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

6 months to
1 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 77 94 86
Rank change year-on-year +17 -8 -17
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,490 1,581 2,142
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.11% 3.20% 2.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.89% 3.58% 3.50%
Number of salaries quoted 1,351 729 955
10th Percentile £41,000 £39,750 £39,850
25th Percentile £47,296 £51,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -3.85% +8.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £78,750 £85,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £105,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +4.55% -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 86,281 44,107 61,151
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.16% 89.14% 81.78%
Number of salaries quoted 59,444 24,402 33,284
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,500 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,750 £36,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £58,274
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -5.62% -2.88%
75th Percentile £79,091 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £96,250 £96,250
UK excluding London median annual salary £55,000 £47,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year +15.79% -9.52% -2.78%

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 1 October 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 1 October 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 2,042 £62,500 -3.85% 2,924
UK excluding London +20 1,587 £57,500 - 1,861
Work from Home +17 890 £67,500 +8.00% 1,229
London +1 733 £78,000 -2.50% 1,301
North of England +32 414 £57,500 -4.17% 480
South East -18 279 £60,000 +4.35% 364
South West +19 264 £60,000 +14.29% 290
Midlands -7 211 £52,500 -8.70% 224
North West -7 192 £60,000 - 260
Northern Ireland +5 163 £80,000 +45.45% 60
Wales +6 132 £55,335 +0.61% 43
North East +21 124 £55,000 +78.86% 71
West Midlands -23 117 £52,500 -4.55% 151
Yorkshire +30 104 £69,306 +26.01% 149
East of England -12 95 £47,500 -20.83% 188
East Midlands -19 94 £54,000 -13.60% 73
Scotland -44 45 £62,500 -5.66% 223

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 60 (2.41%) Confluence
2 39 (1.57%) Apache Spark
3 31 (1.24%) Apache
4 24 (0.96%) SharePoint
5 21 (0.84%) Apache Airflow
6 19 (0.76%) Jupyter
7 15 (0.60%) Adobe Experience Manager
7 15 (0.60%) CMS
8 14 (0.56%) Anypoint
8 14 (0.56%) Mule
9 8 (0.32%) Microsoft Exchange
9 8 (0.32%) Palantir Foundry
10 7 (0.28%) nginx
11 6 (0.24%) Headless CMS
11 6 (0.24%) Umbraco
12 5 (0.20%) Camunda
12 5 (0.20%) Cloud Foundry
12 5 (0.20%) SAS
12 5 (0.20%) WinCC
13 4 (0.16%) WebLogic
Applications
1 82 (3.29%) Microsoft Excel
2 17 (0.68%) Microsoft Office
3 14 (0.56%) Simulink
4 9 (0.36%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 7 (0.28%) Moqups
6 6 (0.24%) Chatbot
6 6 (0.24%) Lightworks
7 3 (0.12%) EPLAN
7 3 (0.12%) MS Visio
8 2 (0.080%) PlantUML
