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 25 August 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
25 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 81 91 99
Rank change year-on-year +10 +8 -29
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,282 1,630 2,056
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.10% 3.26% 2.46%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.87% 3.67% 3.05%
Number of salaries quoted 1,262 787 1,220
10th Percentile £41,775 £37,500 £38,750
25th Percentile £48,750 £47,500 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £80,000 £82,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year +9.09% - -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 79,636 44,374 67,391
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.20% 88.88% 80.70%
Number of salaries quoted 55,106 25,202 42,338
10th Percentile £31,000 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,650 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.33%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year +15.79% -5.00% -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 25 August 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 25 August 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 +3 1,851 £65,000 +3.17% 684
UK excluding London +15 1,459 £60,000 +9.09% 607
Work from Home +22 872 £67,500 +8.87% 306
London -1 669 £80,000 +1.51% 209
North of England +14 367 £60,000 +1.44% 129
South East -5 265 £62,000 +12.73% 151
South West +6 238 £60,000 +14.29% 152
Midlands +1 198 £60,000 +2.13% 77
North West -6 186 £65,000 - 67
Northern Ireland +9 166 £80,000 +45.45% 11
West Midlands -16 110 £62,500 +2.88% 53
Wales +13 109 £55,000 +2.33% 8
North East +14 104 £55,000 +57.14% 27
East Midlands -21 88 £55,000 -4.35% 24
Yorkshire -22 77 £69,310 +41.45% 35
East of England -32 71 £50,000 -14.53% 54
Scotland -34 58 £62,500 +4.17% 40

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 50 (2.19%) Confluence
2 28 (1.23%) Apache Spark
3 24 (1.05%) Apache
3 24 (1.05%) SharePoint
4 22 (0.96%) Apache Airflow
5 17 (0.74%) Jupyter
6 14 (0.61%) Anypoint
6 14 (0.61%) Mule
7 13 (0.57%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 11 (0.48%) CMS
9 5 (0.22%) Cloud Foundry
9 5 (0.22%) IIS
9 5 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
9 5 (0.22%) nginx
9 5 (0.22%) Umbraco
10 4 (0.18%) Camunda
10 4 (0.18%) SAS
11 3 (0.13%) Palantir Foundry
11 3 (0.13%) WordPress
12 2 (0.088%) Headless CMS
Applications
1 55 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.53%) Simulink
4 7 (0.31%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.22%) Lightworks
5 5 (0.22%) Moqups
6 3 (0.13%) CANalyzer
6 3 (0.13%) Chatbot
6 3 (0.13%) MS Visio
6 3 (0.13%) PlantUML
7 1 (0.044%) AutoCAD
7 1 (0.044%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.044%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 67 (2.94%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.18%) Dynamics GP
3 11 (0.48%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.22%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.13%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.13%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.13%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.088%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.088%) Magento
6 2 (0.088%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.088%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.088%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.044%) Endur
7 1 (0.044%) Findur
7 1 (0.044%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.044%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.044%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.044%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.044%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.044%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 789 (34.57%) AWS
2 664 (29.10%) Azure
3 295 (12.93%) SaaS
4 251 (11.00%) Azure DevOps
5 242 (10.60%) GCP
6 187 (8.19%) GitHub
7 182 (7.98%) Serverless
8 96 (4.21%) AWS CloudFormation
9 95 (4.16%) GitHub Actions
10 78 (3.42%) AWS Lambda
