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

6 months to
1 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 387 261 262
Rank change year-on-year -126 +1 +173
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 302 339 370
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 1.04% 0.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.67% 1.14% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 199 190 261
10th Percentile £300 £306 £363
25th Percentile £400 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -4.76% -
75th Percentile £556 £588 £638
90th Percentile £656 £671 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £488
% change year-on-year +5.26% -2.56% -3.70%
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 45,369 29,617 32,996
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.56% 90.44% 85.46%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,730 18,446 20,728
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
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 2,902 1,758 1,607
10th Percentile £14.10 £14.20 £14.16
25th Percentile £17.78 £17.30 £18.82
Median hourly rate £41.09 £25.15 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.39% -40.82% +2.41%
75th Percentile £67.88 £47.09 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.25 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.56 £22.63 £43.00
% change year-on-year +92.49% -47.37% +14.67%

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 1 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 1 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 1 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 -121 263 £494 -1.28% 371
UK excluding London -94 154 £500 +5.26% 155
London -93 116 £450 -10.00% 249
Work from Home -67 84 £500 - 146
North of England -51 60 £500 +5.26% 23
South East -33 49 £515 +4.47% 41
Yorkshire -22 34 £508 +5.73% 6
North West -55 22 £492 +3.58% 17
Midlands -69 16 £588 +14.08% 28
Scotland -37 13 £469 -0.79% 4
South West -35 11 £325 -37.50% 27
West Midlands -66 9 £600 +15.50% 22
East Midlands -12 7 £413 +7.14% 6
East of England -40 4 £550 +12.24% 19
North East -42 4 £275 +37.50% 1
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 12

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 31 (10.26%) SharePoint
2 13 (4.30%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.99%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (1.99%) Confluence
4 5 (1.66%) JBoss
5 4 (1.32%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.99%) CMS
7 2 (0.66%) Apache
7 2 (0.66%) OpenStack
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 (2.32%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.99%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.32%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.66%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.32%) Remedy AR System
3 2 (0.66%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.33%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 1 (0.33%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.33%) PeopleSoft HCM
4 1 (0.33%) Salesforce CRM
4 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 111 (36.75%) Azure
2 75 (24.83%) AWS
3 48 (15.89%) Microsoft 365
4 31 (10.26%) Entra ID
4 31 (10.26%) Power Platform
5 28 (9.27%) GitHub
6 24 (7.95%) Azure DevOps
7 22 (7.28%) GCP
8 21 (6.95%) Microsoft Copilot
9 20 (6.62%) Amazon S3
9 20 (6.62%) GitHub Actions
9 20 (6.62%) Power Automate
10 17 (5.63%) Azure Monitor
10 17 (5.63%) Datadog
11 15 (4.97%) OneDrive
12 14 (4.64%) AWS Lambda
12 14 (4.64%) Serverless
13 13 (4.30%) OpenShift
13 13 (4.30%) SaaS
14 12 (3.97%) AWS CloudFormation
Communications & Networking
1 49 (16.23%) DNS
2 31 (10.26%) DHCP
3 28 (9.27%) VPN
4 25 (8.28%) Firewall
5 20 (6.62%) TCP/IP
6 16 (5.30%) Network Security
7 10 (3.31%) VLAN
8 9 (2.98%) SAN
8 9 (2.98%) WAN
9 8 (2.65%) SD-WAN
9 8 (2.65%) SSH
10 7 (2.32%) Kerberos
11 5 (1.66%) BIG-IP
11 5 (1.66%) LAN
11 5 (1.66%) Wireless
12 4 (1.32%) Intranet
12 4 (1.32%) PSTN
12 4 (1.32%) Skype
