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

6 months to
28 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 90 86 94
Rank change year-on-year -4 +8 -62
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,809 1,543 2,705
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.94% 3.61% 2.72%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.63% 3.88% 3.24%
Number of salaries quoted 1,127 799 1,748
10th Percentile £42,330 £41,250 £36,250
25th Percentile £49,625 £48,809 £43,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +8.70% -11.54%
75th Percentile £83,750 £82,250 £72,500
90th Percentile £98,750 £98,529 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £57,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +4.35% +9.52% -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 68,898 39,816 83,478
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.92% 93.23% 83.93%
Number of salaries quoted 44,884 20,923 60,289
10th Percentile £30,000 £29,750 £29,250
25th Percentile £40,750 £41,000 £39,885
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £58,033 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year +3.39% +5.51% -9.84%
75th Percentile £78,750 £78,750 £72,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £101,250 £92,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £51,324 £50,000
% change year-on-year +2.29% +2.65% -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 28 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 28 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 -4 1,570 £62,500 - 670
UK excluding London -37 993 £60,000 +4.35% 476
Work from Home +9 743 £65,000 +8.33% 328
London +23 649 £80,000 +14.29% 281
North of England -30 266 £62,500 +4.52% 137
South East -24 205 £60,000 +9.09% 116
South West -24 175 £55,000 -8.33% 61
Midlands -26 165 £60,000 +4.35% 62
North West -18 139 £60,000 -7.69% 83
West Midlands -41 83 £61,000 -7.92% 42
East Midlands -23 81 £55,000 +15.79% 20
Scotland -29 72 £60,000 - 28
Yorkshire -44 67 £75,000 +49.34% 28
East of England -31 63 £50,000 -12.28% 47
North East -11 60 £52,500 -11.02% 26
Wales -5 49 £55,000 - 18
Northern Ireland -32 11 £80,000 +45.45% 18

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 (2.16%) Confluence
2 25 (1.38%) Apache Airflow
3 18 (1.00%) Apache Spark
4 17 (0.94%) Jupyter
5 16 (0.88%) Apache
6 15 (0.83%) SharePoint
7 11 (0.61%) CMS
8 10 (0.55%) IIS
8 10 (0.55%) Palantir Foundry
9 9 (0.50%) Appian
10 8 (0.44%) Adobe Experience Manager
11 6 (0.33%) Oracle SOA Suite
12 5 (0.28%) Umbraco
13 4 (0.22%) Anypoint
13 4 (0.22%) SAS
13 4 (0.22%) WordPress
14 3 (0.17%) Mule
14 3 (0.17%) nginx
15 2 (0.11%) JBoss
15 2 (0.11%) Oracle Application Server
Applications
1 14 (0.77%) Microsoft Excel
2 11 (0.61%) Microsoft Office
3 6 (0.33%) PlantUML
3 6 (0.33%) Simulink
4 5 (0.28%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 3 (0.17%) CANalyzer
