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

6 months to
15 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 399 259 255
Rank change year-on-year -140 -4 +162
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 307 330 359
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 1.02% 0.94%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.67% 1.12% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 187 249
10th Percentile £300 £304 £362
25th Percentile £401 £400 £431
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% -1.60% -8.26%
75th Percentile £556 £585 £625
90th Percentile £667 £670 £708
UK excluding London median daily rate £511 £475 £475
% change year-on-year +7.57% - -11.13%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 7 3
10th Percentile - £17.89 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £40.28 -
Median hourly rate £22.25 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -64.96% +166.81% -73.56%
75th Percentile £35.63 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £66.05 £66.05 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.92 £66.50 -
% change year-on-year -71.56% - -

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 45,945 29,375 32,666
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.44% 90.50% 85.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,954 18,237 20,159
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £403 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,063 1,777 1,475
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.84
25th Percentile £17.42 £17.30 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +1.18%
75th Percentile £67.47 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £79.00 £66.70 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.08 £22.50 £43.00
% change year-on-year +78.13% -47.67% +6.17%

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 September 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 September 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 15 September 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 -123 265 £494 -1.28% 581
UK excluding London -110 156 £511 +7.57% 239
London -101 114 £448 -10.50% 361
Work from Home -72 90 £500 - 224
North of England -52 63 £500 +5.26% 64
South East -37 47 £515 +4.57% 59
Yorkshire -18 34 £518 +7.84% 19
North West -44 25 £492 +3.61% 39
Midlands -61 16 £588 +14.08% 29
Scotland -32 11 £438 -6.42% 12
South West -48 10 £325 -37.50% 30
West Midlands -70 9 £600 +15.50% 23
East of England -41 8 £503 +11.67% 27
East Midlands -9 7 £413 +7.14% 6
North East -35 4 £275 +37.50% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 13

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 33 (10.75%) SharePoint
2 15 (4.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.95%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (1.63%) Confluence
4 5 (1.63%) JBoss
5 4 (1.30%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.98%) CMS
6 3 (0.98%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 3 (0.98%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.98%) WebLogic Portal
7 2 (0.65%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.33%) Apache
8 1 (0.33%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.33%) FactoryTalk
8 1 (0.33%) IIS
8 1 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.33%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (2.28%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.30%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.28%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (1.95%) Remedy AR System
3 4 (1.30%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (1.30%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.98%) Oracle EBS R12
4 3 (0.98%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.33%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.33%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.33%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.33%) PeopleSoft HCM
5 1 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 113 (36.81%) Azure
2 73 (23.78%) AWS
3 51 (16.61%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (10.10%) Entra ID
4 31 (10.10%) GitHub
5 29 (9.45%) Power Platform
6 27 (8.79%) Azure DevOps
7 24 (7.82%) GCP
8 23 (7.49%) GitHub Actions
9 22 (7.17%) Microsoft Copilot
10 21 (6.84%) Amazon S3
