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

6 months to
28 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 94 81 85
Rank change year-on-year -13 +4 -52
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,387 1,835 2,292
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.20% 3.50% 3.36%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.74% 3.83% 3.79%
Number of salaries quoted 852 856 1,637
10th Percentile £42,500 £41,250 £37,500
25th Percentile £51,250 £48,250 £46,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £62,500 £62,500 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year - +4.17% -2.44%
75th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £78,750
90th Percentile £107,500 £102,500 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +4.55% -3.84%

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 50,653 47,952 60,543
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.28% 91.49% 88.83%
Number of salaries quoted 29,910 23,033 46,850
10th Percentile £28,738 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,250 £41,250
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% +4.35% -8.00%
75th Percentile £75,900 £80,000 £76,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £95,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £55,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year -9.09% +10.00% -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 28 January 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 January 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 -25 1,148 £62,500 -0.79% 820
UK excluding London -50 703 £57,500 - 744
London +28 569 £80,000 - 202
Work from Home +13 565 £65,000 +0.78% 409
South East -64 170 £55,000 - 257
Scotland +15 133 £83,750 +39.58% 33
North of England -58 127 £60,000 +14.29% 139
South West -4 117 £60,000 - 104
Midlands -62 83 £55,000 -8.33% 89
North West -31 76 £60,000 +28.34% 62
West Midlands -32 49 £55,000 -8.33% 45
East of England -35 47 £55,000 -21.43% 103
Yorkshire -57 40 £55,000 +9.03% 58
East Midlands -54 37 £55,000 -6.38% 43
Wales +5 26 £56,350 +15.55% 32
North East -27 11 £60,000 -1.64% 19
Northern Ireland -31 5 £64,859 +8.10% 10

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 36 (2.60%) Confluence
2 21 (1.51%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 17 (1.23%) Apache Airflow
4 16 (1.15%) Apache Spark
5 14 (1.01%) Appian
6 12 (0.87%) Jupyter
7 11 (0.79%) Apache
8 8 (0.58%) SharePoint
9 7 (0.50%) Apache Solr
9 7 (0.50%) CMS
10 5 (0.36%) IIS
11 4 (0.29%) WordPress
12 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
12 3 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
13 2 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
13 2 (0.14%) nginx
13 2 (0.14%) Oracle Application Server
13 2 (0.14%) SAS
14 1 (0.072%) Anypoint
14 1 (0.072%) Camunda
Applications
1 17 (1.23%) Microsoft Office
2 14 (1.01%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.79%) MS Visio
4 10 (0.72%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 4 (0.29%) Fusion 360
