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

6 months to
11 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 77 94
Rank change year-on-year -15 +17 -61
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,702 1,625 2,731
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.88% 3.70% 2.83%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.55% 3.97% 3.32%
Number of salaries quoted 1,068 904 1,775
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,773 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,938 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £64,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +6.67% +4.35% -11.54%
75th Percentile £83,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £105,000 £98,474 £90,000
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 66,871 40,971 82,332
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.97% 93.32% 85.23%
Number of salaries quoted 42,937 22,765 59,727
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,000 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -10.10%
75th Percentile £78,750 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,410 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year - +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 11 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 11 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 -9 1,462 £65,000 +8.33% 579
UK excluding London -51 921 £60,000 +9.09% 464
Work from Home -5 705 £67,500 +12.50% 277
London +33 628 £80,000 +14.29% 199
North of England -45 229 £62,500 +13.64% 129
South East -41 183 £60,000 +11.63% 110
South West -23 174 £55,000 -8.33% 67
Midlands -56 145 £62,500 +8.70% 61
North West -40 118 £60,000 +9.09% 61
Scotland -14 90 £60,000 - 26
West Midlands -49 74 £62,500 - 39
East Midlands -40 70 £61,250 +25.64% 22
Yorkshire -51 62 £69,310 +38.01% 33
East of England -21 58 £52,500 -7.89% 60
North East -23 49 £52,500 -11.02% 35
Wales -6 45 £55,000 +4.58% 18
Northern Ireland -35 9 £80,000 +45.45% 6

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 (2.12%) Confluence
2 23 (1.35%) Apache Airflow
3 17 (1.00%) Apache Spark
4 12 (0.71%) Apache
4 12 (0.71%) Appian
4 12 (0.71%) SharePoint
5 11 (0.65%) CMS
5 11 (0.65%) Jupyter
6 10 (0.59%) IIS
6 10 (0.59%) Palantir Foundry
7 8 (0.47%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 6 (0.35%) WordPress
9 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.18%) nginx
9 3 (0.18%) Umbraco
10 2 (0.12%) Adobe Experience Manager
10 2 (0.12%) Camunda
10 2 (0.12%) JBoss
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
10 2 (0.12%) SAS
Applications
1 13 (0.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.59%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.35%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 6 (0.35%) PlantUML
4 5 (0.29%) MS Visio
5 4 (0.24%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.24%) Simulink
6 3 (0.18%) CANalyzer
7 2 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.059%) Photoshop
8 1 (0.059%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 15 (0.88%) Oracle ERP
2 9 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.29%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.24%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (0.24%) Shopify
5 2 (0.12%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.059%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.059%) Endur
6 1 (0.059%) Findur
6 1 (0.059%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.059%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.059%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.059%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.059%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.059%) SAP CX
6 1 (0.059%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.059%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 566 (33.25%) Azure
2 530 (31.14%) AWS
3 267 (15.69%) Azure DevOps
4 191 (11.22%) GCP
5 167 (9.81%) GitHub
6 149 (8.75%) Serverless
7 115 (6.76%) SaaS
8 69 (4.05%) GitHub Actions
9 64 (3.76%) Amazon EKS
