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

6 months to
10 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 383 251 250
Rank change year-on-year -132 -1 +166
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 300 337 373
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 1.02% 0.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.66% 1.12% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 199 191 274
10th Percentile £300 £306 £391
25th Percentile £400 £407 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £556 £594 £675
90th Percentile £630 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 9 3
10th Percentile - £18.35 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £26.25 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -64.08% +166.81% -73.56%
75th Percentile £24.29 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £34.37 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.16 £65.00 -
% change year-on-year -65.92% - -

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 45,268 29,990 33,185
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.86% 90.46% 85.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,853 18,764 21,291
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £729 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,826 1,696 1,837
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.89 £17.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -38.57% -3.67%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.63 £42.50
% change year-on-year +94.26% -46.75% +13.33%

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 10 August 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 10 August 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Task Automation in the UK

Task Automation
Top 16 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 10 August 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 -116 262 £475 -5.00% 191
UK excluding London -88 156 £500 +4.17% 105
London -107 114 £450 -10.94% 104
Work from Home -64 89 £475 -5.00% 74
North of England -41 61 £500 +4.17% 32
South East -40 48 £494 +3.40% 23
Yorkshire -18 42 £500 -6.98% 4
Midlands -56 17 £575 +14.71% 16
North West -46 16 £510 +7.37% 23
Scotland -28 14 £438 -7.89% 6
South West -41 11 £385 -25.96% 12
West Midlands -57 11 £600 +14.29% 11
East Midlands -9 6 £413 +7.14% 5
East of England -34 4 £550 +12.24% 13
North East -41 3 £275 -26.67% 5
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 4

