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

6 months to
15 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 83 90 100
Rank change year-on-year +7 +10 -34
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,205 1,646 2,050
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.07% 3.30% 2.47%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.82% 3.70% 3.05%
Number of salaries quoted 1,238 798 1,235
10th Percentile £42,000 £37,500 £38,250
25th Percentile £49,531 £47,500 £46,037
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% +4.17% -7.69%
75th Percentile £81,188 £82,500 £71,991
90th Percentile £96,250 £97,508 £88,750
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 78,311 44,508 67,246
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.48% 89.25% 80.98%
Number of salaries quoted 53,938 25,218 43,343
10th Percentile £30,775 £28,500 £31,250
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,750 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% - -8.71%
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £97,250 £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 15 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 15 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 1,808 £65,000 +3.05% 1,832
UK excluding London +7 1,396 £60,000 +9.09% 984
Work from Home +20 879 £67,500 +8.00% 723
London -3 656 £80,000 - 1,031
North of England +17 358 £60,000 +3.45% 208
South East -4 254 £62,000 +12.73% 241
South West -1 235 £60,000 +14.29% 145
Midlands -7 193 £61,000 +1.67% 120
North West -2 183 £65,000 - 107
Northern Ireland +4 143 £80,000 +45.45% 40
West Midlands -15 102 £62,500 - 78
Wales +11 100 £55,000 - 19
North East +7 100 £55,000 +59.42% 40
East Midlands -13 90 £57,500 - 42
Yorkshire -15 75 £69,310 +41.45% 61
East of England -33 69 £50,000 -12.28% 113
Scotland -39 57 £62,500 +4.17% 115

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 51 (2.31%) Confluence
2 29 (1.32%) Apache Spark
3 26 (1.18%) SharePoint
4 25 (1.13%) Apache
5 24 (1.09%) Apache Airflow
6 17 (0.77%) Jupyter
7 14 (0.63%) Anypoint
7 14 (0.63%) Mule
8 13 (0.59%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 11 (0.50%) CMS
10 5 (0.23%) Cloud Foundry
10 5 (0.23%) IIS
10 5 (0.23%) Microsoft Exchange
10 5 (0.23%) nginx
10 5 (0.23%) Umbraco
11 4 (0.18%) Camunda
11 4 (0.18%) SAS
12 3 (0.14%) Palantir Foundry
12 3 (0.14%) WordPress
13 2 (0.091%) NServiceBus
Applications
1 45 (2.04%) Microsoft Excel
2 14 (0.63%) Microsoft Office
3 12 (0.54%) Simulink
4 7 (0.32%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 5 (0.23%) Lightworks
6 4 (0.18%) Moqups
6 4 (0.18%) PlantUML
7 3 (0.14%) CANalyzer
7 3 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 3 (0.14%) MS Visio
8 1 (0.045%) AutoCAD
8 1 (0.045%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.045%) SOLIDWORKS
Business Applications
1 43 (1.95%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.22%) Dynamics GP
3 9 (0.41%) SAP S/4HANA
4 5 (0.23%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.14%) Dynamics AX
5 3 (0.14%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
6 2 (0.091%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.091%) Magento
6 2 (0.091%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.091%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.091%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.091%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.045%) Endur
7 1 (0.045%) Findur
7 1 (0.045%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.045%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.045%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.045%) Oracle ERP
7 1 (0.045%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 779 (35.33%) AWS
2 667 (30.25%) Azure
3 276 (12.52%) SaaS
4 250 (11.34%) Azure DevOps
5 233 (10.57%) GCP
6 188 (8.53%) GitHub
7 186 (8.44%) Serverless
8 96 (4.35%) GitHub Actions
9 93 (4.22%) AWS CloudFormation
10 81 (3.67%) AWS Lambda
11 74 (3.36%) Amazon S3
12 64 (2.90%) Amazon EKS
13 63 (2.86%) Power Platform
14 53 (2.40%) Azure Service Bus
