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

 6 months to
11 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 388 268 252
Rank change year-on-year -120 -16 +176
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 303 335 374
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 1.02% 0.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.67% 1.12% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 201 191 275
10th Percentile £300 £306 £393
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 £625 £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 8 3
10th Percentile - £18.12 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £24.39 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £46.75 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -51.21% +96.43% -73.56%
75th Percentile £24.29 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £34.37 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.16 - -

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 45,312 29,789 33,296
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.84% 90.47% 85.51%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,886 18,626 21,285
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £421 £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 £727 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,829 1,693 1,837
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £19.00 £17.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £40.94
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -38.57% -1.35%
75th Percentile £68.00 £48.13 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.74 £42.50
% change year-on-year +93.36% -46.51% +17.24%

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 11 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 11 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 11 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 -110 266 £475 -5.00% 186
UK excluding London -86 159 £500 +4.17% 103
London -107 114 £450 -10.94% 100
Work from Home -77 90 £475 -5.00% 71
North of England -53 63 £500 +4.17% 32
South East -40 50 £500 +4.71% 22
Yorkshire -22 41 £500 -6.98% 5
North West -40 19 £496 +4.42% 22
Midlands -62 17 £575 +14.71% 15
Scotland -31 13 £469 -1.32% 5
South West -35 11 £385 -25.96% 13
West Midlands -62 11 £600 +14.29% 11
East Midlands -11 6 £413 +7.14% 4
East of England -36 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 (13.53%) SharePoint
2 23 (7.59%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.31%) Confluence
4 5 (1.65%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (1.32%) JBoss
6 3 (0.99%) CMS
6 3 (0.99%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.66%) Apache
7 2 (0.66%) 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 (2.31%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.98%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.32%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.65%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (1.32%) Remedy AR System
3 3 (0.99%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.33%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 1 (0.33%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.33%) PeopleSoft HCM
4 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 122 (40.26%) Azure
2 71 (23.43%) AWS
3 57 (18.81%) Microsoft 365
4 41 (13.53%) Entra ID
5 37 (12.21%) GitHub
6 30 (9.90%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (9.57%) Power Platform
8 27 (8.91%) GitHub Actions
9 23 (7.59%) GCP
10 21 (6.93%) Azure Monitor
10 21 (6.93%) Power Automate
11 20 (6.60%) Microsoft Copilot
12 18 (5.94%) OpenShift
13 16 (5.28%) Amazon S3
13 16 (5.28%) Datadog
14 15 (4.95%) OneDrive
15 14 (4.62%) Azure Key Vault
15 14 (4.62%) PowerApps
16 13 (4.29%) SaaS
17 12 (3.96%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 45 (14.85%) DNS
2 29 (9.57%) DHCP
3 26 (8.58%) VPN
4 24 (7.92%) Firewall
5 17 (5.61%) TCP/IP
6 14 (4.62%) Network Security
7 11 (3.63%) SAN
8 10 (3.30%) VLAN
9 9 (2.97%) WAN
10 8 (2.64%) SD-WAN
10 8 (2.64%) SSH
11 6 (1.98%) Kerberos
12 5 (1.65%) BIG-IP
12 5 (1.65%) LAN
13 4 (1.32%) Cisco IOS
