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

6 months to
20 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 99 89 92
Rank change year-on-year -10 +3 -60
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,638 1,369 2,728
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.88% 3.27% 2.88%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.49% 3.52% 3.36%
Number of salaries quoted 1,023 898 1,795
10th Percentile £42,500 £38,750 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £46,502 £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 £73,750
90th Percentile £105,000 £97,528 £91,934
UK excluding London median annual salary £59,750 £55,000 £52,500
% change year-on-year +8.64% +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 65,702 38,866 81,241
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 75.29% 92.92% 85.87%
Number of salaries quoted 40,633 22,660 59,433
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £42,500 £39,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £57,500 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% +9.09% -10.57%
75th Percentile £77,500 £80,000 £72,500
90th Percentile £97,500 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,600 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.94% +5.20% -8.90%

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 April 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 April 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 1,373 £63,625 +6.04% 621
UK excluding London -41 881 £59,750 +8.64% 529
Work from Home +17 694 £65,000 +8.33% 308
London +36 601 £80,000 +14.29% 177
North of England -34 198 £61,500 +11.82% 122
South East -64 172 £59,500 +8.18% 140
South West -25 168 £55,000 -8.33% 73
Midlands -31 131 £61,000 +6.09% 81
Scotland +9 116 £62,500 +4.17% 38
North West -13 102 £60,000 +9.09% 54
West Midlands -41 68 £61,250 - 51
East Midlands -37 62 £57,600 +15.20% 30
Yorkshire -67 58 £68,690 +37.38% 37
East of England -24 55 £52,500 -22.22% 66
Wales -9 40 £55,000 +4.58% 17
North East -27 38 £55,000 -9.10% 31
Northern Ireland -43 10 £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 39 (2.38%) Confluence
2 22 (1.34%) Apache Airflow
3 17 (1.04%) Apache Spark
4 12 (0.73%) Appian
5 11 (0.67%) Apache
6 10 (0.61%) CMS
6 10 (0.61%) Palantir Foundry
7 9 (0.55%) IIS
7 9 (0.55%) Jupyter
7 9 (0.55%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 9 (0.55%) SharePoint
8 6 (0.37%) WordPress
9 3 (0.18%) Microsoft Exchange
9 3 (0.18%) nginx
9 3 (0.18%) Oracle Workflow
10 2 (0.12%) Camunda
10 2 (0.12%) JBoss
10 2 (0.12%) Oracle Application Server
10 2 (0.12%) SAS
10 2 (0.12%) Umbraco
Applications
1 14 (0.85%) Microsoft Office
2 11 (0.67%) Microsoft Excel
3 9 (0.55%) MS Visio
4 8 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 6 (0.37%) PlantUML
6 4 (0.24%) Fusion 360
7 3 (0.18%) CANalyzer
8 2 (0.12%) Adobe Creative Suite
8 2 (0.12%) Chatbot
8 2 (0.12%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.061%) Photoshop