5 3 (0.17%) Fusion 360
5 3 (0.17%) MS Visio
6 2 (0.11%) Adobe Creative Suite
6 2 (0.11%) Chatbot
7 1 (0.055%) Lightworks
7 1 (0.055%) Sketch
Business Applications
1 11 (0.61%) Oracle ERP
2 10 (0.55%) 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 (0.055%) Elite 3E
7 1 (0.055%) Endur
7 1 (0.055%) Findur
7 1 (0.055%) FLEXCUBE
7 1 (0.055%) Magento
7 1 (0.055%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.055%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle Applications
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle Financials
7 1 (0.055%) Oracle SCM
Cloud Services
1 596 (32.95%) AWS
2 576 (31.84%) Azure
3 266 (14.70%) Azure DevOps
4 210 (11.61%) GCP
5 171 (9.45%) GitHub
6 162 (8.96%) Serverless
7 130 (7.19%) SaaS
8 79 (4.37%) GitHub Actions
9 75 (4.15%) Amazon EKS
10 71 (3.92%) AWS Lambda
11 68 (3.76%) Amazon S3
12 63 (3.48%) AWS CloudFormation
13 57 (3.15%) PaaS
14 50 (2.76%) Power Platform
15 47 (2.60%) Azure Service Bus
16 46 (2.54%) Azure Data Factory
17 44 (2.43%) dbt
18 43 (2.38%) Azure Monitor
19 40 (2.21%) Azure Logic Apps
20 39 (2.16%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 47 (2.60%) Broadband
2 24 (1.33%) Firewall
3 15 (0.83%) DNS
4 13 (0.72%) CHAP
5 12 (0.66%) WAN
6 11 (0.61%) HTTP
6 11 (0.61%) SD-WAN
7 10 (0.55%) 5G
8 7 (0.39%) DMARC
9 6 (0.33%) Bluetooth
9 6 (0.33%) TCP/IP
9 6 (0.33%) Wireless
10 5 (0.28%) MQTT
10 5 (0.28%) SMS
10 5 (0.28%) VPN
10 5 (0.28%) Wi-Fi
10 5 (0.28%) ZigBee
11 4 (0.22%) DHCP
11 4 (0.22%) LTE
12 3 (0.17%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 129 (7.13%) NoSQL
2 111 (6.14%) PostgreSQL
3 87 (4.81%) MongoDB
4 77 (4.26%) SQL Server
5 37 (2.05%) DynamoDB
6 30 (1.66%) Data Warehouse
7 29 (1.60%) MySQL
7 29 (1.60%) Relational Database
8 28 (1.55%) Power BI
9 22 (1.22%) Amazon RDS
10 19 (1.05%) Metadata
11 18 (1.00%) Spark SQL
12 17 (0.94%) Redis
13 16 (0.88%) BigQuery
14 14 (0.77%) Oracle Database
15 11 (0.61%) Data Lake
15 11 (0.61%) Pinecone
16 9 (0.50%) Oracle Reports
16 9 (0.50%) Semantic Layer
17 8 (0.44%) Amazon Athena
Development Applications
1 215 (11.89%) Git
2 158 (8.73%) Jenkins
3 148 (8.18%) Selenium
4 137 (7.57%) GitLab
5 124 (6.85%) JIRA
6 81 (4.48%) Cypress.io
7 72 (3.98%) Cucumber
8 63 (3.48%) Postman
8 63 (3.48%) TeamCity
9 43 (2.38%) JMeter
10 35 (1.93%) REST Assured
11 30 (1.66%) JUnit
12 29 (1.60%) SpecFlow
13 28 (1.55%) CircleCI
14 24 (1.33%) TestRail
15 23 (1.27%) LabVIEW
16 21 (1.16%) Zephyr
17 20 (1.11%) MLflow
18 18 (1.00%) Gatling
19 17 (0.94%) Crashlytics
General
1 468 (25.87%) Social Skills
2 433 (23.94%) Finance
3 187 (10.34%) Banking
4 176 (9.73%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 154 (8.51%) Analytical Skills
6 148 (8.18%) Public Sector
7 119 (6.58%) Law
8 98 (5.42%) Retail
9 63 (3.48%) Financial Institution
10 59 (3.26%) Electronics
11 58 (3.21%) Manufacturing
12 50 (2.76%) Back Office
13 43 (2.38%) Games
