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

6 months to
3 Apr 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 280 227 367
Rank change year-on-year -53 +140 +67
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 398 340 227
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.89% 1.17% 0.51%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.04% 1.29% 0.60%
Number of daily rates quoted 294 203 177
10th Percentile £313 £333 £400
25th Percentile £400 £413 £459
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -6.98% -2.27%
75th Percentile £605 £600 £675
90th Percentile £750 £695 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £460 £475 £525
% change year-on-year -3.16% -9.52% -4.55%
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 38,381 26,317 38,146
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.55% 90.50% 86.40%
Number of daily rates quoted 24,335 17,078 24,751
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £635 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £485 £488 £500
% change year-on-year -0.51% -2.50% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,256 968 2,345
10th Percentile £15.00 £15.00 £12.77
25th Percentile £18.87 £20.12 £15.89
Median hourly rate £35.77 £31.76 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year +12.61% -2.28% -10.41%
75th Percentile £65.00 £63.75 £57.50
90th Percentile £77.50 £76.25 £70.39
UK excluding London median hourly rate £35.00 £30.62 £31.50
% change year-on-year +14.32% -2.81% -12.50%

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 3 April 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 3 April 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 3 April 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 -54 334 £495 -1.00% 97
UK excluding London -76 182 £460 -3.16% 68
London -39 171 £575 +4.55% 40
Work from Home +5 149 £550 +6.80% 41
North of England -39 65 £450 -5.01% 17
Yorkshire -25 48 £454 -13.52% 4
South East -35 40 £405 +3.85% 26
Scotland -4 25 £415 -11.94% 2
Midlands -59 25 £502 +6.70% 5
West Midlands -57 21 £550 +15.79% 1
South West -38 20 £425 -10.53% 11
North West -57 13 £450 -4.51% 7
North East -13 4 £365 -22.34% 6
East Midlands -32 4 £413 -2.37% 4
East of England -43 4 £500 -11.50% 7
Wales - 4 £525 - 2
Northern Ireland - 1 £675 -

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 33 (8.29%) SharePoint
2 32 (8.04%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (2.76%) Confluence
4 8 (2.01%) Appian
5 3 (0.75%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (0.75%) CMS
6 2 (0.50%) Apache
6 2 (0.50%) OpenStack
6 2 (0.50%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.50%) Palantir Foundry
6 2 (0.50%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.25%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.25%) IIS
7 1 (0.25%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 13 (3.27%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.26%) Chatbot
3 4 (1.01%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.75%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.25%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.25%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.75%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.50%) Maximo
2 2 (0.50%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.50%) Oracle EBS R12
2 2 (0.50%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.50%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.25%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 198 (49.75%) Azure
2 129 (32.41%) AWS
3 78 (19.60%) GCP
4 63 (15.83%) Entra ID
5 53 (13.32%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (11.81%) GitHub
7 34 (8.54%) OpenShift
8 33 (8.29%) GitHub Actions
9 27 (6.78%) Azure DevOps
10 25 (6.28%) Power Platform
11 22 (5.53%) Amazon S3
11 22 (5.53%) Azure Monitor
11 22 (5.53%) Power Automate
12 21 (5.28%) PaaS
13 19 (4.77%) AWS CloudFormation
14 18 (4.52%) Serverless
15 17 (4.27%) Azure Key Vault
16 16 (4.02%) Azure App Service
16 16 (4.02%) Azure Service Bus
16 16 (4.02%) Azure WebJobs
Communications & Networking
1 40 (10.05%) DNS
2 32 (8.04%) DHCP