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 41 (13.67%) SharePoint
2 23 (7.67%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.33%) Confluence
4 5 (1.67%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (1.33%) JBoss
6 3 (1.00%) CMS
6 3 (1.00%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.67%) Apache
7 2 (0.67%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.33%) FactoryTalk
8 1 (0.33%) IIS
8 1 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.33%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (2.33%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (2.00%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.33%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (1.33%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.00%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.00%) Remedy AR System
3 1 (0.33%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.33%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.33%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.33%) PeopleSoft HCM
3 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 122 (40.67%) Azure
2 71 (23.67%) AWS
3 57 (19.00%) Microsoft 365
4 41 (13.67%) Entra ID
5 37 (12.33%) GitHub
6 30 (10.00%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (9.67%) Power Platform
8 27 (9.00%) GitHub Actions
9 24 (8.00%) GCP
10 21 (7.00%) Azure Monitor
10 21 (7.00%) Power Automate
11 20 (6.67%) Microsoft Copilot
12 18 (6.00%) OpenShift
13 16 (5.33%) Amazon S3
13 16 (5.33%) Datadog
14 15 (5.00%) OneDrive
15 14 (4.67%) Azure Key Vault
15 14 (4.67%) PowerApps
16 12 (4.00%) SaaS
16 12 (4.00%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 45 (15.00%) DNS
2 29 (9.67%) DHCP
3 26 (8.67%) VPN
4 24 (8.00%) Firewall
5 17 (5.67%) TCP/IP
6 14 (4.67%) Network Security
7 11 (3.67%) SAN
8 10 (3.33%) VLAN
9 9 (3.00%) WAN
10 8 (2.67%) SD-WAN
10 8 (2.67%) SSH
11 6 (2.00%) Kerberos
12 5 (1.67%) BIG-IP
12 5 (1.67%) LAN
13 4 (1.33%) Cisco IOS
13 4 (1.33%) Intranet
13 4 (1.33%) Skype
13 4 (1.33%) SNMP
13 4 (1.33%) Wireless
14 3 (1.00%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (10.33%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.67%) Power BI
3 10 (3.33%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (2.67%) Amazon RDS
4 8 (2.67%) Big Data
5 7 (2.33%) MySQL
5 7 (2.33%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.33%) Relational Database
6 6 (2.00%) Metadata
6 6 (2.00%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (2.00%) Sybase ASE
7 5 (1.67%) Hadoop
8 4 (1.33%) EDRMS
8 4 (1.33%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (1.33%) Tableau
9 3 (1.00%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (1.00%) Data Lake
9 3 (1.00%) MongoDB
9 3 (1.00%) Oracle Database
9 3 (1.00%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 32 (10.67%) Git
2 28 (9.33%) GitLab
3 25 (8.33%) Jenkins
4 13 (4.33%) JIRA
5 6 (2.00%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (1.67%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.33%) Flyway
8 3 (1.00%) AdminStudio
8 3 (1.00%) InstallShield
8 3 (1.00%) Oracle Forms
8 3 (1.00%) Selenium
9 2 (0.67%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.67%) Claude Code
9 2 (0.67%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.67%) JUnit
9 2 (0.67%) Maven
9 2 (0.67%) Postman
9 2 (0.67%) Snyk
9 2 (0.67%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.33%) REST Assured
General
1 108 (36.00%) Social Skills
2 59 (19.67%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (15.33%) Finance
4 27 (9.00%) Banking
5 17 (5.67%) Legal
5 17 (5.67%) Public Sector
6 12 (4.00%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (2.67%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.33%) Front Office
9 6 (2.00%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.33%) Investment Banking
11 3 (1.00%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.00%) Law
11 3 (1.00%) Military
11 3 (1.00%) Retail
12 2 (0.67%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.67%) Marketing
13 1 (0.33%) International Banking
13 1 (0.33%) Local Government
13 1 (0.33%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 27 (9.00%) Senior
2 26 (8.67%) Developer
2 26 (8.67%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 25 (8.33%) Support Engineer
4 21 (7.00%) DBA
5 18 (6.00%) Consultant
6 16 (5.33%) Platform Engineer
7 15 (5.00%) Analyst
7 15 (5.00%) DevOps Engineer
7 15 (5.00%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 12 (4.00%) Architect
9 11 (3.67%) Site Engineer
9 11 (3.67%) SQL DBA
10 10 (3.33%) Cloud Engineer
10 10 (3.33%) Data Engineer
10 10 (3.33%) Lead
11 9 (3.00%) Azure Developer
11 9 (3.00%) Systems Engineer
12 8 (2.67%) Administrator
12 8 (2.67%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 33 (11.00%) REST
2 19 (6.33%) .NET
3 14 (4.67%) SOAP
4 13 (4.33%) Microsoft Graph
5 12 (4.00%) React
6 11 (3.67%) ARM Templates
6 11 (3.67%) CSS
6 11 (3.67%) SPFx
7 10 (3.33%) .NET Framework
7 10 (3.33%) JSON
8 9 (3.00%) Elastic Stack
8 9 (3.00%) Web Services
8 9 (3.00%) YAML
9 8 (2.67%) AWS CDK
9 8 (2.67%) HTML
9 8 (2.67%) Kafka
10 6 (2.00%) Node.js
11 5 (1.67%) ASP.NET
11 5 (1.67%) LangChain
12 4 (1.33%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.67%) Onboarding
2 17 (5.67%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.67%) AI Agents
