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

6 months to
26 Feb 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 277 230 368
Rank change year-on-year -47 +138 +80
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 392 348 238
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.95% 1.13% 0.54%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.09% 1.26% 0.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 285 209 192
10th Percentile £340 £317 £371
25th Percentile £400 £400 £455
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £480 £525
Median % change year-on-year -1.04% -8.57% -4.55%
75th Percentile £606 £588 £650
90th Percentile £750 £656 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £465 £471 £517
% change year-on-year -1.33% -8.85% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 13 0
Median hourly rate £46.00 £29.00 -
Median % change year-on-year +58.62% - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate - £24.66 -

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 35,955 27,589 38,137
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.76% 89.91% 86.97%
Number of daily rates quoted 22,818 17,125 24,933
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £411 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £638
90th Percentile £721 £738 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £482 £493 £500
% change year-on-year -2.18% -1.45% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,143 864 2,185
10th Percentile £14.61 £15.62 £13.29
25th Percentile £17.99 £21.25 £16.25
Median hourly rate £26.61 £32.66 £33.07
Median % change year-on-year -18.53% -1.24% -5.53%
75th Percentile £61.50 £63.75 £59.50
90th Percentile £72.50 £75.18 £71.90
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.15 £31.76 £35.00
% change year-on-year -20.81% -9.26% -

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 26 February 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
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 26 February 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 -61 327 £500 +3.31% 79
UK excluding London -49 188 £465 -1.33% 62
London -18 159 £575 +10.58% 22
Work from Home +22 154 £540 +12.40% 41
North of England -38 61 £450 -4.26% 23
South East -20 41 £435 +8.63% 14
Yorkshire -37 40 £450 -4.26% 8
Midlands -43 32 £527 +10.03% 13
West Midlands -38 30 £550 +13.64% 8
Scotland +6 25 £415 -15.31%
South West -37 18 £506 +6.58% 6
North West -35 17 £448 -4.68% 11
East of England -27 7 £500 +8.11% 6
North East -12 4 £365 -22.34% 4
Wales - 4 £525 - 1
East Midlands -31 2 £450 +13.92% 5
Northern Ireland - 2 £683 - 2

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 26 (6.63%) Microsoft Exchange
2 22 (5.61%) SharePoint
3 9 (2.30%) Confluence
4 8 (2.04%) Appian
4 8 (2.04%) IIS
5 6 (1.53%) Apache
6 5 (1.28%) iPlanet
6 5 (1.28%) JBoss
6 5 (1.28%) WebSphere
6 5 (1.28%) WebSphere Application Server
7 4 (1.02%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.77%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.51%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.51%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.51%) Palantir Foundry
9 2 (0.51%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.26%) Apache Spark
10 1 (0.26%) CMS
10 1 (0.26%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 18 (4.59%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.02%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.77%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.51%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.51%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.51%) Maximo
1 2 (0.51%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.51%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (0.51%) Oracle ERP
1 2 (0.51%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.26%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.26%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.26%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 190 (48.47%) Azure
2 137 (34.95%) AWS
3 93 (23.72%) GCP
4 51 (13.01%) Entra ID
5 42 (10.71%) Microsoft 365
6 40 (10.20%) OpenShift
7 37 (9.44%) GitHub
8 25 (6.38%) GitHub Actions
9 23 (5.87%) AWS CloudFormation
9 23 (5.87%) Azure DevOps
9 23 (5.87%) Serverless
