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

 6 months to
6 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 397 258 253
Rank change year-on-year -139 -5 +177
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 288 338 360
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.54% 1.03% 0.92%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.64% 1.14% 1.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 189 191 265
10th Percentile £300 £306 £400
25th Percentile £400 £410 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £556 £594 £675
90th Percentile £625 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £515
% change year-on-year +4.17% -6.80% +0.49%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 9 3
10th Percentile - £18.35 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £26.25 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -64.08% +166.81% -73.56%
75th Percentile £24.29 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £34.37 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.16 £65.00 -
% change year-on-year -65.92% - -

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 45,262 29,771 33,475
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.91% 90.46% 85.59%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,917 18,660 21,435
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £420 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
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 2,788 1,660 1,878
10th Percentile £14.46 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.33 £17.30 £18.15
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.33
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.63% -5.12%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £64.13
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £74.46
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.30 £40.94
% change year-on-year +88.67% -43.09% +3.38%

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 6 August 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 6 August 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 6 August 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 -103 250 £475 -5.00% 184
UK excluding London -112 151 £500 +4.17% 105
London -89 107 £450 -12.00% 93
Work from Home -85 84 £470 -6.00% 79
North of England -50 60 £500 +4.17% 35
South East -30 45 £494 +3.40% 22
Yorkshire -25 41 £500 -6.98% 4
North West -55 16 £510 +7.37% 26
Midlands -61 16 £575 +14.71% 16
Scotland -23 14 £438 -7.65% 6
South West -44 11 £385 -25.96% 11
West Midlands -62 11 £600 +14.29% 10
East Midlands -9 5 £413 +7.14% 6
East of England -37 4 £550 +10.00% 14
North East -39 3 £275 -26.67% 5
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 41 (14.24%) SharePoint
2 23 (7.99%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.43%) Confluence
4 4 (1.39%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (1.04%) CMS
6 2 (0.69%) Apache
6 2 (0.69%) JBoss
6 2 (0.69%) OpenStack
7 1 (0.35%) Appian
7 1 (0.35%) Oracle Workflow
7 1 (0.35%) Palantir Foundry
7 1 (0.35%) SharePoint Server
7 1 (0.35%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (2.43%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (2.08%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.39%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.35%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.35%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.35%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 4 (1.39%) Remedy ITSM
2 3 (1.04%) Dynamics CRM
2 3 (1.04%) Remedy AR System
3 1 (0.35%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.35%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.35%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.35%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.35%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.35%) PeopleSoft HCM
3 1 (0.35%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.35%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 121 (42.01%) Azure
2 68 (23.61%) AWS
3 57 (19.79%) Microsoft 365
4 41 (14.24%) Entra ID
5 36 (12.50%) GitHub
6 31 (10.76%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (9.38%) Power Platform
8 26 (9.03%) GitHub Actions
9 24 (8.33%) GCP
10 20 (6.94%) Power Automate
11 19 (6.60%) Azure Monitor
12 18 (6.25%) Microsoft Copilot
13 17 (5.90%) OpenShift
14 16 (5.56%) Datadog
15 15 (5.21%) Amazon S3
15 15 (5.21%) OneDrive
