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

6 months to
20 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 93 86 94
Rank change year-on-year -7 +8 -60
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,754 1,604 2,715
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.90% 3.64% 2.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.58% 3.90% 3.29%
Number of salaries quoted 1,093 875 1,760
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,780 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,231 £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 67,959 41,142 82,492
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.66% 93.29% 84.82%
Number of salaries quoted 43,928 22,326 59,700
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,269 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +2.97% +5.94% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £100,000 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -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 20 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 20 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 -8 1,508 £62,500 +4.17% 624
UK excluding London -45 957 £60,000 +9.09% 514
Work from Home +4 725 £65,000 +8.33% 318
London +35 631 £80,000 +14.29% 220
North of England -31 250 £61,500 +11.82% 123
South East -37 193 £60,000 +9.09% 153
South West -27 172 £55,000 -8.33% 68
Midlands -45 154 £62,500 +11.61% 56
North West -21 128 £60,000 +3.45% 74
Scotland -24 80 £60,000 - 23
West Midlands -49 77 £62,500 +4.17% 42
East Midlands -32 76 £57,500 +17.95% 14
Yorkshire -37 67 £69,310 +38.62% 19
East of England -25 61 £50,000 -12.28% 69
North East -14 55 £52,500 -11.02% 30
Wales +3 50 £55,000 +2.24% 21
Northern Ireland -36 10 £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 (2.17%) Confluence
2 25 (1.43%) Apache Airflow
3 18 (1.03%) Apache Spark
4 14 (0.80%) Apache
4 14 (0.80%) Jupyter
5 13 (0.74%) SharePoint
6 10 (0.57%) Appian
6 10 (0.57%) CMS
6 10 (0.57%) IIS
6 10 (0.57%) Palantir Foundry
7 7 (0.40%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 5 (0.29%) WordPress
9 4 (0.23%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.17%) nginx
10 3 (0.17%) Umbraco
11 2 (0.11%) Cloud Foundry
11 2 (0.11%) JBoss
11 2 (0.11%) Oracle Application Server
11 2 (0.11%) SAS
Applications
1 12 (0.68%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.57%) 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 (0.74%) Oracle ERP
2 8 (0.46%) 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
1 569 (32.44%) AWS
2 562 (32.04%) Azure
3 263 (14.99%) Azure DevOps
4 208 (11.86%) GCP
5 167 (9.52%) GitHub
6 154 (8.78%) Serverless
7 123 (7.01%) SaaS
8 74 (4.22%) Amazon EKS
9 72 (4.10%) GitHub Actions
10 65 (3.71%) AWS Lambda
11 63 (3.59%) Amazon S3
12 59 (3.36%) AWS CloudFormation
13 53 (3.02%) PaaS
14 49 (2.79%) Azure Data Factory
15 46 (2.62%) Power Platform
16 45 (2.57%) dbt
17 41 (2.34%) Azure Service Bus
18 38 (2.17%) Azure Logic Apps
18 38 (2.17%) Datadog
19 37 (2.11%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 46 (2.62%) Broadband
2 23 (1.31%) Firewall
3 15 (0.86%) DNS
4 13 (0.74%) CHAP
4 13 (0.74%) WAN
5 12 (0.68%) SD-WAN
6 9 (0.51%) 5G
6 9 (0.51%) HTTP
7 6 (0.34%) TCP/IP
7 6 (0.34%) VPN
8 5 (0.29%) Bluetooth
8 5 (0.29%) Wireless
9 4 (0.23%) DHCP
9 4 (0.23%) LTE
9 4 (0.23%) SMS
9 4 (0.23%) Wi-Fi
9 4 (0.23%) ZigBee
10 3 (0.17%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (0.17%) Ethernet
