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

6 months to
24 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 95 80 81
Rank change year-on-year -15 +1 -48
Permanent jobs citing Test Automation 1,393 1,843 2,225
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 2.23% 3.47% 3.40%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 2.77% 3.81% 3.81%
Number of salaries quoted 856 857 1,601
10th Percentile £41,875 £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% -0.83%
75th Percentile £85,000 £82,500 £78,750
90th Percentile £107,500 £105,000 £100,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £57,500 £57,500 £55,000
% change year-on-year - +4.55% -2.65%

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 50,274 48,415 58,346
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 80.40% 91.16% 89.08%
Number of salaries quoted 29,681 23,366 44,999
10th Percentile £28,571 £35,000 £30,000
25th Percentile £37,500 £45,000 £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 £75,246 £80,000 £77,500
90th Percentile £95,000 £100,000 £96,250
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 24 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 24 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 -21 1,154 £62,500 - 1,178
UK excluding London -50 708 £57,500 - 1,143
London +31 570 £80,000 - 196
Work from Home +15 567 £65,258 +1.96% 568
South East -50 171 £55,000 - 342
Scotland +12 133 £83,750 +39.58% 55
North of England -61 130 £60,000 +19.93% 207
South West -3 117 £60,000 +4.35% 167
Midlands -69 83 £55,000 -8.33% 135
North West -27 78 £60,000 +27.66% 90
West Midlands -23 49 £55,100 -8.17% 54
East of England -38 48 £52,500 -25.00% 188
Yorkshire -54 40 £55,000 +9.51% 85
East Midlands -50 37 £55,000 -6.38% 78
Wales +6 26 £56,350 +15.00% 60
North East -20 12 £57,600 -5.57% 32
Northern Ireland -32 5 £64,859 +8.10% 23

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 (2.58%) Confluence
2 21 (1.51%) Oracle SOA Suite
3 17 (1.22%) Apache Airflow
4 16 (1.15%) Apache Spark
5 14 (1.01%) Appian
6 12 (0.86%) Jupyter
7 11 (0.79%) Apache
8 8 (0.57%) SharePoint
9 7 (0.50%) Apache Solr
9 7 (0.50%) CMS
10 4 (0.29%) WordPress
11 3 (0.22%) IIS
11 3 (0.22%) Microsoft Exchange
11 3 (0.22%) Oracle Workflow
12 2 (0.14%) Adobe Experience Manager
12 2 (0.14%) nginx
12 2 (0.14%) Oracle Application Server
12 2 (0.14%) SAS
13 1 (0.072%) Anypoint
13 1 (0.072%) Camunda
Applications
1 18 (1.29%) Microsoft Office
2 15 (1.08%) Microsoft Excel
3 11 (0.79%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 11 (0.79%) MS Visio
4 4 (0.29%) Fusion 360
4 4 (0.29%) Oracle Smart View
5 3 (0.22%) Photoshop
5 3 (0.22%) Sketch
6 2 (0.14%) Adobe XD
6 2 (0.14%) Chatbot
6 2 (0.14%) Microsoft Project
7 1 (0.072%) Doxygen
7 1 (0.072%) Trello
Business Applications
1 43 (3.09%) Oracle ERP
2 30 (2.15%) SAP S/4HANA
3 19 (1.36%) 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%) Postilion
8 1 (0.072%) SAP Hybris
8 1 (0.072%) Siebel CRM
8 1 (0.072%) Temenos T24
Cloud Services
1 467 (33.52%) Azure
2 357 (25.63%) AWS
3 286 (20.53%) Azure DevOps
4 230 (16.51%) GitHub
5 138 (9.91%) GCP
6 108 (7.75%) SaaS
7 79 (5.67%) GitHub Copilot
8 76 (5.46%) GitHub Actions
9 72 (5.17%) Power Platform
10 70 (5.03%) Serverless
11 58 (4.16%) PaaS
12 54 (3.88%) Amazon EKS
13 50 (3.59%) Azure Data Factory