11 72 (3.16%) Amazon S3
12 69 (3.02%) Amazon EKS
13 61 (2.67%) Power Platform
14 51 (2.23%) Azure Service Bus
15 49 (2.15%) Azure Logic Apps
16 47 (2.06%) PaaS
17 45 (1.97%) Azure Monitor
18 42 (1.84%) dbt
19 39 (1.71%) Amazon EC2
20 36 (1.58%) Google Ads
Communications & Networking
1 70 (3.07%) Broadband
2 26 (1.14%) Firewall
3 21 (0.92%) TCP/IP
4 19 (0.83%) DNS
5 16 (0.70%) SSL
5 16 (0.70%) Wireless
6 13 (0.57%) DMARC
6 13 (0.57%) Wi-Fi
7 12 (0.53%) MQTT
8 11 (0.48%) DHCP
8 11 (0.48%) WAN
9 10 (0.44%) LTE
10 9 (0.39%) 3GPP
10 9 (0.39%) HTTP
10 9 (0.39%) Network Security
11 7 (0.31%) 5G
11 7 (0.31%) CHAP
11 7 (0.31%) GSM
11 7 (0.31%) SS7
11 7 (0.31%) UMTS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 129 (5.65%) PostgreSQL
2 120 (5.26%) NoSQL
3 91 (3.99%) MongoDB
4 76 (3.33%) SQL Server
5 60 (2.63%) Relational Database
6 47 (2.06%) DynamoDB
7 39 (1.71%) MySQL
8 35 (1.53%) Data Warehouse
9 33 (1.45%) Power BI
10 27 (1.18%) BigQuery
11 26 (1.14%) Redis
12 23 (1.01%) Data Lake
13 18 (0.79%) Spark SQL
14 17 (0.74%) Amazon RDS
14 17 (0.74%) Semantic Layer
15 16 (0.70%) Amazon Athena
15 16 (0.70%) Metadata
16 12 (0.53%) Elasticsearch
16 12 (0.53%) Oracle Database
17 11 (0.48%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 323 (14.15%) Git
2 209 (9.16%) GitLab
3 203 (8.90%) Jenkins
4 164 (7.19%) Selenium
5 141 (6.18%) JIRA
6 103 (4.51%) Cypress.io
7 101 (4.43%) Cucumber
8 91 (3.99%) Postman
9 58 (2.54%) TeamCity
10 52 (2.28%) JMeter
11 44 (1.93%) JUnit
11 44 (1.93%) REST Assured
12 35 (1.53%) Zephyr
13 32 (1.40%) Gatling
14 30 (1.31%) SonarQube
15 27 (1.18%) TestRail
16 25 (1.10%) Bitbucket
17 23 (1.01%) SpecFlow
18 21 (0.92%) Robot Framework
19 20 (0.88%) fastlane
General
1 637 (27.91%) Social Skills
2 532 (23.31%) Finance
3 315 (13.80%) Analytical Skills
4 246 (10.78%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 216 (9.47%) Public Sector
6 196 (8.59%) Law
7 187 (8.19%) Banking
8 145 (6.35%) Legal
9 135 (5.92%) Marketing
10 98 (4.29%) Retail
11 85 (3.72%) Manufacturing
12 75 (3.29%) Electronics
13 71 (3.11%) Financial Institution
14 54 (2.37%) Back Office
15 50 (2.19%) Games
16 40 (1.75%) Aerospace
17 35 (1.53%) Telecoms
18 28 (1.23%) Documentation Skills
18 28 (1.23%) Front Office
19 21 (0.92%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 640 (28.05%) Senior
2 357 (15.64%) Lead
3 336 (14.72%) Software Engineer
4 324 (14.20%) Developer
5 243 (10.65%) Test Engineer
6 123 (5.39%) Senior Developer
7 110 (4.82%) Java Engineer
8 100 (4.38%) Senior Software Engineer
9 95 (4.16%) QA Engineer
10 94 (4.12%) DevOps Engineer
11 85 (3.72%) Test Automation Engineer
12 82 (3.59%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 69 (3.02%) Lead Software Engineer
14 67 (2.94%) Test Leader
15 65 (2.85%) Data Engineer
16 64 (2.80%) Software Developer
17 63 (2.76%) Analyst
17 63 (2.76%) Senior Manager
17 63 (2.76%) Tester
18 62 (2.72%) Architect
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 318 (13.94%) Terraform
2 237 (10.39%) React
3 222 (9.73%) REST
4 217 (9.51%) .NET
5 196 (8.59%) Playwright
6 192 (8.41%) Node.js
7 189 (8.28%) Spring
8 187 (8.19%) RESTful
9 140 (6.13%) Spring Boot
10 121 (5.30%) Kafka
11 111 (4.86%) AngularJS
12 102 (4.47%) CSS
13 96 (4.21%) HTML
14 69 (3.02%) OAuth
15 65 (2.85%) Middleware
16 63 (2.76%) OAuth2
17 57 (2.50%) JSON
18 50 (2.19%) Next.js
18 50 (2.19%) Vue
19 46 (2.02%) RabbitMQ
Miscellaneous
1 394 (17.27%) Cloud Native
2 271 (11.88%) Product Ownership
3 199 (8.72%) Distributed Systems
4 114 (5.00%) Mobile App
5 90 (3.94%) Enterprise Software
6 80 (3.51%) Public Cloud
7 77 (3.37%) Blog
7 77 (3.37%) Virtual Team
8 74 (3.24%) Onboarding
9 71 (3.11%) Legacy Systems
10 64 (2.80%) Marketing Technology
11 61 (2.67%) Algorithms
12 57 (2.50%) Cyber Threat
13 54 (2.37%) Low-Code
14 46 (2.02%) Data Structures
14 46 (2.02%) Management Information System
15 45 (1.97%) Self-Motivation
16 39 (1.71%) Embedded Systems
17 37 (1.62%) Greenfield Project
18 35 (1.53%) e-Learning
Operating Systems
1 190 (8.33%) Linux
2 102 (4.47%) Windows
3 62 (2.72%) Apple iOS
4 61 (2.67%) Android
5 52 (2.28%) Unix
6 11 (0.48%) Windows Server
