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

6 months to
29 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 388 253 264
Rank change year-on-year -135 +11 +165
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 296 340 362
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 1.04% 0.91%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.66% 1.15% 1.06%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 192 269
10th Percentile £300 £308 £388
25th Percentile £400 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £538
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -6.98% -1.83%
75th Percentile £556 £591 £675
90th Percentile £626 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £486 £500
% change year-on-year +2.83% -2.75% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 9 3
10th Percentile - £18.35 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £26.25 -
Median hourly rate £22.16 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -65.11% +166.81% -73.56%
75th Percentile £24.68 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £38.64 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £21.50 £65.00 -
% change year-on-year -66.92% - -

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 44,620 29,684 34,056
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.91% 90.46% 85.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,627 18,648 21,888
10th Percentile £325 £300 £308
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £734 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,682 1,621 1,980
10th Percentile £14.64 £14.20 £13.69
25th Percentile £19.73 £17.33 £17.74
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.00
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.13% -5.88%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £63.75
90th Percentile £82.35 £68.75 £74.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.57 £40.33
% change year-on-year +86.55% -41.56% -

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 29 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 29 July 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 29 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 -117 253 £475 -5.00% 129
UK excluding London -90 158 £500 +2.83% 91
London -97 106 £451 -10.22% 52
Work from Home -85 89 £465 -7.00% 57
North of England -43 65 £500 +2.04% 27
Yorkshire -14 46 £500 -6.98% 2
South East -39 46 £475 -3.55% 20
Scotland -33 16 £469 -1.06% 3
North West -50 16 £510 +7.37% 22
Midlands -67 15 £575 +15.00% 15
South West -39 11 £385 -28.04% 11
West Midlands -64 11 £600 +19.40% 8
East Midlands -15 4 £413 +7.14% 7
East of England -38 3 £550 +15.79% 11
North East -45 3 £275 -26.67% 3
Wales -18 1 £543 +106.67% 3
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 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 43 (14.53%) SharePoint
2 24 (8.11%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.70%) Confluence
4 4 (1.35%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (1.01%) Apache
5 3 (1.01%) CMS
6 2 (0.68%) Appian
6 2 (0.68%) JBoss
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 (2.36%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.69%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.35%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (1.35%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.01%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.01%) 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 (42.91%) Azure
2 71 (23.99%) AWS
3 59 (19.93%) Microsoft 365
4 44 (14.86%) Entra ID
5 42 (14.19%) GitHub
6 33 (11.15%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (9.80%) GitHub Actions
8 28 (9.46%) GCP
9 26 (8.78%) Power Platform
10 22 (7.43%) Azure Monitor
11 20 (6.76%) Power Automate
12 19 (6.42%) OpenShift
13 16 (5.41%) Azure Key Vault
13 16 (5.41%) Datadog
13 16 (5.41%) Microsoft Copilot
14 15 (5.07%) Amazon S3
14 15 (5.07%) OneDrive
15 14 (4.73%) PaaS
15 14 (4.73%) PowerApps
16 11 (3.72%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 37 (12.50%) DNS
2 24 (8.11%) DHCP
3 23 (7.77%) Firewall
4 22 (7.43%) VPN
5 14 (4.73%) TCP/IP
6 13 (4.39%) SAN
7 11 (3.72%) Network Security
