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 5 December 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
5 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 261 254 364
Rank change year-on-year -7 +110 +117
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 369 360 250
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.01% 1.00% 0.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.14% 1.14% 0.63%
Number of daily rates quoted 236 228 183
10th Percentile £311 £350 £363
25th Percentile £400 £406 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £470 £483 £519
Median % change year-on-year -2.69% -6.94% -13.36%
75th Percentile £575 £589 £619
90th Percentile £625 £675 £675
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £470 £500
% change year-on-year -0.21% -6.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 5 0 0
10th Percentile £29.69 - -
25th Percentile £46.00 - -
Median hourly rate £63.50 - -
75th Percentile £65.25 - -
90th Percentile £66.45 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 - -

All Process and 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 32,500 31,582 39,830
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 89.05% 87.42% 88.53%
Number of daily rates quoted 20,460 19,152 26,649
10th Percentile £300 £310 £312
25th Percentile £405 £413 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £533
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% -1.50% -3.09%
75th Percentile £619 £638 £650
90th Percentile £725 £743 £745
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,092 1,104 1,551
10th Percentile £14.54 £15.25 £14.36
25th Percentile £17.50 £20.23 £18.95
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.75 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -23.21% -22.94% +21.43%
75th Percentile £45.53 £63.51 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.50 £73.93 £77.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.85 £32.50 £42.50
% change year-on-year -29.71% -23.53% +30.77%

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025.

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 5 December 2025. 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 -31 304 £482 - 108
UK excluding London -11 184 £469 -0.21% 93
London -27 140 £500 -9.09% 54
Work from Home +14 115 £450 -5.26% 67
North of England -28 54 £450 -2.17% 29
Midlands -11 42 £520 +7.44% 8
West Midlands -5 41 £535 +8.74% 8
South East -9 36 £445 -3.26% 27
Yorkshire -15 29 £465 +12.73% 12
North West -21 25 £440 -4.61% 15
Scotland +13 20 £362 -31.14% 15
South West -21 14 £525 +11.70% 9
East of England -12 12 £500 +17.65% 5
Wales +2 7 £263 -46.15%
Northern Ireland -3 1 £690 - 2
East Midlands -17 1 £450 +5.88%

