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

6 months to
8 Oct 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 78 91 86
Rank change year-on-year +13 -5 -16
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 2,490 1,600 2,094
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.12% 3.22% 2.86%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.89% 3.62% 3.49%
Number of salaries quoted 1,351 737 944
10th Percentile £40,500 £40,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £47,000 £51,250 £47,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £61,967 £65,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -4.67% +8.33% -4.00%
75th Percentile £80,000 £85,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £93,750 £105,000 £101,750
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 86,155 44,192 60,081
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 73.18% 88.99% 81.99%
Number of salaries quoted 59,150 24,458 32,463
10th Percentile £31,250 £28,325 £32,500
25th Percentile £41,250 £36,250 £42,608
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £55,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year +9.09% -8.33% -
75th Percentile £78,750 £75,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £100,000 £95,000 £96,750
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 8 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 8 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 +11 2,047 £62,500 -3.85% 3,170
UK excluding London +16 1,578 £57,500 - 1,884
Work from Home +16 890 £67,500 +8.00% 1,302
London 0 739 £77,500 -3.13% 1,533
North of England +31 419 £57,500 -4.17% 445
South East -17 277 £60,000 +4.35% 412
South West +20 255 £60,000 +14.29% 227
Midlands -11 204 £52,500 -10.64% 214
North West -14 185 £60,000 - 230
Northern Ireland +12 162 £80,000 +45.45% 72
North East +30 133 £55,000 +78.86% 75
Wales +5 129 £53,171 -3.33% 38
Yorkshire +34 110 £69,306 +26.01% 140
West Midlands -24 109 £50,000 -9.09% 145
East of England -10 103 £46,750 -22.08% 210
East Midlands -20 95 £52,500 -16.00% 69
Scotland -59 41 £62,500 -10.71% 276

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 58 (2.33%) Confluence
2 42 (1.69%) Apache Spark
3 34 (1.37%) Apache
4 24 (0.96%) SharePoint
5 23 (0.92%) Apache Airflow
6 20 (0.80%) Jupyter
7 17 (0.68%) Adobe Experience Manager
8 15 (0.60%) CMS
9 14 (0.56%) Anypoint
9 14 (0.56%) Mule
10 11 (0.44%) Palantir Foundry
11 9 (0.36%) Microsoft Exchange
11 9 (0.36%) nginx
12 7 (0.28%) Headless CMS
13 6 (0.24%) WebLogic
14 5 (0.20%) Camunda
14 5 (0.20%) Cloud Foundry
14 5 (0.20%) SAS
14 5 (0.20%) Umbraco
14 5 (0.20%) WinCC
Applications
1 84 (3.37%) Microsoft Excel
2 18 (0.72%) 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 4 (0.16%) EPLAN
7 4 (0.16%) MS Visio
8 3 (0.12%) SOLIDWORKS
9 1 (0.040%) AutoCAD
9 1 (0.040%) Microsoft Project
9 1 (0.040%) PlantUML
