Task Automation Contract Job Trends

Task Automation
UK

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs requiring Task Automation skills. It covers contract job vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 2 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 273 227 358
Rank change year-on-year -46 +131 +81
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 388 348 245
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.94% 1.15% 0.55%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.08% 1.28% 0.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 282 210 198
10th Percentile £339 £340 £368
25th Percentile £400 £401 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £491 £525
Median % change year-on-year -3.31% -6.43% -4.55%
75th Percentile £611 £594 £650
90th Percentile £750 £671 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £473 £515
% change year-on-year -1.69% -8.11% -6.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 13 0
10th Percentile - £21.00 -
25th Percentile £21.33 £22.22 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £29.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -21.34% - -
75th Percentile £35.15 £65.00 -
90th Percentile £41.66 £65.62 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.81 £24.66 -
% change year-on-year -7.50% - -

All Process & Methodology Skills
UK

Task Automation falls under the Processes and Methodologies category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring process or methodology skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 35,800 27,183 38,766
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.50% 90.06% 86.86%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,707 16,972 25,287
10th Percentile £313 £305 £300
25th Percentile £412 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £740 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -2.13% -1.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,144 882 2,256
10th Percentile £14.65 £15.62 £13.25
25th Percentile £18.24 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £27.61 £32.50 £33.03
Median % change year-on-year -15.06% -1.61% -5.62%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.50 £59.44
90th Percentile £73.46 £75.48 £72.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £32.00 £34.36
% change year-on-year -21.41% -6.85% -1.84%

Task Automation
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Task Automation relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Task Automation job vacancy trend in the UK

Task Automation
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Task Automation.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Task Automation

Task Automation
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Task Automation over the 6 months to 2 March 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Task Automation in the UK

Task Automation
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Task Automation.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Task Automation

Task Automation
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Task Automation over the 6 months to 2 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Task Automation in the UK

Task Automation
Top 17 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Task Automation within the UK over the 6 months to 2 March 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -55 324 £498 -0.50% 120
UK excluding London -40 188 £465 -1.69% 98
London -41 157 £575 +9.52% 37
Work from Home +20 150 £550 +12.24% 59
North of England -36 62 £450 -4.26% 28
South East -18 42 £440 +9.94% 28
Yorkshire -33 41 £450 -9.55% 11
Midlands -47 31 £503 +5.12% 16
West Midlands -38 29 £527 +8.78% 9
Scotland +6 25 £415 -13.54% 4
South West -31 18 £506 +7.14% 11
North West -41 17 £448 -4.68% 13
East of England -36 6 £500 - 9
North East -11 4 £365 -22.34% 4
Wales - 4 £525 - 3
East Midlands -35 2 £450 +13.92% 7
Northern Ireland - 2 £683 - 2