10 3 (0.17%) MQTT
Database & Business Intelligence
1 122 (6.96%) NoSQL
2 114 (6.50%) PostgreSQL
3 89 (5.07%) MongoDB
4 76 (4.33%) SQL Server
5 37 (2.11%) DynamoDB
6 33 (1.88%) MySQL
7 32 (1.82%) Data Warehouse
8 28 (1.60%) Relational Database
9 27 (1.54%) Power BI
10 22 (1.25%) Amazon RDS
11 18 (1.03%) Metadata
11 18 (1.03%) Spark SQL
12 16 (0.91%) BigQuery
12 16 (0.91%) Redis
13 13 (0.74%) Oracle Database
14 12 (0.68%) Pinecone
15 10 (0.57%) Data Lake
16 9 (0.51%) DB2
16 9 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
16 9 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 198 (11.29%) Git
2 157 (8.95%) Jenkins
3 155 (8.84%) Selenium
4 126 (7.18%) GitLab
5 122 (6.96%) JIRA
6 83 (4.73%) Cypress.io
7 66 (3.76%) Cucumber
8 63 (3.59%) TeamCity
9 59 (3.36%) Postman
10 44 (2.51%) JMeter
11 33 (1.88%) REST Assured
12 32 (1.82%) SpecFlow
13 28 (1.60%) CircleCI
14 24 (1.37%) JUnit
14 24 (1.37%) TestRail
15 21 (1.20%) MLflow
16 20 (1.14%) LabVIEW
16 20 (1.14%) Zephyr
17 18 (1.03%) Bitbucket
18 17 (0.97%) Crashlytics
General
1 448 (25.54%) Social Skills
2 428 (24.40%) Finance
3 187 (10.66%) Banking
4 166 (9.46%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 154 (8.78%) Analytical Skills
6 144 (8.21%) Public Sector
7 116 (6.61%) Law
8 94 (5.36%) Retail
9 60 (3.42%) Financial Institution
10 56 (3.19%) Manufacturing
11 53 (3.02%) Electronics
12 47 (2.68%) Back Office
13 43 (2.45%) Games
14 33 (1.88%) Front Office
14 33 (1.88%) Legal
15 30 (1.71%) Marketing
16 20 (1.14%) Organisational Skills
17 18 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
18 17 (0.97%) Investment Banking
19 16 (0.91%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 464 (26.45%) Senior
2 292 (16.65%) Lead
3 249 (14.20%) Software Engineer
4 236 (13.45%) Developer
5 205 (11.69%) Test Engineer
6 110 (6.27%) Senior Developer
7 93 (5.30%) Java Engineer
8 90 (5.13%) QA Engineer
9 87 (4.96%) Test Automation Engineer
10 85 (4.85%) Tester
11 75 (4.28%) Senior Software Engineer
11 75 (4.28%) Test Leader
12 66 (3.76%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 56 (3.19%) Architect
13 56 (3.19%) Data Engineer
13 56 (3.19%) DevOps Engineer
14 52 (2.96%) Automation Engineer
15 51 (2.91%) Senior Test Engineer
16 48 (2.74%) Automation Tester
16 48 (2.74%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 190 (10.83%) React
2 188 (10.72%) .NET
3 161 (9.18%) RESTful
4 155 (8.84%) REST
5 154 (8.78%) Playwright
6 113 (6.44%) Node.js
7 112 (6.39%) Spring
8 86 (4.90%) Kafka
9 80 (4.56%) Spring Boot
10 59 (3.36%) AngularJS
11 58 (3.31%) HTML
12 57 (3.25%) CSS
13 53 (3.02%) OAuth
14 48 (2.74%) JSON
15 45 (2.57%) RabbitMQ
16 42 (2.39%) OAuth2
17 39 (2.22%) .NET Framework
17 39 (2.22%) Web Services
18 37 (2.11%) pytest
19 34 (1.94%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 301 (17.16%) Cloud Native
2 175 (9.98%) Product Ownership
3 109 (6.21%) Distributed Systems
4 90 (5.13%) Mobile App
5 58 (3.31%) Management Information System
6 51 (2.91%) Enterprise Software
7 46 (2.62%) Low-Code
7 46 (2.62%) Onboarding
8 44 (2.51%) Algorithms
8 44 (2.51%) Public Cloud
9 39 (2.22%) Greenfield Project
10 36 (2.05%) Self-Motivation
11 34 (1.94%) Data Structures
11 34 (1.94%) Legacy Systems
12 25 (1.43%) Blog
13 24 (1.37%) Embedded Systems
13 24 (1.37%) Video\Live Streaming
14 23 (1.31%) Hedge funds
14 23 (1.31%) Hybrid Cloud
15 21 (1.20%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 161 (9.18%) Linux
