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

6 months to
15 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 300 239 317
Rank change year-on-year -61 +78 +137
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 367 311 289
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.77% 1.07% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.91% 1.18% 0.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 278 174 226
10th Percentile £311 £350 £384
25th Percentile £400 £413 £457
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £613 £600 £675
90th Percentile £750 £693 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £459 £475 £550
% change year-on-year -3.37% -13.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 13 2
10th Percentile - £21.00 -
25th Percentile £21.33 £22.22 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £29.00 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -21.34% +21.85% -53.56%
75th Percentile £46.40 £65.00 -
90th Percentile £59.66 £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 40,228 26,443 36,791
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.35% 90.98% 86.22%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,265 17,000 23,677
10th Percentile £325 £305 £300
25th Percentile £413 £410 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £505 £515 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.94% -1.90% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £626 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £492 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +3.58% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,380 1,081 2,436
10th Percentile £14.89 £14.42 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £18.38 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.75 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +47.83% -21.23% +0.29%
75th Percentile £67.31 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £26.50 £38.00
% change year-on-year +69.81% -30.26% +8.57%

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 15 May 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 15 May 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 15 May 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 -63 309 £485 -7.71% 115
UK excluding London -64 179 £459 -3.37% 74
London -34 155 £575 +4.55% 49
Work from Home +9 138 £563 +4.75% 38
North of England -26 70 £457 -3.89% 18
Yorkshire -12 53 £460 -14.42% 6
South East -36 39 £415 +29.28% 29
Scotland -4 31 £500 +7.53% 2
Midlands -63 20 £502 +2.87% 7
West Midlands -56 16 £550 +10.00% 3
South West -39 15 £400 -17.95% 10
North West -45 11 £450 -5.26% 9
North East -15 6 £365 -2.67% 3
East Midlands -30 4 £413 +5.77% 4
Wales - 2 £543 -
East of England -50 1 £400 -29.20% 8
Northern Ireland - 1 £675 - 1

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 29 (7.90%) SharePoint
2 22 (5.99%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (2.72%) Confluence
4 8 (2.18%) Appian
5 4 (1.09%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.82%) Apache
7 2 (0.54%) CMS
7 2 (0.54%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.54%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 2 (0.54%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.54%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.54%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.27%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 12 (3.27%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.63%) Chatbot
3 4 (1.09%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.54%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.54%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.54%) Maximo
1 2 (0.54%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.54%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (0.54%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.27%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 185 (50.41%) Azure
2 127 (34.60%) AWS
3 75 (20.44%) GCP
4 50 (13.62%) Entra ID
5 46 (12.53%) Microsoft 365
6 45 (12.26%) GitHub
7 32 (8.72%) OpenShift
8 29 (7.90%) GitHub Actions
9 28 (7.63%) Power Platform
10 24 (6.54%) Power Automate
11 23 (6.27%) Amazon S3
11 23 (6.27%) Azure DevOps
12 19 (5.18%) PaaS
13 18 (4.90%) Azure Monitor
14 16 (4.36%) AWS CloudFormation
14 16 (4.36%) Azure Key Vault
14 16 (4.36%) Serverless
15 14 (3.81%) AWS Lambda
16 13 (3.54%) Azure Service Bus
16 13 (3.54%) Azure WebJobs