8 2 (0.080%) SOLIDWORKS
9 1 (0.040%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 68 (2.73%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.08%) Dynamics GP
3 11 (0.44%) SAP S/4HANA
4 4 (0.16%) Visualfiles
5 3 (0.12%) Magento
5 3 (0.12%) Oracle Applications
5 3 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
5 3 (0.12%) SAP ERP
6 2 (0.080%) FLEXCUBE
6 2 (0.080%) Oracle EBS
6 2 (0.080%) Towers Watson Igloo
6 2 (0.080%) Workday HCM
7 1 (0.040%) Adobe Campaign
7 1 (0.040%) Bloomberg TOMS
7 1 (0.040%) Endur
7 1 (0.040%) Misys Equation
7 1 (0.040%) Misys Midas
7 1 (0.040%) NetSuite
7 1 (0.040%) Oracle Assets
7 1 (0.040%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 827 (33.21%) AWS
2 683 (27.43%) Azure
3 325 (13.05%) SaaS
4 263 (10.56%) GCP
5 237 (9.52%) Azure DevOps
6 219 (8.80%) GitHub
7 196 (7.87%) Serverless
8 119 (4.78%) GitHub Actions
9 106 (4.26%) AWS CloudFormation
10 104 (4.18%) Amazon EKS
11 94 (3.78%) AWS Lambda
12 92 (3.69%) Amazon S3
13 70 (2.81%) Power Platform
14 59 (2.37%) Azure Service Bus
14 59 (2.37%) Google Ads
14 59 (2.37%) Meta Ads
15 53 (2.13%) Azure Logic Apps
16 52 (2.09%) Azure Monitor
17 46 (1.85%) Azure Functions
18 45 (1.81%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 56 (2.25%) Broadband
2 30 (1.20%) TCP/IP
3 25 (1.00%) DNS
3 25 (1.00%) Firewall
4 17 (0.68%) SSL
5 16 (0.64%) Wireless
6 15 (0.60%) DMARC
6 15 (0.60%) Modbus
7 14 (0.56%) MQTT
8 13 (0.52%) HTTP
8 13 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
9 12 (0.48%) DHCP
9 12 (0.48%) Ethernet
10 11 (0.44%) 5G
10 11 (0.44%) WAN
11 10 (0.40%) LTE
11 10 (0.40%) Network Security
12 9 (0.36%) 3GPP
13 8 (0.32%) Internet
14 7 (0.28%) SS7
Database & Business Intelligence
1 154 (6.18%) PostgreSQL
2 124 (4.98%) NoSQL
3 94 (3.78%) MongoDB
4 84 (3.37%) SQL Server
5 74 (2.97%) Relational Database
6 48 (1.93%) Redis
7 44 (1.77%) DynamoDB
7 44 (1.77%) MySQL
8 43 (1.73%) Power BI
9 36 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
10 35 (1.41%) Data Lake
11 31 (1.24%) BigQuery
12 28 (1.12%) Metadata
13 27 (1.08%) Amazon Athena
14 26 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
15 24 (0.96%) Semantic Layer
16 16 (0.64%) Amazon Aurora
17 15 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
17 15 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
18 14 (0.56%) Amazon Redshift
Development Applications
1 371 (14.90%) Git
2 258 (10.36%) GitLab
3 217 (8.71%) Jenkins
4 165 (6.63%) Selenium
5 153 (6.14%) JIRA
6 112 (4.50%) Cucumber
7 109 (4.38%) Cypress.io
8 91 (3.65%) Postman
9 73 (2.93%) TeamCity
10 49 (1.97%) JMeter
10 49 (1.97%) JUnit
11 41 (1.65%) REST Assured
12 32 (1.29%) LabVIEW
13 31 (1.24%) Gatling
13 31 (1.24%) Zephyr
14 29 (1.16%) SonarQube
15 25 (1.00%) Bitbucket
16 24 (0.96%) Maven
16 24 (0.96%) Robot Framework
17 22 (0.88%) TestRail
General
1 687 (27.59%) Social Skills
2 598 (24.02%) Finance
3 396 (15.90%) Analytical Skills
4 279 (11.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 259 (10.40%) Public Sector
6 202 (8.11%) Banking
6 202 (8.11%) Law