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Smart View
6 3 (0.22%) Photoshop
6 3 (0.22%) Sketch
7 2 (0.14%) Adobe XD
7 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
7 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
8 1 (0.072%) Doxygen
8 1 (0.072%) Trello
Business Applications
1 43 (3.10%) Oracle ERP
2 30 (2.16%) SAP S/4HANA
3 19 (1.37%) Dynamics CRM
4 5 (0.36%) Oracle Financials
5 4 (0.29%) Elite 3E
5 4 (0.29%) Hyperion Planning
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Assets
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle EBS
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle General Ledger
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Payables
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Procure-to-Pay
5 4 (0.29%) Oracle Receivables
5 4 (0.29%) Shopify
6 3 (0.22%) SAP CX
7 2 (0.14%) Aladdin
7 2 (0.14%) Payment Gateway
8 1 (0.072%) Dynamics NAV
8 1 (0.072%) Postilion
8 1 (0.072%) SAP Hybris
8 1 (0.072%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 469 (33.81%) Azure
2 360 (25.96%) AWS
3 286 (20.62%) Azure DevOps
4 230 (16.58%) GitHub
5 139 (10.02%) GCP
6 106 (7.64%) SaaS
7 79 (5.70%) GitHub Copilot
8 76 (5.48%) GitHub Actions
9 71 (5.12%) Serverless
10 70 (5.05%) Power Platform
11 58 (4.18%) PaaS
12 55 (3.97%) Amazon EKS
13 50 (3.60%) Azure Data Factory
14 41 (2.96%) Entra ID
15 40 (2.88%) Snowflake
16 39 (2.81%) OCI
17 38 (2.74%) Datadog
18 36 (2.60%) dbt
19 32 (2.31%) Power Automate
20 31 (2.24%) Amazon CloudWatch
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.51%) DNS
2 20 (1.44%) HTTP
2 20 (1.44%) TCP/IP
3 16 (1.15%) WAN
4 15 (1.08%) SD-WAN
5 12 (0.87%) 5G
5 12 (0.87%) VPN
6 9 (0.65%) CHAP
7 8 (0.58%) Firewall
8 5 (0.36%) Multicast
9 4 (0.29%) 3G
9 4 (0.29%) GPRS
9 4 (0.29%) GSM
9 4 (0.29%) Modbus
9 4 (0.29%) RS-232
9 4 (0.29%) RS-485
9 4 (0.29%) SMTP
9 4 (0.29%) SSL
10 3 (0.22%) AMQP
10 3 (0.22%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 84 (6.06%) SQL Server
2 73 (5.26%) PostgreSQL
3 64 (4.61%) NoSQL
3 64 (4.61%) Relational Database
4 47 (3.39%) Data Warehouse
5 43 (3.10%) MySQL
6 41 (2.96%) Power BI
7 26 (1.87%) MongoDB
8 20 (1.44%) Tableau
9 17 (1.23%) Elasticsearch
10 16 (1.15%) BigQuery
10 16 (1.15%) DynamoDB
10 16 (1.15%) RDBMS
11 14 (1.01%) DB2
11 14 (1.01%) Pinecone
11 14 (1.01%) Snowflake Schema
12 11 (0.79%) Amazon RDS
12 11 (0.79%) Metadata
13 9 (0.65%) Data Lake
13 9 (0.65%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 189 (13.63%) Selenium
2 168 (12.11%) JIRA
3 161 (11.61%) Git
4 146 (10.53%) Jenkins
5 77 (5.55%) Cypress.io
6 65 (4.69%) Cucumber
7 61 (4.40%) GitLab
8 55 (3.97%) Postman
9 52 (3.75%) TeamCity
10 42 (3.03%) JMeter
11 41 (2.96%) Oracle Forms
12 27 (1.95%) Robot Framework
12 27 (1.95%) SpecFlow
13 25 (1.80%) eCATT
13 25 (1.80%) WebDriver
14 24 (1.73%) JUnit
14 24 (1.73%) REST Assured
15 23 (1.66%) Snyk
16 22 (1.59%) MLflow
17 21 (1.51%) CircleCI
General
1 451 (32.52%) Finance
2 432 (31.15%) Social Skills
3 155 (11.18%) Analytical Skills
4 118 (8.51%) Banking
