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

6 months to
17 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 275 224 357
Rank change year-on-year -51 +133 +72
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 409 347 238
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.95% 1.18% 0.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.10% 1.31% 0.62%
Number of daily rates quoted 299 207 189
10th Percentile £334 £343 £379
25th Percentile £400 £409 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.76% -4.55%
75th Percentile £599 £597 £650
90th Percentile £750 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £464 £475 £515
% change year-on-year -2.37% -7.72% -6.41%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 13 0
10th Percentile - £21.00 -
25th Percentile £21.33 £22.22 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £29.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -21.34% - -
75th Percentile £35.15 £65.00 -
90th Percentile £41.66 £65.62 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.81 £24.66 -
% change year-on-year -7.50% - -

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 37,130 26,538 38,501
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.00% 90.38% 86.55%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,530 17,031 25,049
10th Percentile £313 £308 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £610 £638 £638
90th Percentile £723 £745 £744
UK excluding London median daily rate £480 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -2.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,210 919 2,337
10th Percentile £14.89 £15.25 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £30.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £65.00 £64.62 £57.50
90th Percentile £75.00 £77.50 £70.20
UK excluding London median hourly rate £27.50 £31.76 £31.50
% change year-on-year -13.41% +0.83% -10.07%

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 March 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 March 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 March 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 -57 339 £500 - 102
UK excluding London -52 192 £464 -2.37% 74
London -33 169 £575 +9.52% 44
Work from Home +23 159 £538 +7.50% 59
North of England -43 62 £450 -4.51% 21
South East -21 46 £435 +8.63% 25
Yorkshire -21 46 £454 -13.52% 9
Midlands -45 29 £527 +11.31% 9
West Midlands -50 28 £527 +8.78% 4
Scotland +4 27 £440 -6.38% 3
South West -35 18 £488 +3.17% 9
North West -45 12 £320 -31.91% 7
East of England -35 6 £500 -11.50% 5
North East -11 4 £365 -22.34% 5
Wales - 4 £525 - 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £683 - 1
East Midlands -35 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 35 (8.56%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (7.58%) SharePoint
3 12 (2.93%) Confluence
4 8 (1.96%) Appian
5 4 (0.98%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.73%) IIS
6 3 (0.73%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.49%) Apache
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 2 (0.49%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.49%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.49%) WebLogic
8 1 (0.24%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.24%) CMS
8 1 (0.24%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 19 (4.65%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.98%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.73%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.49%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.49%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.24%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.24%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 2 (0.49%) Maximo
1 2 (0.49%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.49%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (0.49%) Oracle ERP
1 2 (0.49%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.24%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 204 (49.88%) Azure
2 139 (33.99%) AWS
3 89 (21.76%) GCP
4 63 (15.40%) Entra ID
5 50 (12.22%) Microsoft 365
6 47 (11.49%) GitHub
7 34 (8.31%) OpenShift
8 33 (8.07%) GitHub Actions
9 31 (7.58%) Azure DevOps