16 14 (4.86%) Azure Key Vault
16 14 (4.86%) PowerApps
17 11 (3.82%) SaaS
17 11 (3.82%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 42 (14.58%) DNS
2 27 (9.38%) DHCP
3 24 (8.33%) Firewall
4 23 (7.99%) VPN
5 16 (5.56%) TCP/IP
6 13 (4.51%) Network Security
7 11 (3.82%) SAN
8 9 (3.13%) VLAN
9 8 (2.78%) SSH
10 7 (2.43%) SD-WAN
10 7 (2.43%) WAN
11 5 (1.74%) BIG-IP
12 4 (1.39%) Intranet
12 4 (1.39%) Kerberos
12 4 (1.39%) LAN
12 4 (1.39%) Skype
12 4 (1.39%) SNMP
13 3 (1.04%) OSPF
13 3 (1.04%) PSTN
13 3 (1.04%) SSL
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (10.76%) SQL Server
2 12 (4.17%) Power BI
3 9 (3.13%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (2.78%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (2.43%) MySQL
5 7 (2.43%) PostgreSQL
5 7 (2.43%) Relational Database
6 6 (2.08%) Big Data
6 6 (2.08%) Metadata
6 6 (2.08%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (2.08%) Sybase ASE
7 4 (1.39%) EDRMS
7 4 (1.39%) Snowflake Schema
7 4 (1.39%) Tableau
8 3 (1.04%) Amazon Redshift
8 3 (1.04%) DTS
8 3 (1.04%) Hadoop
8 3 (1.04%) MongoDB
8 3 (1.04%) Oracle Database
8 3 (1.04%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 32 (11.11%) Git
2 27 (9.38%) GitLab
3 23 (7.99%) Jenkins
4 13 (4.51%) JIRA
5 6 (2.08%) SonarQube
5 6 (2.08%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (1.39%) Flyway
7 3 (1.04%) AdminStudio
7 3 (1.04%) InstallShield
7 3 (1.04%) Selenium
8 2 (0.69%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.69%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.69%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.69%) JUnit
8 2 (0.69%) Maven
8 2 (0.69%) Postman
8 2 (0.69%) Snyk
8 2 (0.69%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.35%) MLflow
9 1 (0.35%) REST Assured
General
1 104 (36.11%) Social Skills
2 53 (18.40%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (15.97%) Finance
4 26 (9.03%) Banking
5 17 (5.90%) Legal
5 17 (5.90%) Public Sector
6 11 (3.82%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (2.78%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (2.08%) Financial Institution
8 6 (2.08%) Front Office
9 4 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.39%) Investment Banking
10 3 (1.04%) Law
10 3 (1.04%) Military
10 3 (1.04%) Retail
11 2 (0.69%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.69%) Marketing
12 1 (0.35%) Billing
12 1 (0.35%) Local Government
12 1 (0.35%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 26 (9.03%) Developer
2 25 (8.68%) Senior
3 23 (7.99%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 21 (7.29%) DBA
4 21 (7.29%) Support Engineer
5 18 (6.25%) Consultant
6 16 (5.56%) DevOps Engineer
7 15 (5.21%) Platform Engineer
8 14 (4.86%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 12 (4.17%) Analyst
9 12 (4.17%) Architect
10 11 (3.82%) Site Engineer
10 11 (3.82%) SQL DBA
11 10 (3.47%) Cloud Engineer
11 10 (3.47%) Lead
12 9 (3.13%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 9 (3.13%) Azure Developer
12 9 (3.13%) Data Engineer
13 8 (2.78%) AWS Engineer
13 8 (2.78%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (11.81%) REST
2 20 (6.94%) .NET
3 14 (4.86%) SOAP
4 13 (4.51%) Microsoft Graph
5 12 (4.17%) React
6 11 (3.82%) ARM Templates
6 11 (3.82%) CSS
6 11 (3.82%) SPFx
7 10 (3.47%) .NET Framework
7 10 (3.47%) JSON
7 10 (3.47%) Web Services
8 9 (3.13%) Elastic Stack
9 8 (2.78%) AWS CDK
9 8 (2.78%) HTML
9 8 (2.78%) YAML
10 7 (2.43%) Kafka
11 6 (2.08%) Node.js
12 5 (1.74%) ASP.NET
12 5 (1.74%) LangChain
13 4 (1.39%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.99%) Onboarding
2 15 (5.21%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.86%) AI Agents
4 12 (4.17%) Data Protection Act
4 12 (4.17%) Distributed Systems
4 12 (4.17%) Legacy Systems
4 12 (4.17%) Replication
5 11 (3.82%) Product Ownership
6 10 (3.47%) Cloud Native
7 9 (3.13%) Management Information System
8 7 (2.43%) Clustering
8 7 (2.43%) CMDB
8 7 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (2.43%) Private Cloud
8 7 (2.43%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (2.08%) Analytical Mindset
9 6 (2.08%) Data Centre
9 6 (2.08%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.74%) Autonomous Agent
11 4 (1.39%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 59 (20.49%) Windows
2 56 (19.44%) Linux
3 21 (7.29%) Windows Server
4 19 (6.60%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (3.82%) Unix