14 42 (3.02%) Snowflake
15 41 (2.94%) Entra ID
16 39 (2.80%) dbt
16 39 (2.80%) OCI
17 38 (2.73%) Datadog
18 33 (2.37%) Power Automate
19 30 (2.15%) Salesforce Service Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 21 (1.51%) DNS
1 21 (1.51%) HTTP
2 20 (1.44%) TCP/IP
3 16 (1.15%) WAN
4 15 (1.08%) SD-WAN
5 12 (0.86%) 5G
5 12 (0.86%) VPN
6 9 (0.65%) CHAP
7 8 (0.57%) 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%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 85 (6.10%) SQL Server
2 73 (5.24%) PostgreSQL
3 67 (4.81%) Relational Database
4 61 (4.38%) NoSQL
5 50 (3.59%) Data Warehouse
6 43 (3.09%) MySQL
6 43 (3.09%) Power BI
7 26 (1.87%) MongoDB
8 20 (1.44%) Tableau
9 17 (1.22%) Elasticsearch
9 17 (1.22%) RDBMS
10 16 (1.15%) BigQuery
10 16 (1.15%) DynamoDB
11 14 (1.01%) DB2
11 14 (1.01%) Pinecone
11 14 (1.01%) Snowflake Schema
12 11 (0.79%) Metadata
13 10 (0.72%) Amazon RDS
14 9 (0.65%) Data Lake
14 9 (0.65%) Oracle Database
Development Applications
1 189 (13.57%) Selenium
2 169 (12.13%) JIRA
3 161 (11.56%) Git
4 145 (10.41%) Jenkins
5 77 (5.53%) Cypress.io
6 66 (4.74%) Cucumber
7 61 (4.38%) GitLab
8 57 (4.09%) Postman
9 51 (3.66%) TeamCity
10 42 (3.02%) JMeter
11 41 (2.94%) Oracle Forms
12 27 (1.94%) Robot Framework
12 27 (1.94%) SpecFlow
13 25 (1.79%) eCATT
13 25 (1.79%) JUnit
13 25 (1.79%) WebDriver
14 24 (1.72%) REST Assured
15 23 (1.65%) Snyk
16 22 (1.58%) MLflow
17 21 (1.51%) Bitbucket
General
1 451 (32.38%) Finance
2 432 (31.01%) Social Skills
3 156 (11.20%) Analytical Skills
4 116 (8.33%) Banking
5 102 (7.32%) Law
6 85 (6.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 78 (5.60%) Marketing
8 69 (4.95%) Retail
9 57 (4.09%) Public Sector
10 55 (3.95%) Financial Institution
11 46 (3.30%) Manufacturing
12 39 (2.80%) Front Office
13 37 (2.66%) Electronics
14 32 (2.30%) Back Office
15 28 (2.01%) Legal
16 27 (1.94%) Presentation Skills
17 20 (1.44%) Documentation Skills
17 20 (1.44%) Organisational Skills
18 16 (1.15%) Influencing Skills
19 15 (1.08%) Telecoms
Job Titles
1 380 (27.28%) Senior
2 248 (17.80%) Developer
3 226 (16.22%) Lead
4 134 (9.62%) Test Engineer
5 126 (9.05%) Software Engineer
6 106 (7.61%) Senior Developer
7 77 (5.53%) Analyst
8 74 (5.31%) QA Engineer
9 69 (4.95%) Test Leader
10 67 (4.81%) Tester
11 62 (4.45%) Test Automation Engineer
12 56 (4.02%) Python Developer
13 52 (3.73%) Automation Engineer
14 50 (3.59%) Applications Engineer
14 50 (3.59%) Cloud Engineer
15 46 (3.30%) QA Automation Engineer
16 45 (3.23%) Automation Tester
17 42 (3.02%) Java Engineer
18 41 (2.94%) Senior Software Engineer
19 40 (2.87%) Test Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 149 (10.70%) React
2 139 (9.98%) RESTful
3 125 (8.97%) .NET
4 113 (8.11%) REST
5 97 (6.96%) Playwright
6 73 (5.24%) Node.js
7 67 (4.81%) Spring
8 66 (4.74%) JSON
9 59 (4.24%) CSS
9 59 (4.24%) HTML
10 58 (4.16%) SOAP
11 56 (4.02%) pytest
12 55 (3.95%) OAuth
13 47 (3.37%) Kafka
14 42 (3.02%) OAuth2
15 39 (2.80%) Spring Boot
15 39 (2.80%) XML
16 37 (2.66%) Elastic Stack
16 37 (2.66%) Flask
17 35 (2.51%) .NET Framework
Miscellaneous
1 228 (16.37%) Cloud Native
2 109 (7.82%) Product Ownership
3 62 (4.45%) Self-Motivation
4 51 (3.66%) Management Information System
5 49 (3.52%) Enterprise Software
6 41 (2.94%) Mobile App
7 39 (2.80%) Onboarding
