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

6 months to
23 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 92 81 94
Rank change year-on-year -11 +13 -60
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,778 1,539 2,714
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.92% 3.61% 2.79%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.60% 3.87% 3.29%
Number of salaries quoted 1,109 797 1,758
10th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £36,250
25th Percentile £50,000 £48,750 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £61,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% +6.96% -11.54%
75th Percentile £83,750 £82,500 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £99,700 £88,750
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 68,427 39,782 82,504
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.76% 93.32% 84.70%
Number of salaries quoted 44,356 20,831 59,666
10th Percentile £30,000 £30,000 £29,035
25th Percentile £40,797 £41,250 £40,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £59,500 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +0.84% +8.18% -9.84%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £102,500 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £52,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +0.96% +4.00% -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 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 23 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 -3 1,539 £62,500 - 680
UK excluding London -38 969 £60,000 +4.45% 524
Work from Home +11 736 £65,000 +8.33% 353
London +27 640 £80,000 +10.34% 254
North of England -34 255 £60,000 +0.39% 148
South East -34 198 £60,000 +9.09% 131
South West -22 174 £55,000 -8.33% 67
Midlands -34 160 £61,000 +6.09% 59
North West -22 131 £58,750 -9.62% 82
West Midlands -45 81 £62,500 -3.85% 42
East Midlands -30 78 £55,000 +15.79% 17
Scotland -27 72 £60,000 - 35
Yorkshire -34 67 £69,310 +38.01% 33
East of England -15 64 £50,000 -12.28% 52
North East -11 57 £52,500 -11.02% 33
Wales +1 48 £55,000 - 18
Northern Ireland -33 11 £80,000 +45.45% 24

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 (2.19%) Confluence
2 26 (1.46%) Apache Airflow
3 19 (1.07%) Apache Spark
4 16 (0.90%) Apache
4 16 (0.90%) Jupyter
5 14 (0.79%) SharePoint
6 11 (0.62%) CMS
7 10 (0.56%) Appian
7 10 (0.56%) IIS
7 10 (0.56%) Palantir Foundry
8 6 (0.34%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 4 (0.22%) Adobe Experience Manager
9 4 (0.22%) Anypoint
9 4 (0.22%) Umbraco
9 4 (0.22%) WordPress
10 3 (0.17%) Microsoft Exchange
10 3 (0.17%) Mule
10 3 (0.17%) nginx
10 3 (0.17%) SAS
11 2 (0.11%) JBoss
Applications
1 12 (0.67%) Microsoft Excel
2 10 (0.56%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.34%) PlantUML
4 5 (0.28%) Simulink
5 4 (0.22%) Fusion 360
6 3 (0.17%) CANalyzer
6 3 (0.17%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 3 (0.17%) MS Visio
7 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
7 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
8 1 (0.056%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 11 (0.62%) Oracle ERP
2 10 (0.56%) Dynamics CRM
3 5 (0.28%) Oracle EBS
3 5 (0.28%) Visualfiles
4 4 (0.22%) Dynamics AX
4 4 (0.22%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 3 (0.17%) SAP S/4HANA
5 3 (0.17%) Shopify
6 2 (0.11%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.11%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.056%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.056%) Endur
7 1 (0.056%) Findur
7 1 (0.056%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.056%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.056%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.056%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.056%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 583 (32.79%) AWS
2 569 (32.00%) Azure
3 263 (14.79%) Azure DevOps
4 211 (11.87%) GCP
5 162 (9.11%) GitHub
6 154 (8.66%) Serverless
7 125 (7.03%) SaaS
8 76 (4.27%) Amazon EKS
9 74 (4.16%) GitHub Actions
10 66 (3.71%) AWS Lambda