15 48 (2.18%) Azure Logic Apps
15 48 (2.18%) PaaS
16 44 (2.00%) Azure Monitor
17 42 (1.90%) Amazon EC2
18 41 (1.86%) dbt
19 36 (1.63%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 73 (3.31%) Broadband
2 25 (1.13%) Firewall
3 15 (0.68%) DNS
3 15 (0.68%) SSL
3 15 (0.68%) TCP/IP
3 15 (0.68%) Wireless
4 13 (0.59%) DMARC
4 13 (0.59%) Wi-Fi
5 12 (0.54%) MQTT
6 9 (0.41%) 3GPP
6 9 (0.41%) HTTP
6 9 (0.41%) LTE
6 9 (0.41%) WAN
7 8 (0.36%) DHCP
7 8 (0.36%) Network Security
8 7 (0.32%) CHAP
8 7 (0.32%) RANAP
8 7 (0.32%) SS7
8 7 (0.32%) Wireshark
8 7 (0.32%) ZigBee
Database & Business Intelligence
1 127 (5.76%) PostgreSQL
2 120 (5.44%) NoSQL
3 91 (4.13%) MongoDB
4 75 (3.40%) SQL Server
5 56 (2.54%) Relational Database
6 48 (2.18%) DynamoDB
7 35 (1.59%) MySQL
8 34 (1.54%) Data Warehouse
9 32 (1.45%) Power BI
10 28 (1.27%) Redis
11 26 (1.18%) BigQuery
12 23 (1.04%) Data Lake
13 19 (0.86%) Amazon RDS
14 18 (0.82%) Spark SQL
15 17 (0.77%) Metadata
15 17 (0.77%) Semantic Layer
16 16 (0.73%) Amazon Athena
17 13 (0.59%) Elasticsearch
18 12 (0.54%) Oracle Database
19 11 (0.50%) Azure SQL Database
Development Applications
1 306 (13.88%) Git
2 201 (9.12%) GitLab
3 200 (9.07%) Jenkins
4 159 (7.21%) Selenium
5 143 (6.49%) JIRA
6 99 (4.49%) Cypress.io
7 97 (4.40%) Cucumber
8 89 (4.04%) Postman
9 52 (2.36%) JMeter
9 52 (2.36%) TeamCity
10 44 (2.00%) JUnit
11 39 (1.77%) REST Assured
12 35 (1.59%) Zephyr
13 29 (1.32%) Gatling
14 27 (1.22%) TestRail
15 26 (1.18%) SonarQube
16 24 (1.09%) Bitbucket
16 24 (1.09%) SpecFlow
17 21 (0.95%) fastlane
18 19 (0.86%) Crashlytics
General
1 601 (27.26%) Social Skills
2 515 (23.36%) Finance
3 274 (12.43%) Analytical Skills
4 232 (10.52%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 216 (9.80%) Public Sector
6 193 (8.75%) Law
7 180 (8.16%) Banking
8 123 (5.58%) Legal
9 103 (4.67%) Marketing
10 90 (4.08%) Retail
11 85 (3.85%) Manufacturing
12 69 (3.13%) Electronics
13 63 (2.86%) Financial Institution
14 52 (2.36%) Games
15 47 (2.13%) Back Office
16 37 (1.68%) Aerospace
17 34 (1.54%) Telecoms
18 28 (1.27%) Front Office
19 26 (1.18%) Documentation Skills
20 20 (0.91%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 629 (28.53%) Senior
2 353 (16.01%) Lead
3 330 (14.97%) Software Engineer
4 313 (14.20%) Developer
5 237 (10.75%) Test Engineer
6 122 (5.53%) Senior Developer
7 106 (4.81%) Java Engineer
8 100 (4.54%) Senior Software Engineer
9 89 (4.04%) DevOps Engineer
9 89 (4.04%) QA Engineer
10 84 (3.81%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 83 (3.76%) Test Automation Engineer
12 67 (3.04%) Architect
12 67 (3.04%) Lead Software Engineer
12 67 (3.04%) Test Leader
13 65 (2.95%) Data Engineer
14 64 (2.90%) Senior Manager
15 63 (2.86%) Tester
16 62 (2.81%) Software Developer
17 61 (2.77%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 235 (10.66%) React
2 213 (9.66%) .NET
3 202 (9.16%) REST
4 191 (8.66%) Playwright
5 188 (8.53%) Node.js
6 185 (8.39%) Spring
7 180 (8.16%) RESTful
8 137 (6.21%) Spring Boot
9 118 (5.35%) Kafka
10 108 (4.90%) AngularJS
11 95 (4.31%) CSS
12 90 (4.08%) HTML
13 68 (3.08%) OAuth
14 63 (2.86%) Middleware
15 62 (2.81%) OAuth2
16 54 (2.45%) JSON
17 51 (2.31%) Next.js
18 47 (2.13%) Vue
19 46 (2.09%) RabbitMQ
20 43 (1.95%) .NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 377 (17.10%) Cloud Native
2 256 (11.61%) Product Ownership
3 188 (8.53%) Distributed Systems
4 112 (5.08%) Mobile App
5 88 (3.99%) Enterprise Software
6 76 (3.45%) Virtual Team
7 74 (3.36%) Public Cloud
8 73 (3.31%) Legacy Systems
9 62 (2.81%) Onboarding
10 61 (2.77%) Algorithms
11 60 (2.72%) Cyber Threat
12 53 (2.40%) Blog
13 52 (2.36%) Low-Code
14 49 (2.22%) Management Information System
15 46 (2.09%) Self-Motivation
16 45 (2.04%) Data Structures
17 40 (1.81%) Marketing Technology
18 39 (1.77%) Greenfield Project
19 36 (1.63%) Embedded Systems
20 34 (1.54%) Video\Live Streaming
Operating Systems
1 187 (8.48%) Linux
2 100 (4.54%) Windows
3 64 (2.90%) Apple iOS
4 57 (2.59%) Android
5 52 (2.36%) Unix
6 12 (0.54%) Windows Server
7 7 (0.32%) CentOS
