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 23 July 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
23 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 383 270 266
Rank change year-on-year -113 -4 +195
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 294 328 366
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 1.00% 0.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.66% 1.11% 1.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 197 184 274
10th Percentile £300 £311 £384
25th Percentile £400 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £531
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -5.88% -3.41%
75th Percentile £556 £588 £675
90th Percentile £625 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 7 11 3
10th Percentile - £18.82 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £23.63 -
Median hourly rate £21.50 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -66.14% +166.81% -73.56%
75th Percentile £24.29 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £41.97 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.92 £43.50 -
% change year-on-year -56.52% - -

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 44,826 29,510 35,120
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 85.01% 90.34% 85.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,774 18,532 22,551
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,642 1,578 2,152
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £13.25
25th Percentile £20.01 £17.46 £17.00
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £39.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -36.33% -7.06%
75th Percentile £68.55 £50.94 £62.76
90th Percentile £83.00 £69.13 £73.75
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.34 £40.00
% change year-on-year +84.88% -39.15% -1.45%

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 23 July 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 23 July 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 23 July 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 -119 250 £467 -6.60% 121
UK excluding London -80 157 £500 +5.26% 85
London -95 105 £450 -12.00% 43
Work from Home -75 88 £465 -7.00% 46
North of England -35 64 £500 +5.26% 22
Yorkshire -11 48 £500 +25.00% 1
South East -38 45 £469 -6.20% 26
Scotland -23 17 £500 +6.67% 2
Midlands -61 15 £575 +15.00% 14
North West -48 13 £485 +2.00% 19
South West -39 11 £385 -25.96% 8
West Midlands -63 11 £600 +19.40% 6
East Midlands -15 4 £413 +7.14% 8
North East -37 3 £275 -26.67% 2
East of England -45 3 £550 +15.79% 10
Wales -19 2 £543 +106.67% 3

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 40 (13.61%) SharePoint
2 24 (8.16%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.72%) Confluence
4 5 (1.70%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (1.02%) Apache
5 3 (1.02%) Appian
5 3 (1.02%) CMS
6 2 (0.68%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.34%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.34%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.34%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (2.38%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.70%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.36%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.34%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.02%) Dynamics CRM
1 3 (1.02%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.68%) Remedy AR System
3 1 (0.34%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.34%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.34%) PeopleSoft HCM
3 1 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.34%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 127 (43.20%) Azure
2 74 (25.17%) AWS
3 57 (19.39%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (14.63%) Entra ID
5 42 (14.29%) GitHub
6 33 (11.22%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (9.86%) GCP
7 29 (9.86%) GitHub Actions
8 25 (8.50%) Power Platform
9 22 (7.48%) Azure Monitor
10 20 (6.80%) OpenShift
10 20 (6.80%) Power Automate
11 17 (5.78%) Amazon S3
12 16 (5.44%) Azure Key Vault
12 16 (5.44%) Datadog
13 15 (5.10%) Microsoft Copilot
13 15 (5.10%) OneDrive
14 14 (4.76%) PaaS
15 13 (4.42%) PowerApps
15 13 (4.42%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 37 (12.59%) DNS