Business Applications
1 68 (2.73%) Dynamics CRM
2 27 (1.08%) Dynamics GP
3 11 (0.44%) SAP S/4HANA
4 3 (0.12%) Magento
4 3 (0.12%) Payment Gateway
4 3 (0.12%) SAP ERP
4 3 (0.12%) Visualfiles
5 2 (0.080%) FLEXCUBE
5 2 (0.080%) Oracle Applications
5 2 (0.080%) Towers Watson Igloo
5 2 (0.080%) Workday HCM
6 1 (0.040%) Adobe Campaign
6 1 (0.040%) Bloomberg TOMS
6 1 (0.040%) Endur
6 1 (0.040%) Misys Equation
6 1 (0.040%) Misys Midas
6 1 (0.040%) NetSuite
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle Assets
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle EBS
6 1 (0.040%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
Cloud Services
1 822 (33.01%) AWS
2 673 (27.03%) Azure
3 320 (12.85%) SaaS
4 261 (10.48%) GCP
5 231 (9.28%) GitHub
6 225 (9.04%) Azure DevOps
7 187 (7.51%) Serverless
8 124 (4.98%) GitHub Actions
9 107 (4.30%) AWS CloudFormation
10 100 (4.02%) Amazon EKS
11 91 (3.65%) Amazon S3
12 86 (3.45%) AWS Lambda
13 72 (2.89%) Power Platform
14 59 (2.37%) Google Ads
14 59 (2.37%) Meta Ads
15 58 (2.33%) Azure Service Bus
16 51 (2.05%) Azure Logic Apps
16 51 (2.05%) Azure Monitor
17 48 (1.93%) Azure Functions
17 48 (1.93%) GitHub Copilot
Communications & Networking
1 56 (2.25%) Broadband
2 31 (1.24%) TCP/IP
3 27 (1.08%) DNS
4 26 (1.04%) Firewall
5 17 (0.68%) SSL
6 16 (0.64%) Wireless
7 15 (0.60%) DMARC
7 15 (0.60%) Modbus
8 14 (0.56%) MQTT
9 13 (0.52%) HTTP
9 13 (0.52%) Wi-Fi
10 12 (0.48%) DHCP
10 12 (0.48%) Ethernet
10 12 (0.48%) Network Security
11 11 (0.44%) 5G
11 11 (0.44%) WAN
12 10 (0.40%) LTE
13 9 (0.36%) 3GPP
14 8 (0.32%) Internet
15 7 (0.28%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 154 (6.18%) PostgreSQL
2 121 (4.86%) NoSQL
3 93 (3.73%) MongoDB
4 82 (3.29%) SQL Server
5 71 (2.85%) Relational Database
6 49 (1.97%) Redis
7 46 (1.85%) MySQL
8 45 (1.81%) Power BI
9 42 (1.69%) DynamoDB
10 36 (1.45%) Data Lake
10 36 (1.45%) Data Warehouse
11 33 (1.33%) Metadata
12 30 (1.20%) BigQuery
13 28 (1.12%) Amazon Athena
14 26 (1.04%) Amazon RDS
15 25 (1.00%) Semantic Layer
16 17 (0.68%) Amazon Aurora
17 15 (0.60%) Amazon Redshift
17 15 (0.60%) Azure SQL Database
17 15 (0.60%) Elasticsearch
Development Applications
1 357 (14.34%) Git
2 262 (10.52%) GitLab
3 206 (8.27%) Jenkins
4 160 (6.43%) Selenium
5 145 (5.82%) JIRA
6 111 (4.46%) Cypress.io
7 105 (4.22%) Cucumber
8 85 (3.41%) Postman
9 73 (2.93%) TeamCity
10 51 (2.05%) JUnit
11 46 (1.85%) JMeter
12 43 (1.73%) REST Assured
13 40 (1.61%) LabVIEW
14 29 (1.16%) Gatling
15 26 (1.04%) Zephyr
16 23 (0.92%) Bitbucket
16 23 (0.92%) Claude Code
16 23 (0.92%) Robot Framework
17 22 (0.88%) SonarQube
18 21 (0.84%) Maven
General
1 688 (27.63%) Social Skills
2 592 (23.78%) Finance
3 402 (16.14%) Analytical Skills
4 278 (11.16%) Inclusion and Diversity
5 268 (10.76%) Public Sector
6 202 (8.11%) Law
7 201 (8.07%) Banking
8 175 (7.03%) Marketing