11 20 (6.51%) Power Automate
12 18 (5.86%) AWS Lambda
12 18 (5.86%) Serverless
13 17 (5.54%) Azure Monitor
13 17 (5.54%) Datadog
14 15 (4.89%) AWS CloudFormation
14 15 (4.89%) OneDrive
14 15 (4.89%) SaaS
15 13 (4.23%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 50 (16.29%) DNS
2 29 (9.45%) DHCP
3 28 (9.12%) VPN
4 24 (7.82%) Firewall
5 20 (6.51%) TCP/IP
6 16 (5.21%) Network Security
7 10 (3.26%) VLAN
8 8 (2.61%) SSH
9 7 (2.28%) Kerberos
9 7 (2.28%) SAN
9 7 (2.28%) WAN
10 6 (1.95%) SD-WAN
11 5 (1.63%) BIG-IP
11 5 (1.63%) Skype
11 5 (1.63%) Wireless
12 4 (1.30%) Intranet
12 4 (1.30%) PSTN
12 4 (1.30%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (0.98%) LAN
13 3 (0.98%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 26 (8.47%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.58%) Amazon RDS
2 11 (3.58%) Data Warehouse
2 11 (3.58%) Power BI
3 7 (2.28%) Sybase ASE
4 6 (1.95%) Hadoop
4 6 (1.95%) Metadata
4 6 (1.95%) MySQL
4 6 (1.95%) Oracle Database
5 5 (1.63%) Big Data
5 5 (1.63%) Relational Database
6 4 (1.30%) EDRMS
6 4 (1.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 3 (0.98%) Azure SQL Database
7 3 (0.98%) Oracle Database 10g
7 3 (0.98%) Oracle Database 11g
7 3 (0.98%) Oracle Database 12c
7 3 (0.98%) PostgreSQL
7 3 (0.98%) Snowflake Schema
7 3 (0.98%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 36 (11.73%) Git
2 22 (7.17%) GitLab
3 20 (6.51%) Jenkins
4 13 (4.23%) JIRA
5 5 (1.63%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.30%) Flyway
6 4 (1.30%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (1.30%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.98%) AdminStudio
7 3 (0.98%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.98%) InstallShield
7 3 (0.98%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.65%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.65%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.65%) JUnit
8 2 (0.65%) Maven
8 2 (0.65%) Postman
8 2 (0.65%) Selenium
8 2 (0.65%) Snyk
8 2 (0.65%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 97 (31.60%) Social Skills
2 51 (16.61%) Analytical Skills
2 51 (16.61%) Finance
3 31 (10.10%) Banking
4 18 (5.86%) Legal
5 17 (5.54%) Public Sector
6 11 (3.58%) Organisational Skills
7 7 (2.28%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.95%) Front Office
9 5 (1.63%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.30%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.98%) Law
11 3 (0.98%) Military
12 2 (0.65%) Billing
12 2 (0.65%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.65%) Marketing
12 2 (0.65%) Retail
13 1 (0.33%) International Banking
13 1 (0.33%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 39 (12.70%) Senior
2 31 (10.10%) Support Engineer
3 29 (9.45%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 23 (7.49%) DevOps Engineer
5 19 (6.19%) Cloud Engineer
6 18 (5.86%) DBA
7 17 (5.54%) Platform Engineer
8 15 (4.89%) Analyst
9 14 (4.56%) Consultant
10 13 (4.23%) Developer
11 12 (3.91%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.91%) Site Reliability Engineer
12 11 (3.58%) Architect
12 11 (3.58%) Lead
13 10 (3.26%) Linux Engineer
13 10 (3.26%) Site Engineer
14 9 (2.93%) Administrator
14 9 (2.93%) Systems Engineer
15 8 (2.61%) Security Engineer
15 8 (2.61%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 61 (19.87%) Terraform
2 29 (9.45%) REST
3 14 (4.56%) ARM Templates
4 13 (4.23%) React
5 12 (3.91%) JSON
6 11 (3.58%) .NET
6 11 (3.58%) CSS
6 11 (3.58%) SPFx
7 10 (3.26%) Elastic Stack
7 10 (3.26%) Kafka
8 8 (2.61%) HTML
8 8 (2.61%) SOAP
8 8 (2.61%) YAML
9 6 (1.95%) Node.js
10 5 (1.63%) ASP.NET
10 5 (1.63%) AWS CDK
10 5 (1.63%) LangChain
10 5 (1.63%) Oracle Fusion
11 4 (1.30%) Software Packaging
11 4 (1.30%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.49%) Onboarding
2 16 (5.21%) Cloud Native
3 15 (4.89%) Hybrid Cloud
4 14 (4.56%) AI Agents
5 13 (4.23%) Data Protection Act
6 12 (3.91%) Clustering
6 12 (3.91%) Product Ownership
6 12 (3.91%) Replication
7 11 (3.58%) Distributed Systems
7 11 (3.58%) Management Information System
8 10 (3.26%) Legacy Systems
8 10 (3.26%) Private Cloud
9 9 (2.93%) CMDB
10 8 (2.61%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (2.28%) Enterprise Software
11 7 (2.28%) Public Cloud
11 7 (2.28%) Virtual Team
12 5 (1.63%) Autonomous Agent
12 5 (1.63%) Blackberry
12 5 (1.63%) Data Centre
Operating Systems
