 15 (0.63%) Puppet
8 14 (0.59%) CloudHub
9 9 (0.38%) logstash
9 9 (0.38%) Microsoft Intune
9 9 (0.38%) Rancher
10 8 (0.34%) HP Fortify
10 8 (0.34%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.30%) Functional Safety
12 6 (0.25%) Progress Chef
12 6 (0.25%) vCenter Server
13 5 (0.21%) Packer
14 3 (0.13%) Active Directory Federation Services
14 3 (0.13%) SCCM
14 3 (0.13%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 256 (10.82%) Microsoft
2 124 (5.24%) Google
3 61 (2.58%) Databricks
4 59 (2.49%) Salesforce
5 53 (2.24%) Oracle
6 49 (2.07%) SAP
7 44 (1.86%) ServiceNow
8 36 (1.52%) Splunk
9 28 (1.18%) Dynatrace
10 24 (1.01%) Pega
11 19 (0.80%) AppDynamics
11 19 (0.80%) MuleSoft
11 19 (0.80%) VMware
12 17 (0.72%) IBM
13 16 (0.68%) OpenAI
14 15 (0.63%) Allen-Bradley
14 15 (0.63%) Atlassian
14 15 (0.63%) Red Hat
15 14 (0.59%) Adobe
16 13 (0.55%) SendGrid