9 135 (5.42%) Legal
10 132 (5.30%) Manufacturing
11 131 (5.26%) Retail
12 105 (4.22%) Electronics
13 85 (3.41%) Financial Institution
14 63 (2.53%) Back Office
15 57 (2.29%) Aerospace
16 45 (1.81%) Telecoms
17 37 (1.49%) Games
18 36 (1.45%) Automotive
18 36 (1.45%) Documentation Skills
19 25 (1.00%) Organisational Skills
Job Titles
1 692 (27.79%) Senior
2 372 (14.94%) Software Engineer
3 334 (13.41%) Developer
4 304 (12.21%) Lead
5 265 (10.64%) Test Engineer
6 120 (4.82%) Senior Developer
7 115 (4.62%) Java Engineer
8 113 (4.54%) DevOps Engineer
8 113 (4.54%) QA Engineer
9 107 (4.30%) Senior Software Engineer
10 87 (3.49%) Test Automation Engineer
11 86 (3.45%) Analyst
12 79 (3.17%) Data Engineer
13 77 (3.09%) Principal Engineer
13 77 (3.09%) Tester
14 73 (2.93%) Full-Stack Engineer
15 72 (2.89%) Lead Software Engineer
16 68 (2.73%) Architect
17 67 (2.69%) Automation Engineer
18 63 (2.53%) Software Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 341 (13.69%) Terraform
2 265 (10.64%) REST
3 232 (9.32%) .NET
4 218 (8.76%) React
5 211 (8.47%) Node.js
6 204 (8.19%) Spring
7 203 (8.15%) Playwright
8 198 (7.95%) RESTful
9 158 (6.35%) Spring Boot
10 145 (5.82%) Kafka
11 128 (5.14%) CSS
12 119 (4.78%) HTML
13 112 (4.50%) AngularJS
14 73 (2.93%) Middleware
14 73 (2.93%) OAuth
15 65 (2.61%) OAuth2
16 58 (2.33%) JSON
17 55 (2.21%) Next.js
18 52 (2.09%) PySpark
19 48 (1.93%) .NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 426 (17.11%) Cloud Native
2 287 (11.53%) Product Ownership
3 215 (8.63%) Distributed Systems
4 111 (4.46%) Onboarding
5 110 (4.42%) Enterprise Software
6 96 (3.86%) Mobile App
7 93 (3.73%) Public Cloud
8 85 (3.41%) Blog
9 75 (3.01%) Virtual Team
10 70 (2.81%) Legacy Systems
11 64 (2.57%) Marketing Technology
12 55 (2.21%) Self-Motivation
13 53 (2.13%) Cyber Threat
14 51 (2.05%) Algorithms
14 51 (2.05%) Low-Code
15 47 (1.89%) e-Learning
16 46 (1.85%) Embedded Systems
17 41 (1.65%) AI Agents
18 40 (1.61%) Data Structures
19 38 (1.53%) Management Information System
Operating Systems
1 176 (7.07%) Linux
2 99 (3.98%) Windows
3 65 (2.61%) Android
4 60 (2.41%) Unix
5 55 (2.21%) Apple iOS
6 9 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
7 8 (0.32%) Windows Server
8 7 (0.28%) CentOS
9 5 (0.20%) AIX
9 5 (0.20%) FreeRTOS
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 1,382 (55.50%) CI/CD
2 1,010 (40.56%) Agile
3 857 (34.42%) DevOps
4 795 (31.93%) Software Engineering
5 731 (29.36%) Continuous Improvement
6 649 (26.06%) Mentoring
7 613 (24.62%) AI
8 582 (23.37%) Problem-Solving
9 457 (18.35%) Microservices
10 427 (17.15%) Software Testing
11 396 (15.90%) Infrastructure as Code
12 335 (13.45%) Validation
13 319 (12.81%) Test Strategy
14 308 (12.37%) Coaching
15 307 (12.33%) Observability
16 296 (11.89%) Code Quality
17 280 (11.24%) Technical Leadership
18 267 (10.72%) Containerisation