2 24 (8.16%) DHCP
2 24 (8.16%) Firewall
3 23 (7.82%) VPN
4 14 (4.76%) TCP/IP
5 13 (4.42%) SAN
6 12 (4.08%) Network Security
7 9 (3.06%) VLAN
8 8 (2.72%) SSH
9 7 (2.38%) SD-WAN
9 7 (2.38%) WAN
10 4 (1.36%) Intranet
10 4 (1.36%) LAN
11 3 (1.02%) BGP
11 3 (1.02%) BIG-IP
11 3 (1.02%) Cisco IOS
11 3 (1.02%) Cisco Nexus
11 3 (1.02%) OSPF
11 3 (1.02%) SNMP
11 3 (1.02%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (11.90%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.74%) Data Warehouse
2 11 (3.74%) Power BI
3 8 (2.72%) Amazon RDS
4 7 (2.38%) Metadata
4 7 (2.38%) MySQL
4 7 (2.38%) PostgreSQL
4 7 (2.38%) Relational Database
5 6 (2.04%) SQL Server Integration Services
5 6 (2.04%) Sybase ASE
6 4 (1.36%) Big Data
6 4 (1.36%) EDRMS
6 4 (1.36%) Oracle Database
6 4 (1.36%) Snowflake Schema
6 4 (1.36%) Tableau
7 3 (1.02%) Amazon Redshift
7 3 (1.02%) Data Lake
7 3 (1.02%) DTS
7 3 (1.02%) Pinecone
7 3 (1.02%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 34 (11.56%) Git
2 28 (9.52%) Jenkins
3 26 (8.84%) GitLab
4 17 (5.78%) JIRA
5 6 (2.04%) SonarQube
5 6 (2.04%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (1.36%) Flyway
7 3 (1.02%) AdminStudio
7 3 (1.02%) InstallShield
7 3 (1.02%) MLflow
7 3 (1.02%) Selenium
7 3 (1.02%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.68%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.68%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.68%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.68%) JUnit
8 2 (0.68%) Maven
8 2 (0.68%) Postman
8 2 (0.68%) Snyk
9 1 (0.34%) REST Assured
General
1 102 (34.69%) Social Skills
2 51 (17.35%) Finance
3 47 (15.99%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (9.18%) Banking
5 18 (6.12%) Public Sector
6 16 (5.44%) Legal
7 11 (3.74%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (2.72%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.72%) Financial Institution
9 5 (1.70%) Front Office
9 5 (1.70%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.36%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.36%) Military
11 3 (1.02%) Law
12 2 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.68%) Retail
13 1 (0.34%) International Banking
13 1 (0.34%) Local Government
13 1 (0.34%) Marketing
13 1 (0.34%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 29 (9.86%) Developer
2 22 (7.48%) DBA
2 22 (7.48%) Senior
3 21 (7.14%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 19 (6.46%) Support Engineer
5 18 (6.12%) DevOps Engineer
6 16 (5.44%) Consultant
7 15 (5.10%) Platform Engineer
7 15 (5.10%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 12 (4.08%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
8 12 (4.08%) Site Engineer
9 11 (3.74%) Azure Developer
9 11 (3.74%) Data Engineer
9 11 (3.74%) SQL DBA
10 10 (3.40%) Analyst
10 10 (3.40%) Architect
10 10 (3.40%) Lead
11 9 (3.06%) Automation Engineer
11 9 (3.06%) Cloud Engineer
11 9 (3.06%) Microsoft 365 Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (12.93%) REST
2 23 (7.82%) .NET
3 15 (5.10%) Microsoft Graph
3 15 (5.10%) SOAP
4 14 (4.76%) Web Services
5 12 (4.08%) .NET Framework
5 12 (4.08%) ARM Templates
5 12 (4.08%) React
6 11 (3.74%) CSS
6 11 (3.74%) JSON
6 11 (3.74%) SPFx
7 9 (3.06%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (2.72%) AWS CDK
8 8 (2.72%) HTML
8 8 (2.72%) Kafka
9 6 (2.04%) Node.js
9 6 (2.04%) Pandas
9 6 (2.04%) PyTorch
9 6 (2.04%) RESTful
9 6 (2.04%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 24 (8.16%) Onboarding
2 17 (5.78%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.76%) AI Agents
3 14 (4.76%) Legacy Systems
4 12 (4.08%) Cloud Native
4 12 (4.08%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (4.08%) Replication
5 11 (3.74%) Product Ownership
6 10 (3.40%) Data Protection Act
7 9 (3.06%) Management Information System
8 8 (2.72%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.38%) Data Centre
9 7 (2.38%) Private Cloud
9 7 (2.38%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (2.04%) CMDB
10 6 (2.04%) Virtual Team
11 5 (1.70%) Clustering
11 5 (1.70%) FlexPod
11 5 (1.70%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.70%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 63 (21.43%) Windows
2 59 (20.07%) Linux
3 24 (8.16%) Windows Server
4 19 (6.46%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (3.74%) Unix