10 24 (5.87%) Power Platform
11 23 (5.62%) Serverless
12 22 (5.38%) AWS CloudFormation
12 22 (5.38%) Azure Monitor
13 21 (5.13%) Amazon S3
13 21 (5.13%) PaaS
13 21 (5.13%) Power Automate
14 17 (4.16%) Azure Key Vault
15 16 (3.91%) Azure App Service
15 16 (3.91%) Azure Service Bus
15 16 (3.91%) Azure WebJobs
Communications & Networking
1 41 (10.02%) DNS
2 32 (7.82%) DHCP
3 25 (6.11%) Firewall
4 19 (4.65%) SSH
5 16 (3.91%) Kerberos
6 14 (3.42%) TCP/IP
7 12 (2.93%) VPN
8 10 (2.44%) Network Security
9 7 (1.71%) SAN
9 7 (1.71%) WAN
10 6 (1.47%) LAN
11 4 (0.98%) Cisco Nexus
11 4 (0.98%) HTTP
11 4 (0.98%) SD-WAN
12 3 (0.73%) AMQP
12 3 (0.73%) Cisco IOS
12 3 (0.73%) SSL
13 2 (0.49%) DWDM
13 2 (0.49%) Internet
13 2 (0.49%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (8.07%) SQL Server
2 26 (6.36%) PostgreSQL
3 19 (4.65%) Power BI
4 18 (4.40%) Relational Database
5 13 (3.18%) Amazon RDS
6 12 (2.93%) Data Warehouse
7 9 (2.20%) MySQL
8 8 (1.96%) Oracle Database
8 8 (1.96%) Pinecone
9 7 (1.71%) Tableau
10 6 (1.47%) Azure SQL Database
10 6 (1.47%) MongoDB
10 6 (1.47%) NoSQL
11 5 (1.22%) Big Data
11 5 (1.22%) Data Lake
11 5 (1.22%) DynamoDB
11 5 (1.22%) Metadata
11 5 (1.22%) RDBMS
11 5 (1.22%) Snowflake Schema
11 5 (1.22%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 50 (12.22%) Jenkins
2 42 (10.27%) Git
3 40 (9.78%) GitLab
4 21 (5.13%) JIRA
5 13 (3.18%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (2.20%) CircleCI
7 8 (1.96%) MLflow
8 6 (1.47%) Bitbucket
8 6 (1.47%) Maven
9 5 (1.22%) Gatling
9 5 (1.22%) JMeter
9 5 (1.22%) LoadRunner
9 5 (1.22%) Selenium
9 5 (1.22%) SonarQube
10 4 (0.98%) JUnit
10 4 (0.98%) Postman
11 3 (0.73%) Cypress.io
11 3 (0.73%) Flyway
11 3 (0.73%) Snyk
11 3 (0.73%) webpack
General
1 170 (41.56%) Social Skills
2 72 (17.60%) Finance
3 57 (13.94%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (9.29%) Public Sector
5 23 (5.62%) Banking
6 10 (2.44%) Legal
7 7 (1.71%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (1.71%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (1.47%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (1.47%) Investment Banking
8 6 (1.47%) Presentation Skills
8 6 (1.47%) Retail
9 5 (1.22%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (0.98%) Financial Institution
10 4 (0.98%) Military
11 3 (0.73%) Law
11 3 (0.73%) Retail Banking
12 2 (0.49%) Corporate Banking
12 2 (0.49%) Front Office
12 2 (0.49%) Games
Job Titles
1 56 (13.69%) Developer
2 43 (10.51%) Architect
3 37 (9.05%) CyberArk Architect
4 25 (6.11%) DevOps Engineer
5 24 (5.87%) Automation Engineer
6 23 (5.62%) Administrator
6 23 (5.62%) Analyst
7 21 (5.13%) Platform Engineer
8 19 (4.65%) DBA
8 19 (4.65%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 18 (4.40%) Java Developer
10 14 (3.42%) Senior
11 13 (3.18%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 13 (3.18%) Azure Developer
11 13 (3.18%) Consultant
11 13 (3.18%) Infrastructure Engineer
11 13 (3.18%) Lead
12 12 (2.93%) Site Engineer
13 11 (2.69%) Data Engineer
13 11 (2.69%) Support Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 73 (17.85%) REST
2 50 (12.22%) SOAP
3 49 (11.98%) LDAP
4 27 (6.60%) OAuth
5 26 (6.36%) Web Services
6 25 (6.11%) .NET
7 24 (5.87%) Node.js
8 20 (4.89%) Elastic Stack
9 19 (4.65%) Microsoft Graph
10 18 (4.40%) SAML
11 17 (4.16%) .NET Framework
12 14 (3.42%) Kafka
13 13 (3.18%) RESTful
14 11 (2.69%) JWT
14 11 (2.69%) Pandas
15 10 (2.44%) PyTorch
15 10 (2.44%) YAML
16 9 (2.20%) NumPy
16 9 (2.20%) scikit-learn
16 9 (2.20%) TensorFlow
Miscellaneous
1 45 (11.00%) Security Posture
2 42 (10.27%) Enterprise Software
3 23 (5.62%) Onboarding
4 20 (4.89%) Replication
5 17 (4.16%) Cloud Native
6 13 (3.18%) Distributed Systems
6 13 (3.18%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (2.69%) Clustering
7 11 (2.69%) Hybrid Cloud
8 9 (2.20%) Data Protection Act
8 9 (2.20%) Low-Code
9 8 (1.96%) Data Centre
10 7 (1.71%) PKI
11 6 (1.47%) Product Ownership
12 5 (1.22%) Analytical Mindset
12 5 (1.22%) FlexPod
12 5 (1.22%) Management Information System
13 4 (0.98%) Data Structures
13 4 (0.98%) NHS
13 4 (0.98%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 93 (22.74%) Linux
2 81 (19.80%) Windows
3 37 (9.05%) Windows Server