10 21 (5.36%) Power Automate
10 21 (5.36%) Power Platform
11 17 (4.34%) Amazon S3
12 13 (3.32%) Amazon EKS
12 13 (3.32%) AWS Lambda
12 13 (3.32%) OneDrive
13 12 (3.06%) Azure Monitor
14 11 (2.81%) Datadog
14 11 (2.81%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 38 (9.69%) DNS
2 29 (7.40%) DHCP
3 26 (6.63%) Firewall
4 21 (5.36%) Kerberos
5 19 (4.85%) SSH
6 14 (3.57%) TCP/IP
7 13 (3.32%) VPN
8 10 (2.55%) Network Security
9 5 (1.28%) WAN
10 4 (1.02%) AMQP
10 4 (1.02%) HTTP
10 4 (1.02%) LAN
10 4 (1.02%) SAN
11 3 (0.77%) Cisco Nexus
11 3 (0.77%) SSL
12 2 (0.51%) Cisco IOS
12 2 (0.51%) Internet
12 2 (0.51%) Reverse Proxy
12 2 (0.51%) SMTP
12 2 (0.51%) VLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (7.40%) SQL Server
2 27 (6.89%) PostgreSQL
3 17 (4.34%) Relational Database
4 16 (4.08%) Power BI
5 13 (3.32%) Oracle Database
6 11 (2.81%) Amazon RDS
7 9 (2.30%) MySQL
8 8 (2.04%) Data Warehouse
8 8 (2.04%) Pinecone
9 6 (1.53%) RDBMS
10 5 (1.28%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (1.28%) Metadata
10 5 (1.28%) MongoDB
11 4 (1.02%) BigQuery
11 4 (1.02%) Elasticsearch
11 4 (1.02%) InfluxDB
11 4 (1.02%) NoSQL
11 4 (1.02%) Power Query
11 4 (1.02%) Snowflake Schema
11 4 (1.02%) Tableau
Development Applications
1 52 (13.27%) Jenkins
2 43 (10.97%) Git
3 37 (9.44%) GitLab
4 18 (4.59%) Sonatype Nexus
5 17 (4.34%) JIRA
6 10 (2.55%) CircleCI
7 8 (2.04%) Maven
7 8 (2.04%) MLflow
8 7 (1.79%) Bitbucket
9 6 (1.53%) SonarQube
10 5 (1.28%) Bitbucket Server
10 5 (1.28%) CA Release Automation
10 5 (1.28%) Gatling
10 5 (1.28%) JMeter
10 5 (1.28%) JUnit
10 5 (1.28%) LoadRunner
10 5 (1.28%) Postman
10 5 (1.28%) Selenium
11 4 (1.02%) Cypress.io
11 4 (1.02%) Gradle
General
1 157 (40.05%) Social Skills
2 69 (17.60%) Finance
3 48 (12.24%) Analytical Skills
4 37 (9.44%) Public Sector
5 24 (6.12%) Banking
6 8 (2.04%) Legal
7 6 (1.53%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.53%) Influencing Skills
7 6 (1.53%) Investment Banking
7 6 (1.53%) Presentation Skills
8 5 (1.28%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.28%) Organisational Skills
8 5 (1.28%) Retail
9 4 (1.02%) Military
10 3 (0.77%) Financial Institution
10 3 (0.77%) Law
11 2 (0.51%) Corporate Banking
11 2 (0.51%) Front Office
11 2 (0.51%) Games
11 2 (0.51%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 46 (11.73%) Developer
2 42 (10.71%) Architect
3 37 (9.44%) CyberArk Architect
4 28 (7.14%) DevOps Engineer
5 24 (6.12%) Administrator
6 23 (5.87%) Analyst
6 23 (5.87%) Automation Engineer
7 21 (5.36%) Senior
8 20 (5.10%) Platform Engineer
9 18 (4.59%) Java Developer
10 16 (4.08%) Site Reliability Engineer
11 15 (3.83%) DBA
11 15 (3.83%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 13 (3.32%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
12 13 (3.32%) Lead
13 12 (3.06%) Consultant
14 11 (2.81%) Site Engineer
15 10 (2.55%) Support Engineer
16 9 (2.30%) Applications Engineer
17 8 (2.04%) Technical Specialist
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (16.33%) REST
2 54 (13.78%) LDAP
3 41 (10.46%) SOAP
4 32 (8.16%) OAuth
5 24 (6.12%) Node.js
6 23 (5.87%) Elastic Stack
6 23 (5.87%) SAML
7 17 (4.34%) Web Services
8 16 (4.08%) .NET
9 13 (3.32%) RESTful
10 12 (3.06%) Kafka
11 11 (2.81%) JWT
11 11 (2.81%) Pandas
12 10 (2.55%) Microsoft Graph
12 10 (2.55%) NumPy
13 9 (2.30%) FastAPI
13 9 (2.30%) JSON
13 9 (2.30%) OpenID
13 9 (2.30%) PyTorch
13 9 (2.30%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 44 (11.22%) Security Posture
2 43 (10.97%) Enterprise Software
3 22 (5.61%) Onboarding
4 20 (5.10%) Replication
5 19 (4.85%) Cloud Native
6 13 (3.32%) Legacy Systems
7 12 (3.06%) Distributed Systems
8 10 (2.55%) Hybrid Cloud
9 9 (2.30%) Clustering
9 9 (2.30%) Low-Code
10 7 (1.79%) Data Centre
10 7 (1.79%) Data Protection Act
10 7 (1.79%) PKI
11 6 (1.53%) Management Information System
12 5 (1.28%) Linux Command Line
12 5 (1.28%) Product Ownership
13 4 (1.02%) Analytical Mindset
13 4 (1.02%) Private Cloud
13 4 (1.02%) Security Operations Centre
13 4 (1.02%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 101 (25.77%) Linux
2 83 (21.17%) Windows
3 37 (9.44%) Windows Server
4 21 (5.36%) Unix
5 18 (4.59%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 11 (2.81%) VMS
7 8 (2.04%) CentOS
8 5 (1.28%) Mac OS