11 65 (3.66%) Amazon S3
12 61 (3.43%) AWS CloudFormation
13 56 (3.15%) PaaS
14 47 (2.64%) Azure Data Factory
14 47 (2.64%) Power Platform
15 44 (2.47%) dbt
16 41 (2.31%) Azure Service Bus
17 39 (2.19%) Azure Logic Apps
17 39 (2.19%) Datadog
18 38 (2.14%) Azure Monitor
Communications & Networking
1 46 (2.59%) Broadband
2 23 (1.29%) Firewall
3 16 (0.90%) DNS
4 13 (0.73%) CHAP
5 12 (0.67%) WAN
6 11 (0.62%) SD-WAN
7 9 (0.51%) 5G
7 9 (0.51%) HTTP
8 6 (0.34%) TCP/IP
8 6 (0.34%) VPN
9 5 (0.28%) Bluetooth
9 5 (0.28%) SMS
9 5 (0.28%) Wireless
10 4 (0.22%) DHCP
10 4 (0.22%) LTE
10 4 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
10 4 (0.22%) ZigBee
11 3 (0.17%) DMARC
11 3 (0.17%) SSL
11 3 (0.17%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 126 (7.09%) NoSQL
2 113 (6.36%) PostgreSQL
3 90 (5.06%) MongoDB
4 78 (4.39%) SQL Server
5 38 (2.14%) DynamoDB
6 33 (1.86%) MySQL
7 30 (1.69%) Data Warehouse
8 28 (1.57%) Relational Database
9 25 (1.41%) Power BI
10 22 (1.24%) Amazon RDS
11 18 (1.01%) Metadata
11 18 (1.01%) Spark SQL
12 17 (0.96%) Redis
13 16 (0.90%) BigQuery
14 13 (0.73%) Oracle Database
15 12 (0.67%) Pinecone
16 11 (0.62%) Data Lake
17 9 (0.51%) Elasticsearch
17 9 (0.51%) Oracle Reports
18 8 (0.45%) DB2
Development Applications
1 202 (11.36%) Git
2 156 (8.77%) Jenkins
3 153 (8.61%) Selenium
4 130 (7.31%) GitLab
5 120 (6.75%) JIRA
6 84 (4.72%) Cypress.io
7 68 (3.82%) Cucumber
8 64 (3.60%) TeamCity
9 60 (3.37%) Postman
10 44 (2.47%) JMeter
11 34 (1.91%) REST Assured
12 31 (1.74%) SpecFlow
13 28 (1.57%) CircleCI
14 26 (1.46%) JUnit
15 25 (1.41%) TestRail
16 21 (1.18%) LabVIEW
16 21 (1.18%) MLflow
17 20 (1.12%) Zephyr
18 17 (0.96%) Robot Framework
18 17 (0.96%) SonarQube
General
1 455 (25.59%) Social Skills
2 425 (23.90%) Finance
3 187 (10.52%) Banking
4 174 (9.79%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 155 (8.72%) Analytical Skills
6 148 (8.32%) Public Sector
7 121 (6.81%) Law
8 97 (5.46%) Retail
9 63 (3.54%) Financial Institution
10 58 (3.26%) Manufacturing
11 57 (3.21%) Electronics
12 50 (2.81%) Back Office
13 43 (2.42%) Games
14 33 (1.86%) Front Office
15 32 (1.80%) Legal
16 28 (1.57%) Marketing
17 21 (1.18%) Organisational Skills
18 18 (1.01%) Influencing Skills
19 17 (0.96%) Investment Banking
20 16 (0.90%) Documentation Skills
Job Titles
1 472 (26.55%) Senior
2 301 (16.93%) Lead
3 258 (14.51%) Software Engineer
4 246 (13.84%) Developer
5 205 (11.53%) Test Engineer
6 114 (6.41%) Senior Developer
7 97 (5.46%) Java Engineer
8 88 (4.95%) QA Engineer
9 86 (4.84%) Test Automation Engineer
10 83 (4.67%) Tester
11 77 (4.33%) Senior Software Engineer
12 76 (4.27%) Test Leader
13 66 (3.71%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 59 (3.32%) Data Engineer
15 58 (3.26%) Architect
16 56 (3.15%) DevOps Engineer
17 51 (2.87%) Automation Engineer
17 51 (2.87%) Senior Test Engineer
18 48 (2.70%) Python Developer
19 47 (2.64%) Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 193 (10.85%) React
2 192 (10.80%) .NET
3 158 (8.89%) RESTful
4 156 (8.77%) REST
5 152 (8.55%) Playwright
6 117 (6.58%) Spring
7 115 (6.47%) Node.js
8 90 (5.06%) Kafka
9 85 (4.78%) Spring Boot
10 61 (3.43%) HTML
11 60 (3.37%) AngularJS
11 60 (3.37%) CSS
12 55 (3.09%) OAuth
13 47 (2.64%) JSON
14 45 (2.53%) RabbitMQ
15 44 (2.47%) OAuth2
16 39 (2.19%) .NET Framework
16 39 (2.19%) Web Services
17 37 (2.08%) pytest
18 35 (1.97%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 306 (17.21%) Cloud Native
2 179 (10.07%) Product Ownership
3 113 (6.36%) Distributed Systems
4 90 (5.06%) Mobile App
5 58 (3.26%) Management Information System
6 51 (2.87%) Enterprise Software
7 47 (2.64%) Low-Code
8 46 (2.59%) Onboarding
9 44 (2.47%) Algorithms
9 44 (2.47%) Public Cloud
10 38 (2.14%) Legacy Systems
11 37 (2.08%) Greenfield Project
11 37 (2.08%) Self-Motivation
12 35 (1.97%) Data Structures
13 25 (1.41%) Blog
13 25 (1.41%) Embedded Systems
13 25 (1.41%) Video\Live Streaming
14 23 (1.29%) Hedge funds
14 23 (1.29%) Hybrid Cloud
15 21 (1.18%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 161 (9.06%) Linux
2 83 (4.67%) Windows
3 70 (3.94%) Apple iOS
