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

 6 months to
4 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 397 251 260
Rank change year-on-year -146 +9 +164
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 288 336 363
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.54% 1.02% 0.93%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.64% 1.13% 1.08%
Number of daily rates quoted 191 189 266
10th Percentile £300 £306 £400
25th Percentile £400 £408 £451
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £556 £588 £675
90th Percentile £638 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £508
% change year-on-year +4.17% -5.42% -0.98%
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 44,879 29,748 33,534
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.93% 90.41% 85.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,704 18,653 21,488
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 2,741 1,659 1,873
10th Percentile £14.50 £14.20 £14.00
25th Percentile £19.50 £17.30 £18.14
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £68.00 £50.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £82.25 £68.00 £74.91
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.05 £40.94
% change year-on-year +90.72% -43.70% +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 4 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 4 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 4 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 -118 250 £480 -4.00% 169
UK excluding London -97 153 £500 +4.17% 110
London -92 105 £450 -12.00% 77
Work from Home -77 86 £488 -2.50% 84
North of England -34 62 £500 +4.17% 29
South East -39 45 £494 +3.40% 27
Yorkshire -17 43 £500 -4.76% 5
North West -53 16 £510 +7.37% 22
Midlands -60 16 £575 +14.71% 17
Scotland -32 14 £438 -7.65% 6
South West -43 11 £385 -25.96% 13
West Midlands -63 11 £600 +14.29% 11
East Midlands -10 5 £413 +7.14% 6
East of England -35 4 £550 +10.00% 14
North East -39 3 £275 -26.67% 2
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 5

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
1 123 (42.71%) Azure
2 70 (24.31%) 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%) GCP
8 26 (9.03%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (6.94%) Power Automate
10 19 (6.60%) Azure Monitor
10 19 (6.60%) OpenShift
11 18 (6.25%) Microsoft Copilot
12 16 (5.56%) Datadog
13 15 (5.21%) Amazon S3
13 15 (5.21%) OneDrive
14 14 (4.86%) Azure Key Vault
14 14 (4.86%) PowerApps
15 11 (3.82%) SaaS
15 11 (3.82%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 40 (13.89%) DNS
2 25 (8.68%) DHCP
3 24 (8.33%) Firewall
4 23 (7.99%) VPN
5 16 (5.56%) TCP/IP
6 13 (4.51%) Network Security
6 13 (4.51%) SAN
7 9 (3.13%) VLAN
8 8 (2.78%) SSH
9 7 (2.43%) SD-WAN
9 7 (2.43%) WAN
10 4 (1.39%) Intranet
10 4 (1.39%) Kerberos
10 4 (1.39%) LAN
10 4 (1.39%) Skype
10 4 (1.39%) SNMP
11 3 (1.04%) BIG-IP
11 3 (1.04%) Cisco Nexus
11 3 (1.04%) PSTN
11 3 (1.04%) Wireless
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%) Oracle Forms
9 1 (0.35%) Visual Studio
General
1 104 (36.11%) Social Skills
2 53 (18.40%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (15.97%) Finance
4 29 (10.07%) 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 5 (1.74%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.39%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (1.04%) Law
11 3 (1.04%) Military
12 2 (0.69%) Retail
13 1 (0.35%) Billing
13 1 (0.35%) International Banking
13 1 (0.35%) Local Government
13 1 (0.35%) Marketing
13 1 (0.35%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 26 (9.03%) Developer
2 24 (8.33%) 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 14 (4.86%) Platform Engineer
7 14 (4.86%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 12 (4.17%) Analyst
9 11 (3.82%) Site Engineer
9 11 (3.82%) SQL DBA
10 10 (3.47%) Architect
10 10 (3.47%) Cloud Engineer
10 10 (3.47%) Lead