9 4 (1.02%) CoreOS
9 4 (1.02%) Data ONTAP
9 4 (1.02%) Ubuntu
10 3 (0.77%) Windows 10
11 2 (0.51%) AIX
11 2 (0.51%) Android
11 2 (0.51%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.26%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 145 (36.99%) Problem-Solving
2 134 (34.18%) CI/CD
3 97 (24.74%) DevOps
4 69 (17.60%) Infrastructure as Code
5 57 (14.54%) Containerisation
6 55 (14.03%) Agile
7 52 (13.27%) SIEM
8 49 (12.50%) Migration
9 48 (12.24%) Continuous Improvement
9 48 (12.24%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 43 (10.97%) Technical Leadership
11 42 (10.71%) Disaster Recovery
11 42 (10.71%) High Availability
11 42 (10.71%) Site Reliability Engineering
12 40 (10.20%) Observability
13 39 (9.95%) AI
13 39 (9.95%) Configuration Management
13 39 (9.95%) Privileged Access Management
13 39 (9.95%) Root Cause Analysis
14 37 (9.44%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 195 (49.74%) Python
2 156 (39.80%) PowerShell
3 65 (16.58%) Bash
3 65 (16.58%) SQL
4 51 (13.01%) Java
5 36 (9.18%) Shell Script
6 26 (6.63%) JavaScript
7 24 (6.12%) Go
8 22 (5.61%) TypeScript
9 16 (4.08%) C#
10 14 (3.57%) Kusto Query Language
11 9 (2.30%) VBA
12 6 (1.53%) Bicep
12 6 (1.53%) Groovy
12 6 (1.53%) Perl
12 6 (1.53%) PL/SQL
13 4 (1.02%) T-SQL
14 3 (0.77%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 3 (0.77%) PHP
14 3 (0.77%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 134 (34.18%) Security Cleared
2 102 (26.02%) SC Cleared
3 28 (7.14%) Degree
4 25 (6.38%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (4.08%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (3.83%) DV Cleared
7 13 (3.32%) Azure Certification
8 11 (2.81%) CISSP
9 9 (2.30%) AWS Certification
9 9 (2.30%) Microsoft Certification
9 9 (2.30%) OCP
9 9 (2.30%) Oracle Certification
10 4 (1.02%) CFCE
10 4 (1.02%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (1.02%) CISM
10 4 (1.02%) GCFA
10 4 (1.02%) GCIA
10 4 (1.02%) GCIH
10 4 (1.02%) GIAC
10 4 (1.02%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (9.18%) GDPR
2 24 (6.12%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 17 (4.34%) Data Quality
3 17 (4.34%) NIST
4 14 (3.57%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 10 (2.55%) QA
6 6 (1.53%) SLA
7 5 (1.28%) HIPAA
7 5 (1.28%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.77%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.51%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.51%) GRC
10 1 (0.26%) COBIT
10 1 (0.26%) GMP
10 1 (0.26%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.26%) PMO
System Software
1 96 (24.49%) Active Directory
2 59 (15.05%) Docker
3 25 (6.38%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (3.32%) Virtual Machines
5 6 (1.53%) vSphere
6 5 (1.28%) Tivoli Directory Server
7 4 (1.02%) Hyper-V
7 4 (1.02%) KVM
7 4 (1.02%) NFS
7 4 (1.02%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.77%) Xen
9 2 (0.51%) Oracle RAC
10 1 (0.26%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 1 (0.26%) HDFS
10 1 (0.26%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.26%) RHEV
10 1 (0.26%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.26%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.26%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 83 (21.17%) Terraform
2 82 (20.92%) Kubernetes
3 74 (18.88%) Ansible
4 41 (10.46%) Grafana
5 33 (8.42%) Prometheus
6 25 (6.38%) Single Sign-On
7 23 (5.87%) Progress Chef
8 19 (4.85%) Microsoft Intune
9 16 (4.08%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 13 (3.32%) Puppet
11 12 (3.06%) SCCM
12 8 (2.04%) Oracle RMAN
13 7 (1.79%) Podman
14 6 (1.53%) CA Single Sign-On
14 6 (1.53%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
15 5 (1.28%) CA Wily
15 5 (1.28%) Kibana
15 5 (1.28%) logstash
15 5 (1.28%) Tivoli
16 4 (1.02%) Proxmox
Vendors
1 106 (27.04%) Microsoft
2 42 (10.71%) CyberArk
3 35 (8.93%) BeyondTrust
4 34 (8.67%) Centrify
5 33 (8.42%) Google
5 33 (8.42%) Oracle
6 32 (8.16%) Splunk
7 29 (7.40%) VMware
8 23 (5.87%) Red Hat
9 19 (4.85%) Okta
10 18 (4.59%) ServiceNow
11 12 (3.06%) OpenAI
12 9 (2.30%) Databricks
13 8 (2.04%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (2.04%) Cisco
13 8 (2.04%) UiPath
14 7 (1.79%) IBM
15 6 (1.53%) AppDynamics
16 5 (1.28%) Broadcom
16 5 (1.28%) Palo Alto