4 19 (4.65%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (3.91%) Unix
6 12 (2.93%) VMS
7 7 (1.71%) CentOS
8 6 (1.47%) Windows 10
9 5 (1.22%) CoreOS
9 5 (1.22%) Data ONTAP
9 5 (1.22%) Mac OS
10 4 (0.98%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.49%) AIX
11 2 (0.49%) Android
11 2 (0.49%) Apple iOS
12 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2012
12 1 (0.24%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 156 (38.14%) Problem-Solving
2 134 (32.76%) CI/CD
3 101 (24.69%) DevOps
4 69 (16.87%) Infrastructure as Code
5 60 (14.67%) Agile
6 57 (13.94%) Containerisation
7 54 (13.20%) Migration
8 51 (12.47%) SIEM
9 49 (11.98%) Observability
9 49 (11.98%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 48 (11.74%) Continuous Improvement
10 48 (11.74%) High Availability
11 46 (11.25%) Analytics
11 46 (11.25%) Site Reliability Engineering
12 45 (11.00%) Disaster Recovery
13 44 (10.76%) AI
14 42 (10.27%) Technical Leadership
15 40 (9.78%) Root Cause Analysis
16 39 (9.54%) Configuration Management
16 39 (9.54%) Privileged Access Management
Programming Languages
1 195 (47.68%) Python
2 166 (40.59%) PowerShell
3 73 (17.85%) SQL
4 60 (14.67%) Bash
5 50 (12.22%) Java
6 30 (7.33%) Shell Script
7 26 (6.36%) JavaScript
8 24 (5.87%) C#
8 24 (5.87%) TypeScript
9 23 (5.62%) Kusto Query Language
10 22 (5.38%) Go
11 9 (2.20%) VBA
12 6 (1.47%) Perl
12 6 (1.47%) PL/SQL
13 5 (1.22%) Bicep
13 5 (1.22%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.98%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 3 (0.73%) PHP
15 3 (0.73%) Ruby
16 2 (0.49%) Korn
Qualifications
1 145 (35.45%) Security Cleared
2 113 (27.63%) SC Cleared
3 34 (8.31%) Degree
4 24 (5.87%) BPSS Clearance
5 20 (4.89%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (3.67%) DV Cleared
7 12 (2.93%) Azure Certification
8 10 (2.44%) CISSP
8 10 (2.44%) Microsoft Certification
8 10 (2.44%) OCP
8 10 (2.44%) Oracle Certification
9 9 (2.20%) AWS Certification
10 4 (0.98%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (0.98%) CISM
10 4 (0.98%) Master's Degree
10 4 (0.98%) RHCE
11 3 (0.73%) CIMA
11 3 (0.73%) GCIA
11 3 (0.73%) GCIH
11 3 (0.73%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (8.80%) GDPR
2 25 (6.11%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 24 (5.87%) Data Quality
4 18 (4.40%) NIST
5 14 (3.42%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 11 (2.69%) QA
7 6 (1.47%) SLA
8 5 (1.22%) PCI DSS
9 4 (0.98%) HIPAA
10 3 (0.73%) SOC 2
11 2 (0.49%) Accessibility
11 2 (0.49%) GRC
12 1 (0.24%) COBIT
12 1 (0.24%) GMP
12 1 (0.24%) HMG Security Policy Framework
12 1 (0.24%) PMO
System Software
1 97 (23.72%) Active Directory
2 52 (12.71%) Docker
3 26 (6.36%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (3.42%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.71%) vSphere
6 6 (1.47%) Hyper-V
7 5 (1.22%) NFS
7 5 (1.22%) Virtual Desktop
8 4 (0.98%) KVM
9 3 (0.73%) Xen
10 2 (0.49%) Oracle RAC
10 2 (0.49%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.24%) Apache ZooKeeper
11 1 (0.24%) HDFS
11 1 (0.24%) Microsoft App-V
11 1 (0.24%) RHEV
11 1 (0.24%) UAG
11 1 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
11 1 (0.24%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 81 (19.80%) Kubernetes
1 81 (19.80%) Terraform
2 74 (18.09%) Ansible
3 39 (9.54%) Grafana
4 32 (7.82%) Prometheus
5 21 (5.13%) Microsoft Intune
6 20 (4.89%) Single Sign-On
7 18 (4.40%) Progress Chef
8 16 (3.91%) Active Directory Federation Services
9 12 (2.93%) Puppet
10 11 (2.69%) SCCM
11 6 (1.47%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
11 6 (1.47%) Podman
12 5 (1.22%) Oracle RMAN
12 5 (1.22%) SnapMirror
13 4 (0.98%) Nessus
13 4 (0.98%) Packer
13 4 (0.98%) PowerCLI
13 4 (0.98%) Proxmox
13 4 (0.98%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 109 (26.65%) Microsoft
2 39 (9.54%) CyberArk
3 35 (8.56%) BeyondTrust
4 34 (8.31%) Centrify
5 32 (7.82%) Google
5 32 (7.82%) VMware
6 25 (6.11%) Oracle
7 24 (5.87%) Red Hat
7 24 (5.87%) Splunk
8 22 (5.38%) ServiceNow
9 19 (4.65%) Okta
10 14 (3.42%) Databricks
11 13 (3.18%) OpenAI
12 9 (2.20%) Cisco
13 8 (1.96%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (1.96%) UiPath
14 6 (1.47%) Palo Alto
14 6 (1.47%) SAP
15 5 (1.22%) Citrix
15 5 (1.22%) Informatica