3 21 (5.28%) Firewall
4 19 (4.77%) SSH
5 17 (4.27%) Kerberos
6 14 (3.52%) VPN
7 10 (2.51%) TCP/IP
8 9 (2.26%) Network Security
9 7 (1.76%) SAN
9 7 (1.76%) WAN
10 6 (1.51%) LAN
11 4 (1.01%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (1.01%) SD-WAN
11 4 (1.01%) VLAN
12 3 (0.75%) Cisco IOS
12 3 (0.75%) SSL
13 2 (0.50%) AMQP
13 2 (0.50%) DWDM
13 2 (0.50%) NAS
13 2 (0.50%) Reverse Proxy
Database & Business Intelligence
1 34 (8.54%) SQL Server
2 20 (5.03%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (4.27%) Power BI
4 11 (2.76%) Amazon RDS
5 10 (2.51%) Relational Database
6 9 (2.26%) Data Warehouse
7 8 (2.01%) Oracle Database
7 8 (2.01%) Pinecone
8 6 (1.51%) Tableau
9 5 (1.26%) Big Data
9 5 (1.26%) Data Lake
9 5 (1.26%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.26%) Snowflake Schema
9 5 (1.26%) SQL Server Integration Services
10 4 (1.01%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (1.01%) Azure SQL Database
10 4 (1.01%) InfluxDB
10 4 (1.01%) Metadata
10 4 (1.01%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (1.01%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 44 (11.06%) Jenkins
2 37 (9.30%) GitLab
3 36 (9.05%) Git
4 20 (5.03%) JIRA
5 12 (3.02%) Sonatype Nexus
6 8 (2.01%) MLflow
7 6 (1.51%) CircleCI
8 5 (1.26%) Gatling
8 5 (1.26%) JMeter
8 5 (1.26%) LoadRunner
8 5 (1.26%) SonarQube
9 4 (1.01%) Bitbucket
9 4 (1.01%) Maven
9 4 (1.01%) Selenium
10 3 (0.75%) AdminStudio
10 3 (0.75%) Artifactory
10 3 (0.75%) Flyway
10 3 (0.75%) InstallShield
10 3 (0.75%) Postman
10 3 (0.75%) Snyk
General
1 166 (41.71%) Social Skills
2 70 (17.59%) Finance
3 49 (12.31%) Analytical Skills
4 39 (9.80%) Public Sector
5 26 (6.53%) Banking
6 10 (2.51%) Legal
6 10 (2.51%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (1.76%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (1.76%) Investment Banking
8 6 (1.51%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 5 (1.26%) Retail
10 4 (1.01%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.01%) Law
10 4 (1.01%) Military
10 4 (1.01%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.50%) Documentation Skills
11 2 (0.50%) Front Office
11 2 (0.50%) Games
11 2 (0.50%) Retail Banking
12 1 (0.25%) Corporate Banking
Job Titles
1 49 (12.31%) Developer
2 42 (10.55%) Architect
3 37 (9.30%) CyberArk Architect
4 23 (5.78%) Administrator
4 23 (5.78%) Automation Engineer
5 22 (5.53%) DevOps Engineer
6 21 (5.28%) Analyst
6 21 (5.28%) DBA
6 21 (5.28%) Platform Engineer
7 19 (4.77%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 17 (4.27%) Java Developer
9 14 (3.52%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 14 (3.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
9 14 (3.52%) Senior
10 13 (3.27%) Azure Developer
10 13 (3.27%) Lead
11 12 (3.02%) Consultant
11 12 (3.02%) Site Engineer
12 11 (2.76%) Data Engineer
12 11 (2.76%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (17.59%) REST
2 50 (12.56%) LDAP
2 50 (12.56%) SOAP
3 27 (6.78%) OAuth
4 25 (6.28%) Web Services
5 24 (6.03%) .NET
6 20 (5.03%) Node.js
7 18 (4.52%) Microsoft Graph
7 18 (4.52%) SAML
8 17 (4.27%) .NET Framework
9 16 (4.02%) Elastic Stack
10 14 (3.52%) Kafka
11 13 (3.27%) RESTful
12 11 (2.76%) JWT
13 10 (2.51%) Pandas
13 10 (2.51%) PyTorch
14 9 (2.26%) FastAPI
14 9 (2.26%) NumPy
14 9 (2.26%) scikit-learn
14 9 (2.26%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 44 (11.06%) Security Posture
2 43 (10.80%) Enterprise Software
3 24 (6.03%) Onboarding
4 21 (5.28%) Replication
5 13 (3.27%) Cloud Native
5 13 (3.27%) Legacy Systems
6 12 (3.02%) Distributed Systems
7 11 (2.76%) Hybrid Cloud
8 10 (2.51%) Data Protection Act
9 9 (2.26%) Low-Code
9 9 (2.26%) Product Ownership
10 8 (2.01%) Clustering
10 8 (2.01%) Data Centre
11 7 (1.76%) PKI
12 5 (1.26%) FlexPod
13 4 (1.01%) Data Structures
13 4 (1.01%) Legacy Applications
13 4 (1.01%) Management Information System
13 4 (1.01%) NHS
13 4 (1.01%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 91 (22.86%) Linux
2 82 (20.60%) Windows
3 36 (9.05%) Windows Server
4 18 (4.52%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (4.02%) Unix
6 12 (3.02%) VMS
7 8 (2.01%) Mac OS