6 9 (3.06%) Windows 10
7 6 (2.04%) Mac OS
7 6 (2.04%) VMS
7 6 (2.04%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.70%) CoreOS
8 5 (1.70%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.68%) AIX
9 2 (0.68%) Android
9 2 (0.68%) Oracle Linux
9 2 (0.68%) Ubuntu
9 2 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
9 2 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.34%) CentOS
10 1 (0.34%) Solaris
10 1 (0.34%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 81 (27.55%) CI/CD
2 80 (27.21%) DevOps
3 72 (24.49%) Problem-Solving
4 59 (20.07%) AI
5 57 (19.39%) ITIL
6 55 (18.71%) Agile
7 49 (16.67%) Infrastructure as Code
8 47 (15.99%) Migration
9 42 (14.29%) Continuous Improvement
10 40 (13.61%) Analytics
10 40 (13.61%) Observability
11 35 (11.90%) Disaster Recovery
11 35 (11.90%) Workflow
12 33 (11.22%) Performance Tuning
13 31 (10.54%) Change Management
13 31 (10.54%) Containerisation
13 31 (10.54%) High Availability
14 30 (10.20%) Data Protection
15 28 (9.52%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 27 (9.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 125 (42.52%) Python
2 109 (37.07%) PowerShell
3 59 (20.07%) SQL
4 47 (15.99%) Bash
5 29 (9.86%) JavaScript
6 19 (6.46%) C#
7 16 (5.44%) TypeScript
8 15 (5.10%) Java
9 12 (4.08%) Bicep
9 12 (4.08%) Kusto Query Language
9 12 (4.08%) T-SQL
10 10 (3.40%) Go
11 8 (2.72%) Shell Script
12 7 (2.38%) PL/SQL
13 3 (1.02%) VBScript
14 2 (0.68%) ActionScript
14 2 (0.68%) Scala
15 1 (0.34%) ABAP
15 1 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.34%) REXX
Qualifications
1 78 (26.53%) Security Cleared
2 48 (16.33%) SC Cleared
3 30 (10.20%) Degree
4 28 (9.52%) DV Cleared
5 18 (6.12%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.74%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (2.72%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.70%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.70%) OCP
8 5 (1.70%) Oracle Certification
9 4 (1.36%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (1.36%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (1.02%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (1.02%) CCNP
10 3 (1.02%) CISSP
11 2 (0.68%) CCNA
11 2 (0.68%) CISM
11 2 (0.68%) MCITP
11 2 (0.68%) MCTS
11 2 (0.68%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (7.48%) Data Quality
2 9 (3.06%) QA
2 9 (3.06%) SLA
3 8 (2.72%) NIST
4 7 (2.38%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.02%) Accessibility
6 2 (0.68%) GDPR
7 1 (0.34%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.34%) GRC
7 1 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.34%) SOC 2
System Software
1 56 (19.05%) Active Directory
2 27 (9.18%) Docker
3 23 (7.82%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (4.76%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (3.74%) NFS
6 8 (2.72%) vSphere
7 7 (2.38%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (2.04%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (1.70%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.68%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.68%) Firmware
10 2 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.34%) KVM
11 1 (0.34%) OpenSSH
11 1 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.34%) UAG
11 1 (0.34%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 55 (18.71%) Ansible
2 52 (17.69%) Terraform
3 41 (13.95%) Kubernetes
4 29 (9.86%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (6.12%) SCCM
6 15 (5.10%) Grafana
7 12 (4.08%) Prometheus
8 11 (3.74%) Progress Chef
9 10 (3.40%) Puppet
10 9 (3.06%) SCOM
10 9 (3.06%) vCenter Server
11 6 (2.04%) Red Hat Satellite
11 6 (2.04%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (1.70%) SnapMirror
13 3 (1.02%) Foglight
13 3 (1.02%) Nessus
13 3 (1.02%) PowerCLI
13 3 (1.02%) WSUS
14 2 (0.68%) Nagios
14 2 (0.68%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 106 (36.05%) Microsoft
2 31 (10.54%) VMware
3 25 (8.50%) ServiceNow
4 23 (7.82%) Google
5 18 (6.12%) Red Hat
6 17 (5.78%) Oracle
6 17 (5.78%) Splunk
7 12 (4.08%) OpenAI
8 10 (3.40%) Databricks
9 9 (3.06%) Cisco
9 9 (3.06%) SolarWinds
10 7 (2.38%) AppDynamics
11 6 (2.04%) Bloomberg
11 6 (2.04%) Citrix
11 6 (2.04%) CrowdStrike
11 6 (2.04%) Palo Alto
11 6 (2.04%) Sybase
12 5 (1.70%) Broadcom
12 5 (1.70%) F5
12 5 (1.70%) NetApp