Communications & Networking
1 40 (10.90%) DNS
2 32 (8.72%) DHCP
3 21 (5.72%) Firewall
4 18 (4.90%) Kerberos
5 16 (4.36%) VPN
6 13 (3.54%) SSH
7 10 (2.72%) Network Security
7 10 (2.72%) WAN
8 9 (2.45%) SAN
9 8 (2.18%) SD-WAN
9 8 (2.18%) TCP/IP
10 6 (1.63%) LAN
10 6 (1.63%) VLAN
11 5 (1.36%) SSL
12 4 (1.09%) Cisco Nexus
13 3 (0.82%) BIG-IP
13 3 (0.82%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 3 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (0.82%) WLAN
14 2 (0.54%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (10.35%) SQL Server
2 20 (5.45%) PostgreSQL
3 15 (4.09%) Power BI
4 10 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
5 9 (2.45%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (2.18%) Oracle Database
6 8 (2.18%) Pinecone
7 7 (1.91%) Relational Database
8 6 (1.63%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 6 (1.63%) Tableau
9 5 (1.36%) Data Lake
9 5 (1.36%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.36%) Metadata
9 5 (1.36%) MongoDB
9 5 (1.36%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (1.09%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (1.09%) Big Data
10 4 (1.09%) MySQL
10 4 (1.09%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (1.09%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 35 (9.54%) Jenkins
2 30 (8.17%) GitLab
3 27 (7.36%) Git
4 19 (5.18%) JIRA
5 11 (3.00%) Sonatype Nexus
6 8 (2.18%) MLflow
7 5 (1.36%) CircleCI
8 4 (1.09%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.82%) AdminStudio
9 3 (0.82%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.82%) Flyway
9 3 (0.82%) InstallShield
9 3 (0.82%) Selenium
10 2 (0.54%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.54%) Maven
10 2 (0.54%) Postman
10 2 (0.54%) Snyk
11 1 (0.27%) Chocolatey
11 1 (0.27%) IBM UrbanCode
11 1 (0.27%) Travis CI
General
1 150 (40.87%) Social Skills
2 61 (16.62%) Finance
3 47 (12.81%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (9.81%) Public Sector
5 28 (7.63%) Banking
6 11 (3.00%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (2.72%) Legal
8 7 (1.91%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.36%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.09%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.09%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.09%) Law
11 3 (0.82%) Documentation Skills
11 3 (0.82%) Military
11 3 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.82%) Retail
12 2 (0.54%) Front Office
13 1 (0.27%) Marketing
13 1 (0.27%) Private Banking
13 1 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 44 (11.99%) Architect
2 41 (11.17%) Developer
3 36 (9.81%) CyberArk Architect
4 22 (5.99%) Site Reliability Engineer
5 21 (5.72%) Administrator
5 21 (5.72%) DBA
6 20 (5.45%) Automation Engineer
7 18 (4.90%) DevOps Engineer
8 16 (4.36%) Analyst
8 16 (4.36%) Platform Engineer
8 16 (4.36%) Site Engineer
9 15 (4.09%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 13 (3.54%) Consultant
10 13 (3.54%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 12 (3.27%) Azure Developer
12 11 (3.00%) Java Developer
12 11 (3.00%) Senior
13 10 (2.72%) Data Engineer
13 10 (2.72%) Lead
13 10 (2.72%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 66 (17.98%) REST
2 50 (13.62%) LDAP
3 48 (13.08%) SOAP
4 26 (7.08%) OAuth
5 22 (5.99%) .NET
5 22 (5.99%) Web Services
6 17 (4.63%) SAML
7 15 (4.09%) Elastic Stack
8 14 (3.81%) .NET Framework
8 14 (3.81%) Node.js
9 13 (3.54%) JWT
9 13 (3.54%) Microsoft Graph
10 12 (3.27%) RESTful
11 11 (3.00%) Kafka
11 11 (3.00%) Pandas
11 11 (3.00%) PyTorch
12 10 (2.72%) FastAPI
12 10 (2.72%) NumPy
13 9 (2.45%) JSON
13 9 (2.45%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 42 (11.44%) Enterprise Software
2 38 (10.35%) Security Posture
3 22 (5.99%) Replication
4 21 (5.72%) Onboarding
5 15 (4.09%) Cloud Native
6 14 (3.81%) Distributed Systems
6 14 (3.81%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (3.27%) Product Ownership
8 11 (3.00%) Data Protection Act
8 11 (3.00%) Hybrid Cloud
9 8 (2.18%) Clustering
9 8 (2.18%) Data Centre
9 8 (2.18%) Low-Code
10 6 (1.63%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.36%) FlexPod
11 5 (1.36%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.36%) Virtual Team
12 4 (1.09%) Data Structures
13 3 (0.82%) Cyber Threat
13 3 (0.82%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 77 (20.98%) Linux
2 71 (19.35%) Windows
3 30 (8.17%) Windows Server
