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

6 months to
17 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 337 252 296
Rank change year-on-year -85 +44 +155
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 332 317 322
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.66% 1.07% 0.74%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.78% 1.17% 0.87%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 175 250
10th Percentile £331 £325 £399
25th Percentile £401 £408 £458
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% -
75th Percentile £613 £575 £675
90th Percentile £750 £667 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £475 £538
% change year-on-year -1.26% -11.63% -2.27%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 16 3
10th Percentile - £21.00 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £21.92 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £29.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -22.68% +23.95% -73.56%
75th Percentile £24.29 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £50.82 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £19.57 £22.88 -
% change year-on-year -14.45% - -

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 42,679 27,009 37,072
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.81% 91.00% 85.05%
Number of daily rates quoted 26,607 17,137 23,609
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £406 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £508 £525
Median % change year-on-year +0.99% -3.33% -4.55%
75th Percentile £619 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £738 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,567 1,242 2,598
10th Percentile £14.82 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £20.09 £17.87 £16.03
Median hourly rate £43.96 £26.27 £37.34
Median % change year-on-year +67.37% -29.66% +6.69%
75th Percentile £68.00 £55.25 £61.30
90th Percentile £81.25 £73.75 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £44.50 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +76.94% -34.02% +17.29%

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 17 June 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 17 June 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Task Automation in the UK

Task Automation
Top 17 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 17 June 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 -72 285 £498 -0.50% 222
UK excluding London -86 161 £469 -1.26% 228
London -41 143 £525 +6.87% 57
Work from Home -37 117 £563 +7.30% 204
North of England -28 69 £500 +5.26% 49
Yorkshire -13 52 £500 +8.11% 16
South East -30 39 £403 -19.50% 47
Scotland -34 21 £500 +9.29% 28
Midlands -62 15 £500 +11.11% 28
South West -34 13 £363 -30.29% 19
North West -46 11 £459 -3.37% 26
West Midlands -55 11 £575 +17.95% 12
North East -28 6 £275 -26.67% 7
East Midlands -24 4 £413 +5.77% 16
Wales -10 2 £543 +106.67% 10
East of England -50 1 £400 -15.79% 29
Northern Ireland - 1 £675 - 22