Task 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 27 (6.96%) Microsoft Exchange
2 23 (5.93%) SharePoint
3 9 (2.32%) Confluence
4 8 (2.06%) Appian
4 8 (2.06%) IIS
5 6 (1.55%) Apache
6 5 (1.29%) iPlanet
6 5 (1.29%) JBoss
6 5 (1.29%) WebSphere
6 5 (1.29%) WebSphere Application Server
7 3 (0.77%) Apache Airflow
7 3 (0.77%) OpenStack
8 2 (0.52%) Oracle SOA Suite
8 2 (0.52%) Oracle Workflow
8 2 (0.52%) Palantir Foundry
8 2 (0.52%) WebLogic
9 1 (0.26%) Apache Spark
9 1 (0.26%) CMS
9 1 (0.26%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 18 (4.64%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.03%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.77%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.52%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.52%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.52%) Maximo
1 2 (0.52%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.52%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (0.52%) Oracle ERP
1 2 (0.52%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.26%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 188 (48.45%) Azure
2 134 (34.54%) AWS
3 90 (23.20%) GCP
4 52 (13.40%) Entra ID
5 43 (11.08%) Microsoft 365
6 39 (10.05%) OpenShift
7 37 (9.54%) GitHub
8 25 (6.44%) GitHub Actions
9 23 (5.93%) Azure DevOps
10 22 (5.67%) AWS CloudFormation
10 22 (5.67%) Serverless
11 21 (5.41%) Power Automate
11 21 (5.41%) Power Platform
12 17 (4.38%) Amazon S3
13 13 (3.35%) AWS Lambda
13 13 (3.35%) Azure Monitor
13 13 (3.35%) OneDrive
14 12 (3.09%) Amazon EKS
14 12 (3.09%) PaaS
15 10 (2.58%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 38 (9.79%) DNS
2 29 (7.47%) DHCP
3 25 (6.44%) Firewall
4 21 (5.41%) Kerberos
5 19 (4.90%) SSH
6 14 (3.61%) TCP/IP
7 11 (2.84%) VPN
8 10 (2.58%) Network Security
9 5 (1.29%) WAN
10 4 (1.03%) AMQP
10 4 (1.03%) HTTP
10 4 (1.03%) LAN
10 4 (1.03%) SAN
11 3 (0.77%) Cisco Nexus
11 3 (0.77%) SSL
12 2 (0.52%) Cisco IOS
12 2 (0.52%) Internet
12 2 (0.52%) Reverse Proxy
12 2 (0.52%) SMTP
12 2 (0.52%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (7.22%) SQL Server
2 26 (6.70%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (4.38%) Relational Database
4 16 (4.12%) Power BI
5 13 (3.35%) Oracle Database
6 11 (2.84%) Amazon RDS
7 9 (2.32%) MySQL
8 8 (2.06%) Data Warehouse
8 8 (2.06%) Pinecone
9 6 (1.55%) MongoDB
9 6 (1.55%) RDBMS
10 5 (1.29%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (1.29%) Metadata
11 4 (1.03%) Elasticsearch
11 4 (1.03%) InfluxDB
11 4 (1.03%) NoSQL
11 4 (1.03%) Oracle Reports
11 4 (1.03%) Power Query
11 4 (1.03%) Snowflake Schema
11 4 (1.03%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 51 (13.14%) Jenkins
2 42 (10.82%) Git
3 36 (9.28%) GitLab
4 18 (4.64%) JIRA
5 17 (4.38%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (2.32%) CircleCI
7 8 (2.06%) MLflow
8 7 (1.80%) Maven
9 6 (1.55%) Bitbucket
10 5 (1.29%) Bitbucket Server
10 5 (1.29%) CA Release Automation
10 5 (1.29%) Gatling
10 5 (1.29%) JMeter
10 5 (1.29%) LoadRunner
10 5 (1.29%) SonarQube
11 4 (1.03%) JUnit
11 4 (1.03%) Postman
11 4 (1.03%) Selenium
12 3 (0.77%) Cypress.io
12 3 (0.77%) Gradle
General
1 158 (40.72%) Social Skills
2 68 (17.53%) Finance
3 47 (12.11%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (9.54%) Public Sector
5 23 (5.93%) Banking
6 8 (2.06%) Legal
7 6 (1.55%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.55%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (1.55%) Investment Banking
7 6 (1.55%) Presentation Skills
8 5 (1.29%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.29%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (1.29%) Retail
9 4 (1.03%) Military
10 3 (0.77%) Financial Institution
10 3 (0.77%) Law
11 2 (0.52%) Corporate Banking
11 2 (0.52%) Front Office
11 2 (0.52%) Games
11 2 (0.52%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 47 (12.11%) Developer
2 40 (10.31%) Architect
3 37 (9.54%) CyberArk Architect
4 27 (6.96%) DevOps Engineer
5 24 (6.19%) Administrator
6 23 (5.93%) Analyst
6 23 (5.93%) Automation Engineer
7 20 (5.15%) Platform Engineer
8 18 (4.64%) Java Developer
8 18 (4.64%) Senior
9 16 (4.12%) Site Reliability Engineer
10 15 (3.87%) DBA
10 15 (3.87%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 13 (3.35%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 13 (3.35%) Lead
12 11 (2.84%) Site Engineer
13 10 (2.58%) Consultant
13 10 (2.58%) Support Engineer
14 9 (2.32%) Applications Engineer
15 8 (2.06%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (16.49%) REST
2 54 (13.92%) LDAP
3 42 (10.82%) SOAP
4 32 (8.25%) OAuth
5 24 (6.19%) Node.js
6 23 (5.93%) SAML
7 22 (5.67%) Elastic Stack
8 18 (4.64%) Web Services
9 17 (4.38%) .NET
10 13 (3.35%) RESTful
11 12 (3.09%) Kafka
12 11 (2.84%) JWT
12 11 (2.84%) Microsoft Graph
13 10 (2.58%) Pandas
14 9 (2.32%) .NET Framework
14 9 (2.32%) FastAPI
14 9 (2.32%) JSON
14 9 (2.32%) NumPy
14 9 (2.32%) OpenID
14 9 (2.32%) PyTorch
Miscellaneous
1 44 (11.34%) Security Posture
2 43 (11.08%) Enterprise Software
3 21 (5.41%) Onboarding
4 20 (5.15%) Replication