1 70 (22.80%) Windows
2 63 (20.52%) Linux
3 24 (7.82%) Windows Server
4 21 (6.84%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 17 (5.54%) Windows 10
6 15 (4.89%) Unix
7 12 (3.91%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (2.28%) Android
8 7 (2.28%) Mac OS
8 7 (2.28%) Windows 7
9 6 (1.95%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (0.98%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.65%) AIX
11 2 (0.65%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.65%) Rocky
11 2 (0.65%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.65%) VMS
11 2 (0.65%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.65%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 88 (28.66%) CI/CD
2 81 (26.38%) DevOps
3 69 (22.48%) Problem-Solving
4 68 (22.15%) ITIL
5 63 (20.52%) Agile
6 62 (20.20%) Infrastructure as Code
7 57 (18.57%) AI
8 51 (16.61%) Continuous Improvement
9 48 (15.64%) Migration
10 41 (13.36%) Observability
10 41 (13.36%) Root Cause Analysis
11 40 (13.03%) Workflow
12 39 (12.70%) Performance Tuning
13 36 (11.73%) ITSM
14 35 (11.40%) Disaster Recovery
14 35 (11.40%) Runbook
15 33 (10.75%) Analytics
15 33 (10.75%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 32 (10.42%) High Availability
17 29 (9.45%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 132 (43.00%) Python
2 113 (36.81%) PowerShell
3 62 (20.20%) SQL
4 54 (17.59%) Bash
5 36 (11.73%) JavaScript
6 17 (5.54%) Bicep
7 16 (5.21%) Java
8 13 (4.23%) Shell Script
8 13 (4.23%) TypeScript
9 12 (3.91%) T-SQL
10 11 (3.58%) Go
11 9 (2.93%) PL/SQL
12 7 (2.28%) C#
13 5 (1.63%) Perl
13 5 (1.63%) VBScript
14 2 (0.65%) REXX
14 2 (0.65%) Scala
15 1 (0.33%) JCL
15 1 (0.33%) Korn
15 1 (0.33%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 103 (33.55%) Security Cleared
2 65 (21.17%) SC Cleared
3 37 (12.05%) DV Cleared
4 30 (9.77%) Degree
5 17 (5.54%) Computer Science Degree
6 13 (4.23%) Azure Certification
6 13 (4.23%) Microsoft Certification
7 6 (1.95%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.63%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (1.63%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.98%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 3 (0.98%) CCNA
9 3 (0.98%) CCNP
10 2 (0.65%) CIPD
10 2 (0.65%) CISM
10 2 (0.65%) CISSP
10 2 (0.65%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.65%) GSEC
10 2 (0.65%) OSCP
11 1 (0.33%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 20 (6.51%) Data Quality
2 17 (5.54%) SLA
3 12 (3.91%) QA
4 6 (1.95%) NIST
5 4 (1.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.65%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.33%) GDPR
7 1 (0.33%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.33%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.33%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 65 (21.17%) Active Directory
2 28 (9.12%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (8.79%) Docker
4 13 (4.23%) Virtual Machines
4 13 (4.23%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (3.26%) Virtual Desktop
6 6 (1.95%) NFS
7 5 (1.63%) Hyper-V
8 4 (1.30%) vSphere
9 2 (0.65%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.65%) Firmware
9 2 (0.65%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.33%) NDS
10 1 (0.33%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.33%) OpenSSH
10 1 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 49 (15.96%) Ansible
2 36 (11.73%) Kubernetes
3 30 (9.77%) Microsoft Intune
4 27 (8.79%) SCCM
5 18 (5.86%) Grafana
6 16 (5.21%) Prometheus
6 16 (5.21%) Puppet
6 16 (5.21%) SCOM
7 13 (4.23%) vCenter Server
8 11 (3.58%) Progress Chef
8 11 (3.58%) Red Hat Satellite
9 8 (2.61%) Single Sign-On
10 7 (2.28%) Failover Clustering
11 5 (1.63%) Oracle RMAN
12 3 (0.98%) Istio
12 3 (0.98%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.65%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.65%) Nagios
13 2 (0.65%) Podman
13 2 (0.65%) WSUS
Vendors
1 108 (35.18%) Microsoft
2 32 (10.42%) VMware
3 25 (8.14%) Oracle
4 20 (6.51%) Red Hat
5 19 (6.19%) Google
6 18 (5.86%) ServiceNow
7 17 (5.54%) Splunk
8 14 (4.56%) SolarWinds
9 11 (3.58%) Broadcom
9 11 (3.58%) Cisco
10 8 (2.61%) BMC
11 7 (2.28%) AppDynamics
11 7 (2.28%) OpenAI
11 7 (2.28%) Remedy
11 7 (2.28%) Sybase
12 6 (1.95%) Ivanti
13 5 (1.63%) BeyondTrust
13 5 (1.63%) Citrix
13 5 (1.63%) Dynatrace
13 5 (1.63%) F5