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

6 months to
11 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 383 270 248
Rank change year-on-year -113 -22 +160
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 313 336 368
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 1.02% 0.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.68% 1.12% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 207 191 257
10th Percentile £300 £306 £362
25th Percentile £400 £403 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £492 £508
Median % change year-on-year +1.63% -3.15% -7.64%
75th Percentile £556 £585 £625
90th Percentile £659 £670 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £479
% change year-on-year +5.26% -0.73% -13.00%
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 46,202 29,871 32,996
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.62% 90.47% 85.56%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,118 18,549 20,447
10th Percentile £325 £300 £311
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 3,059 1,786 1,512
10th Percentile £13.85 £14.23 £14.71
25th Percentile £17.36 £17.30 £20.09
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% +3.61%
75th Percentile £67.50 £45.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +76.76% -47.37% +8.72%

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 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 11 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 11 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 -120 270 £492 -1.55% 271
UK excluding London -96 160 £500 +5.26% 127
London -93 115 £450 -10.00% 162
Work from Home -86 92 £500 - 220
North of England -52 62 £500 +5.26% 31
South East -29 50 £515 +4.57% 31
Yorkshire -24 34 £517 +7.67% 10
North West -40 24 £492 +3.58% 19
Midlands -64 16 £588 +14.08% 21
Scotland -32 12 £469 - 9
South West -45 11 £325 -37.50% 14
West Midlands -65 9 £600 +15.50% 14
East of England -45 8 £503 +2.55% 14
East Midlands -11 7 £413 +7.14% 7
North East -43 4 £275 +37.50% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 6

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 (10.54%) SharePoint
2 15 (4.79%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.24%) Confluence
4 6 (1.92%) Apache Airflow
5 5 (1.60%) JBoss
6 4 (1.28%) Oracle Workflow
7 3 (0.96%) CMS
7 3 (0.96%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 3 (0.96%) WebLogic
7 3 (0.96%) WebLogic Portal
8 2 (0.64%) Apache
8 2 (0.64%) OpenStack
9 1 (0.32%) ArcGIS
9 1 (0.32%) FactoryTalk
9 1 (0.32%) IIS
9 1 (0.32%) SharePoint Server
9 1 (0.32%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (2.24%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.92%) Microsoft Excel
3 4 (1.28%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 7 (2.24%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (1.92%) Remedy AR System
3 4 (1.28%) Dynamics CRM
3 4 (1.28%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.96%) Oracle EBS R12
4 3 (0.96%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.32%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.32%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.32%) PeopleSoft HCM
5 1 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 112 (35.78%) Azure
2 77 (24.60%) AWS
3 51 (16.29%) Microsoft 365
4 32 (10.22%) Entra ID
5 31 (9.90%) GitHub
6 29 (9.27%) Power Platform
7 25 (7.99%) Azure DevOps
8 23 (7.35%) Amazon S3
8 23 (7.35%) GCP
9 22 (7.03%) GitHub Actions
9 22 (7.03%) Microsoft Copilot
10 20 (6.39%) Power Automate
11 18 (5.75%) AWS Lambda
11 18 (5.75%) Serverless
12 16 (5.11%) Azure Monitor
12 16 (5.11%) Datadog
13 15 (4.79%) AWS CloudFormation
13 15 (4.79%) OneDrive
13 15 (4.79%) SaaS
14 13 (4.15%) OpenShift
Communications & Networking
1 53 (16.93%) DNS
2 32 (10.22%) DHCP
3 28 (8.95%) VPN
4 25 (7.99%) Firewall
5 20 (6.39%) TCP/IP
6 16 (5.11%) Network Security
7 10 (3.19%) VLAN
8 9 (2.88%) SAN
8 9 (2.88%) WAN
9 8 (2.56%) SD-WAN
9 8 (2.56%) SSH
10 7 (2.24%) Kerberos
11 5 (1.60%) BIG-IP
11 5 (1.60%) LAN
11 5 (1.60%) Skype
11 5 (1.60%) Wireless
12 4 (1.28%) Intranet