9 1 (0.061%) Simulink
9 1 (0.061%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 17 (1.04%) Oracle ERP
2 11 (0.67%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.31%) Oracle EBS
4 4 (0.24%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.24%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
4 4 (0.24%) Shopify
4 4 (0.24%) Visualfiles
5 2 (0.12%) SAP CX
6 1 (0.061%) Elite 3E
6 1 (0.061%) Endur
6 1 (0.061%) Findur
6 1 (0.061%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.061%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.061%) Oracle Applications
6 1 (0.061%) Oracle Financials
6 1 (0.061%) Oracle SCM
6 1 (0.061%) SAP S/4HANA
6 1 (0.061%) Siebel CRM
6 1 (0.061%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 557 (34.00%) Azure
2 503 (30.71%) AWS
3 263 (16.06%) Azure DevOps
4 200 (12.21%) GCP
5 191 (11.66%) GitHub
6 137 (8.36%) Serverless
7 132 (8.06%) SaaS
8 80 (4.88%) Amazon EKS
9 71 (4.33%) PaaS
10 68 (4.15%) GitHub Actions
11 59 (3.60%) dbt
12 57 (3.48%) Azure Data Factory
12 57 (3.48%) GitHub Copilot
13 54 (3.30%) AWS Lambda
14 49 (2.99%) Power Platform
15 47 (2.87%) AWS CloudFormation
16 45 (2.75%) Amazon S3
17 40 (2.44%) Datadog
18 34 (2.08%) Snowflake
19 33 (2.01%) Entra ID
Communications & Networking
1 18 (1.10%) Broadband
1 18 (1.10%) DNS
2 14 (0.85%) CHAP
3 13 (0.79%) Firewall
4 12 (0.73%) HTTP
4 12 (0.73%) WAN
5 11 (0.67%) SD-WAN
6 10 (0.61%) TCP/IP
7 8 (0.49%) 5G
8 7 (0.43%) VPN
9 4 (0.24%) SMTP
10 3 (0.18%) Cisco ISE
10 3 (0.18%) Ethernet
10 3 (0.18%) LTE
10 3 (0.18%) VLAN
11 2 (0.12%) Modbus
11 2 (0.12%) Multicast
11 2 (0.12%) Network Security
11 2 (0.12%) PuTTY
11 2 (0.12%) SpaceWire
Database & Business Intelligence
1 106 (6.47%) NoSQL
2 101 (6.17%) PostgreSQL
3 90 (5.49%) SQL Server
4 60 (3.66%) MongoDB
5 39 (2.38%) Relational Database
6 37 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
6 37 (2.26%) MySQL
7 34 (2.08%) Power BI
8 27 (1.65%) DynamoDB
9 18 (1.10%) Amazon RDS
10 16 (0.98%) Metadata
11 14 (0.85%) Data Lake
11 14 (0.85%) Pinecone
11 14 (0.85%) Redis
12 12 (0.73%) BigQuery
12 12 (0.73%) DB2
13 11 (0.67%) Oracle Database
13 11 (0.67%) Spark SQL
14 10 (0.61%) Elasticsearch
14 10 (0.61%) InfluxDB
Development Applications
1 187 (11.42%) Git
2 178 (10.87%) Selenium
3 142 (8.67%) Jenkins
4 137 (8.36%) JIRA
5 91 (5.56%) GitLab
6 90 (5.49%) Cypress.io
7 75 (4.58%) Cucumber
8 69 (4.21%) TeamCity
9 62 (3.79%) Postman
10 53 (3.24%) JMeter
11 36 (2.20%) SpecFlow
12 32 (1.95%) REST Assured
13 27 (1.65%) CircleCI
13 27 (1.65%) TestRail
14 26 (1.59%) JUnit
15 24 (1.47%) MLflow
16 22 (1.34%) Bitbucket
17 20 (1.22%) Robot Framework
18 19 (1.16%) Zephyr
19 16 (0.98%) SonarQube
General
1 458 (27.96%) Social Skills
2 445 (27.17%) Finance
3 190 (11.60%) Banking
4 155 (9.46%) Analytical Skills
5 143 (8.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
6 129 (7.88%) Law
7 102 (6.23%) Retail
8 100 (6.11%) Public Sector
9 64 (3.91%) Financial Institution
