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

6 months to
16 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 313 248 304
Rank change year-on-year -65 +56 +148
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 374 311 290
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.78% 1.07% 0.68%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.92% 1.17% 0.79%
Number of daily rates quoted 282 173 227
10th Percentile £313 £350 £385
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 £700 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £460 £483 £550
% change year-on-year -4.66% -12.27% -
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 40,526 26,506 36,695
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.38% 90.99% 86.24%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,448 17,044 23,613
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 2,394 1,081 2,430
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.30 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.85 £18.20 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £28.41 £36.02
Median % change year-on-year +49.60% -21.13% +0.06%
75th Percentile £67.49 £60.00 £60.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £75.00 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.43 £37.50
% change year-on-year +76.96% -32.19% +7.14%

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 16 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 16 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 16 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 -57 315 £491 -6.48% 111
UK excluding London -69 183 £460 -4.66% 76
London -27 157 £563 +2.27% 45
Work from Home +9 138 £563 +4.75% 39
North of England -26 72 £460 -3.26% 18
Yorkshire -9 55 £463 -13.95% 6
South East -45 41 £425 +32.40% 30
Scotland -9 31 £500 +7.53% 3
Midlands -64 20 £502 +2.87% 7
West Midlands -57 16 £550 +10.00% 4
South West -47 15 £400 -17.95% 11
North West -46 11 £450 -5.26% 8
North East -17 6 £365 -2.67% 4
East Midlands -27 4 £413 +5.77% 3
Wales - 2 £543 -
East of England -50 1 £400 -33.33% 8
Northern Ireland - 1 £675 -

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 30 (8.02%) SharePoint
2 22 (5.88%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (2.67%) Confluence
4 8 (2.14%) Appian
5 4 (1.07%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.80%) Apache
7 2 (0.53%) CMS
7 2 (0.53%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.53%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 2 (0.53%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.53%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.53%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.27%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 12 (3.21%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.60%) Chatbot
3 4 (1.07%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.80%) Microsoft Office
5 2 (0.53%) Microsoft PowerPoint
6 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
6 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.53%) Dynamics CRM
1 2 (0.53%) Maximo
1 2 (0.53%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.53%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (0.53%) Oracle ERP
2 1 (0.27%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 188 (50.27%) Azure
2 128 (34.22%) AWS
3 75 (20.05%) GCP
4 51 (13.64%) Entra ID
5 47 (12.57%) Microsoft 365
6 46 (12.30%) GitHub
7 32 (8.56%) OpenShift
8 30 (8.02%) GitHub Actions
9 28 (7.49%) Power Platform
10 24 (6.42%) Azure DevOps
10 24 (6.42%) Power Automate
11 23 (6.15%) Amazon S3
12 20 (5.35%) Azure Monitor
13 19 (5.08%) PaaS
14 16 (4.28%) AWS CloudFormation
14 16 (4.28%) Azure Key Vault
14 16 (4.28%) Serverless
15 14 (3.74%) AWS Lambda
16 13 (3.48%) Azure App Service
16 13 (3.48%) Azure Service Bus
Communications & Networking
1 42 (11.23%) DNS
2 34 (9.09%) DHCP
3 21 (5.61%) Firewall
4 18 (4.81%) Kerberos
5 16 (4.28%) VPN
6 13 (3.48%) SSH
7 10 (2.67%) Network Security
7 10 (2.67%) SAN