8 9 (3.04%) VLAN
9 8 (2.70%) SSH
10 7 (2.36%) SD-WAN
11 6 (2.03%) WAN
12 4 (1.35%) Intranet
12 4 (1.35%) Kerberos
12 4 (1.35%) Skype
12 4 (1.35%) SNMP
13 3 (1.01%) BGP
13 3 (1.01%) BIG-IP
13 3 (1.01%) Cisco IOS
13 3 (1.01%) OSPF
13 3 (1.01%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (11.15%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.72%) Power BI
3 10 (3.38%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (2.70%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (2.36%) MySQL
5 7 (2.36%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.36%) Relational Database
6 6 (2.03%) Big Data
6 6 (2.03%) Metadata
6 6 (2.03%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (2.03%) Sybase ASE
7 4 (1.35%) EDRMS
7 4 (1.35%) Snowflake Schema
7 4 (1.35%) Tableau
8 3 (1.01%) Amazon Redshift
8 3 (1.01%) DTS
8 3 (1.01%) Hadoop
8 3 (1.01%) MongoDB
8 3 (1.01%) Oracle Database
8 3 (1.01%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 33 (11.15%) Git
2 28 (9.46%) Jenkins
3 27 (9.12%) GitLab
4 17 (5.74%) JIRA
5 6 (2.03%) SonarQube
6 5 (1.69%) Sonatype Nexus
7 4 (1.35%) Flyway
8 3 (1.01%) AdminStudio
8 3 (1.01%) InstallShield
8 3 (1.01%) Selenium
9 2 (0.68%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.68%) Claude Code
9 2 (0.68%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.68%) JUnit
9 2 (0.68%) Maven
9 2 (0.68%) MLflow
9 2 (0.68%) Postman
9 2 (0.68%) Snyk
9 2 (0.68%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.34%) Visual Studio
General
1 101 (34.12%) Social Skills
2 50 (16.89%) Analytical Skills
3 49 (16.55%) Finance
4 28 (9.46%) Banking
5 17 (5.74%) Public Sector
6 16 (5.41%) Legal
7 11 (3.72%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (2.70%) Documentation Skills
9 7 (2.36%) Financial Institution
10 5 (1.69%) Front Office
10 5 (1.69%) Investment Banking
11 4 (1.35%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (1.01%) Law
12 3 (1.01%) Military
13 2 (0.68%) Influencing Skills
13 2 (0.68%) Retail
14 1 (0.34%) Billing
14 1 (0.34%) Local Government
14 1 (0.34%) Manufacturing
14 1 (0.34%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 28 (9.46%) Developer
2 24 (8.11%) Senior
3 22 (7.43%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 21 (7.09%) DBA
5 20 (6.76%) Support Engineer
6 18 (6.08%) Consultant
6 18 (6.08%) DevOps Engineer
7 17 (5.74%) Platform Engineer
8 15 (5.07%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 12 (4.05%) Site Engineer
10 11 (3.72%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
10 11 (3.72%) Azure Developer
10 11 (3.72%) SQL DBA
11 10 (3.38%) Analyst
11 10 (3.38%) Architect
11 10 (3.38%) Cloud Engineer
11 10 (3.38%) Data Engineer
11 10 (3.38%) Lead
12 9 (3.04%) Microsoft 365 Developer
12 9 (3.04%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 38 (12.84%) REST
2 22 (7.43%) .NET
3 16 (5.41%) SOAP
4 15 (5.07%) Microsoft Graph
5 13 (4.39%) Web Services
6 12 (4.05%) .NET Framework
6 12 (4.05%) ARM Templates
6 12 (4.05%) React
7 11 (3.72%) CSS
7 11 (3.72%) JSON
7 11 (3.72%) SPFx
8 9 (3.04%) Elastic Stack
9 8 (2.70%) AWS CDK
9 8 (2.70%) HTML
10 7 (2.36%) Kafka
11 6 (2.03%) Node.js
11 6 (2.03%) YAML
12 5 (1.69%) ASP.NET
12 5 (1.69%) LangChain
12 5 (1.69%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 24 (8.11%) Onboarding
2 17 (5.74%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.73%) AI Agents
4 13 (4.39%) Legacy Systems
5 12 (4.05%) Cloud Native
5 12 (4.05%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (4.05%) Replication
6 11 (3.72%) Product Ownership
7 9 (3.04%) Data Protection Act
7 9 (3.04%) Management Information System
8 8 (2.70%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.36%) Clustering
9 7 (2.36%) CMDB
9 7 (2.36%) Private Cloud
9 7 (2.36%) Self-Motivation
10 6 (2.03%) Data Centre
11 5 (1.69%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.69%) FlexPod
11 5 (1.69%) Public Cloud
11 5 (1.69%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 62 (20.95%) Windows
2 61 (20.61%) Linux
3 23 (7.77%) Windows Server
4 21 (7.09%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (3.72%) Unix
6 9 (3.04%) Windows 10
7 7 (2.36%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (2.03%) Mac OS