6 10 (3.47%) Windows 10
7 7 (2.43%) Windows Server 2019
8 5 (1.74%) Android
8 5 (1.74%) Mac OS
9 4 (1.39%) VMS
10 3 (1.04%) CoreOS
10 3 (1.04%) Data ONTAP
11 2 (0.69%) AIX
11 2 (0.69%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.69%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.69%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.69%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.35%) CentOS
12 1 (0.35%) Solaris
12 1 (0.35%) Windows 7
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (26.39%) CI/CD
1 76 (26.39%) DevOps
2 75 (26.04%) Problem-Solving
3 61 (21.18%) ITIL
4 58 (20.14%) AI
5 53 (18.40%) Agile
6 46 (15.97%) Infrastructure as Code
7 45 (15.63%) Migration
8 39 (13.54%) Analytics
9 38 (13.19%) Observability
10 37 (12.85%) Continuous Improvement
11 36 (12.50%) Disaster Recovery
12 34 (11.81%) High Availability
12 34 (11.81%) Performance Tuning
12 34 (11.81%) Workflow
13 31 (10.76%) Data Protection
14 29 (10.07%) Change Management
15 28 (9.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 26 (9.03%) Containerisation
17 25 (8.68%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 114 (39.58%) Python
2 107 (37.15%) PowerShell
3 57 (19.79%) SQL
4 46 (15.97%) Bash
5 32 (11.11%) JavaScript
6 16 (5.56%) C#
6 16 (5.56%) Java
6 16 (5.56%) TypeScript
7 12 (4.17%) Bicep
7 12 (4.17%) T-SQL
8 10 (3.47%) Go
8 10 (3.47%) Kusto Query Language
9 8 (2.78%) Shell Script
10 6 (2.08%) PL/SQL
11 4 (1.39%) VBScript
12 3 (1.04%) Perl
13 2 (0.69%) ActionScript
13 2 (0.69%) Scala
14 1 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 1 (0.35%) REXX
Qualifications
1 82 (28.47%) Security Cleared
2 50 (17.36%) SC Cleared
3 33 (11.46%) Degree
4 29 (10.07%) DV Cleared
5 20 (6.94%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (4.17%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (2.43%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.74%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.39%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.39%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (1.04%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (1.04%) CCNA
10 3 (1.04%) CCNP
10 3 (1.04%) OCP
10 3 (1.04%) Oracle Certification
11 2 (0.69%) CIPD
11 2 (0.69%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.69%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.69%) MCITP
11 2 (0.69%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (7.29%) Data Quality
2 11 (3.82%) SLA
3 8 (2.78%) QA
4 7 (2.43%) NIST
5 5 (1.74%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.69%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.35%) GDPR
7 1 (0.35%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.35%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 58 (20.14%) Active Directory
2 25 (8.68%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (7.99%) Docker
4 12 (4.17%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (3.13%) NFS
6 8 (2.78%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (2.43%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (2.43%) vSphere
8 6 (2.08%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.69%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.69%) Firmware
9 2 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
9 2 (0.69%) VMware NSX
10 1 (0.35%) NDS
10 1 (0.35%) NetIQ eDirectory
10 1 (0.35%) OpenSSH
10 1 (0.35%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.35%) UAG
Systems Management
1 49 (17.01%) Ansible
2 46 (15.97%) Terraform
3 32 (11.11%) Kubernetes
4 31 (10.76%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (6.25%) SCCM
6 14 (4.86%) Grafana
7 13 (4.51%) Puppet
8 12 (4.17%) Progress Chef
8 12 (4.17%) Prometheus
9 10 (3.47%) vCenter Server
10 9 (3.13%) SCOM
11 8 (2.78%) Red Hat Satellite
12 6 (2.08%) Single Sign-On
13 3 (1.04%) Foglight
13 3 (1.04%) SnapMirror
13 3 (1.04%) WSUS
14 2 (0.69%) Data Guard
14 2 (0.69%) Nagios
14 2 (0.69%) Nessus
14 2 (0.69%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 105 (36.46%) Microsoft
2 32 (11.11%) VMware
3 24 (8.33%) ServiceNow
4 20 (6.94%) Google
5 17 (5.90%) Oracle
5 17 (5.90%) Red Hat
6 15 (5.21%) Splunk
7 11 (3.82%) Cisco
8 10 (3.47%) Databricks
8 10 (3.47%) SolarWinds
9 9 (3.13%) OpenAI
10 7 (2.43%) AppDynamics
10 7 (2.43%) F5
11 6 (2.08%) Bloomberg
11 6 (2.08%) Broadcom
11 6 (2.08%) Citrix
11 6 (2.08%) Palo Alto
11 6 (2.08%) Sybase
12 5 (1.74%) BMC
12 5 (1.74%) Infoblox
212 Task Automation jobs Nationwide