12 4 (1.28%) PSTN
12 4 (1.28%) Wi-Fi
13 3 (0.96%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 28 (8.95%) SQL Server
2 12 (3.83%) Amazon RDS
3 11 (3.51%) Data Warehouse
3 11 (3.51%) Power BI
4 7 (2.24%) Sybase ASE
5 6 (1.92%) Big Data
5 6 (1.92%) Hadoop
5 6 (1.92%) Metadata
5 6 (1.92%) MySQL
5 6 (1.92%) Oracle Database
5 6 (1.92%) Relational Database
6 5 (1.60%) SQL Server Integration Services
7 4 (1.28%) Data Lake
7 4 (1.28%) EDRMS
7 4 (1.28%) PostgreSQL
8 3 (0.96%) BigQuery
8 3 (0.96%) Oracle Database 10g
8 3 (0.96%) Oracle Database 11g
8 3 (0.96%) Oracle Database 12c
8 3 (0.96%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 37 (11.82%) Git
2 25 (7.99%) GitLab
3 21 (6.71%) Jenkins
4 15 (4.79%) JIRA
5 5 (1.60%) Flyway
5 5 (1.60%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.28%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (1.28%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.96%) AdminStudio
7 3 (0.96%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.96%) InstallShield
7 3 (0.96%) Oracle APEX
7 3 (0.96%) Selenium
8 2 (0.64%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.64%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.64%) JUnit
8 2 (0.64%) Maven
8 2 (0.64%) Postman
8 2 (0.64%) Snyk
8 2 (0.64%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
General
1 101 (32.27%) Social Skills
2 56 (17.89%) Analytical Skills
3 50 (15.97%) Finance
4 30 (9.58%) Banking
5 19 (6.07%) Legal
6 17 (5.43%) Public Sector
7 11 (3.51%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (2.56%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (1.92%) Front Office
10 5 (1.60%) Financial Institution
11 4 (1.28%) Investment Banking
12 3 (0.96%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 3 (0.96%) Law
12 3 (0.96%) Military
12 3 (0.96%) Retail
13 2 (0.64%) Billing
13 2 (0.64%) Manufacturing
13 2 (0.64%) Marketing
14 1 (0.32%) International Banking
14 1 (0.32%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 38 (12.14%) Senior
2 32 (10.22%) Support Engineer
3 30 (9.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 22 (7.03%) DevOps Engineer
5 19 (6.07%) DBA
6 17 (5.43%) Platform Engineer
7 16 (5.11%) Cloud Engineer
7 16 (5.11%) Consultant
8 15 (4.79%) Analyst
9 14 (4.47%) Architect
10 13 (4.15%) Data Engineer
10 13 (4.15%) Developer
10 13 (4.15%) Site Reliability Engineer
11 11 (3.51%) Lead
12 10 (3.19%) Linux Engineer
12 10 (3.19%) Site Engineer
12 10 (3.19%) Systems Engineer
13 9 (2.88%) Administrator
14 8 (2.56%) Security Engineer
14 8 (2.56%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 57 (18.21%) Terraform
2 30 (9.58%) REST
3 13 (4.15%) React
4 12 (3.83%) ARM Templates
4 12 (3.83%) JSON
5 11 (3.51%) .NET
5 11 (3.51%) CSS
5 11 (3.51%) SPFx
6 10 (3.19%) Kafka
7 9 (2.88%) Elastic Stack
7 9 (2.88%) YAML
8 8 (2.56%) HTML
8 8 (2.56%) SOAP
9 6 (1.92%) AWS CDK
9 6 (1.92%) Node.js
10 5 (1.60%) ASP.NET
10 5 (1.60%) LangChain
10 5 (1.60%) Oracle Fusion
11 4 (1.28%) Software Packaging
11 4 (1.28%) XML
Miscellaneous
1 24 (7.67%) Onboarding
2 15 (4.79%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.47%) AI Agents
3 14 (4.47%) Cloud Native
4 13 (4.15%) Data Protection Act
4 13 (4.15%) Product Ownership
5 12 (3.83%) Clustering
5 12 (3.83%) Replication
6 11 (3.51%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (3.51%) Management Information System
7 10 (3.19%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (2.88%) CMDB
8 9 (2.88%) Private Cloud
8 9 (2.88%) Self-Motivation
9 7 (2.24%) Data Centre
9 7 (2.24%) Enterprise Software
9 7 (2.24%) Public Cloud
9 7 (2.24%) Virtual Team
10 5 (1.60%) Analytical Mindset
10 5 (1.60%) Autonomous Agent
Operating Systems
1 71 (22.68%) Windows
2 62 (19.81%) Linux
3 25 (7.99%) Windows Server
4 22 (7.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 17 (5.43%) Windows 10
6 15 (4.79%) Unix
7 12 (3.83%) Windows Server 2019
8 7 (2.24%) Android
8 7 (2.24%) Mac OS
8 7 (2.24%) Windows 7
9 6 (1.92%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (0.96%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.64%) AIX