14 34 (1.88%) Marketing
15 33 (1.82%) Legal
16 32 (1.77%) Front Office
17 20 (1.11%) Organisational Skills
18 19 (1.05%) Documentation Skills
18 19 (1.05%) Influencing Skills
19 17 (0.94%) Investment Banking
Job Titles
1 479 (26.48%) Senior
2 304 (16.80%) Lead
3 258 (14.26%) Software Engineer
4 256 (14.15%) Developer
5 209 (11.55%) Test Engineer
6 118 (6.52%) Senior Developer
7 102 (5.64%) Java Engineer
8 90 (4.98%) QA Engineer
9 84 (4.64%) Test Automation Engineer
10 80 (4.42%) Tester
11 76 (4.20%) Senior Software Engineer
12 75 (4.15%) Test Leader
13 63 (3.48%) Full-Stack Engineer
14 60 (3.32%) Data Engineer
15 57 (3.15%) Architect
16 56 (3.10%) DevOps Engineer
17 53 (2.93%) Senior Test Engineer
18 50 (2.76%) Analyst
19 49 (2.71%) Automation Engineer
20 47 (2.60%) Python Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 195 (10.78%) .NET
2 190 (10.50%) React
3 163 (9.01%) REST
4 159 (8.79%) RESTful
5 155 (8.57%) Playwright
6 126 (6.97%) Node.js
6 126 (6.97%) Spring
7 95 (5.25%) Kafka
8 91 (5.03%) Spring Boot
9 64 (3.54%) AngularJS
9 64 (3.54%) HTML
10 62 (3.43%) CSS
11 59 (3.26%) OAuth
12 49 (2.71%) OAuth2
13 48 (2.65%) JSON
14 46 (2.54%) RabbitMQ
15 39 (2.16%) .NET Framework
16 38 (2.10%) pytest
17 36 (1.99%) YAML
18 35 (1.93%) ASP.NET
Miscellaneous
1 315 (17.41%) Cloud Native
2 189 (10.45%) Product Ownership
3 118 (6.52%) Distributed Systems
4 93 (5.14%) Mobile App
5 58 (3.21%) Management Information System
6 53 (2.93%) Enterprise Software
7 48 (2.65%) Onboarding
8 47 (2.60%) Algorithms
9 46 (2.54%) Low-Code
9 46 (2.54%) Public Cloud
10 38 (2.10%) Legacy Systems
11 37 (2.05%) Data Structures
12 36 (1.99%) Greenfield Project
12 36 (1.99%) Self-Motivation
13 27 (1.49%) Embedded Systems
14 25 (1.38%) Blog
14 25 (1.38%) Video\Live Streaming
15 23 (1.27%) Hedge funds
15 23 (1.27%) Hybrid Cloud
16 21 (1.16%) Equities
Operating Systems
1 163 (9.01%) Linux
2 81 (4.48%) Windows
3 71 (3.92%) Apple iOS
4 61 (3.37%) Android
5 51 (2.82%) Unix
6 9 (0.50%) CentOS
6 9 (0.50%) Windows Server
7 4 (0.22%) Kali Linux
7 4 (0.22%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
8 3 (0.17%) FreeRTOS
8 3 (0.17%) Ubuntu
8 3 (0.17%) Windows Server 2019
9 2 (0.11%) AIX
9 2 (0.11%) Debian
10 1 (0.055%) ThreadX
10 1 (0.055%) VxWorks
10 1 (0.055%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.055%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 986 (54.51%) CI/CD
2 756 (41.79%) Agile
3 635 (35.10%) DevOps
4 477 (26.37%) Software Engineering
5 449 (24.82%) Continuous Improvement
6 440 (24.32%) Mentoring
7 364 (20.12%) Problem-Solving
8 326 (18.02%) Microservices
9 319 (17.63%) Infrastructure as Code
10 298 (16.47%) AI
11 276 (15.26%) Software Testing
12 252 (13.93%) Observability
13 244 (13.49%) Coaching
14 237 (13.10%) Containerisation
15 223 (12.33%) Full-Stack Development
16 217 (12.00%) Test Strategy
17 206 (11.39%) Clean Code
