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

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 84 84 99
Rank change year-on-year 0 +15 -45
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,029 1,701 2,311
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.02% 3.46% 2.50%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.75% 3.85% 3.05%
Number of salaries quoted 1,177 832 1,460
10th Percentile £42,500 £37,500 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £47,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +8.70% -11.54%
75th Percentile £81,788 £82,500 £71,991
90th Percentile £95,000 £98,474 £86,485
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £57,443 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.45% +9.41% -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 73,858 44,154 75,761
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.61% 89.93% 81.83%
Number of salaries quoted 51,064 24,939 51,848
10th Percentile £30,500 £28,750 £30,000
25th Percentile £41,250 £37,599 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,043 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.01% +0.08% -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £76,250 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,528 £93,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +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 23 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 23 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 -4 1,685 £66,000 +3.00% 827
UK excluding London -2 1,230 £60,000 +4.45% 587
Work from Home +21 884 £67,500 +12.50% 347
London +9 638 £80,000 +3.23% 340
North of England +6 333 £57,500 -4.17% 161
South East -29 224 £62,000 +12.73% 156
South West -24 198 £55,000 -4.35% 100
Midlands -9 181 £62,500 +4.17% 71
North West -3 174 £62,500 -3.85% 98
Northern Ireland +5 130 £80,000 +45.45% 15
West Midlands -24 95 £62,500 -1.96% 43
North East +3 87 £52,500 +7.35% 23
East Midlands -22 85 £62,500 +31.58% 28
Yorkshire -18 72 £69,310 +41.45% 42
Wales -4 68 £55,000 - 9
East of England -21 61 £55,000 -3.51% 61
Scotland -34 48 £62,500 -10.71% 30

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 42 (2.07%) Confluence
2 29 (1.43%) Apache Airflow
2 29 (1.43%) Apache Spark
3 24 (1.18%) Apache
4 22 (1.08%) SharePoint
5 15 (0.74%) Jupyter
6 13 (0.64%) CMS
7 12 (0.59%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 12 (0.59%) Anypoint
7 12 (0.59%) Mule
8 7 (0.34%) IIS
9 5 (0.25%) Umbraco
9 5 (0.25%) WordPress
10 4 (0.20%) nginx
10 4 (0.20%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.15%) Headless CMS
11 3 (0.15%) JBoss
11 3 (0.15%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.15%) SAS
12 2 (0.099%) WebLogic
Applications
1 21 (1.03%) Microsoft Excel
2 12 (0.59%) Simulink
3 11 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
4 7 (0.34%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.30%) PlantUML
6 5 (0.25%) Lightworks
7 3 (0.15%) CANalyzer
7 3 (0.15%) MS Visio
8 2 (0.099%) Adobe Creative Suite
9 1 (0.049%) Chatbot
9 1 (0.049%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.049%) Moqups
Business Applications
1 37 (1.82%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.33%) Dynamics GP
3 5 (0.25%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.20%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.15%) SAP S/4HANA
6 2 (0.099%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.099%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.099%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.099%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.049%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.049%) Endur
7 1 (0.049%) Findur
7 1 (0.049%) Magento
7 1 (0.049%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.049%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.049%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.049%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.049%) Oracle EBS
7 1 (0.049%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.049%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 751 (37.01%) AWS
2 633 (31.20%) Azure
3 239 (11.78%) Azure DevOps
4 230 (11.34%) SaaS
5 227 (11.19%) GCP
6 181 (8.92%) Serverless