11 2 (0.64%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.64%) Rocky
11 2 (0.64%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.64%) VMS
11 2 (0.64%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.64%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.64%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 85 (27.16%) CI/CD
2 80 (25.56%) DevOps
3 75 (23.96%) Problem-Solving
4 71 (22.68%) ITIL
5 66 (21.09%) Agile
6 59 (18.85%) Infrastructure as Code
7 58 (18.53%) AI
8 51 (16.29%) Continuous Improvement
9 50 (15.97%) Migration
10 41 (13.10%) Root Cause Analysis
11 40 (12.78%) Observability
11 40 (12.78%) Performance Tuning
12 39 (12.46%) Workflow
13 37 (11.82%) Disaster Recovery
14 36 (11.50%) ITSM
14 36 (11.50%) Runbook
15 35 (11.18%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 33 (10.54%) Analytics
16 33 (10.54%) High Availability
17 29 (9.27%) Data Protection
Programming Languages
1 132 (42.17%) Python
2 115 (36.74%) PowerShell
3 65 (20.77%) SQL
4 55 (17.57%) Bash
5 37 (11.82%) JavaScript
6 17 (5.43%) Bicep
6 17 (5.43%) Java
7 14 (4.47%) TypeScript
8 13 (4.15%) Shell Script
9 12 (3.83%) T-SQL
10 11 (3.51%) Go
11 9 (2.88%) PL/SQL
12 7 (2.24%) C#
13 6 (1.92%) VBScript
14 5 (1.60%) Perl
15 3 (0.96%) Scala
16 2 (0.64%) REXX
17 1 (0.32%) ABAP
17 1 (0.32%) JCL
17 1 (0.32%) Korn
Qualifications
1 103 (32.91%) Security Cleared
2 64 (20.45%) SC Cleared
3 38 (12.14%) DV Cleared
4 33 (10.54%) Degree
5 18 (5.75%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.51%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (3.19%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.60%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.60%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (1.60%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.96%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 3 (0.96%) CCNA
9 3 (0.96%) CCNP
10 2 (0.64%) CIPD
10 2 (0.64%) CISM
10 2 (0.64%) CISSP
10 2 (0.64%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.64%) GSEC
10 2 (0.64%) OSCP
11 1 (0.32%) JNCIA
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (6.71%) Data Quality
2 17 (5.43%) SLA
3 11 (3.51%) QA
4 8 (2.56%) NIST
5 5 (1.60%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.64%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.32%) GDPR
7 1 (0.32%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.32%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.32%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 67 (21.41%) Active Directory
2 30 (9.58%) VMware Infrastructure
3 27 (8.63%) Docker
4 13 (4.15%) VMware ESXi
5 11 (3.51%) Virtual Machines
6 10 (3.19%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (2.24%) Hyper-V
8 6 (1.92%) NFS
9 4 (1.28%) vSphere
10 2 (0.64%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.64%) Firmware
10 2 (0.64%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.32%) NDS
11 1 (0.32%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 1 (0.32%) OpenSSH
11 1 (0.32%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.32%) UAG
Systems Management
1 48 (15.34%) Ansible
2 34 (10.86%) Kubernetes
3 31 (9.90%) Microsoft Intune
4 27 (8.63%) SCCM
5 17 (5.43%) Grafana
6 16 (5.11%) Puppet
6 16 (5.11%) SCOM
7 15 (4.79%) Prometheus
8 13 (4.15%) vCenter Server
9 11 (3.51%) Progress Chef
9 11 (3.51%) Red Hat Satellite
10 7 (2.24%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (1.92%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (1.60%) Oracle RMAN
13 3 (0.96%) Istio
13 3 (0.96%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
14 2 (0.64%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.64%) linkerd
14 2 (0.64%) Nagios
14 2 (0.64%) Podman
Vendors
1 106 (33.87%) Microsoft
2 35 (11.18%) VMware
3 25 (7.99%) Oracle
4 20 (6.39%) Red Hat
4 20 (6.39%) ServiceNow
5 19 (6.07%) Google
6 17 (5.43%) Splunk
7 14 (4.47%) SolarWinds
8 11 (3.51%) Broadcom
8 11 (3.51%) Cisco
9 8 (2.56%) BMC
10 7 (2.24%) AppDynamics
10 7 (2.24%) OpenAI
10 7 (2.24%) Remedy
10 7 (2.24%) Sybase
11 6 (1.92%) Ivanti
12 5 (1.60%) BeyondTrust
12 5 (1.60%) Citrix
12 5 (1.60%) Databricks
12 5 (1.60%) F5