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 32 (9.64%) SharePoint
2 20 (6.02%) Microsoft Exchange
3 10 (3.01%) Confluence
4 8 (2.41%) Appian
5 4 (1.20%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.90%) Apache
7 2 (0.60%) CMS
7 2 (0.60%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.30%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.30%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 8 (2.41%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.51%) Chatbot
2 5 (1.51%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.60%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.30%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.30%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.90%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.60%) Maximo
2 2 (0.60%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.30%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.30%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.30%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.30%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.30%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.30%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 162 (48.80%) Azure
2 99 (29.82%) AWS
3 59 (17.77%) GCP
4 51 (15.36%) Microsoft 365
5 46 (13.86%) Entra ID
6 38 (11.45%) GitHub
7 26 (7.83%) Power Automate
8 25 (7.53%) GitHub Actions
8 25 (7.53%) Power Platform
9 22 (6.63%) Azure DevOps
10 20 (6.02%) OpenShift
11 17 (5.12%) Azure Monitor
12 16 (4.82%) Amazon S3
13 15 (4.52%) Azure Key Vault
14 14 (4.22%) PaaS
15 13 (3.92%) Microsoft Copilot
16 12 (3.61%) PowerApps
16 12 (3.61%) Serverless
17 11 (3.31%) Azure Service Bus
17 11 (3.31%) OneDrive
Communications & Networking
1 39 (11.75%) DNS
2 33 (9.94%) DHCP
3 20 (6.02%) Firewall
4 17 (5.12%) VPN
5 15 (4.52%) Kerberos
6 13 (3.92%) SAN
7 11 (3.31%) Network Security
8 9 (2.71%) WAN
9 8 (2.41%) SD-WAN
9 8 (2.41%) SSH
9 8 (2.41%) TCP/IP
9 8 (2.41%) VLAN
10 5 (1.51%) LAN
11 4 (1.20%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (1.20%) Intranet
11 4 (1.20%) SSL
12 3 (0.90%) BGP
12 3 (0.90%) BIG-IP
12 3 (0.90%) Cisco IOS
12 3 (0.90%) OSPF
Database & Business Intelligence
1 37 (11.14%) SQL Server
2 13 (3.92%) PostgreSQL
3 11 (3.31%) Power BI
4 10 (3.01%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (2.41%) Pinecone
6 7 (2.11%) Amazon RDS
6 7 (2.11%) Metadata
7 6 (1.81%) MySQL
7 6 (1.81%) Snowflake Schema
7 6 (1.81%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (1.51%) Data Lake
9 4 (1.20%) Big Data
9 4 (1.20%) EDRMS
9 4 (1.20%) MongoDB
9 4 (1.20%) Oracle Database
9 4 (1.20%) Sybase ASE
9 4 (1.20%) Tableau
10 3 (0.90%) Amazon Redshift
10 3 (0.90%) DTS
10 3 (0.90%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 29 (8.73%) Jenkins
2 26 (7.83%) GitLab
3 21 (6.33%) Git
4 19 (5.72%) JIRA
5 10 (3.01%) Sonatype Nexus
6 8 (2.41%) MLflow
7 5 (1.51%) SonarQube
8 4 (1.20%) Flyway
9 3 (0.90%) AdminStudio
9 3 (0.90%) InstallShield
10 2 (0.60%) Selenium
11 1 (0.30%) Artifactory
11 1 (0.30%) Cypress.io
11 1 (0.30%) JMeter
11 1 (0.30%) JUnit
11 1 (0.30%) Maven
11 1 (0.30%) SoapUI
11 1 (0.30%) TestNG
11 1 (0.30%) WebDriver
11 1 (0.30%) WiX
General
1 142 (42.77%) Social Skills
2 60 (18.07%) Finance
3 45 (13.55%) Analytical Skills
4 26 (7.83%) Banking
5 25 (7.53%) Public Sector
6 13 (3.92%) Legal
7 12 (3.61%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (2.41%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.41%) Financial Institution
9 5 (1.51%) Front Office
9 5 (1.51%) Influencing Skills
9 5 (1.51%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.20%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.60%) Law
11 2 (0.60%) Military
11 2 (0.60%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.60%) Retail
12 1 (0.30%) Local Government
12 1 (0.30%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.30%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 36 (10.84%) Developer
2 34 (10.24%) Architect
3 26 (7.83%) CyberArk Architect
4 21 (6.33%) DBA
5 19 (5.72%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
6 18 (5.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
7 16 (4.82%) Consultant
8 15 (4.52%) Automation Engineer
8 15 (4.52%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 14 (4.22%) Analyst
10 12 (3.61%) DevOps Engineer
10 12 (3.61%) Platform Engineer
10 12 (3.61%) Senior
10 12 (3.61%) Support Engineer
11 11 (3.31%) Azure Developer
11 11 (3.31%) Site Engineer
12 10 (3.01%) Administrator
12 10 (3.01%) Data Engineer
12 10 (3.01%) Technical Support
13 9 (2.71%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 59 (17.77%) REST
2 39 (11.75%) LDAP
3 37 (11.14%) SOAP
4 23 (6.93%) .NET
4 23 (6.93%) OAuth
5 20 (6.02%) Web Services
6 15 (4.52%) SAML
7 13 (3.92%) JWT
7 13 (3.92%) Node.js
8 12 (3.61%) .NET Framework
8 12 (3.61%) Microsoft Graph
8 12 (3.61%) RESTful
9 11 (3.31%) Elastic Stack
9 11 (3.31%) Pandas
9 11 (3.31%) PyTorch
10 10 (3.01%) CSS
10 10 (3.01%) FastAPI
10 10 (3.01%) JSON
10 10 (3.01%) NumPy