10 63 (3.70%) AWS Lambda
11 59 (3.47%) Amazon S3
12 57 (3.35%) AWS CloudFormation
13 56 (3.29%) PaaS
14 52 (3.06%) Azure Data Factory
15 48 (2.82%) Power Platform
16 46 (2.70%) dbt
17 39 (2.29%) Azure Service Bus
18 37 (2.17%) GitHub Copilot
19 35 (2.06%) Datadog
20 34 (2.00%) Azure AKS
Communications & Networking
1 41 (2.41%) Broadband
2 21 (1.23%) Firewall
3 16 (0.94%) CHAP
3 16 (0.94%) DNS
4 12 (0.71%) WAN
5 11 (0.65%) SD-WAN
6 10 (0.59%) HTTP
7 8 (0.47%) 5G
7 8 (0.47%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.35%) VPN
9 4 (0.24%) Bluetooth
9 4 (0.24%) DHCP
9 4 (0.24%) SMTP
9 4 (0.24%) Wireless
10 3 (0.18%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (0.18%) Ethernet
10 3 (0.18%) LTE
10 3 (0.18%) VLAN
10 3 (0.18%) Wi-Fi
10 3 (0.18%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 120 (7.05%) NoSQL
2 116 (6.82%) PostgreSQL
3 89 (5.23%) MongoDB
4 80 (4.70%) SQL Server
5 35 (2.06%) Relational Database
6 34 (2.00%) DynamoDB
6 34 (2.00%) MySQL
7 33 (1.94%) Data Warehouse
8 29 (1.70%) Power BI
9 21 (1.23%) Amazon RDS
10 19 (1.12%) Metadata
11 17 (1.00%) Spark SQL
12 15 (0.88%) Redis
13 14 (0.82%) BigQuery
13 14 (0.82%) Oracle Database
13 14 (0.82%) Pinecone
14 11 (0.65%) Data Lake
15 10 (0.59%) DB2
15 10 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
16 9 (0.53%) Oracle Reports
Development Applications
1 196 (11.52%) Git
2 156 (9.17%) Selenium
3 151 (8.87%) Jenkins
4 128 (7.52%) JIRA
5 116 (6.82%) GitLab
6 84 (4.94%) Cypress.io
7 68 (4.00%) Cucumber
8 62 (3.64%) Postman
9 54 (3.17%) TeamCity
10 45 (2.64%) JMeter
11 32 (1.88%) REST Assured
11 32 (1.88%) SpecFlow
12 30 (1.76%) CircleCI
13 24 (1.41%) TestRail
14 23 (1.35%) MLflow
15 21 (1.23%) JUnit
16 20 (1.18%) Bitbucket
16 20 (1.18%) Zephyr
17 18 (1.06%) LabVIEW
17 18 (1.06%) WebDriver
General
1 456 (26.79%) Social Skills
2 425 (24.97%) Finance
3 177 (10.40%) Banking
4 153 (8.99%) Analytical Skills
5 145 (8.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 120 (7.05%) Public Sector
7 115 (6.76%) Law
8 86 (5.05%) Retail
9 55 (3.23%) Financial Institution
9 55 (3.23%) Manufacturing
10 49 (2.88%) Electronics
11 43 (2.53%) Games
12 39 (2.29%) Back Office
13 33 (1.94%) Front Office
13 33 (1.94%) Legal
14 31 (1.82%) Marketing
15 19 (1.12%) Organisational Skills
16 16 (0.94%) Investment Banking
17 15 (0.88%) Documentation Skills
17 15 (0.88%) Influencing Skills
Job Titles
1 443 (26.03%) Senior
2 281 (16.51%) Lead
3 229 (13.45%) Software Engineer
4 228 (13.40%) Developer
5 187 (10.99%) Test Engineer
6 103 (6.05%) Senior Developer
7 95 (5.58%) QA Engineer
8 87 (5.11%) Test Automation Engineer
8 87 (5.11%) Tester
9 86 (5.05%) Java Engineer
10 73 (4.29%) Test Leader
11 69 (4.05%) Senior Software Engineer
12 63 (3.70%) Full-Stack Engineer
13 59 (3.47%) Automation Engineer
14 54 (3.17%) Data Engineer
15 53 (3.11%) DevOps Engineer
16 50 (2.94%) Architect
16 50 (2.94%) Automation Tester
16 50 (2.94%) QA Automation Engineer
16 50 (2.94%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 194 (11.40%) React
2 185 (10.87%) .NET
3 164 (9.64%) RESTful
4 153 (8.99%) REST
5 149 (8.75%) Playwright
6 111 (6.52%) Node.js
7 102 (5.99%) Spring
8 83 (4.88%) Kafka
9 76 (4.47%) Spring Boot
10 61 (3.58%) HTML
11 60 (3.53%) CSS
12 52 (3.06%) OAuth
13 51 (3.00%) JSON
14 50 (2.94%) AngularJS
15 43 (2.53%) RabbitMQ
16 41 (2.41%) pytest
17 40 (2.35%) Web Services
18 39 (2.29%) .NET Framework
18 39 (2.29%) OAuth2
19 35 (2.06%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 281 (16.51%) Cloud Native
2 161 (9.46%) Product Ownership
3 102 (5.99%) Distributed Systems
4 83 (4.88%) Mobile App
5 62 (3.64%) Management Information System
6 52 (3.06%) Enterprise Software
7 48 (2.82%) Low-Code
8 41 (2.41%) Algorithms
9 40 (2.35%) Onboarding
10 38 (2.23%) Greenfield Project
10 38 (2.23%) Public Cloud
10 38 (2.23%) Self-Motivation
11 36 (2.12%) Legacy Systems
12 30 (1.76%) Data Structures
13 26 (1.53%) Hybrid Cloud
14 24 (1.41%) Video\Live Streaming
15 23 (1.35%) Blog
15 23 (1.35%) Hedge funds
16 22 (1.29%) Embedded Systems
16 22 (1.29%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 166 (9.75%) Linux