10 51 (3.11%) Back Office
11 43 (2.63%) Electronics
12 42 (2.56%) Manufacturing
13 39 (2.38%) Legal
14 35 (2.14%) Front Office
14 35 (2.14%) Marketing
15 27 (1.65%) Games
16 18 (1.10%) Documentation Skills
17 16 (0.98%) Organisational Skills
18 14 (0.85%) Presentation Skills
19 13 (0.79%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 420 (25.64%) Senior
2 271 (16.54%) Lead
3 227 (13.86%) Software Engineer
4 225 (13.74%) Developer
5 166 (10.13%) Test Engineer
6 100 (6.11%) Senior Developer
7 91 (5.56%) QA Engineer
8 88 (5.37%) Tester
9 86 (5.25%) Java Engineer
10 80 (4.88%) Test Leader
11 75 (4.58%) Test Automation Engineer
12 74 (4.52%) Senior Software Engineer
13 62 (3.79%) Analyst
14 57 (3.48%) Automation Engineer
15 55 (3.36%) Full-Stack Engineer
16 54 (3.30%) Automation Tester
17 49 (2.99%) QA Automation Engineer
18 48 (2.93%) Python Developer
19 47 (2.87%) Data Engineer
20 45 (2.75%) Senior Test Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 203 (12.39%) React
2 172 (10.50%) .NET
3 150 (9.16%) Playwright
3 150 (9.16%) RESTful
4 142 (8.67%) REST
5 98 (5.98%) Spring
6 93 (5.68%) Node.js
7 70 (4.27%) Kafka
7 70 (4.27%) Spring Boot
8 68 (4.15%) HTML
9 67 (4.09%) CSS
10 56 (3.42%) JSON
11 54 (3.30%) OAuth
12 45 (2.75%) pytest
13 43 (2.63%) AngularJS
14 42 (2.56%) Elastic Stack
15 41 (2.50%) OAuth2
16 39 (2.38%) .NET Framework
16 39 (2.38%) Web Services
17 38 (2.32%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 268 (16.36%) Cloud Native
2 145 (8.85%) Product Ownership
3 82 (5.01%) Mobile App
4 70 (4.27%) Distributed Systems
5 61 (3.72%) Management Information System
6 46 (2.81%) Enterprise Software
7 43 (2.63%) Legacy Systems
8 41 (2.50%) Self-Motivation
9 40 (2.44%) Onboarding
10 39 (2.38%) Algorithms
11 35 (2.14%) Greenfield Project
12 33 (2.01%) Low-Code
13 32 (1.95%) Data Structures
14 28 (1.71%) Public Cloud
15 27 (1.65%) Hybrid Cloud
16 25 (1.53%) Equities
16 25 (1.53%) Hedge funds
17 22 (1.34%) Blog
18 20 (1.22%) Client/Server
19 19 (1.16%) Embedded Systems
Operating Systems
1 162 (9.89%) Linux
2 86 (5.25%) Windows
3 66 (4.03%) Apple iOS
4 58 (3.54%) Android
5 38 (2.32%) Unix
6 12 (0.73%) CentOS
7 10 (0.61%) Windows Server
8 5 (0.31%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 4 (0.24%) Windows Server 2019
10 3 (0.18%) Debian
10 3 (0.18%) FreeRTOS
10 3 (0.18%) Kali Linux
10 3 (0.18%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.12%) AIX
11 2 (0.12%) Mac OS
11 2 (0.12%) VxWorks
11 2 (0.12%) Windows 10
12 1 (0.061%) ThreadX
12 1 (0.061%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 850 (51.89%) CI/CD
2 664 (40.54%) Agile
3 574 (35.04%) DevOps
4 409 (24.97%) Software Engineering
5 407 (24.85%) Continuous Improvement
6 361 (22.04%) Mentoring
7 349 (21.31%) Problem-Solving
8 269 (16.42%) Microservices
9 261 (15.93%) AI
10 257 (15.69%) Infrastructure as Code
11 239 (14.59%) Coaching
11 239 (14.59%) Software Testing
12 225 (13.74%) Observability
13 208 (12.70%) Clean Code