5 102 (7.35%) Law
6 86 (6.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 77 (5.55%) Marketing
8 70 (5.05%) Retail
9 56 (4.04%) Public Sector
10 55 (3.97%) Financial Institution
11 42 (3.03%) Manufacturing
12 41 (2.96%) Front Office
13 35 (2.52%) Electronics
14 32 (2.31%) Back Office
15 29 (2.09%) Legal
16 27 (1.95%) Presentation Skills
17 21 (1.51%) Organisational Skills
18 20 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
19 16 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
20 14 (1.01%) Automotive
Job Titles
1 383 (27.61%) Senior
2 245 (17.66%) Developer
3 223 (16.08%) Lead
4 132 (9.52%) Test Engineer
5 127 (9.16%) Software Engineer
6 107 (7.71%) Senior Developer
7 77 (5.55%) Analyst
8 73 (5.26%) QA Engineer
9 69 (4.97%) Test Leader
10 68 (4.90%) Tester
11 62 (4.47%) Test Automation Engineer
12 56 (4.04%) Python Developer
13 51 (3.68%) Automation Engineer
13 51 (3.68%) Cloud Engineer
14 50 (3.60%) Applications Engineer
15 46 (3.32%) Automation Tester
16 45 (3.24%) QA Automation Engineer
17 42 (3.03%) Java Engineer
17 42 (3.03%) Senior Software Engineer
18 40 (2.88%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 149 (10.74%) React
2 140 (10.09%) RESTful
3 127 (9.16%) .NET
4 112 (8.07%) REST
5 97 (6.99%) Playwright
6 74 (5.34%) Node.js
7 67 (4.83%) Spring
8 65 (4.69%) JSON
9 60 (4.33%) CSS
9 60 (4.33%) HTML
10 57 (4.11%) SOAP
11 55 (3.97%) OAuth
11 55 (3.97%) pytest
12 48 (3.46%) Kafka
13 42 (3.03%) OAuth2
14 39 (2.81%) Spring Boot
14 39 (2.81%) XML
15 37 (2.67%) Elastic Stack
16 36 (2.60%) Flask
17 35 (2.52%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 232 (16.73%) Cloud Native
2 110 (7.93%) Product Ownership
3 61 (4.40%) Self-Motivation
4 52 (3.75%) Management Information System
5 49 (3.53%) Enterprise Software
6 41 (2.96%) Mobile App
7 37 (2.67%) Onboarding
8 34 (2.45%) Legacy Systems
9 30 (2.16%) Hedge funds
10 28 (2.02%) Data Structures
11 27 (1.95%) Algorithms
12 26 (1.87%) Distributed Systems
12 26 (1.87%) Low-Code
13 24 (1.73%) Satnav
13 24 (1.73%) Security Posture
14 23 (1.66%) Equities
15 22 (1.59%) Virtual Team
16 21 (1.51%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
17 20 (1.44%) GNSS
18 18 (1.30%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 131 (9.44%) Linux
2 78 (5.62%) Windows
3 37 (2.67%) Apple iOS
4 36 (2.60%) Android
5 33 (2.38%) Unix
6 13 (0.94%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.58%) CentOS
8 5 (0.36%) Debian
8 5 (0.36%) Embedded Linux
8 5 (0.36%) FreeRTOS
8 5 (0.36%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
9 3 (0.22%) Windows 10
9 3 (0.22%) Windows Server 2019
10 2 (0.14%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.14%) Solaris
10 2 (0.14%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.14%) VxWorks
11 1 (0.072%) AIX
11 1 (0.072%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 727 (52.42%) CI/CD
2 609 (43.91%) Agile
3 490 (35.33%) DevOps
4 328 (23.65%) Problem-Solving
5 300 (21.63%) Mentoring
6 294 (21.20%) Continuous Improvement
7 263 (18.96%) Software Engineering
8 230 (16.58%) AI