8 34 (2.44%) Legacy Systems
9 29 (2.08%) Hedge funds
10 27 (1.94%) Data Structures
11 26 (1.87%) Algorithms
11 26 (1.87%) Low-Code
12 25 (1.79%) Distributed Systems
13 24 (1.72%) Satnav
13 24 (1.72%) Security Posture
14 22 (1.58%) Equities
14 22 (1.58%) Virtual Team
15 20 (1.44%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
15 20 (1.44%) GNSS
16 19 (1.36%) Greenfield Project
Operating Systems
1 128 (9.19%) Linux
2 77 (5.53%) Windows
3 37 (2.66%) Apple iOS
4 36 (2.58%) Android
5 34 (2.44%) Unix
6 13 (0.93%) Windows Server
7 8 (0.57%) 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
1 728 (52.26%) CI/CD
2 614 (44.08%) Agile
3 489 (35.10%) DevOps
4 329 (23.62%) Problem-Solving
5 299 (21.46%) Mentoring
6 294 (21.11%) Continuous Improvement
7 258 (18.52%) Software Engineering
8 228 (16.37%) AI
9 220 (15.79%) Coaching
10 185 (13.28%) Microservices
11 166 (11.92%) Observability
12 165 (11.84%) Analytics
12 165 (11.84%) Clean Code
12 165 (11.84%) Software Testing
13 161 (11.56%) Test Strategy
14 144 (10.34%) Infrastructure as Code
15 125 (8.97%) Containerisation
16 122 (8.76%) Asset Management
17 120 (8.61%) Computer Science
17 120 (8.61%) Technical Leadership
Programming Languages
1 421 (30.22%) Python
2 318 (22.83%) Java
3 305 (21.90%) SQL
4 191 (13.71%) JavaScript
5 160 (11.49%) C#
6 150 (10.77%) TypeScript
7 75 (5.38%) PowerShell
8 56 (4.02%) C++
9 46 (3.30%) PL/SQL
10 44 (3.16%) Shell Script
11 38 (2.73%) Bash
12 36 (2.58%) Go
13 34 (2.44%) PHP
14 32 (2.30%) Bicep
15 26 (1.87%) C
16 24 (1.72%) Apex Code
17 19 (1.36%) Kotlin
18 14 (1.01%) MATLAB
19 13 (0.93%) T-SQL
19 13 (0.93%) VBA
Qualifications
1 191 (13.71%) Degree
2 121 (8.69%) Security Cleared
3 76 (5.46%) SC Cleared
4 75 (5.38%) Computer Science Degree
5 72 (5.17%) ISTQB
6 43 (3.09%) Master's Degree
7 34 (2.44%) DV Cleared
8 27 (1.94%) ISTQB Foundation Certification
9 22 (1.58%) DBS Check
10 21 (1.51%) AWS Certification
10 21 (1.51%) HND
11 17 (1.22%) Azure Certification
12 16 (1.15%) ISEB
13 15 (1.08%) PhD
14 11 (0.79%) CISSP
15 10 (0.72%) CEH
15 10 (0.72%) CISA
16 9 (0.65%) CGEIT
16 9 (0.65%) CISM
16 9 (0.65%) FFIEC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 330 (23.69%) QA
2 84 (6.03%) Accessibility
3 50 (3.59%) Data Quality
4 46 (3.30%) NIST
5 43 (3.09%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 36 (2.58%) GDPR
7 24 (1.72%) WCAG
8 18 (1.29%) NCSC
9 15 (1.08%) 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
1 188 (13.50%) Docker
2 43 (3.09%) Active Directory
3 16 (1.15%) Firmware
4 13 (0.93%) 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
1 221 (15.87%) Terraform
2 212 (15.22%) Kubernetes
3 86 (6.17%) Grafana
4 56 (4.02%) Ansible
5 43 (3.09%) Single Sign-On
6 29 (2.08%) Prometheus
7 28 (2.01%) 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%) HP Quality Center
12 2 (0.14%) Kibana
12 2 (0.14%) Nessus
12 2 (0.14%) Puppet
Vendors
1 129 (9.26%) Microsoft
2 98 (7.04%) Oracle
3 67 (4.81%) Salesforce
4 52 (3.73%) SAP
5 34 (2.44%) Google
6 33 (2.37%) Databricks
7 31 (2.23%) VMware
8 29 (2.08%) HP
9 20 (1.44%) Okta
10 18 (1.29%) Black Duck
10 18 (1.29%) Coverity
10 18 (1.29%) Splunk
11 17 (1.22%) OpenAI
12 16 (1.15%) Guidewire
13 15 (1.08%) Commvault
13 15 (1.08%) UiPath
14 14 (1.01%) Ab Initio
15 12 (0.86%) Palantir
16 11 (0.79%) Blue Prism
16 11 (0.79%) MuleSoft