14 204 (12.45%) Containerisation
15 198 (12.09%) Test Strategy
16 187 (11.42%) Full-Stack Development
17 166 (10.13%) Deployment Automation
18 161 (9.83%) Validation
19 156 (9.52%) Analytics
Programming Languages
1 499 (30.46%) Python
2 421 (25.70%) Java
3 306 (18.68%) SQL
4 241 (14.71%) JavaScript
5 216 (13.19%) TypeScript
6 190 (11.60%) C#
7 82 (5.01%) PowerShell
8 75 (4.58%) C++
9 61 (3.72%) Bash
10 49 (2.99%) Go
11 41 (2.50%) C
12 35 (2.14%) Bicep
13 28 (1.71%) Kotlin
14 26 (1.59%) Rust
14 26 (1.59%) Shell Script
15 25 (1.53%) Apex Code
16 24 (1.47%) PL/SQL
17 19 (1.16%) PHP
18 18 (1.10%) Swift
19 13 (0.79%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 212 (12.94%) Degree
2 154 (9.40%) Security Cleared
3 99 (6.04%) SC Cleared
4 86 (5.25%) Computer Science Degree
5 81 (4.95%) ISTQB
6 30 (1.83%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
6 30 (1.83%) Master's Degree
7 29 (1.77%) DV Cleared
8 20 (1.22%) CISSP
9 19 (1.16%) AWS Certification
10 15 (0.92%) CISA
10 15 (0.92%) ISEB
11 14 (0.85%) Azure Certification
11 14 (0.85%) CGEIT
11 14 (0.85%) CISM
11 14 (0.85%) FFIEC
11 14 (0.85%) SANS
12 13 (0.79%) CEH
12 13 (0.79%) PhD
13 12 (0.73%) HND
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 386 (23.57%) QA
2 125 (7.63%) Accessibility
3 69 (4.21%) Data Quality
4 49 (2.99%) GDPR
5 43 (2.63%) NIST
6 32 (1.95%) ISO/IEC 27001
7 27 (1.65%) WCAG
8 14 (0.85%) COBIT
8 14 (0.85%) SLA
9 13 (0.79%) ISO 22301
10 10 (0.61%) Software Quality Assurance
11 8 (0.49%) ISO 9001
11 8 (0.49%) NCSC
12 7 (0.43%) GRC
12 7 (0.43%) IEC 61508
13 6 (0.37%) PMO
14 5 (0.31%) ISO 26262
14 5 (0.31%) Sarbanes-Oxley
14 5 (0.31%) SOC 2
15 4 (0.24%) ISO 13485
System Software
1 240 (14.65%) Docker
2 28 (1.71%) Active Directory
3 22 (1.34%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (0.92%) Hyper-V
4 15 (0.92%) Virtual Machines
5 14 (0.85%) Firmware
6 13 (0.79%) KVM
7 8 (0.49%) Embedded Firmware
8 3 (0.18%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.12%) vSphere
10 1 (0.061%) Xen
Systems Management
1 298 (18.19%) Kubernetes
2 294 (17.95%) Terraform
3 140 (8.55%) Grafana
4 68 (4.15%) Ansible
5 46 (2.81%) Prometheus
6 27 (1.65%) Single Sign-On
7 15 (0.92%) Argo
8 9 (0.55%) logstash
9 8 (0.49%) Microsoft Intune
10 7 (0.43%) Kibana
10 7 (0.43%) SCCM
10 7 (0.43%) SCOM
11 5 (0.31%) HP ALM
12 4 (0.24%) HP Fortify
12 4 (0.24%) Packer
12 4 (0.24%) Rancher
12 4 (0.24%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.18%) Functional Safety
13 3 (0.18%) SCOrch
14 2 (0.12%) VxRail
Vendors
1 133 (8.12%) Microsoft
2 74 (4.52%) Oracle
3 53 (3.24%) Databricks
4 52 (3.17%) Salesforce
5 46 (2.81%) VMware
6 36 (2.20%) Google
7 21 (1.28%) OpenAI
8 19 (1.16%) Commvault
9 18 (1.10%) Splunk
10 17 (1.04%) SAP
10 17 (1.04%) ServiceNow
11 15 (0.92%) Atlassian
12 14 (0.85%) Foundry
12 14 (0.85%) Palantir
13 13 (0.79%) Pega
14 12 (0.73%) Automation Anywhere
14 12 (0.73%) IBM
14 12 (0.73%) UiPath
15 11 (0.67%) Dynatrace
15 11 (0.67%) Red Hat