4 17 (4.63%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 17 (4.63%) Unix
5 9 (2.45%) Mac OS
5 9 (2.45%) VMS
6 8 (2.18%) Windows 10
7 5 (1.36%) CoreOS
7 5 (1.36%) Data ONTAP
8 2 (0.54%) Apple iOS
8 2 (0.54%) CentOS
9 1 (0.27%) AIX
9 1 (0.27%) Android
9 1 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
9 1 (0.27%) Solaris
9 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
9 1 (0.27%) Windows 7
9 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
9 1 (0.27%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 137 (37.33%) Problem-Solving
2 112 (30.52%) CI/CD
3 87 (23.71%) DevOps
4 57 (15.53%) AI
5 56 (15.26%) Agile
6 54 (14.71%) Disaster Recovery
6 54 (14.71%) Infrastructure as Code
7 49 (13.35%) Migration
8 48 (13.08%) High Availability
9 45 (12.26%) Containerisation
10 44 (11.99%) Analytics
10 44 (11.99%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 44 (11.99%) Technical Leadership
11 43 (11.72%) Continuous Improvement
11 43 (11.72%) Observability
12 42 (11.44%) SIEM
13 40 (10.90%) ITSM
14 39 (10.63%) Site Reliability Engineering
15 38 (10.35%) ITIL
16 37 (10.08%) Privileged Access Management
Programming Languages
1 176 (47.96%) Python
2 142 (38.69%) PowerShell
3 68 (18.53%) SQL
4 48 (13.08%) Bash
5 41 (11.17%) Java
6 26 (7.08%) JavaScript
6 26 (7.08%) Shell Script
7 22 (5.99%) C#
7 22 (5.99%) Go
8 17 (4.63%) TypeScript
9 13 (3.54%) Kusto Query Language
10 10 (2.72%) PL/SQL
11 9 (2.45%) T-SQL
12 4 (1.09%) Perl
13 3 (0.82%) Bicep
13 3 (0.82%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 3 (0.82%) PHP
13 3 (0.82%) VBA
14 2 (0.54%) ActionScript
14 2 (0.54%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 133 (36.24%) Security Cleared
2 105 (28.61%) SC Cleared
3 28 (7.63%) Degree
4 23 (6.27%) Computer Science Degree
5 17 (4.63%) BPSS Clearance
6 15 (4.09%) DV Cleared
7 8 (2.18%) OCP
7 8 (2.18%) Oracle Certification
8 6 (1.63%) AWS Certification
8 6 (1.63%) CISSP
9 5 (1.36%) Azure Certification
10 4 (1.09%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (1.09%) CISM
10 4 (1.09%) Microsoft Certification
11 3 (0.82%) CCNA
11 3 (0.82%) CCNP
11 3 (0.82%) JNCIA
11 3 (0.82%) JNCIS
11 3 (0.82%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.54%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.27%) Data Quality
2 22 (5.99%) GDPR
3 14 (3.81%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 12 (3.27%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (3.00%) NIST
6 9 (2.45%) QA
7 7 (1.91%) SLA
8 3 (0.82%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.54%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.54%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.27%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.27%) GMP
10 1 (0.27%) GRC
10 1 (0.27%) PMO
System Software
1 90 (24.52%) Active Directory
2 38 (10.35%) Docker
3 18 (4.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (4.63%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.91%) NFS
6 6 (1.63%) Hyper-V
6 6 (1.63%) vSphere
7 5 (1.36%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.82%) Xen
9 2 (0.54%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.54%) Firmware
9 2 (0.54%) KVM
9 2 (0.54%) Oracle RAC
9 2 (0.54%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.27%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 1 (0.27%) HDFS
10 1 (0.27%) RHEV
10 1 (0.27%) UAG
10 1 (0.27%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 70 (19.07%) Kubernetes
2 60 (16.35%) Terraform
3 59 (16.08%) Ansible
4 24 (6.54%) Grafana
4 24 (6.54%) Microsoft Intune
5 20 (5.45%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (5.18%) Prometheus
7 14 (3.81%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 14 (3.81%) Progress Chef
8 10 (2.72%) SCCM
9 9 (2.45%) Puppet
10 6 (1.63%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 5 (1.36%) Oracle RMAN
11 5 (1.36%) SnapMirror
12 4 (1.09%) Nessus
13 3 (0.82%) Data Guard
13 3 (0.82%) Foglight
13 3 (0.82%) Nagios
13 3 (0.82%) OpenVAS
13 3 (0.82%) SCOM
Vendors
1 96 (26.16%) Microsoft
2 37 (10.08%) CyberArk
3 34 (9.26%) BeyondTrust
3 34 (9.26%) Centrify
4 26 (7.08%) Oracle
5 24 (6.54%) Google
5 24 (6.54%) VMware
6 22 (5.99%) Red Hat
7 21 (5.72%) ServiceNow
8 19 (5.18%) Okta
9 16 (4.36%) Splunk
10 15 (4.09%) OpenAI
11 13 (3.54%) Databricks
12 9 (2.45%) Cisco
13 8 (2.18%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (2.18%) Palo Alto
13 8 (2.18%) UiPath
14 7 (1.91%) F5
15 5 (1.36%) Informatica
15 5 (1.36%) NetApp