7 9 (0.39%) Embedded Linux
8 8 (0.35%) CentOS
9 6 (0.26%) FreeRTOS
10 5 (0.22%) Kali Linux
11 4 (0.18%) AIX
11 4 (0.18%) Debian
12 3 (0.13%) VxWorks
13 2 (0.088%) OpenWrt
13 2 (0.088%) VMS
14 1 (0.044%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
14 1 (0.044%) ThreadX
14 1 (0.044%) Ubuntu
14 1 (0.044%) Windows 10
14 1 (0.044%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,276 (55.92%) CI/CD
2 995 (43.60%) Agile
3 832 (36.46%) DevOps
4 735 (32.21%) Software Engineering
5 672 (29.45%) Continuous Improvement
6 596 (26.12%) Mentoring
7 530 (23.23%) AI
8 494 (21.65%) Problem-Solving
9 421 (18.45%) Microservices
10 389 (17.05%) Infrastructure as Code
11 388 (17.00%) Software Testing
12 326 (14.29%) Test Strategy
13 283 (12.40%) Full-Stack Development
14 282 (12.36%) Observability
15 279 (12.23%) Code Quality
16 278 (12.18%) Containerisation
17 275 (12.05%) Validation
18 269 (11.79%) Coaching
19 254 (11.13%) Decision-Making
20 242 (10.60%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 688 (30.15%) Python
2 579 (25.37%) Java
3 406 (17.79%) JavaScript
4 386 (16.91%) SQL
5 333 (14.59%) TypeScript
6 328 (14.37%) C#
7 125 (5.48%) C++
8 110 (4.82%) PowerShell
9 97 (4.25%) Go
10 78 (3.42%) Bash
10 78 (3.42%) C
11 40 (1.75%) Kotlin
12 34 (1.49%) PHP
12 34 (1.49%) Rust
13 29 (1.27%) Swift
14 27 (1.18%) Ruby
15 22 (0.96%) Bicep
16 21 (0.92%) MATLAB
17 19 (0.83%) Groovy
18 16 (0.70%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 314 (13.76%) Security Cleared
2 245 (10.74%) Degree
3 185 (8.11%) SC Cleared
4 108 (4.73%) Computer Science Degree
5 77 (3.37%) ISTQB
6 64 (2.80%) DV Cleared
7 59 (2.59%) CISSP
8 57 (2.50%) ITIL Certification
9 56 (2.45%) CISM
10 49 (2.15%) AWS Certification
11 41 (1.80%) Master's Degree
12 35 (1.53%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 31 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
14 25 (1.10%) HNC
15 20 (0.88%) HND
16 18 (0.79%) ISEB
17 16 (0.70%) DBS Check
18 14 (0.61%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
19 13 (0.57%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
20 10 (0.44%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 535 (23.44%) QA
2 210 (9.20%) Accessibility
3 69 (3.02%) Data Quality
4 64 (2.80%) WCAG
5 61 (2.67%) NIST
6 50 (2.19%) ISO 22301
7 43 (1.88%) GDPR
8 14 (0.61%) SLA
9 13 (0.57%) GRC
9 13 (0.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
10 10 (0.44%) Software Quality Assurance
11 9 (0.39%) SOC 2
12 8 (0.35%) COBIT
12 8 (0.35%) MISRA
13 7 (0.31%) JTAG
14 6 (0.26%) PMO
15 5 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
15 5 (0.22%) ISO 9001
15 5 (0.22%) NCSC
15 5 (0.22%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 314 (13.76%) Docker
2 36 (1.58%) Firmware
3 16 (0.70%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (0.66%) Active Directory
4 15 (0.66%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
6 8 (0.35%) Hyper-V
7 6 (0.26%) KVM
8 2 (0.088%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.044%) IAG
9 1 (0.044%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.044%) QEMU
9 1 (0.044%) Terminal Server
9 1 (0.044%) Virtual Desktop
9 1 (0.044%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 324 (14.20%) Kubernetes
2 134 (5.87%) Grafana
3 83 (3.64%) Ansible
4 52 (2.28%) Prometheus
5 27 (1.18%) Argo
6 16 (0.70%) Kibana
7 14 (0.61%) CloudHub
8 13 (0.57%) Puppet
9 9 (0.39%) logstash
9 9 (0.39%) Microsoft Intune
10 8 (0.35%) HP Fortify
11 7 (0.31%) Single Sign-On
12 6 (0.26%) Functional Safety
12 6 (0.26%) Progress Chef
12 6 (0.26%) vCenter Server
13 5 (0.22%) Packer
14 4 (0.18%) SCCM
14 4 (0.18%) SCOM
15 3 (0.13%) HP ALM
15 3 (0.13%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 221 (9.68%) Microsoft
2 99 (4.34%) Google
3 61 (2.67%) Databricks
4 56 (2.45%) Oracle
5 53 (2.32%) Salesforce
6 42 (1.84%) SAP
7 37 (1.62%) ServiceNow
8 35 (1.53%) Splunk
9 27 (1.18%) VMware
10 25 (1.10%) Dynatrace
11 22 (0.96%) Pega
12 19 (0.83%) AppDynamics
13 16 (0.70%) Atlassian
13 16 (0.70%) IBM
13 16 (0.70%) MuleSoft
14 15 (0.66%) OpenAI
14 15 (0.66%) Red Hat
15 14 (0.61%) Adobe
16 13 (0.57%) Braze
16 13 (0.57%) SendGrid