2 82 (4.68%) Windows
3 69 (3.93%) Apple iOS
4 59 (3.36%) Android
5 49 (2.79%) 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
1 942 (53.71%) CI/CD
2 726 (41.39%) Agile
3 616 (35.12%) DevOps
4 459 (26.17%) Software Engineering
5 430 (24.52%) Continuous Improvement
6 418 (23.83%) Mentoring
7 360 (20.52%) Problem-Solving
8 308 (17.56%) Infrastructure as Code
9 302 (17.22%) Microservices
10 295 (16.82%) AI
11 265 (15.11%) Software Testing
12 251 (14.31%) Observability
13 241 (13.74%) Coaching
14 225 (12.83%) Containerisation
15 218 (12.43%) Full-Stack Development
16 212 (12.09%) Test Strategy
17 206 (11.74%) Clean Code
18 191 (10.89%) Validation
19 171 (9.75%) Deployment Automation
20 163 (9.29%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 544 (31.01%) Python
2 468 (26.68%) Java
3 305 (17.39%) SQL
4 249 (14.20%) JavaScript
5 224 (12.77%) C#
6 215 (12.26%) TypeScript
7 89 (5.07%) C++
8 74 (4.22%) Bash
9 72 (4.10%) PowerShell
10 69 (3.93%) Go
11 54 (3.08%) C
12 35 (2.00%) Bicep
13 30 (1.71%) Rust
14 29 (1.65%) Kotlin
15 21 (1.20%) Swift
16 20 (1.14%) PL/SQL
16 20 (1.14%) Shell Script
17 19 (1.08%) Apex Code
17 19 (1.08%) MATLAB
18 18 (1.03%) PHP
Qualifications
1 225 (12.83%) Degree
2 191 (10.89%) Security Cleared
3 112 (6.39%) SC Cleared
4 88 (5.02%) Computer Science Degree
5 76 (4.33%) ISTQB
6 40 (2.28%) DV Cleared
7 28 (1.60%) Master's Degree
8 25 (1.43%) AWS Certification
9 21 (1.20%) CISSP
10 19 (1.08%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 17 (0.97%) DBS Check
12 15 (0.86%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
12 15 (0.86%) Azure Certification
13 13 (0.74%) CGEIT
13 13 (0.74%) CISA
13 13 (0.74%) CISM
13 13 (0.74%) FFIEC
13 13 (0.74%) HND
13 13 (0.74%) PhD
13 13 (0.74%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 392 (22.35%) QA
2 144 (8.21%) Accessibility
3 78 (4.45%) Data Quality
4 50 (2.85%) GDPR
5 26 (1.48%) NIST
6 24 (1.37%) WCAG
7 19 (1.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.80%) COBIT
8 14 (0.80%) SLA
9 11 (0.63%) Software Quality Assurance
10 10 (0.57%) GRC
10 10 (0.57%) ISO 22301
11 8 (0.46%) ISO 9001
12 7 (0.40%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.34%) PMO
14 5 (0.29%) IEC 61508
14 5 (0.29%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
15 4 (0.23%) ISO 13485
15 4 (0.23%) JTAG
System Software
1 247 (14.08%) Docker
2 25 (1.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 24 (1.37%) Active Directory
4 18 (1.03%) Firmware
4 18 (1.03%) Hyper-V
5 15 (0.86%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (0.80%) KVM
7 8 (0.46%) Embedded Firmware
8 3 (0.17%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.11%) vSphere
10 1 (0.057%) IAG
10 1 (0.057%) Xen
Systems Management
1 308 (17.56%) Terraform
2 291 (16.59%) Kubernetes
3 133 (7.58%) Grafana
4 74 (4.22%) Ansible
5 63 (3.59%) Prometheus
6 25 (1.43%) Argo
7 23 (1.31%) Single Sign-On
8 10 (0.57%) logstash
9 9 (0.51%) 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
1 135 (7.70%) Microsoft
2 62 (3.53%) Oracle
3 57 (3.25%) Databricks
4 51 (2.91%) Salesforce
5 43 (2.45%) VMware
6 39 (2.22%) Google
7 23 (1.31%) OpenAI
8 22 (1.25%) Splunk
9 19 (1.08%) ServiceNow
10 17 (0.97%) Dynatrace
11 16 (0.91%) SAP
12 15 (0.86%) Braze
13 13 (0.74%) Amplitude
13 13 (0.74%) Atlassian
13 13 (0.74%) Commvault
13 13 (0.74%) CrowdStrike
14 12 (0.68%) AppDynamics
14 12 (0.68%) Foundry
14 12 (0.68%) Palantir
15 11 (0.63%) IFS