7 166 (8.18%) GitHub
8 87 (4.29%) GitHub Actions
9 84 (4.14%) AWS CloudFormation
10 78 (3.84%) AWS Lambda
11 73 (3.60%) Amazon S3
12 70 (3.45%) Amazon EKS
13 53 (2.61%) Power Platform
14 52 (2.56%) Azure Service Bus
15 51 (2.51%) PaaS
16 44 (2.17%) Azure Logic Apps
16 44 (2.17%) Azure Monitor
16 44 (2.17%) dbt
17 40 (1.97%) Amazon EC2
18 33 (1.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 71 (3.50%) Broadband
2 24 (1.18%) Firewall
3 14 (0.69%) Wireless
4 13 (0.64%) DMARC
4 13 (0.64%) SSL
5 12 (0.59%) MQTT
6 11 (0.54%) DNS
7 10 (0.49%) LTE
7 10 (0.49%) TCP/IP
7 10 (0.49%) Wi-Fi
8 8 (0.39%) 3GPP
9 7 (0.34%) CHAP
9 7 (0.34%) GSM
9 7 (0.34%) HTTP
9 7 (0.34%) Radio Access Network
9 7 (0.34%) RANAP
9 7 (0.34%) SS7
9 7 (0.34%) UMTS
9 7 (0.34%) WAN
9 7 (0.34%) Wireshark
Database & Business Intelligence
1 136 (6.70%) NoSQL
2 132 (6.51%) PostgreSQL
3 103 (5.08%) MongoDB
4 70 (3.45%) SQL Server
5 46 (2.27%) DynamoDB
6 41 (2.02%) Relational Database
7 36 (1.77%) MySQL
8 28 (1.38%) Data Warehouse
9 26 (1.28%) Redis
10 25 (1.23%) Power BI
11 22 (1.08%) BigQuery
12 18 (0.89%) Spark SQL
13 17 (0.84%) Amazon RDS
14 16 (0.79%) Metadata
14 16 (0.79%) Semantic Layer
15 15 (0.74%) Amazon Athena
16 14 (0.69%) Data Lake
17 13 (0.64%) Oracle Database
18 12 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
19 10 (0.49%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 262 (12.91%) Git
2 182 (8.97%) GitLab
3 181 (8.92%) Jenkins
4 150 (7.39%) Selenium
5 126 (6.21%) JIRA
6 93 (4.58%) Cucumber
7 90 (4.44%) Cypress.io
8 76 (3.75%) Postman
9 58 (2.86%) TeamCity
10 51 (2.51%) JMeter
11 37 (1.82%) REST Assured
12 35 (1.72%) JUnit
13 32 (1.58%) Zephyr
14 25 (1.23%) SpecFlow
14 25 (1.23%) TestRail
15 24 (1.18%) Gatling
16 21 (1.03%) fastlane
17 20 (0.99%) Crashlytics
18 18 (0.89%) Bitbucket
18 18 (0.89%) Robot Framework
General
1 530 (26.12%) Social Skills
2 442 (21.78%) Finance
3 214 (10.55%) Analytical Skills
4 205 (10.10%) Public Sector
5 199 (9.81%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 186 (9.17%) Banking
7 173 (8.53%) Law
8 112 (5.52%) Legal
9 97 (4.78%) Retail
10 68 (3.35%) Manufacturing
11 60 (2.96%) Financial Institution
12 58 (2.86%) Marketing
13 57 (2.81%) Electronics
14 53 (2.61%) Games
15 51 (2.51%) Back Office
16 31 (1.53%) Front Office
17 27 (1.33%) Telecoms
18 24 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
19 21 (1.03%) Influencing Skills
20 19 (0.94%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 572 (28.19%) Senior
2 319 (15.72%) Lead
3 304 (14.98%) Software Engineer
4 289 (14.24%) Developer
5 216 (10.65%) Test Engineer
6 119 (5.86%) Senior Developer
7 118 (5.82%) Java Engineer
8 92 (4.53%) Senior Software Engineer
9 85 (4.19%) QA Engineer
9 85 (4.19%) Test Automation Engineer
10 83 (4.09%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 73 (3.60%) DevOps Engineer
12 71 (3.50%) Test Leader
13 68 (3.35%) Architect
14 67 (3.30%) Tester
15 61 (3.01%) Data Engineer
16 59 (2.91%) Senior Manager
17 55 (2.71%) Software Developer
18 53 (2.61%) Senior Test Engineer
19 52 (2.56%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 209 (10.30%) React
2 199 (9.81%) .NET
3 178 (8.77%) Spring
4 176 (8.67%) Playwright
5 175 (8.62%) REST
6 169 (8.33%) Node.js
6 169 (8.33%) RESTful
7 133 (6.55%) Spring Boot
8 114 (5.62%) Kafka
9 98 (4.83%) AngularJS
10 83 (4.09%) CSS
11 80 (3.94%) HTML
12 66 (3.25%) Middleware
12 66 (3.25%) OAuth
13 58 (2.86%) OAuth2
14 46 (2.27%) JSON
15 43 (2.12%) RabbitMQ
16 42 (2.07%) Vue
17 41 (2.02%) Next.js
18 39 (1.92%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 362 (17.84%) Cloud Native
2 229 (11.29%) Product Ownership
3 166 (8.18%) Distributed Systems
4 102 (5.03%) Mobile App
5 71 (3.50%) Enterprise Software
6 68 (3.35%) Virtual Team
7 66 (3.25%) Public Cloud
8 64 (3.15%) Legacy Systems
9 60 (2.96%) Cyber Threat
10 57 (2.81%) Algorithms
11 52 (2.56%) Blog
12 50 (2.46%) Low-Code
13 48 (2.37%) Management Information System
14 44 (2.17%) Data Structures
15 43 (2.12%) Onboarding
16 39 (1.92%) Greenfield Project
17 34 (1.68%) Embedded Systems
17 34 (1.68%) Video\Live Streaming
18 33 (1.63%) Marketing Technology
18 33 (1.63%) Self-Motivation
Operating Systems
1 177 (8.72%) Linux
2 91 (4.48%) Windows
3 60 (2.96%) Apple iOS