13 3 (0.99%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 3 (0.99%) Wi-Fi
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (10.26%) SQL Server
2 13 (4.30%) Power BI
3 12 (3.97%) Data Warehouse
4 10 (3.31%) Amazon RDS
5 9 (2.98%) Big Data
6 7 (2.32%) Relational Database
7 6 (1.99%) Hadoop
7 6 (1.99%) Metadata
7 6 (1.99%) MySQL
7 6 (1.99%) Sybase ASE
8 5 (1.66%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.66%) PostgreSQL
8 5 (1.66%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 4 (1.32%) EDRMS
9 4 (1.32%) Snowflake Schema
10 3 (0.99%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.99%) BigQuery
10 3 (0.99%) Oracle Database
10 3 (0.99%) Tableau
11 2 (0.66%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 36 (11.92%) Git
2 25 (8.28%) GitLab
3 22 (7.28%) Jenkins
4 12 (3.97%) JIRA
5 5 (1.66%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.32%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (1.32%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.99%) AdminStudio
7 3 (0.99%) Flyway
7 3 (0.99%) InstallShield
7 3 (0.99%) Selenium
8 2 (0.66%) Artifactory
8 2 (0.66%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.66%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.66%) JUnit
8 2 (0.66%) Maven
8 2 (0.66%) Postman
8 2 (0.66%) Snyk
8 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.33%) REST Assured
General
1 105 (34.77%) Social Skills
2 60 (19.87%) Analytical Skills
3 49 (16.23%) Finance
4 28 (9.27%) Banking
5 17 (5.63%) Legal
5 17 (5.63%) Public Sector
6 13 (4.30%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (2.98%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.99%) Front Office
9 5 (1.66%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.32%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.99%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.99%) Law
11 3 (0.99%) Military
11 3 (0.99%) Retail
12 2 (0.66%) Billing
12 2 (0.66%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.66%) Marketing
13 1 (0.33%) Local Government
13 1 (0.33%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 33 (10.93%) Senior
2 29 (9.60%) Support Engineer
3 28 (9.27%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 21 (6.95%) DevOps Engineer
5 18 (5.96%) DBA
6 17 (5.63%) Platform Engineer
7 16 (5.30%) Analyst
8 15 (4.97%) Consultant
8 15 (4.97%) Developer
8 15 (4.97%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 13 (4.30%) Cloud Engineer
9 13 (4.30%) Data Engineer
10 12 (3.97%) Architect
11 11 (3.64%) Site Engineer
12 10 (3.31%) Lead
12 10 (3.31%) Linux Engineer
12 10 (3.31%) Systems Engineer
13 9 (2.98%) Administrator
14 8 (2.65%) Security Engineer
14 8 (2.65%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 54 (17.88%) Terraform
2 27 (8.94%) REST
3 12 (3.97%) ARM Templates
3 12 (3.97%) React
4 11 (3.64%) CSS
4 11 (3.64%) JSON
4 11 (3.64%) Kafka
4 11 (3.64%) SPFx
5 10 (3.31%) .NET
5 10 (3.31%) YAML
6 9 (2.98%) Elastic Stack
7 8 (2.65%) HTML
8 7 (2.32%) AWS CDK
9 6 (1.99%) SOAP
10 5 (1.66%) ASP.NET
10 5 (1.66%) LangChain
10 5 (1.66%) Node.js
10 5 (1.66%) Oracle Fusion
11 4 (1.32%) ASP.NET Core
11 4 (1.32%) PySpark
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.62%) Onboarding
2 15 (4.97%) Cloud Native
2 15 (4.97%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.64%) AI Agents
4 13 (4.30%) Product Ownership
5 12 (3.97%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (3.64%) Clustering
6 11 (3.64%) Data Protection Act
6 11 (3.64%) Management Information System
6 11 (3.64%) Replication
7 10 (3.31%) Legacy Systems
8 9 (2.98%) Private Cloud
9 8 (2.65%) Self-Motivation
10 7 (2.32%) CMDB
10 7 (2.32%) Enterprise Software
11 6 (1.99%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.99%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.66%) Analytical Mindset
12 5 (1.66%) Autonomous Agent
12 5 (1.66%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 70 (23.18%) Windows
2 56 (18.54%) Linux
3 27 (8.94%) Windows Server
4 21 (6.95%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (5.30%) Windows 10
6 11 (3.64%) Unix