13 4 (1.32%) Intranet
13 4 (1.32%) Skype
13 4 (1.32%) SNMP
13 4 (1.32%) Wireless
14 3 (0.99%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (10.23%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.62%) Power BI
3 10 (3.30%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (2.64%) Amazon RDS
4 8 (2.64%) Big Data
5 7 (2.31%) MySQL
5 7 (2.31%) Relational Database
6 6 (1.98%) Metadata
6 6 (1.98%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.98%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (1.98%) Sybase ASE
7 5 (1.65%) Hadoop
8 4 (1.32%) EDRMS
8 4 (1.32%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (1.32%) Tableau
9 3 (0.99%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.99%) DTS
9 3 (0.99%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.99%) Oracle Database
9 3 (0.99%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 32 (10.56%) Git
2 28 (9.24%) GitLab
3 25 (8.25%) Jenkins
4 13 (4.29%) JIRA
5 6 (1.98%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (1.65%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.32%) Flyway
8 3 (0.99%) AdminStudio
8 3 (0.99%) InstallShield
8 3 (0.99%) Oracle Forms
8 3 (0.99%) Selenium
9 2 (0.66%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.66%) Claude Code
9 2 (0.66%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.66%) JUnit
9 2 (0.66%) Maven
9 2 (0.66%) Postman
9 2 (0.66%) Snyk
9 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 108 (35.64%) Social Skills
2 59 (19.47%) Analytical Skills
3 45 (14.85%) Finance
4 26 (8.58%) Banking
5 17 (5.61%) Legal
5 17 (5.61%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.96%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (2.64%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.31%) Front Office
9 6 (1.98%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.32%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.99%) Law
11 3 (0.99%) Military
11 3 (0.99%) Retail
12 2 (0.66%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.66%) Marketing
13 1 (0.33%) International Banking
13 1 (0.33%) Local Government
13 1 (0.33%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 27 (8.91%) Senior
2 26 (8.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 25 (8.25%) Developer
3 25 (8.25%) Support Engineer
4 21 (6.93%) DBA
5 18 (5.94%) Consultant
6 17 (5.61%) Platform Engineer
7 15 (4.95%) DevOps Engineer
7 15 (4.95%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 14 (4.62%) Analyst
9 12 (3.96%) Architect
10 11 (3.63%) Site Engineer
10 11 (3.63%) SQL DBA
11 10 (3.30%) Cloud Engineer
11 10 (3.30%) Data Engineer
11 10 (3.30%) Lead
12 9 (2.97%) Azure Developer
12 9 (2.97%) Systems Engineer
13 8 (2.64%) Administrator
13 8 (2.64%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (11.22%) REST
2 19 (6.27%) .NET
3 15 (4.95%) SOAP
4 13 (4.29%) Microsoft Graph
5 12 (3.96%) React
6 11 (3.63%) ARM Templates
6 11 (3.63%) CSS
6 11 (3.63%) SPFx
7 10 (3.30%) .NET Framework
7 10 (3.30%) JSON
8 9 (2.97%) Elastic Stack
8 9 (2.97%) Web Services
8 9 (2.97%) YAML
9 8 (2.64%) AWS CDK
9 8 (2.64%) HTML
9 8 (2.64%) Kafka
10 6 (1.98%) Node.js
11 5 (1.65%) ASP.NET
11 5 (1.65%) LangChain
12 4 (1.32%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.59%) Onboarding
2 17 (5.61%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.62%) AI Agents
4 12 (3.96%) Cloud Native
4 12 (3.96%) Data Protection Act
4 12 (3.96%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (3.96%) Replication
5 11 (3.63%) Product Ownership
6 10 (3.30%) Legacy Systems
6 10 (3.30%) Management Information System
7 9 (2.97%) Clustering
8 8 (2.64%) Private Cloud
9 7 (2.31%) CMDB
9 7 (2.31%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.31%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (1.98%) Analytical Mindset
10 6 (1.98%) Data Centre
10 6 (1.98%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.65%) Autonomous Agent
12 4 (1.32%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 67 (22.11%) Windows
2 59 (19.47%) Linux
3 25 (8.25%) Windows Server
4 22 (7.26%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (4.62%) Windows 10
6 11 (3.63%) Unix