9 220 (15.86%) Coaching
10 188 (13.55%) Microservices
11 167 (12.04%) Observability
12 165 (11.90%) Clean Code
12 165 (11.90%) Software Testing
13 164 (11.82%) Analytics
14 159 (11.46%) Test Strategy
15 147 (10.60%) Infrastructure as Code
16 127 (9.16%) Containerisation
17 122 (8.80%) Asset Management
18 120 (8.65%) Computer Science
18 120 (8.65%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 418 (30.14%) Python
2 317 (22.86%) Java
3 300 (21.63%) SQL
4 188 (13.55%) JavaScript
5 161 (11.61%) C#
6 148 (10.67%) TypeScript
7 75 (5.41%) PowerShell
8 57 (4.11%) C++
9 46 (3.32%) PL/SQL
10 44 (3.17%) Shell Script
11 41 (2.96%) Bash
12 36 (2.60%) Go
13 33 (2.38%) Bicep
13 33 (2.38%) PHP
14 26 (1.87%) C
15 24 (1.73%) Apex Code
16 18 (1.30%) Kotlin
17 14 (1.01%) MATLAB
18 13 (0.94%) T-SQL
18 13 (0.94%) VBA
Qualifications
1 190 (13.70%) Degree
2 120 (8.65%) Security Cleared
3 76 (5.48%) SC Cleared
4 75 (5.41%) Computer Science Degree
5 71 (5.12%) ISTQB
6 43 (3.10%) Master's Degree
7 33 (2.38%) DV Cleared
8 26 (1.87%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 21 (1.51%) AWS Certification
9 21 (1.51%) DBS Check
9 21 (1.51%) HND
10 17 (1.23%) Azure Certification
11 16 (1.15%) ISEB
12 15 (1.08%) PhD
13 11 (0.79%) CISSP
14 10 (0.72%) CEH
14 10 (0.72%) CISA
15 9 (0.65%) CGEIT
15 9 (0.65%) CISM
15 9 (0.65%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 326 (23.50%) QA
2 84 (6.06%) Accessibility
3 48 (3.46%) Data Quality
4 45 (3.24%) NIST
5 42 (3.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 36 (2.60%) GDPR
7 24 (1.73%) WCAG
8 17 (1.23%) NCSC
9 14 (1.01%) SLA
10 10 (0.72%) ISO 22301
10 10 (0.72%) ISO 9001
11 9 (0.65%) COBIT
12 7 (0.50%) Sarbanes-Oxley
13 4 (0.29%) IEC 61508
13 4 (0.29%) ISO 13485
13 4 (0.29%) ISO 26262
13 4 (0.29%) MISRA
13 4 (0.29%) PCI DSS
14 3 (0.22%) Section 508
14 3 (0.22%) SEPA
System Software
1 190 (13.70%) Docker
2 43 (3.10%) Active Directory
3 16 (1.15%) Firmware
4 13 (0.94%) Embedded Firmware
5 10 (0.72%) VMware Infrastructure
6 6 (0.43%) Virtual Machines
7 5 (0.36%) Hyper-V
8 4 (0.29%) KVM
9 3 (0.22%) vSphere
10 2 (0.14%) Terminal Server
Systems Management
1 225 (16.22%) Terraform
2 214 (15.43%) Kubernetes
3 88 (6.34%) Grafana
4 56 (4.04%) Ansible
5 43 (3.10%) Single Sign-On
6 30 (2.16%) Prometheus
7 28 (2.02%) HP ALM
8 7 (0.50%) Argo
9 6 (0.43%) Microsoft Intune
10 5 (0.36%) logstash
11 3 (0.22%) Control-M
11 3 (0.22%) HP Fortify
11 3 (0.22%) Progress Chef
11 3 (0.22%) Rancher
11 3 (0.22%) SCCM
11 3 (0.22%) SCOM
12 2 (0.14%) Kibana
12 2 (0.14%) Nessus
12 2 (0.14%) Puppet
13 1 (0.072%) CA Service Virtualization
Vendors
1 127 (9.16%) Microsoft
2 96 (6.92%) Oracle
3 66 (4.76%) Salesforce
4 51 (3.68%) SAP
5 33 (2.38%) Databricks
5 33 (2.38%) Google
6 31 (2.24%) VMware
7 29 (2.09%) HP
8 20 (1.44%) Okta
9 18 (1.30%) Black Duck
9 18 (1.30%) Coverity
9 18 (1.30%) Splunk
10 17 (1.23%) OpenAI
11 15 (1.08%) Commvault
11 15 (1.08%) Guidewire
11 15 (1.08%) UiPath
12 14 (1.01%) Ab Initio
13 12 (0.87%) Palantir
14 11 (0.79%) Blue Prism
14 11 (0.79%) MuleSoft