10 10 (3.01%) React
Miscellaneous
1 32 (9.64%) Enterprise Software
2 27 (8.13%) Security Posture
3 24 (7.23%) Replication
4 23 (6.93%) Onboarding
5 19 (5.72%) Legacy Systems
6 14 (4.22%) Distributed Systems
7 13 (3.92%) Hybrid Cloud
8 12 (3.61%) Cloud Native
8 12 (3.61%) Data Protection Act
9 11 (3.31%) AI Agents
9 11 (3.31%) Product Ownership
10 8 (2.41%) Low-Code
11 7 (2.11%) Data Centre
11 7 (2.11%) Self-Motivation
11 7 (2.11%) Virtual Team
12 5 (1.51%) Clustering
12 5 (1.51%) FlexPod
12 5 (1.51%) Management Information System
13 4 (1.20%) Analytical Mindset
13 4 (1.20%) Data Structures
Operating Systems
1 73 (21.99%) Windows
2 60 (18.07%) Linux
3 29 (8.73%) Windows Server
4 18 (5.42%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 12 (3.61%) Unix
6 9 (2.71%) Windows 10
7 8 (2.41%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.81%) VMS
9 5 (1.51%) CoreOS
9 5 (1.51%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.60%) AIX
10 2 (0.60%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.60%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.30%) Android
11 1 (0.30%) Rocky
11 1 (0.30%) Solaris
11 1 (0.30%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.30%) Windows Server 2019
11 1 (0.30%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 107 (32.23%) Problem-Solving
2 88 (26.51%) CI/CD
3 68 (20.48%) DevOps
4 65 (19.58%) AI
5 55 (16.57%) Agile
6 48 (14.46%) Disaster Recovery
7 47 (14.16%) High Availability
8 46 (13.86%) Migration
9 43 (12.95%) ITIL
10 40 (12.05%) Analytics
10 40 (12.05%) Infrastructure as Code
11 39 (11.75%) Continuous Improvement
12 38 (11.45%) Observability
13 37 (11.14%) Technical Leadership
14 36 (10.84%) Containerisation
14 36 (10.84%) Workflow
15 35 (10.54%) ITSM
15 35 (10.54%) Stakeholder Engagement
16 34 (10.24%) Change Management
17 33 (9.94%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 154 (46.39%) Python
2 133 (40.06%) PowerShell
3 60 (18.07%) SQL
4 39 (11.75%) Bash
5 30 (9.04%) Java
6 28 (8.43%) JavaScript
7 20 (6.02%) C#
8 19 (5.72%) TypeScript
9 15 (4.52%) Go
10 13 (3.92%) Shell Script
11 11 (3.31%) Kusto Query Language
12 9 (2.71%) PL/SQL
12 9 (2.71%) T-SQL
13 4 (1.20%) Bicep
14 2 (0.60%) ActionScript
14 2 (0.60%) Scala
14 2 (0.60%) VBScript
15 1 (0.30%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.30%) Perl
15 1 (0.30%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 113 (34.04%) Security Cleared
2 88 (26.51%) SC Cleared
3 26 (7.83%) Degree
4 21 (6.33%) Computer Science Degree
5 18 (5.42%) DV Cleared
6 12 (3.61%) BPSS Clearance
7 7 (2.11%) Microsoft Certification
8 5 (1.51%) OCP
8 5 (1.51%) Oracle Certification
9 4 (1.20%) Azure Certification
9 4 (1.20%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.20%) CISSP
10 3 (0.90%) AWS Certification
10 3 (0.90%) CCNP
11 2 (0.60%) CCNA
11 2 (0.60%) CISM
11 2 (0.60%) JNCIA
11 2 (0.60%) JNCIS
11 2 (0.60%) MCTS
11 2 (0.60%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (7.53%) Data Quality
2 15 (4.52%) GDPR
3 13 (3.92%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 12 (3.61%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (3.31%) NIST
6 10 (3.01%) QA
7 7 (2.11%) SLA
8 3 (0.90%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.60%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.60%) HIPAA
10 1 (0.30%) GMP
10 1 (0.30%) GRC
10 1 (0.30%) PMO
System Software
1 82 (24.70%) Active Directory
2 28 (8.43%) Docker
3 18 (5.42%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (3.92%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (3.31%) NFS
6 7 (2.11%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (2.11%) vSphere
7 5 (1.51%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.60%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.60%) Firmware
8 2 (0.60%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.30%) KVM
9 1 (0.30%) OpenSSH
9 1 (0.30%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.30%) UAG
9 1 (0.30%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.30%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 53 (15.96%) Kubernetes
2 50 (15.06%) Ansible
3 47 (14.16%) Terraform
4 24 (7.23%) Microsoft Intune
5 17 (5.12%) Single Sign-On
6 15 (4.52%) SCCM
7 13 (3.92%) Active Directory Federation Services
7 13 (3.92%) Grafana
8 11 (3.31%) Prometheus
9 8 (2.41%) Progress Chef
10 6 (1.81%) Red Hat Satellite
11 5 (1.51%) Puppet
11 5 (1.51%) SnapMirror
12 4 (1.20%) Nessus
12 4 (1.20%) SCOM
13 3 (0.90%) Foglight
13 3 (0.90%) OpenVAS
13 3 (0.90%) PowerCLI
13 3 (0.90%) vCenter Server
13 3 (0.90%) WSUS
Vendors
1 97 (29.22%) Microsoft
2 27 (8.13%) CyberArk
3 26 (7.83%) Google
4 25 (7.53%) VMware
5 24 (7.23%) BeyondTrust
5 24 (7.23%) Centrify
6 23 (6.93%) ServiceNow
7 21 (6.33%) Red Hat
8 19 (5.72%) OpenAI
9 17 (5.12%) Okta
9 17 (5.12%) Oracle
10 15 (4.52%) Splunk
11 12 (3.61%) Databricks
12 9 (2.71%) Cisco
13 8 (2.41%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (2.41%) UiPath
14 7 (2.11%) AppDynamics
14 7 (2.11%) Palo Alto
15 6 (1.81%) Bloomberg
15 6 (1.81%) Citrix