7 7 (2.31%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.65%) Android
8 5 (1.65%) Mac OS
8 5 (1.65%) VMS
9 4 (1.32%) Windows 7
10 3 (0.99%) CoreOS
10 3 (0.99%) Data ONTAP
10 3 (0.99%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.66%) AIX
11 2 (0.66%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.66%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.66%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.33%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (26.07%) Problem-Solving
2 78 (25.74%) CI/CD
3 77 (25.41%) DevOps
4 65 (21.45%) ITIL
5 58 (19.14%) AI
6 53 (17.49%) Agile
7 48 (15.84%) Infrastructure as Code
8 45 (14.85%) Migration
9 42 (13.86%) Observability
10 41 (13.53%) Analytics
10 41 (13.53%) Continuous Improvement
11 38 (12.54%) Disaster Recovery
12 37 (12.21%) Performance Tuning
13 36 (11.88%) Workflow
14 35 (11.55%) High Availability
15 32 (10.56%) Data Protection
16 31 (10.23%) Runbook
17 30 (9.90%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 29 (9.57%) Change Management
18 29 (9.57%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 120 (39.60%) Python
2 117 (38.61%) PowerShell
3 59 (19.47%) SQL
4 50 (16.50%) Bash
5 34 (11.22%) JavaScript
6 17 (5.61%) Java
7 16 (5.28%) TypeScript
8 15 (4.95%) C#
9 13 (4.29%) Bicep
10 12 (3.96%) T-SQL
11 10 (3.30%) Go
11 10 (3.30%) Kusto Query Language
12 8 (2.64%) Shell Script
13 6 (1.98%) PL/SQL
14 5 (1.65%) VBScript
15 3 (0.99%) Perl
16 2 (0.66%) ActionScript
16 2 (0.66%) Scala
17 1 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 1 (0.33%) Korn
Qualifications
1 94 (31.02%) Security Cleared
2 61 (20.13%) SC Cleared
3 33 (10.89%) Degree
4 32 (10.56%) DV Cleared
5 20 (6.60%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (3.96%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (2.31%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.65%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.32%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.32%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.99%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (0.99%) CCNA
10 3 (0.99%) CCNP
10 3 (0.99%) OCP
10 3 (0.99%) Oracle Certification
11 2 (0.66%) CIPD
11 2 (0.66%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.66%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.66%) MCITP
11 2 (0.66%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (7.26%) Data Quality
2 13 (4.29%) SLA
3 8 (2.64%) NIST
3 8 (2.64%) QA
4 5 (1.65%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.66%) 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 62 (20.46%) Active Directory
2 30 (9.90%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (6.93%) Docker
4 13 (4.29%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (2.97%) NFS
5 9 (2.97%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (2.64%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (2.31%) Hyper-V
7 7 (2.31%) vSphere
8 2 (0.66%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.66%) Firmware
8 2 (0.66%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.66%) 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 (16.17%) Ansible
2 48 (15.84%) Terraform
3 32 (10.56%) Kubernetes
4 31 (10.23%) Microsoft Intune
5 22 (7.26%) SCCM
6 15 (4.95%) Puppet
7 14 (4.62%) Grafana
8 12 (3.96%) Progress Chef
8 12 (3.96%) Prometheus
9 11 (3.63%) SCOM
10 10 (3.30%) Red Hat Satellite
10 10 (3.30%) vCenter Server
11 6 (1.98%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (1.32%) Failover Clustering
13 3 (0.99%) Foglight
13 3 (0.99%) SnapMirror
13 3 (0.99%) WSUS
14 2 (0.66%) Data Guard
14 2 (0.66%) Nagios
14 2 (0.66%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 112 (36.96%) Microsoft
2 37 (12.21%) VMware
3 23 (7.59%) ServiceNow
4 20 (6.60%) Google
4 20 (6.60%) Red Hat
5 19 (6.27%) Oracle
6 15 (4.95%) Splunk
7 14 (4.62%) Cisco
8 10 (3.30%) Databricks
8 10 (3.30%) SolarWinds
9 8 (2.64%) OpenAI
10 7 (2.31%) AppDynamics
10 7 (2.31%) F5
11 6 (1.98%) Bloomberg
11 6 (1.98%) BMC
11 6 (1.98%) Broadcom
11 6 (1.98%) Citrix
11 6 (1.98%) Palo Alto
11 6 (1.98%) Sybase
12 5 (1.65%) Remedy
212 Task Automation jobs Nationwide