18 199 (11.00%) Validation
19 171 (9.45%) Deployment Automation
20 168 (9.29%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 558 (30.85%) Python
2 488 (26.98%) Java
3 313 (17.30%) SQL
4 265 (14.65%) JavaScript
5 231 (12.77%) C#
6 225 (12.44%) TypeScript
7 97 (5.36%) C++
8 80 (4.42%) Bash
9 72 (3.98%) Go
10 71 (3.92%) PowerShell
11 57 (3.15%) C
12 34 (1.88%) Bicep
13 31 (1.71%) Rust
14 30 (1.66%) Kotlin
15 22 (1.22%) PHP
15 22 (1.22%) Swift
16 21 (1.16%) MATLAB
17 20 (1.11%) PL/SQL
18 19 (1.05%) Shell Script
19 17 (0.94%) Apex Code
Qualifications
1 237 (13.10%) Degree
2 203 (11.22%) Security Cleared
3 122 (6.74%) SC Cleared
4 94 (5.20%) Computer Science Degree
5 78 (4.31%) ISTQB
6 43 (2.38%) DV Cleared
7 30 (1.66%) Master's Degree
8 26 (1.44%) AWS Certification
9 21 (1.16%) CISSP
10 19 (1.05%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
11 18 (1.00%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 18 (1.00%) DBS Check
12 15 (0.83%) HND
13 13 (0.72%) Azure Certification
13 13 (0.72%) CGEIT
13 13 (0.72%) CISA
13 13 (0.72%) CISM
13 13 (0.72%) FFIEC
13 13 (0.72%) PhD
13 13 (0.72%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 410 (22.66%) QA
2 153 (8.46%) Accessibility
3 80 (4.42%) Data Quality
4 52 (2.87%) GDPR
5 27 (1.49%) WCAG
6 25 (1.38%) NIST
7 18 (1.00%) ISO/IEC 27001
8 15 (0.83%) SLA
9 14 (0.77%) COBIT
10 12 (0.66%) Software Quality Assurance
11 11 (0.61%) GRC
12 9 (0.50%) ISO 22301
13 8 (0.44%) ISO 9001
14 7 (0.39%) SOC 2
15 6 (0.33%) PMO
16 5 (0.28%) JTAG
16 5 (0.28%) Sarbanes-Oxley
17 4 (0.22%) Cyber Essentials
18 3 (0.17%) ISO 13485
18 3 (0.17%) PERC
System Software
1 255 (14.10%) Docker
2 25 (1.38%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (1.16%) Active Directory
4 20 (1.11%) Firmware
5 18 (1.00%) Hyper-V
6 15 (0.83%) Virtual Machines
7 14 (0.77%) KVM
8 8 (0.44%) Embedded Firmware
9 3 (0.17%) Terminal Server
10 2 (0.11%) vSphere
11 1 (0.055%) IAG
11 1 (0.055%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.055%) Xen
Systems Management
1 312 (17.25%) Terraform
2 293 (16.20%) Kubernetes
3 138 (7.63%) Grafana
4 75 (4.15%) Ansible
5 66 (3.65%) Prometheus
6 26 (1.44%) Argo
7 21 (1.16%) Single Sign-On
8 13 (0.72%) Kibana
9 9 (0.50%) logstash
10 6 (0.33%) SCCM
10 6 (0.33%) SCOM
11 5 (0.28%) HP Fortify
12 4 (0.22%) Microsoft Intune
12 4 (0.22%) Packer
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%) Rancher
13 3 (0.17%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 143 (7.90%) Microsoft
2 61 (3.37%) Oracle
3 56 (3.10%) Databricks
4 52 (2.87%) Salesforce
5 41 (2.27%) VMware
6 35 (1.93%) Google
7 23 (1.27%) ServiceNow
7 23 (1.27%) Splunk
8 22 (1.22%) OpenAI
9 19 (1.05%) SAP
10 17 (0.94%) Dynatrace
11 15 (0.83%) Braze
12 14 (0.77%) CrowdStrike
13 13 (0.72%) Amplitude
14 12 (0.66%) AppDynamics
14 12 (0.66%) Atlassian
14 12 (0.66%) Commvault
14 12 (0.66%) Foundry
14 12 (0.66%) IFS
14 12 (0.66%) MuleSoft