11 9 (3.13%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 9 (3.13%) Azure Developer
11 9 (3.13%) Data Engineer
12 8 (2.78%) AWS Engineer
12 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
10 7 (2.43%) Kafka
11 6 (2.08%) Node.js
11 6 (2.08%) YAML
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 16 (5.56%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.86%) AI Agents
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
6 10 (3.47%) Data Protection Act
6 10 (3.47%) Management Information System
7 7 (2.43%) Clustering
7 7 (2.43%) CMDB
7 7 (2.43%) Enterprise Software
7 7 (2.43%) Private Cloud
7 7 (2.43%) Self-Motivation
8 6 (2.08%) Analytical Mindset
8 6 (2.08%) Data Centre
9 5 (1.74%) FlexPod
9 5 (1.74%) Public Cloud
9 5 (1.74%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 60 (20.83%) Windows
2 56 (19.44%) Linux
3 22 (7.64%) Windows Server
4 21 (7.29%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (3.82%) Unix
6 10 (3.47%) Windows 10
7 7 (2.43%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (2.08%) VMS
9 5 (1.74%) Android
9 5 (1.74%) CoreOS
9 5 (1.74%) Data ONTAP
9 5 (1.74%) Mac OS
10 2 (0.69%) AIX
10 2 (0.69%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.69%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.69%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.69%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.35%) Rocky
11 1 (0.35%) Solaris
11 1 (0.35%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 76 (26.39%) CI/CD
1 76 (26.39%) DevOps
2 74 (25.69%) Problem-Solving
3 61 (21.18%) ITIL
4 58 (20.14%) AI
5 53 (18.40%) Agile
6 47 (16.32%) Infrastructure as Code
7 44 (15.28%) Migration
8 39 (13.54%) Analytics
9 38 (13.19%) Continuous Improvement
9 38 (13.19%) Disaster Recovery
9 38 (13.19%) Observability
10 34 (11.81%) High Availability
10 34 (11.81%) Performance Tuning
10 34 (11.81%) Workflow
11 31 (10.76%) Data Protection
12 29 (10.07%) Change Management
13 28 (9.72%) Infrastructure Engineering
14 26 (9.03%) Containerisation
15 25 (8.68%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 113 (39.24%) Python
2 107 (37.15%) PowerShell
3 55 (19.10%) SQL
4 47 (16.32%) Bash
5 30 (10.42%) 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 2 (0.69%) ActionScript
12 2 (0.69%) Scala
13 1 (0.35%) Data Analysis Expressions
13 1 (0.35%) Perl
13 1 (0.35%) REXX
Qualifications
1 81 (28.13%) 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
8 5 (1.74%) OCP
8 5 (1.74%) Oracle 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
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 56 (19.44%) Active Directory
2 26 (9.03%) VMware Infrastructure
3 23 (7.99%) Docker
4 13 (4.51%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (3.82%) NFS
6 8 (2.78%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (2.78%) vSphere
7 7 (2.43%) VMware ESXi
8 6 (2.08%) Hyper-V
9 2 (0.69%) BitLocker
9 2 (0.69%) Firmware
9 2 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
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
10 1 (0.35%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 51 (17.71%) Ansible
2 48 (16.67%) Terraform
3 34 (11.81%) 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 9 (3.13%) SCOM
9 9 (3.13%) vCenter Server
10 8 (2.78%) Red Hat Satellite
11 6 (2.08%) Single Sign-On
12 5 (1.74%) SnapMirror
13 3 (1.04%) Foglight
13 3 (1.04%) WSUS
14 2 (0.69%) Data Guard
14 2 (0.69%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.69%) Nessus
14 2 (0.69%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 105 (36.46%) Microsoft
2 33 (11.46%) VMware
3 24 (8.33%) ServiceNow
4 22 (7.64%) Google
5 19 (6.60%) Red Hat
6 16 (5.56%) Oracle
7 15 (5.21%) Splunk
8 11 (3.82%) Cisco
9 10 (3.47%) Databricks
9 10 (3.47%) SolarWinds
10 9 (3.13%) OpenAI
11 7 (2.43%) AppDynamics
12 6 (2.08%) Bloomberg
12 6 (2.08%) Broadcom
12 6 (2.08%) Citrix
12 6 (2.08%) Palo Alto
12 6 (2.08%) Sybase
13 5 (1.74%) BMC
13 5 (1.74%) F5
13 5 (1.74%) NetApp
200 Task Automation jobs Nationwide