7 10 (3.31%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (1.99%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.99%) Windows 7
9 5 (1.66%) Android
9 5 (1.66%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (0.99%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.66%) AIX
11 2 (0.66%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.66%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.66%) Rocky
11 2 (0.66%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.66%) VMS
11 2 (0.66%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.66%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 87 (28.81%) CI/CD
2 75 (24.83%) Problem-Solving
3 74 (24.50%) DevOps
4 68 (22.52%) ITIL
5 61 (20.20%) AI
6 59 (19.54%) Agile
7 57 (18.87%) Infrastructure as Code
8 47 (15.56%) Continuous Improvement
9 41 (13.58%) Migration
10 40 (13.25%) Observability
10 40 (13.25%) Performance Tuning
11 39 (12.91%) Root Cause Analysis
12 38 (12.58%) Workflow
13 37 (12.25%) Analytics
13 37 (12.25%) Disaster Recovery
14 34 (11.26%) Runbook
15 33 (10.93%) High Availability
16 32 (10.60%) Infrastructure Engineering
16 32 (10.60%) ITSM
17 29 (9.60%) Containerisation
Programming Languages
1 129 (42.72%) Python
2 112 (37.09%) PowerShell
3 62 (20.53%) SQL
4 53 (17.55%) Bash
5 35 (11.59%) JavaScript
6 18 (5.96%) Java
7 17 (5.63%) Bicep
8 15 (4.97%) TypeScript
9 12 (3.97%) Shell Script
10 11 (3.64%) T-SQL
11 10 (3.31%) Go
12 6 (1.99%) C#
12 6 (1.99%) PL/SQL
12 6 (1.99%) VBScript
13 4 (1.32%) Scala
14 3 (0.99%) Perl
15 2 (0.66%) REXX
16 1 (0.33%) ABAP
16 1 (0.33%) JCL
16 1 (0.33%) Korn
Qualifications
1 96 (31.79%) Security Cleared
2 58 (19.21%) SC Cleared
3 36 (11.92%) DV Cleared
4 34 (11.26%) Degree
5 20 (6.62%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (3.97%) Microsoft Certification
7 10 (3.31%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.66%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.66%) BPSS Clearance
8 5 (1.66%) Cisco Certification
9 3 (0.99%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 3 (0.99%) CCNA
9 3 (0.99%) CCNP
10 2 (0.66%) CIPD
10 2 (0.66%) CISSP
10 2 (0.66%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.66%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.66%) MCITP
10 2 (0.66%) MCTS
10 2 (0.66%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (8.28%) Data Quality
2 16 (5.30%) SLA
3 10 (3.31%) QA
4 8 (2.65%) NIST
5 5 (1.66%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.66%) 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 (21.52%) Active Directory
2 29 (9.60%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (9.27%) Docker
4 11 (3.64%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (3.31%) Virtual Machines
6 9 (2.98%) Virtual Desktop
7 7 (2.32%) Hyper-V
8 6 (1.99%) NFS
9 4 (1.32%) vSphere
10 2 (0.66%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.66%) Firmware
10 2 (0.66%) VMware NSX
11 1 (0.33%) NDS
11 1 (0.33%) NetIQ eDirectory
11 1 (0.33%) OpenSSH
11 1 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.33%) UAG
Systems Management
1 48 (15.89%) Ansible
2 34 (11.26%) Kubernetes
3 30 (9.93%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (8.61%) SCCM
5 17 (5.63%) Grafana
6 16 (5.30%) Puppet
7 15 (4.97%) Prometheus
8 14 (4.64%) SCOM
9 12 (3.97%) Progress Chef
10 11 (3.64%) Red Hat Satellite
10 11 (3.64%) vCenter Server
11 6 (1.99%) Failover Clustering
11 6 (1.99%) Single Sign-On
12 3 (0.99%) Istio
12 3 (0.99%) WSUS
13 2 (0.66%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.66%) Foglight
13 2 (0.66%) FortiGate
13 2 (0.66%) Nagios
13 2 (0.66%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 105 (34.77%) Microsoft
2 33 (10.93%) VMware
3 21 (6.95%) Oracle
3 21 (6.95%) ServiceNow
4 18 (5.96%) Google
4 18 (5.96%) Red Hat
5 17 (5.63%) Splunk
6 12 (3.97%) SolarWinds
7 11 (3.64%) Cisco
8 9 (2.98%) Broadcom
9 8 (2.65%) Databricks
9 8 (2.65%) OpenAI
10 7 (2.32%) AppDynamics
11 6 (1.99%) BMC
11 6 (1.99%) Sybase
12 5 (1.66%) Citrix
12 5 (1.66%) Dynatrace
12 5 (1.66%) F5
12 5 (1.66%) Ivanti
12 5 (1.66%) Remedy