19 264 (10.60%) Event-Driven
20 256 (10.28%) SDLC
Programming Languages
1 685 (27.51%) Python
2 583 (23.41%) Java
3 486 (19.52%) SQL
4 428 (17.19%) JavaScript
5 350 (14.06%) TypeScript
6 332 (13.33%) C#
7 122 (4.90%) C++
8 103 (4.14%) Go
9 99 (3.98%) PowerShell
10 93 (3.73%) Bash
11 80 (3.21%) C
12 42 (1.69%) Kotlin
13 37 (1.49%) Rust
14 33 (1.33%) PHP
15 31 (1.24%) Ruby
16 25 (1.00%) Bicep
17 24 (0.96%) MATLAB
18 23 (0.92%) Groovy
19 21 (0.84%) Swift
20 18 (0.72%) Scala
Qualifications
1 401 (16.10%) Security Cleared
2 261 (10.48%) Degree
3 250 (10.04%) SC Cleared
4 97 (3.90%) Computer Science Degree
5 75 (3.01%) DV Cleared
6 72 (2.89%) AWS Certification
6 72 (2.89%) ISTQB
7 55 (2.21%) CISSP
8 54 (2.17%) ITIL Certification
9 52 (2.09%) CISM
10 50 (2.01%) Master's Degree
11 47 (1.89%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
11 47 (1.89%) HNC
12 40 (1.61%) HND
13 37 (1.49%) BPSS Clearance
14 22 (0.88%) Azure Certification
15 17 (0.68%) DBS Check
16 15 (0.60%) ISEB
17 12 (0.48%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
18 11 (0.44%) NVQ Level 4
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 562 (22.57%) QA
2 200 (8.03%) Accessibility
3 98 (3.94%) Data Quality
4 67 (2.69%) WCAG
5 54 (2.17%) NIST
6 48 (1.93%) ISO 22301
7 32 (1.29%) GDPR
8 10 (0.40%) GRC
8 10 (0.40%) SLA
9 8 (0.32%) MISRA
10 7 (0.28%) Software Quality Assurance
11 6 (0.24%) JTAG
11 6 (0.24%) SOC 2
12 5 (0.20%) ISO 9001
12 5 (0.20%) ISO/IEC 27001
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
1 353 (14.18%) Docker
2 52 (2.09%) Firmware
3 15 (0.60%) Active Directory
4 10 (0.40%) Embedded Firmware
5 9 (0.36%) VMware Infrastructure
6 8 (0.32%) Virtual Machines
7 3 (0.12%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.080%) KVM
8 2 (0.080%) ProxySG
9 1 (0.040%) IAG
9 1 (0.040%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.040%) QEMU
9 1 (0.040%) Virtual Desktop
Systems Management
1 356 (14.30%) Kubernetes
2 167 (6.71%) Grafana
3 72 (2.89%) Ansible
4 67 (2.69%) Prometheus
5 30 (1.20%) Argo
6 16 (0.64%) Puppet
7 14 (0.56%) CloudHub
7 14 (0.56%) Kibana
8 12 (0.48%) Rancher
9 11 (0.44%) Microsoft Intune
10 8 (0.32%) Single Sign-On
11 7 (0.28%) HP Fortify
11 7 (0.28%) logstash
12 6 (0.24%) Functional Safety
12 6 (0.24%) Progress Chef
13 5 (0.20%) vCenter Server
14 3 (0.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
15 2 (0.080%) Bosun
15 2 (0.080%) kaniko
15 2 (0.080%) SCOrch
Vendors
1 266 (10.68%) Microsoft
2 131 (5.26%) Google
3 65 (2.61%) Databricks
4 61 (2.45%) Salesforce
5 53 (2.13%) Oracle
6 50 (2.01%) SAP
7 48 (1.93%) ServiceNow
8 37 (1.49%) Dynatrace
9 35 (1.41%) Splunk
10 22 (0.88%) Pega
11 19 (0.76%) Adobe
11 19 (0.76%) MuleSoft
12 17 (0.68%) VMware
13 16 (0.64%) Allen-Bradley
13 16 (0.64%) OpenAI
14 15 (0.60%) Foundry
14 15 (0.60%) SendGrid
15 14 (0.56%) AppDynamics
15 14 (0.56%) Atlassian
15 14 (0.56%) Red Hat