8 7 (1.76%) Windows 10
9 5 (1.26%) CoreOS
9 5 (1.26%) Data ONTAP
10 4 (1.01%) CentOS
11 2 (0.50%) AIX
11 2 (0.50%) Android
11 2 (0.50%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.50%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.25%) Oracle Linux
12 1 (0.25%) Rocky
12 1 (0.25%) Solaris
12 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 154 (38.69%) Problem-Solving
2 127 (31.91%) CI/CD
3 98 (24.62%) DevOps
4 64 (16.08%) Infrastructure as Code
5 60 (15.08%) Agile
6 52 (13.07%) Containerisation
6 52 (13.07%) Migration
7 49 (12.31%) AI
7 49 (12.31%) Analytics
7 49 (12.31%) Stakeholder Engagement
8 48 (12.06%) Observability
9 46 (11.56%) SIEM
10 45 (11.31%) Continuous Improvement
10 45 (11.31%) Disaster Recovery
10 45 (11.31%) Site Reliability Engineering
11 44 (11.06%) High Availability
12 42 (10.55%) Technical Leadership
13 40 (10.05%) Privileged Access Management
14 39 (9.80%) ITIL
15 37 (9.30%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 182 (45.73%) Python
2 162 (40.70%) PowerShell
3 67 (16.83%) SQL
4 51 (12.81%) Bash
5 47 (11.81%) Java
6 33 (8.29%) Shell Script
7 28 (7.04%) JavaScript
8 24 (6.03%) C#
8 24 (6.03%) TypeScript
9 21 (5.28%) Go
9 21 (5.28%) Kusto Query Language
10 7 (1.76%) PL/SQL
11 6 (1.51%) T-SQL
12 5 (1.26%) VBA
13 4 (1.01%) Bicep
13 4 (1.01%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 4 (1.01%) Perl
14 3 (0.75%) PHP
14 3 (0.75%) Ruby
15 2 (0.50%) Korn
Qualifications
1 139 (34.92%) Security Cleared
2 108 (27.14%) SC Cleared
3 30 (7.54%) Degree
4 25 (6.28%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (4.77%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (3.02%) DV Cleared
7 10 (2.51%) CISSP
8 8 (2.01%) Microsoft Certification
8 8 (2.01%) OCP
8 8 (2.01%) Oracle Certification
9 7 (1.76%) Azure Certification
10 6 (1.51%) AWS Certification
11 5 (1.26%) Cisco Certification
12 4 (1.01%) CISM
13 3 (0.75%) CCNA
13 3 (0.75%) CFCE
13 3 (0.75%) GCIA
13 3 (0.75%) GCIH
13 3 (0.75%) GIAC
13 3 (0.75%) Master's Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 31 (7.79%) GDPR
2 23 (5.78%) Data Quality
2 23 (5.78%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 17 (4.27%) NIST
4 14 (3.52%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 10 (2.51%) QA
6 6 (1.51%) SLA
7 5 (1.26%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.01%) HIPAA
9 3 (0.75%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.50%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.50%) GRC
11 1 (0.25%) COBIT
11 1 (0.25%) GMP
11 1 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 103 (25.88%) Active Directory
2 46 (11.56%) Docker
3 24 (6.03%) VMware Infrastructure
4 15 (3.77%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.51%) Hyper-V
5 6 (1.51%) vSphere
6 5 (1.26%) NFS
6 5 (1.26%) Virtual Desktop
7 3 (0.75%) Xen
8 2 (0.50%) KVM
8 2 (0.50%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.25%) BitLocker
9 1 (0.25%) Firmware
9 1 (0.25%) HDFS
9 1 (0.25%) RHEV
9 1 (0.25%) UAG
9 1 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.25%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.25%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 77 (19.35%) Terraform
2 76 (19.10%) Kubernetes
3 69 (17.34%) Ansible
4 35 (8.79%) Grafana
5 29 (7.29%) Prometheus
6 26 (6.53%) Microsoft Intune
7 23 (5.78%) Single Sign-On
8 16 (4.02%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 14 (3.52%) Progress Chef
10 12 (3.02%) SCCM
11 8 (2.01%) Puppet
12 6 (1.51%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 5 (1.26%) Oracle RMAN
13 5 (1.26%) Podman
13 5 (1.26%) SnapMirror
14 4 (1.01%) Nessus
14 4 (1.01%) Proxmox
14 4 (1.01%) vCenter Server
15 3 (0.75%) Foglight
15 3 (0.75%) SCOM
Vendors
1 110 (27.64%) Microsoft
2 40 (10.05%) CyberArk
3 35 (8.79%) BeyondTrust
4 34 (8.54%) Centrify
5 30 (7.54%) VMware
6 27 (6.78%) Google
7 25 (6.28%) Oracle
8 21 (5.28%) Red Hat
8 21 (5.28%) ServiceNow
9 20 (5.03%) Okta
10 19 (4.77%) Splunk
11 14 (3.52%) Databricks
12 13 (3.27%) OpenAI
13 10 (2.51%) Cisco
14 8 (2.01%) Automation Anywhere
14 8 (2.01%) UiPath
15 5 (1.26%) Citrix
15 5 (1.26%) Informatica
15 5 (1.26%) Palo Alto
15 5 (1.26%) SAP