4 12 (4.00%) Data Protection Act
4 12 (4.00%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (4.00%) Replication
5 11 (3.67%) Cloud Native
5 11 (3.67%) Legacy Systems
5 11 (3.67%) Product Ownership
6 10 (3.33%) Management Information System
7 9 (3.00%) Clustering
8 8 (2.67%) Private Cloud
9 7 (2.33%) CMDB
9 7 (2.33%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.33%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (2.00%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (2.00%) Data Centre
10 6 (2.00%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.67%) Autonomous Agent
12 4 (1.33%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 64 (21.33%) Windows
2 59 (19.67%) Linux
3 25 (8.33%) Windows Server
4 22 (7.33%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (3.67%) Unix
5 11 (3.67%) Windows 10
6 7 (2.33%) Windows Server 2019
7 5 (1.67%) Android
7 5 (1.67%) Mac OS
7 5 (1.67%) VMS
8 3 (1.00%) CoreOS
8 3 (1.00%) Data ONTAP
8 3 (1.00%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.67%) AIX
9 2 (0.67%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.67%) Oracle Linux
9 2 (0.67%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.33%) Solaris
10 1 (0.33%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.33%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (26.33%) Problem-Solving
2 78 (26.00%) CI/CD
3 77 (25.67%) DevOps
4 64 (21.33%) ITIL
5 58 (19.33%) AI
6 53 (17.67%) Agile
7 48 (16.00%) Infrastructure as Code
8 45 (15.00%) Migration
9 42 (14.00%) Observability
10 41 (13.67%) Analytics
10 41 (13.67%) Continuous Improvement
11 38 (12.67%) Disaster Recovery
12 37 (12.33%) Performance Tuning
13 36 (12.00%) Workflow
14 35 (11.67%) High Availability
15 32 (10.67%) Data Protection
16 31 (10.33%) Runbook
17 30 (10.00%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 29 (9.67%) Change Management
19 28 (9.33%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 120 (40.00%) Python
2 113 (37.67%) PowerShell
3 59 (19.67%) SQL
4 49 (16.33%) Bash
5 34 (11.33%) JavaScript
6 18 (6.00%) Java
7 16 (5.33%) TypeScript
8 15 (5.00%) C#
9 13 (4.33%) Bicep
10 12 (4.00%) T-SQL
11 10 (3.33%) Go
11 10 (3.33%) Kusto Query Language
12 8 (2.67%) Shell Script
13 6 (2.00%) PL/SQL
14 5 (1.67%) VBScript
15 3 (1.00%) Perl
16 2 (0.67%) ActionScript
16 2 (0.67%) Scala
17 1 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 1 (0.33%) Korn
Qualifications
1 89 (29.67%) Security Cleared
2 57 (19.00%) SC Cleared
3 33 (11.00%) Degree
4 31 (10.33%) DV Cleared
5 20 (6.67%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (4.00%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (2.33%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.67%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.33%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.33%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (1.00%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (1.00%) CCNA
10 3 (1.00%) CCNP
10 3 (1.00%) OCP
10 3 (1.00%) Oracle Certification
11 2 (0.67%) CIPD
11 2 (0.67%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.67%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.67%) MCITP
11 2 (0.67%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (7.67%) Data Quality
2 13 (4.33%) SLA
3 8 (2.67%) NIST
3 8 (2.67%) QA
4 5 (1.67%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.67%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.33%) GDPR
6 1 (0.33%) Government Security Classifications
6 1 (0.33%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.33%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 59 (19.67%) Active Directory
2 30 (10.00%) VMware Infrastructure
3 22 (7.33%) Docker
4 13 (4.33%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (3.00%) NFS
5 9 (3.00%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (2.67%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (2.33%) Hyper-V
7 7 (2.33%) vSphere
8 2 (0.67%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.67%) Firmware
8 2 (0.67%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.67%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.33%) NDS
9 1 (0.33%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 1 (0.33%) OpenSSH
9 1 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.33%) UAG
Systems Management
1 49 (16.33%) Ansible
2 48 (16.00%) Terraform
3 32 (10.67%) Kubernetes
4 31 (10.33%) Microsoft Intune
5 19 (6.33%) SCCM
6 15 (5.00%) Puppet
7 14 (4.67%) Grafana
8 12 (4.00%) Progress Chef
8 12 (4.00%) Prometheus
9 11 (3.67%) SCOM
10 10 (3.33%) Red Hat Satellite
10 10 (3.33%) vCenter Server
11 6 (2.00%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (1.33%) Failover Clustering
13 3 (1.00%) Foglight
13 3 (1.00%) SnapMirror
13 3 (1.00%) WSUS
14 2 (0.67%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.67%) Oracle RMAN
14 2 (0.67%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 112 (37.33%) Microsoft
2 37 (12.33%) VMware
3 24 (8.00%) ServiceNow
4 20 (6.67%) Google
4 20 (6.67%) Red Hat
5 19 (6.33%) Oracle
6 15 (5.00%) Splunk
7 14 (4.67%) Cisco
8 10 (3.33%) Databricks
8 10 (3.33%) SolarWinds
9 8 (2.67%) OpenAI
10 7 (2.33%) AppDynamics
10 7 (2.33%) F5
11 6 (2.00%) Bloomberg
11 6 (2.00%) Broadcom
11 6 (2.00%) Citrix
11 6 (2.00%) Palo Alto
11 6 (2.00%) Sybase
12 5 (1.67%) BMC
12 5 (1.67%) Infoblox