7 10 (2.67%) WAN
8 8 (2.14%) SD-WAN
8 8 (2.14%) TCP/IP
9 7 (1.87%) VLAN
10 6 (1.60%) LAN
11 5 (1.34%) SSL
12 4 (1.07%) Cisco Nexus
13 3 (0.80%) BIG-IP
13 3 (0.80%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 3 (0.80%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (0.80%) WLAN
14 2 (0.53%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 38 (10.16%) SQL Server
2 20 (5.35%) PostgreSQL
3 15 (4.01%) Power BI
4 10 (2.67%) Data Warehouse
5 9 (2.41%) Amazon RDS
6 8 (2.14%) Oracle Database
6 8 (2.14%) Pinecone
7 7 (1.87%) Relational Database
8 6 (1.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 6 (1.60%) Tableau
9 5 (1.34%) Data Lake
9 5 (1.34%) DynamoDB
9 5 (1.34%) Metadata
9 5 (1.34%) MongoDB
9 5 (1.34%) Snowflake Schema
10 4 (1.07%) Amazon Redshift
10 4 (1.07%) Big Data
10 4 (1.07%) MySQL
10 4 (1.07%) Oracle Reports
10 4 (1.07%) Power Query
Development Applications
1 35 (9.36%) Jenkins
2 30 (8.02%) GitLab
3 27 (7.22%) Git
4 20 (5.35%) JIRA
5 11 (2.94%) Sonatype Nexus
6 8 (2.14%) MLflow
7 5 (1.34%) CircleCI
8 4 (1.07%) SonarQube
9 3 (0.80%) AdminStudio
9 3 (0.80%) Bitbucket
9 3 (0.80%) Flyway
9 3 (0.80%) InstallShield
9 3 (0.80%) Selenium
10 2 (0.53%) Artifactory
10 2 (0.53%) Maven
10 2 (0.53%) Postman
10 2 (0.53%) Snyk
11 1 (0.27%) Serenity BDD
11 1 (0.27%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
11 1 (0.27%) webpack
General
1 152 (40.64%) Social Skills
2 62 (16.58%) Finance
3 48 (12.83%) Analytical Skills
4 36 (9.63%) Public Sector
5 28 (7.49%) Banking
6 11 (2.94%) Organisational Skills
7 10 (2.67%) Legal
8 7 (1.87%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.34%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.07%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (1.07%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.07%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.07%) Law
11 3 (0.80%) Military
11 3 (0.80%) Presentation Skills
11 3 (0.80%) Retail
12 2 (0.53%) Front Office
13 1 (0.27%) Marketing
13 1 (0.27%) Private Banking
13 1 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 44 (11.76%) Architect
2 41 (10.96%) Developer
3 36 (9.63%) CyberArk Architect
4 23 (6.15%) Site Reliability Engineer
5 21 (5.61%) Administrator
5 21 (5.61%) DBA
6 20 (5.35%) Automation Engineer
7 18 (4.81%) DevOps Engineer
8 16 (4.28%) Analyst
8 16 (4.28%) Platform Engineer
8 16 (4.28%) Site Engineer
9 15 (4.01%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 15 (4.01%) Infrastructure Engineer
10 14 (3.74%) Consultant
11 12 (3.21%) Azure Developer
12 11 (2.94%) Java Developer
12 11 (2.94%) Lead
12 11 (2.94%) Senior
13 10 (2.67%) Data Engineer
13 10 (2.67%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (17.91%) REST
2 50 (13.37%) LDAP
3 48 (12.83%) SOAP
4 26 (6.95%) OAuth
5 22 (5.88%) .NET
5 22 (5.88%) Web Services
6 17 (4.55%) SAML
7 15 (4.01%) Elastic Stack
7 15 (4.01%) Node.js
8 14 (3.74%) .NET Framework
8 14 (3.74%) Microsoft Graph
9 13 (3.48%) JWT
10 12 (3.21%) RESTful
11 11 (2.94%) Kafka
11 11 (2.94%) Pandas
11 11 (2.94%) PyTorch
12 10 (2.67%) FastAPI
12 10 (2.67%) JSON
12 10 (2.67%) NumPy
13 9 (2.41%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 42 (11.23%) Enterprise Software
2 38 (10.16%) Security Posture
3 22 (5.88%) Replication
4 21 (5.61%) Onboarding
5 16 (4.28%) Cloud Native
6 14 (3.74%) Distributed Systems
6 14 (3.74%) Legacy Systems
7 13 (3.48%) Hybrid Cloud
7 13 (3.48%) Product Ownership
8 11 (2.94%) Data Protection Act
9 8 (2.14%) Clustering
9 8 (2.14%) Data Centre
9 8 (2.14%) Low-Code
10 6 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
11 5 (1.34%) FlexPod
11 5 (1.34%) Self-Motivation
11 5 (1.34%) Virtual Team
12 4 (1.07%) AI Agents
12 4 (1.07%) Data Structures
13 3 (0.80%) Cyber Threat
Operating Systems
1 78 (20.86%) Linux
2 73 (19.52%) Windows
3 31 (8.29%) Windows Server
4 18 (4.81%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 17 (4.55%) Unix
6 9 (2.41%) Mac OS
6 9 (2.41%) VMS
7 8 (2.14%) Windows 10
8 5 (1.34%) CoreOS
8 5 (1.34%) Data ONTAP