5 17 (4.38%) Cloud Native
6 13 (3.35%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (3.09%) Distributed Systems
8 10 (2.58%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (2.32%) Clustering
9 9 (2.32%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.80%) Data Centre
10 7 (1.80%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.80%) PKI
11 6 (1.55%) Management Information System
12 5 (1.29%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (1.29%) Product Ownership
13 4 (1.03%) Analytical Mindset
13 4 (1.03%) FlexPod
13 4 (1.03%) Security Operations Centre
13 4 (1.03%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 100 (25.77%) Linux
2 83 (21.39%) Windows
3 37 (9.54%) Windows Server
4 21 (5.41%) Unix
5 18 (4.64%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (2.84%) VMS
7 8 (2.06%) CentOS
8 5 (1.29%) Mac OS
8 5 (1.29%) Windows 10
9 4 (1.03%) CoreOS
9 4 (1.03%) Data ONTAP
9 4 (1.03%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.52%) AIX
10 2 (0.52%) Android
10 2 (0.52%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (37.37%) Problem-Solving
2 133 (34.28%) CI/CD
3 96 (24.74%) DevOps
4 68 (17.53%) Infrastructure as Code
5 56 (14.43%) Containerisation
6 54 (13.92%) Agile
7 52 (13.40%) SIEM
8 49 (12.63%) Migration
9 48 (12.37%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 47 (12.11%) Continuous Improvement
11 43 (11.08%) Site Reliability Engineering
12 42 (10.82%) High Availability
13 41 (10.57%) Disaster Recovery
13 41 (10.57%) Observability
13 41 (10.57%) Technical Leadership
14 39 (10.05%) AI
14 39 (10.05%) Privileged Access Management
14 39 (10.05%) Root Cause Analysis
15 37 (9.54%) Configuration Management
15 37 (9.54%) Workflow
Programming Languages
1 192 (49.48%) Python
2 154 (39.69%) PowerShell
3 63 (16.24%) Bash
3 63 (16.24%) SQL
4 50 (12.89%) Java
5 36 (9.28%) Shell Script
6 26 (6.70%) JavaScript
7 23 (5.93%) Go
8 22 (5.67%) TypeScript
9 17 (4.38%) C#
10 15 (3.87%) Kusto Query Language
11 9 (2.32%) VBA
12 6 (1.55%) Bicep
12 6 (1.55%) Groovy
12 6 (1.55%) Perl
12 6 (1.55%) PL/SQL
13 4 (1.03%) T-SQL
14 3 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 3 (0.77%) PHP
14 3 (0.77%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 133 (34.28%) Security Cleared
2 102 (26.29%) SC Cleared
3 28 (7.22%) Degree
4 24 (6.19%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (4.12%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (3.61%) DV Cleared
7 13 (3.35%) Azure Certification
8 11 (2.84%) CISSP
9 9 (2.32%) AWS Certification
9 9 (2.32%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (2.32%) OCP
9 9 (2.32%) Oracle Certification
10 4 (1.03%) CFCE
10 4 (1.03%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (1.03%) CISM
10 4 (1.03%) GCFA
10 4 (1.03%) GCIA
10 4 (1.03%) GCIH
10 4 (1.03%) GIAC
10 4 (1.03%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (9.28%) GDPR
2 24 (6.19%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 17 (4.38%) Data Quality
3 17 (4.38%) NIST
4 14 (3.61%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 10 (2.58%) QA
6 6 (1.55%) SLA
7 5 (1.29%) HIPAA
7 5 (1.29%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.77%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.52%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.52%) GRC
10 1 (0.26%) COBIT
10 1 (0.26%) GMP
10 1 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.26%) PMO
System Software
1 94 (24.23%) Active Directory
2 57 (14.69%) Docker
3 24 (6.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (3.35%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.55%) vSphere
6 5 (1.29%) Tivoli Directory Server
7 4 (1.03%) Hyper-V
7 4 (1.03%) KVM
7 4 (1.03%) NFS
7 4 (1.03%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.77%) Xen
9 2 (0.52%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.26%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 1 (0.26%) HDFS
10 1 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.26%) RHEV
10 1 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.26%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 82 (21.13%) Terraform
2 81 (20.88%) Kubernetes
3 73 (18.81%) Ansible
4 40 (10.31%) Grafana
5 32 (8.25%) Prometheus
6 25 (6.44%) Single Sign-On
7 22 (5.67%) Progress Chef
8 19 (4.90%) Microsoft Intune
9 16 (4.12%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 12 (3.09%) Puppet
11 10 (2.58%) SCCM
12 7 (1.80%) Oracle RMAN
13 6 (1.55%) CA Single Sign-On
13 6 (1.55%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 6 (1.55%) Podman
14 5 (1.29%) CA Wily
14 5 (1.29%) Kibana
14 5 (1.29%) logstash
14 5 (1.29%) Tivoli
15 4 (1.03%) SnapMirror
Vendors
1 104 (26.80%) Microsoft
2 41 (10.57%) CyberArk
3 35 (9.02%) BeyondTrust
4 34 (8.76%) Centrify
5 32 (8.25%) Google
5 32 (8.25%) Oracle
5 32 (8.25%) Splunk
6 28 (7.22%) VMware
7 23 (5.93%) Red Hat
8 19 (4.90%) Okta
9 18 (4.64%) ServiceNow
10 12 (3.09%) OpenAI
11 8 (2.06%) Automation Anywhere
11 8 (2.06%) Cisco
11 8 (2.06%) Databricks
11 8 (2.06%) UiPath
12 7 (1.80%) IBM
13 6 (1.55%) AppDynamics
14 5 (1.29%) Broadcom
14 5 (1.29%) Palo Alto