2 85 (4.99%) Windows
3 68 (4.00%) Apple iOS
4 59 (3.47%) Android
5 48 (2.82%) Unix
6 10 (0.59%) CentOS
6 10 (0.59%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.24%) Kali Linux
8 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.18%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.12%) AIX
10 2 (0.12%) Debian
11 1 (0.059%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.059%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.059%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.059%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 887 (52.12%) CI/CD
2 692 (40.66%) Agile
3 595 (34.96%) DevOps
4 432 (25.38%) Software Engineering
5 416 (24.44%) Continuous Improvement
6 385 (22.62%) Mentoring
7 348 (20.45%) Problem-Solving
8 298 (17.51%) Infrastructure as Code
9 290 (17.04%) AI
10 287 (16.86%) Microservices
11 259 (15.22%) Software Testing
12 241 (14.16%) Observability
13 230 (13.51%) Coaching
14 212 (12.46%) Full-Stack Development
15 210 (12.34%) Containerisation
15 210 (12.34%) Test Strategy
16 195 (11.46%) Clean Code
17 190 (11.16%) Validation
18 164 (9.64%) Deployment Automation
18 164 (9.64%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 529 (31.08%) Python
2 433 (25.44%) Java
3 309 (18.16%) SQL
4 235 (13.81%) JavaScript
5 216 (12.69%) C#
6 209 (12.28%) TypeScript
7 85 (4.99%) C++
8 75 (4.41%) PowerShell
9 71 (4.17%) Bash
10 67 (3.94%) Go
11 51 (3.00%) C
12 33 (1.94%) Bicep
13 28 (1.65%) Kotlin
14 27 (1.59%) Rust
15 23 (1.35%) Shell Script
16 22 (1.29%) PL/SQL
17 21 (1.23%) Apex Code
18 20 (1.18%) PHP
18 20 (1.18%) Swift
19 17 (1.00%) MATLAB
Qualifications
1 223 (13.10%) Degree
2 171 (10.05%) Security Cleared
3 105 (6.17%) SC Cleared
4 89 (5.23%) Computer Science Degree
5 75 (4.41%) ISTQB
6 35 (2.06%) DV Cleared
7 27 (1.59%) Master's Degree
8 23 (1.35%) AWS Certification
9 22 (1.29%) CISSP
10 20 (1.18%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 18 (1.06%) DBS Check
12 16 (0.94%) CGEIT
12 16 (0.94%) CISA
12 16 (0.94%) CISM
12 16 (0.94%) FFIEC
12 16 (0.94%) SANS
13 15 (0.88%) Azure Certification
14 14 (0.82%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
15 13 (0.76%) PhD
16 12 (0.71%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 396 (23.27%) QA
2 129 (7.58%) Accessibility
3 75 (4.41%) Data Quality
4 53 (3.11%) GDPR
5 35 (2.06%) NIST
6 23 (1.35%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 22 (1.29%) WCAG
8 17 (1.00%) COBIT
9 14 (0.82%) SLA
10 12 (0.71%) ISO 22301
11 11 (0.65%) Software Quality Assurance
12 9 (0.53%) GRC
13 8 (0.47%) ISO 9001
14 7 (0.41%) SOC 2
15 6 (0.35%) IEC 61508
15 6 (0.35%) PMO
16 4 (0.24%) Cyber Essentials
16 4 (0.24%) ISO 13485
16 4 (0.24%) ISO 26262
16 4 (0.24%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 238 (13.98%) Docker
2 26 (1.53%) Active Directory
3 24 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
4 19 (1.12%) Firmware
5 17 (1.00%) Hyper-V
6 15 (0.88%) Virtual Machines
7 13 (0.76%) KVM
8 8 (0.47%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.18%) Terminal Server
10 2 (0.12%) vSphere
11 1 (0.059%) IAG
11 1 (0.059%) Xen
Systems Management
1 292 (17.16%) Terraform
2 277 (16.27%) Kubernetes
3 118 (6.93%) Grafana
4 74 (4.35%) Ansible
5 56 (3.29%) Prometheus
6 25 (1.47%) Argo
6 25 (1.47%) Single Sign-On
7 10 (0.59%) logstash
8 8 (0.47%) Kibana
9 7 (0.41%) SCCM
9 7 (0.41%) SCOM
10 5 (0.29%) HP Fortify
10 5 (0.29%) Microsoft Intune
11 4 (0.24%) Packer
11 4 (0.24%) Rancher
11 4 (0.24%) vCenter Server
12 3 (0.18%) Functional Safety
12 3 (0.18%) HP ALM
12 3 (0.18%) Puppet
12 3 (0.18%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 134 (7.87%) Microsoft
2 67 (3.94%) Oracle
3 56 (3.29%) Databricks
4 51 (3.00%) Salesforce
5 45 (2.64%) VMware
6 39 (2.29%) Google
7 24 (1.41%) OpenAI
8 19 (1.12%) Splunk
9 18 (1.06%) ServiceNow
10 16 (0.94%) Commvault
11 15 (0.88%) Dynatrace
11 15 (0.88%) SAP
12 14 (0.82%) Atlassian
13 12 (0.71%) Amplitude
13 12 (0.71%) Automation Anywhere
13 12 (0.71%) Braze
13 12 (0.71%) CrowdStrike
13 12 (0.71%) Palantir
13 12 (0.71%) UiPath
14 11 (0.65%) IFS