7 7 (0.32%) Embedded Linux
8 6 (0.27%) FreeRTOS
9 4 (0.18%) AIX
9 4 (0.18%) Debian
9 4 (0.18%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.14%) VxWorks
11 2 (0.091%) VMS
12 1 (0.045%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
12 1 (0.045%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.045%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.045%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.045%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,248 (56.60%) CI/CD
2 968 (43.90%) Agile
3 827 (37.51%) DevOps
4 717 (32.52%) Software Engineering
5 644 (29.21%) Continuous Improvement
6 592 (26.85%) Mentoring
7 483 (21.90%) AI
8 466 (21.13%) Problem-Solving
9 405 (18.37%) Microservices
10 384 (17.41%) Infrastructure as Code
11 379 (17.19%) Software Testing
12 319 (14.47%) Test Strategy
13 278 (12.61%) Containerisation
14 277 (12.56%) Full-Stack Development
14 277 (12.56%) Observability
15 274 (12.43%) Code Quality
16 259 (11.75%) Coaching
17 258 (11.70%) Validation
18 235 (10.66%) Technical Leadership
19 228 (10.34%) Decision-Making
Programming Languages
1 690 (31.29%) Python
2 562 (25.49%) Java
3 400 (18.14%) JavaScript
4 364 (16.51%) SQL
5 331 (15.01%) TypeScript
6 320 (14.51%) C#
7 126 (5.71%) C++
8 109 (4.94%) PowerShell
9 92 (4.17%) Go
10 78 (3.54%) C
11 74 (3.36%) Bash
12 41 (1.86%) Kotlin
13 34 (1.54%) Rust
14 32 (1.45%) PHP
14 32 (1.45%) Swift
15 28 (1.27%) Ruby
16 21 (0.95%) Bicep
16 21 (0.95%) MATLAB
17 19 (0.86%) Groovy
18 16 (0.73%) Embedded C
Qualifications
1 307 (13.92%) Security Cleared
2 244 (11.07%) Degree
3 191 (8.66%) SC Cleared
4 109 (4.94%) Computer Science Degree
5 76 (3.45%) ISTQB
6 61 (2.77%) CISSP
7 60 (2.72%) ITIL Certification
8 59 (2.68%) DV Cleared
9 56 (2.54%) CISM
10 45 (2.04%) AWS Certification
11 37 (1.68%) Master's Degree
12 31 (1.41%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 28 (1.27%) BPSS Clearance
14 22 (1.00%) HNC
15 17 (0.77%) HND
15 17 (0.77%) ISEB
16 16 (0.73%) DBS Check
17 14 (0.63%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
18 12 (0.54%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
19 10 (0.45%) Azure Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 525 (23.81%) QA
2 206 (9.34%) Accessibility
3 70 (3.17%) Data Quality
4 63 (2.86%) NIST
4 63 (2.86%) WCAG
5 52 (2.36%) ISO 22301
6 47 (2.13%) GDPR
7 15 (0.68%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.63%) SLA
9 12 (0.54%) GRC
10 11 (0.50%) SOC 2
10 11 (0.50%) Software Quality Assurance
11 8 (0.36%) COBIT
11 8 (0.36%) MISRA
12 7 (0.32%) JTAG
13 6 (0.27%) PMO
14 5 (0.23%) Cyber Essentials
14 5 (0.23%) ISO 9001
14 5 (0.23%) NCSC
14 5 (0.23%) PCI DSS
System Software
1 307 (13.92%) Docker
2 34 (1.54%) Firmware
3 18 (0.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (0.73%) Active Directory
4 16 (0.73%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (0.45%) Embedded Firmware
5 10 (0.45%) Hyper-V
6 8 (0.36%) KVM
7 2 (0.091%) ProxySG
7 2 (0.091%) vSphere
8 1 (0.045%) IAG
8 1 (0.045%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.045%) Terminal Server
8 1 (0.045%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 313 (14.20%) Kubernetes
2 312 (14.15%) Terraform
3 127 (5.76%) Grafana
4 82 (3.72%) Ansible
5 58 (2.63%) Prometheus
6 27 (1.22%) Argo
7 16 (0.73%) Kibana
8 14 (0.63%) CloudHub
9 11 (0.50%) Puppet
10 9 (0.41%) logstash
10 9 (0.41%) Microsoft Intune
11 8 (0.36%) Single Sign-On
12 7 (0.32%) HP Fortify
13 6 (0.27%) Functional Safety
13 6 (0.27%) vCenter Server
14 5 (0.23%) Packer
15 4 (0.18%) Progress Chef
15 4 (0.18%) SCCM
15 4 (0.18%) SCOM
16 3 (0.14%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 207 (9.39%) Microsoft
2 86 (3.90%) Google
3 62 (2.81%) Databricks
4 57 (2.59%) Oracle
5 53 (2.40%) Salesforce
6 40 (1.81%) ServiceNow
7 36 (1.63%) SAP
8 34 (1.54%) Splunk
9 32 (1.45%) VMware
10 25 (1.13%) Dynatrace
11 21 (0.95%) Pega
12 19 (0.86%) AppDynamics
13 17 (0.77%) MuleSoft
14 16 (0.73%) Atlassian
14 16 (0.73%) IBM
15 15 (0.68%) Braze
16 14 (0.63%) Adobe
16 14 (0.63%) OpenAI
17 13 (0.59%) Red Hat
17 13 (0.59%) SendGrid