4 60 (3.37%) Android
5 49 (2.76%) Unix
6 10 (0.56%) CentOS
6 10 (0.56%) Windows Server
7 5 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 4 (0.22%) Kali Linux
8 4 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
9 3 (0.17%) FreeRTOS
9 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.11%) AIX
10 2 (0.11%) Debian
11 1 (0.056%) ThreadX
11 1 (0.056%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.056%) Windows 10
11 1 (0.056%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 961 (54.05%) CI/CD
2 740 (41.62%) Agile
3 620 (34.87%) DevOps
4 470 (26.43%) Software Engineering
5 443 (24.92%) Continuous Improvement
6 427 (24.02%) Mentoring
7 365 (20.53%) Problem-Solving
8 316 (17.77%) Microservices
9 313 (17.60%) Infrastructure as Code
10 291 (16.37%) AI
11 273 (15.35%) Software Testing
12 249 (14.00%) Observability
13 239 (13.44%) Coaching
14 232 (13.05%) Containerisation
15 218 (12.26%) Full-Stack Development
16 217 (12.20%) Test Strategy
17 206 (11.59%) Clean Code
18 195 (10.97%) Validation
19 171 (9.62%) Deployment Automation
20 165 (9.28%) Scrum
Programming Languages
1 548 (30.82%) Python
2 478 (26.88%) Java
3 307 (17.27%) SQL
4 256 (14.40%) JavaScript
5 229 (12.88%) C#
6 218 (12.26%) TypeScript
7 92 (5.17%) C++
8 76 (4.27%) Bash
9 74 (4.16%) PowerShell
10 71 (3.99%) Go
11 53 (2.98%) C
12 33 (1.86%) Bicep
13 30 (1.69%) Rust
14 29 (1.63%) Kotlin
15 21 (1.18%) Swift
16 19 (1.07%) MATLAB
16 19 (1.07%) PHP
16 19 (1.07%) PL/SQL
17 18 (1.01%) Shell Script
18 17 (0.96%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 235 (13.22%) Degree
2 200 (11.25%) Security Cleared
3 120 (6.75%) SC Cleared
4 91 (5.12%) Computer Science Degree
5 77 (4.33%) ISTQB
6 40 (2.25%) DV Cleared
7 29 (1.63%) Master's Degree
8 25 (1.41%) AWS Certification
9 21 (1.18%) CISSP
10 19 (1.07%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 18 (1.01%) DBS Check
12 17 (0.96%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 14 (0.79%) HND
14 13 (0.73%) Azure Certification
14 13 (0.73%) CGEIT
14 13 (0.73%) CISA
14 13 (0.73%) CISM
14 13 (0.73%) FFIEC
14 13 (0.73%) PhD
14 13 (0.73%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 398 (22.38%) QA
2 147 (8.27%) Accessibility
3 78 (4.39%) Data Quality
4 50 (2.81%) GDPR
5 26 (1.46%) NIST
6 23 (1.29%) WCAG
7 19 (1.07%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 14 (0.79%) COBIT
8 14 (0.79%) SLA
9 11 (0.62%) Software Quality Assurance
10 10 (0.56%) GRC
10 10 (0.56%) ISO 22301
11 8 (0.45%) ISO 9001
12 7 (0.39%) SOC 2
13 6 (0.34%) PMO
14 5 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
15 4 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
15 4 (0.22%) ISO 13485
15 4 (0.22%) JTAG
16 3 (0.17%) PERC
System Software
1 250 (14.06%) Docker
2 25 (1.41%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (1.29%) Active Directory
4 18 (1.01%) Firmware
4 18 (1.01%) Hyper-V
5 15 (0.84%) Virtual Machines
6 14 (0.79%) KVM
7 7 (0.39%) Embedded Firmware
8 3 (0.17%) Terminal Server
9 2 (0.11%) vSphere
10 1 (0.056%) IAG
10 1 (0.056%) Xen
Systems Management
1 310 (17.44%) Terraform
2 293 (16.48%) Kubernetes
3 137 (7.71%) Grafana
4 74 (4.16%) Ansible
5 64 (3.60%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.46%) Argo
7 21 (1.18%) Single Sign-On
8 11 (0.62%) Kibana
9 9 (0.51%) logstash
10 7 (0.39%) SCCM
10 7 (0.39%) SCOM
11 5 (0.28%) HP Fortify
11 5 (0.28%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (0.22%) Packer
12 4 (0.22%) Rancher
12 4 (0.22%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.17%) CloudHub
13 3 (0.17%) Functional Safety
13 3 (0.17%) HP ALM
13 3 (0.17%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 139 (7.82%) Microsoft
2 62 (3.49%) Oracle
3 56 (3.15%) Databricks
4 53 (2.98%) Salesforce
5 43 (2.42%) VMware
6 37 (2.08%) Google
7 23 (1.29%) OpenAI
7 23 (1.29%) Splunk
8 22 (1.24%) ServiceNow
9 19 (1.07%) SAP
10 17 (0.96%) Dynatrace
11 15 (0.84%) Braze
12 13 (0.73%) Amplitude
12 13 (0.73%) Commvault
12 13 (0.73%) CrowdStrike
13 12 (0.67%) AppDynamics
13 12 (0.67%) Atlassian
13 12 (0.67%) Foundry
13 12 (0.67%) MuleSoft
13 12 (0.67%) Palantir