7 175 (7.03%) Marketing
8 139 (5.58%) Legal
9 130 (5.22%) Retail
10 123 (4.94%) Manufacturing
11 95 (3.82%) Electronics
12 83 (3.33%) Financial Institution
13 61 (2.45%) Back Office
14 55 (2.21%) Aerospace
15 44 (1.77%) Telecoms
16 38 (1.53%) Games
17 34 (1.37%) Documentation Skills
18 33 (1.33%) Automotive
19 25 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 687 (27.59%) Senior
2 366 (14.70%) Software Engineer
3 335 (13.45%) Developer
4 323 (12.97%) Lead
5 261 (10.48%) Test Engineer
6 121 (4.86%) Senior Developer
7 118 (4.74%) DevOps Engineer
7 118 (4.74%) Java Engineer
8 106 (4.26%) Senior Software Engineer
9 105 (4.22%) QA Engineer
10 87 (3.49%) Analyst
10 87 (3.49%) Test Automation Engineer
11 78 (3.13%) Full-Stack Engineer
11 78 (3.13%) Tester
12 77 (3.09%) Data Engineer
13 71 (2.85%) Principal Engineer
14 70 (2.81%) Lead Software Engineer
15 68 (2.73%) Architect
16 63 (2.53%) Software Developer
17 61 (2.45%) Marketing Manager
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 348 (13.98%) Terraform
2 262 (10.52%) REST
3 235 (9.44%) .NET
4 230 (9.24%) React
5 211 (8.47%) Node.js
6 208 (8.35%) Playwright
7 204 (8.19%) RESTful
8 203 (8.15%) Spring
9 155 (6.22%) Spring Boot
10 144 (5.78%) Kafka
11 124 (4.98%) CSS
12 118 (4.74%) AngularJS
13 116 (4.66%) HTML
14 77 (3.09%) OAuth
15 72 (2.89%) Middleware
16 68 (2.73%) OAuth2
17 64 (2.57%) JSON
18 55 (2.21%) Next.js
19 52 (2.09%) PySpark
20 49 (1.97%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 429 (17.23%) Cloud Native
2 289 (11.61%) Product Ownership
3 217 (8.71%) Distributed Systems
4 110 (4.42%) Onboarding
5 102 (4.10%) Enterprise Software
6 99 (3.98%) Mobile App
7 90 (3.61%) Public Cloud
8 86 (3.45%) Blog
9 79 (3.17%) Virtual Team
10 70 (2.81%) Legacy Systems
11 64 (2.57%) Marketing Technology
12 54 (2.17%) Self-Motivation
13 53 (2.13%) Cyber Threat
14 51 (2.05%) Algorithms
14 51 (2.05%) Low-Code
15 46 (1.85%) Embedded Systems
16 45 (1.81%) e-Learning
17 42 (1.69%) Data Structures
18 40 (1.61%) AI Agents
19 39 (1.57%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 186 (7.47%) Linux
2 103 (4.14%) Windows
3 65 (2.61%) Android
4 61 (2.45%) Unix
5 57 (2.29%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
6 9 (0.36%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.32%) CentOS
8 6 (0.24%) FreeRTOS
9 5 (0.20%) AIX
10 4 (0.16%) Debian
10 4 (0.16%) VMS
11 3 (0.12%) Kali Linux
11 3 (0.12%) VxWorks
12 2 (0.080%) OpenWrt
13 1 (0.040%) Mac OS
13 1 (0.040%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
13 1 (0.040%) ThreadX
Processes & Methodologies
1 1,392 (55.90%) CI/CD
2 1,027 (41.24%) Agile
3 871 (34.98%) DevOps
4 794 (31.89%) Software Engineering
5 723 (29.04%) Continuous Improvement
6 646 (25.94%) Mentoring
7 608 (24.42%) AI
8 576 (23.13%) Problem-Solving
9 463 (18.59%) Microservices
10 431 (17.31%) Software Testing
11 403 (16.18%) Infrastructure as Code
12 327 (13.13%) Validation
13 323 (12.97%) Test Strategy
14 310 (12.45%) Observability
15 308 (12.37%) Coaching
16 297 (11.93%) Code Quality