9 2 (0.53%) Apple iOS
9 2 (0.53%) CentOS
10 1 (0.27%) Android
10 1 (0.27%) Oracle Linux
10 1 (0.27%) Rocky
10 1 (0.27%) Ubuntu
10 1 (0.27%) Windows 7
10 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
10 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
10 1 (0.27%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 138 (36.90%) Problem-Solving
2 115 (30.75%) CI/CD
3 89 (23.80%) DevOps
4 59 (15.78%) AI
5 57 (15.24%) Agile
6 56 (14.97%) Infrastructure as Code
7 55 (14.71%) Disaster Recovery
8 49 (13.10%) High Availability
8 49 (13.10%) Migration
9 46 (12.30%) Observability
10 45 (12.03%) Analytics
10 45 (12.03%) Containerisation
10 45 (12.03%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 45 (12.03%) Technical Leadership
11 44 (11.76%) Continuous Improvement
12 43 (11.50%) SIEM
13 41 (10.96%) ITIL
13 41 (10.96%) ITSM
13 41 (10.96%) Site Reliability Engineering
14 38 (10.16%) Integration Patterns
Programming Languages
1 180 (48.13%) Python
2 145 (38.77%) PowerShell
3 68 (18.18%) SQL
4 50 (13.37%) Bash
5 42 (11.23%) Java
6 27 (7.22%) JavaScript
7 26 (6.95%) Shell Script
8 22 (5.88%) C#
8 22 (5.88%) Go
9 17 (4.55%) TypeScript
10 13 (3.48%) Kusto Query Language
11 10 (2.67%) PL/SQL
12 9 (2.41%) T-SQL
13 5 (1.34%) Bicep
14 4 (1.07%) Perl
15 3 (0.80%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 3 (0.80%) PHP
15 3 (0.80%) VBA
16 2 (0.53%) ActionScript
16 2 (0.53%) Scala
Qualifications
1 135 (36.10%) Security Cleared
2 106 (28.34%) SC Cleared
3 28 (7.49%) Degree
4 23 (6.15%) Computer Science Degree
5 17 (4.55%) BPSS Clearance
5 17 (4.55%) DV Cleared
6 8 (2.14%) OCP
6 8 (2.14%) Oracle Certification
7 6 (1.60%) AWS Certification
7 6 (1.60%) CISSP
8 5 (1.34%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.34%) Microsoft Certification
9 4 (1.07%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.07%) CISM
10 3 (0.80%) CCNA
10 3 (0.80%) CCNP
10 3 (0.80%) JNCIA
10 3 (0.80%) JNCIS
10 3 (0.80%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.53%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 23 (6.15%) Data Quality
2 22 (5.88%) GDPR
3 14 (3.74%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 12 (3.21%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (2.94%) NIST
6 9 (2.41%) QA
7 8 (2.14%) SLA
8 3 (0.80%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.53%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.53%) 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 92 (24.60%) Active Directory
2 38 (10.16%) Docker
3 20 (5.35%) VMware Infrastructure
4 17 (4.55%) Virtual Machines
5 8 (2.14%) Hyper-V
5 8 (2.14%) NFS
6 7 (1.87%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (1.87%) vSphere
7 3 (0.80%) Xen
8 2 (0.53%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.53%) Firmware
8 2 (0.53%) KVM
8 2 (0.53%) Oracle RAC
8 2 (0.53%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.27%) Apache ZooKeeper
9 1 (0.27%) HDFS
9 1 (0.27%) RHEV
9 1 (0.27%) UAG
9 1 (0.27%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 70 (18.72%) Kubernetes
2 62 (16.58%) Terraform
3 59 (15.78%) Ansible
4 25 (6.68%) Grafana
5 24 (6.42%) Microsoft Intune
6 20 (5.35%) Single Sign-On
7 19 (5.08%) Prometheus
8 14 (3.74%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 14 (3.74%) Progress Chef
9 10 (2.67%) SCCM
10 9 (2.41%) Puppet
11 6 (1.60%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 5 (1.34%) Oracle RMAN
12 5 (1.34%) SnapMirror
13 4 (1.07%) Nessus
14 3 (0.80%) Foglight
14 3 (0.80%) Nagios
14 3 (0.80%) OpenVAS
14 3 (0.80%) Red Hat Satellite
14 3 (0.80%) SCOM
Vendors
1 100 (26.74%) Microsoft
2 37 (9.89%) CyberArk
3 34 (9.09%) BeyondTrust
3 34 (9.09%) Centrify
4 27 (7.22%) Oracle
5 26 (6.95%) VMware
6 24 (6.42%) Google
7 23 (6.15%) Red Hat
8 22 (5.88%) ServiceNow
9 19 (5.08%) Okta
10 17 (4.55%) Splunk
11 16 (4.28%) OpenAI
12 13 (3.48%) Databricks
13 9 (2.41%) Cisco
14 8 (2.14%) Automation Anywhere
14 8 (2.14%) Palo Alto
14 8 (2.14%) UiPath
15 7 (1.87%) F5
16 5 (1.34%) Informatica
16 5 (1.34%) NetApp