4 51 (2.51%) Android
4 51 (2.51%) Unix
5 9 (0.44%) Windows Server
6 7 (0.34%) CentOS
7 6 (0.30%) FreeRTOS
8 5 (0.25%) Embedded Linux
9 4 (0.20%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.15%) AIX
10 3 (0.15%) Debian
11 1 (0.049%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
11 1 (0.049%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.049%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.049%) VMS
11 1 (0.049%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.049%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,158 (57.07%) CI/CD
2 900 (44.36%) Agile
3 776 (38.25%) DevOps
4 640 (31.54%) Software Engineering
5 580 (28.59%) Mentoring
6 571 (28.14%) Continuous Improvement
7 403 (19.86%) Problem-Solving
8 394 (19.42%) Microservices
9 385 (18.97%) AI
10 362 (17.84%) Infrastructure as Code
11 344 (16.95%) Software Testing
12 284 (14.00%) Test Strategy
13 264 (13.01%) Containerisation
14 261 (12.86%) Coaching
14 261 (12.86%) Full-Stack Development
15 253 (12.47%) Observability
16 221 (10.89%) Validation
17 220 (10.84%) Code Quality
18 207 (10.20%) Scrum
19 202 (9.96%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 645 (31.79%) Python
2 551 (27.16%) Java
3 358 (17.64%) JavaScript
4 319 (15.72%) SQL
5 297 (14.64%) TypeScript
6 296 (14.59%) C#
7 112 (5.52%) C++
8 104 (5.13%) PowerShell
9 81 (3.99%) Go
10 77 (3.79%) Bash
11 71 (3.50%) C
12 40 (1.97%) Kotlin
13 32 (1.58%) Rust
14 30 (1.48%) Swift
15 27 (1.33%) PHP
16 25 (1.23%) Ruby
17 22 (1.08%) Bicep
18 21 (1.03%) MATLAB
19 18 (0.89%) Groovy
20 16 (0.79%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 245 (12.07%) Security Cleared
2 233 (11.48%) Degree
3 153 (7.54%) SC Cleared
4 103 (5.08%) Computer Science Degree
5 81 (3.99%) ISTQB
6 61 (3.01%) CISSP
7 60 (2.96%) ITIL Certification
8 56 (2.76%) CISM
9 47 (2.32%) DV Cleared
10 39 (1.92%) AWS Certification
11 37 (1.82%) Master's Degree
12 29 (1.43%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 18 (0.89%) DBS Check
14 17 (0.84%) ISEB
15 15 (0.74%) BPSS Clearance
16 13 (0.64%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
17 12 (0.59%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
18 11 (0.54%) HNC
19 9 (0.44%) HND
20 7 (0.34%) CISA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 470 (23.16%) QA
2 182 (8.97%) Accessibility
3 76 (3.75%) Data Quality
4 62 (3.06%) NIST
5 53 (2.61%) ISO 22301
6 51 (2.51%) WCAG
7 46 (2.27%) GDPR
8 15 (0.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
9 14 (0.69%) SLA
10 13 (0.64%) Software Quality Assurance
11 11 (0.54%) GRC
12 9 (0.44%) SOC 2
13 8 (0.39%) COBIT
14 7 (0.34%) JTAG
15 6 (0.30%) MISRA
15 6 (0.30%) PMO
16 4 (0.20%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.20%) ISO 9001
16 4 (0.20%) NCSC
17 3 (0.15%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 271 (13.36%) Docker
2 29 (1.43%) Firmware
3 22 (1.08%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (0.79%) Virtual Machines
5 13 (0.64%) Hyper-V
6 11 (0.54%) Active Directory
6 11 (0.54%) KVM
7 10 (0.49%) Embedded Firmware
8 2 (0.099%) vSphere
9 1 (0.049%) IAG
9 1 (0.049%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.049%) Terminal Server
9 1 (0.049%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.049%) Xen
Systems Management
1 311 (15.33%) Terraform
2 302 (14.88%) Kubernetes
3 133 (6.55%) Grafana
4 79 (3.89%) Ansible
5 59 (2.91%) Prometheus
6 24 (1.18%) Argo
7 15 (0.74%) Kibana
8 12 (0.59%) CloudHub
9 9 (0.44%) logstash
9 9 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
10 8 (0.39%) Puppet
11 7 (0.34%) HP Fortify
12 6 (0.30%) Functional Safety
12 6 (0.30%) vCenter Server
13 5 (0.25%) Microsoft Intune
13 5 (0.25%) Packer
14 4 (0.20%) SCCM
14 4 (0.20%) SCOM
15 3 (0.15%) HP ALM
15 3 (0.15%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 154 (7.59%) Microsoft
2 57 (2.81%) Databricks
3 49 (2.41%) Salesforce
4 48 (2.37%) Google
5 46 (2.27%) Oracle
6 41 (2.02%) ServiceNow
7 36 (1.77%) VMware
8 28 (1.38%) Splunk
9 25 (1.23%) SAP
10 24 (1.18%) Dynatrace
11 21 (1.03%) Pega
12 17 (0.84%) AppDynamics
13 16 (0.79%) Braze
13 16 (0.79%) OpenAI
14 15 (0.74%) MuleSoft
15 14 (0.69%) Adobe
15 14 (0.69%) Amplitude
15 14 (0.69%) Atlassian
16 13 (0.64%) IBM
16 13 (0.64%) SendGrid