8 6 (2.03%) VMS
9 5 (1.69%) CoreOS
9 5 (1.69%) Data ONTAP
10 4 (1.35%) Android
11 2 (0.68%) AIX
11 2 (0.68%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.68%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.68%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.68%) Windows Server 2016
12 1 (0.34%) Rocky
12 1 (0.34%) Solaris
12 1 (0.34%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 82 (27.70%) DevOps
2 79 (26.69%) CI/CD
3 72 (24.32%) Problem-Solving
4 61 (20.61%) ITIL
5 59 (19.93%) AI
6 55 (18.58%) Agile
7 51 (17.23%) Infrastructure as Code
8 46 (15.54%) Migration
9 41 (13.85%) Analytics
10 40 (13.51%) Continuous Improvement
10 40 (13.51%) Observability
11 38 (12.84%) Disaster Recovery
12 36 (12.16%) Performance Tuning
13 35 (11.82%) Workflow
14 33 (11.15%) High Availability
15 31 (10.47%) Change Management
16 29 (9.80%) Containerisation
16 29 (9.80%) Data Protection
17 28 (9.46%) Site Reliability Engineering
18 27 (9.12%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 119 (40.20%) Python
2 107 (36.15%) PowerShell
3 55 (18.58%) SQL
4 49 (16.55%) Bash
5 29 (9.80%) JavaScript
6 18 (6.08%) C#
7 16 (5.41%) TypeScript
8 15 (5.07%) Java
9 12 (4.05%) Bicep
9 12 (4.05%) Kusto Query Language
9 12 (4.05%) T-SQL
10 10 (3.38%) Go
11 8 (2.70%) Shell Script
12 6 (2.03%) PL/SQL
13 3 (1.01%) 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 83 (28.04%) Security Cleared
2 52 (17.57%) SC Cleared
3 31 (10.47%) Degree
4 29 (9.80%) DV Cleared
5 18 (6.08%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (4.05%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (2.70%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.69%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.69%) OCP
8 5 (1.69%) Oracle Certification
9 4 (1.35%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (1.35%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (1.01%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
11 2 (0.68%) CCNA
11 2 (0.68%) CCNP
11 2 (0.68%) CISSP
11 2 (0.68%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.68%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.68%) MCITP
11 2 (0.68%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (7.09%) Data Quality
2 10 (3.38%) SLA
3 9 (3.04%) QA
4 7 (2.36%) NIST
5 6 (2.03%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 3 (1.01%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.68%) GDPR
8 1 (0.34%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.34%) GRC
8 1 (0.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
8 1 (0.34%) SOC 2
System Software
1 58 (19.59%) Active Directory
2 26 (8.78%) Docker
2 26 (8.78%) VMware Infrastructure
3 13 (4.39%) Virtual Machines
4 11 (3.72%) NFS
5 8 (2.70%) vSphere
6 7 (2.36%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (2.36%) VMware ESXi
7 6 (2.03%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.68%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.68%) Firmware
8 2 (0.68%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.34%) NDS
9 1 (0.34%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 1 (0.34%) OpenSSH
9 1 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.34%) UAG
9 1 (0.34%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 52 (17.57%) Ansible
2 51 (17.23%) Terraform
3 41 (13.85%) Kubernetes
4 31 (10.47%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (5.74%) SCCM
6 15 (5.07%) Grafana
7 12 (4.05%) Prometheus
7 12 (4.05%) Puppet
8 11 (3.72%) Progress Chef
9 10 (3.38%) vCenter Server
10 9 (3.04%) SCOM
11 8 (2.70%) Red Hat Satellite
12 6 (2.03%) Single Sign-On
13 5 (1.69%) SnapMirror
14 3 (1.01%) Foglight
14 3 (1.01%) PowerCLI
14 3 (1.01%) WSUS
15 2 (0.68%) Nagios
15 2 (0.68%) Nessus
15 2 (0.68%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 107 (36.15%) Microsoft
2 34 (11.49%) VMware
3 24 (8.11%) ServiceNow
4 23 (7.77%) Google
5 19 (6.42%) Red Hat
6 16 (5.41%) Splunk
7 15 (5.07%) Oracle
8 11 (3.72%) OpenAI
9 10 (3.38%) Cisco
9 10 (3.38%) Databricks
9 10 (3.38%) SolarWinds
10 7 (2.36%) AppDynamics
11 6 (2.03%) Bloomberg
11 6 (2.03%) Broadcom
11 6 (2.03%) Citrix
11 6 (2.03%) Palo Alto
11 6 (2.03%) Sybase
12 5 (1.69%) BMC
12 5 (1.69%) F5
12 5 (1.69%) NetApp