17 276 (11.08%) Containerisation
17 276 (11.08%) Technical Leadership
18 264 (10.60%) Event-Driven
19 260 (10.44%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 701 (28.15%) Python
2 598 (24.02%) Java
3 479 (19.24%) SQL
4 431 (17.31%) JavaScript
5 357 (14.34%) TypeScript
6 340 (13.65%) C#
7 122 (4.90%) C++
8 102 (4.10%) PowerShell
9 101 (4.06%) Go
10 94 (3.78%) Bash
11 77 (3.09%) C
12 38 (1.53%) Kotlin
13 35 (1.41%) Rust
14 32 (1.29%) PHP
14 32 (1.29%) Ruby
15 30 (1.20%) Groovy
16 25 (1.00%) Bicep
16 25 (1.00%) MATLAB
17 21 (0.84%) Swift
18 16 (0.64%) Scala
Qualifications
1 389 (15.62%) Security Cleared
2 255 (10.24%) Degree
3 239 (9.60%) SC Cleared
4 98 (3.94%) Computer Science Degree
5 79 (3.17%) ISTQB
6 69 (2.77%) DV Cleared
7 66 (2.65%) AWS Certification
8 56 (2.25%) CISSP
9 54 (2.17%) ITIL Certification
10 53 (2.13%) CISM
11 48 (1.93%) Master's Degree
12 45 (1.81%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
13 43 (1.73%) HNC
14 37 (1.49%) BPSS Clearance
15 35 (1.41%) HND
16 17 (0.68%) Azure Certification
16 17 (0.68%) DBS Check
17 15 (0.60%) ISEB
18 13 (0.52%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
19 11 (0.44%) NVQ Level 4
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 569 (22.85%) QA
2 207 (8.31%) Accessibility
3 95 (3.82%) Data Quality
4 67 (2.69%) WCAG
5 55 (2.21%) NIST
6 48 (1.93%) ISO 22301
7 36 (1.45%) GDPR
8 12 (0.48%) SLA
9 9 (0.36%) GRC
9 9 (0.36%) MISRA
9 9 (0.36%) Software Quality Assurance
10 7 (0.28%) ISO/IEC 27001
11 6 (0.24%) JTAG
11 6 (0.24%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.20%) COBIT
12 5 (0.20%) NCSC
13 4 (0.16%) ECSS
13 4 (0.16%) ISO 20022
13 4 (0.16%) PCI DSS
13 4 (0.16%) PMO
System Software
1 354 (14.22%) Docker
2 48 (1.93%) Firmware
3 14 (0.56%) Active Directory
4 10 (0.40%) Embedded Firmware
4 10 (0.40%) VMware Infrastructure
5 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
6 3 (0.12%) Hyper-V
7 2 (0.080%) KVM
7 2 (0.080%) ProxySG
8 1 (0.040%) IAG
8 1 (0.040%) Oracle RAC
8 1 (0.040%) QEMU
8 1 (0.040%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 364 (14.62%) Kubernetes
2 164 (6.59%) Grafana
3 79 (3.17%) Ansible
4 68 (2.73%) Prometheus
5 31 (1.24%) Argo
6 17 (0.68%) Kibana
7 16 (0.64%) Puppet
8 14 (0.56%) CloudHub
9 12 (0.48%) Rancher
10 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
11 9 (0.36%) logstash
12 8 (0.32%) Single Sign-On
13 7 (0.28%) Functional Safety
13 7 (0.28%) HP Fortify
14 6 (0.24%) Progress Chef
14 6 (0.24%) vCenter Server
15 5 (0.20%) Packer
16 3 (0.12%) SCCM
16 3 (0.12%) SCOM
16 3 (0.12%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 268 (10.76%) Microsoft
2 131 (5.26%) Google
3 65 (2.61%) Databricks
4 63 (2.53%) Salesforce
5 57 (2.29%) Oracle
6 50 (2.01%) SAP
7 46 (1.85%) ServiceNow
8 36 (1.45%) Dynatrace
8 36 (1.45%) Splunk
9 22 (0.88%) Pega
10 20 (0.80%) MuleSoft
11 19 (0.76%) AppDynamics
12 17 (0.68%) Adobe
12 17 (0.68%) IBM
12 17 (0.68%) OpenAI
12 17 (0.68%) VMware
13 15 (0.60%) Allen-Bradley
13 15 (0.60%) Red Hat
13 15 (0.60%) SendGrid
14 13 (0.52%) Atlassian