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 23 (6.23%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (5.15%) SharePoint
3 18 (4.88%) Confluence
4 9 (2.44%) Apache
5 8 (2.17%) IIS
6 5 (1.36%) iPlanet
6 5 (1.36%) JBoss
6 5 (1.36%) WebSphere
6 5 (1.36%) WebSphere Application Server
7 4 (1.08%) OpenStack
8 3 (0.81%) Apache Airflow
9 2 (0.54%) Oracle SOA Suite
9 2 (0.54%) Oracle Workflow
9 2 (0.54%) WebLogic
10 1 (0.27%) CICS
10 1 (0.27%) CMS
10 1 (0.27%) MQSeries
10 1 (0.27%) OpenEdge
10 1 (0.27%) Tomcat
Applications
1 24 (6.50%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (1.08%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (0.81%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 2 (0.54%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.54%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.54%) Siemens NX
Business Applications
1 4 (1.08%) SAP ERP
2 2 (0.54%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.54%) Oracle EBS R12
2 2 (0.54%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.54%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.54%) Teamcenter
3 1 (0.27%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.27%) Eikon
3 1 (0.27%) Eze OMS
3 1 (0.27%) Fidessa
Cloud Services
1 133 (36.04%) Azure
2 100 (27.10%) AWS
3 59 (15.99%) GCP
4 43 (11.65%) GitHub
5 40 (10.84%) Microsoft 365
6 36 (9.76%) GitHub Actions
7 32 (8.67%) Entra ID
8 30 (8.13%) OpenShift
9 27 (7.32%) Serverless
10 26 (7.05%) Azure DevOps
11 20 (5.42%) AWS CloudFormation
11 20 (5.42%) Power Platform
12 15 (4.07%) AWS Lambda
13 14 (3.79%) Amazon S3
14 12 (3.25%) Amazon EC2
15 11 (2.98%) Amazon EKS
15 11 (2.98%) Azure AKS
15 11 (2.98%) Azure Logic Apps
15 11 (2.98%) Azure Sentinel
15 11 (2.98%) Datadog
Communications & Networking
1 40 (10.84%) Firewall
2 20 (5.42%) DNS
3 15 (4.07%) DHCP
4 14 (3.79%) TCP/IP
5 13 (3.52%) SSH
6 12 (3.25%) Network Security
7 8 (2.17%) VPN
8 7 (1.90%) WAN
9 6 (1.63%) Cisco IOS
10 5 (1.36%) BGP
10 5 (1.36%) Kerberos
10 5 (1.36%) LAN
10 5 (1.36%) NX-OS
10 5 (1.36%) OpenLDAP
10 5 (1.36%) WLAN
11 3 (0.81%) AMQP
11 3 (0.81%) HTTP
11 3 (0.81%) PSTN
11 3 (0.81%) SD-WAN
12 2 (0.54%) Ethernet VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 36 (9.76%) SQL Server
2 26 (7.05%) PostgreSQL
3 24 (6.50%) Relational Database
4 19 (5.15%) Oracle Database
5 13 (3.52%) NoSQL
6 12 (3.25%) Power BI
7 11 (2.98%) MySQL
8 8 (2.17%) Big Data
8 8 (2.17%) RDBMS
9 7 (1.90%) Amazon RDS
9 7 (1.90%) BigQuery
9 7 (1.90%) Data Warehouse
10 5 (1.36%) Azure SQL Database
10 5 (1.36%) Redis
10 5 (1.36%) Tableau
11 4 (1.08%) DynamoDB
11 4 (1.08%) Metadata
11 4 (1.08%) MongoDB
12 3 (0.81%) Apache Cassandra
12 3 (0.81%) DB2
Development Applications
1 66 (17.89%) Git
2 52 (14.09%) Jenkins
3 34 (9.21%) GitLab
4 27 (7.32%) JIRA
5 17 (4.61%) Sonatype Nexus
6 12 (3.25%) Bitbucket
7 9 (2.44%) Maven
8 8 (2.17%) Artifactory
8 8 (2.17%) JUnit
9 7 (1.90%) Selenium
9 7 (1.90%) SonarQube
10 6 (1.63%) CircleCI
10 6 (1.63%) Postman
11 5 (1.36%) Bitbucket Server
11 5 (1.36%) CA Release Automation
11 5 (1.36%) Gatling
11 5 (1.36%) JMeter
11 5 (1.36%) LoadRunner
12 4 (1.08%) Snyk
12 4 (1.08%) webpack
General
1 120 (32.52%) Social Skills
2 64 (17.34%) Finance
3 51 (13.82%) Analytical Skills
4 33 (8.94%) Public Sector
5 30 (8.13%) Banking
6 9 (2.44%) Investment Banking
6 9 (2.44%) Legal
7 8 (2.17%) Manufacturing
8 7 (1.90%) Documentation Skills
9 6 (1.63%) Front Office
9 6 (1.63%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 6 (1.63%) Marketing
9 6 (1.63%) Retail
10 5 (1.36%) Influencing Skills
10 5 (1.36%) Presentation Skills
10 5 (1.36%) Telecoms
11 4 (1.08%) Electronics
11 4 (1.08%) Games
12 3 (0.81%) Organisational Skills
13 2 (0.54%) German Language
Job Titles
1 37 (10.03%) Developer
2 34 (9.21%) DevOps Engineer
3 32 (8.67%) Senior
4 25 (6.78%) Analyst
5 23 (6.23%) Administrator
6 22 (5.96%) Automation Engineer
7 19 (5.15%) Platform Engineer
8 18 (4.88%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 17 (4.61%) Support Engineer
10 15 (4.07%) Consultant
10 15 (4.07%) DBA
11 14 (3.79%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 13 (3.52%) Data Engineer
12 13 (3.52%) Java Developer
13 12 (3.25%) Python Engineer
14 11 (2.98%) Lead
14 11 (2.98%) Network Engineer
14 11 (2.98%) Site Engineer
15 10 (2.71%) NetBackup Engineer
16 9 (2.44%) Applications Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (9.21%) REST
2 19 (5.15%) Elastic Stack
3 17 (4.61%) Node.js
4 15 (4.07%) .NET
5 14 (3.79%) FastAPI
6 12 (3.25%) Kafka
7 11 (2.98%) LDAP
7 11 (2.98%) OAuth
8 9 (2.44%) GraphQL
8 9 (2.44%) Microsoft Graph
8 9 (2.44%) Web Services
8 9 (2.44%) YAML
9 7 (1.90%) boto
9 7 (1.90%) SOAP
10 6 (1.63%) AngularJS
10 6 (1.63%) JSON
10 6 (1.63%) OAuth2
10 6 (1.63%) OpenID
10 6 (1.63%) RESTful
10 6 (1.63%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 23 (6.23%) Onboarding
2 16 (4.34%) Distributed Systems
3 15 (4.07%) Cloud Native
4 12 (3.25%) Security Posture
5 11 (2.98%) Private Cloud
6 9 (2.44%) AI Agents
6 9 (2.44%) Cyber Threat
7 8 (2.17%) Linux Command Line
8 7 (1.90%) Clustering
8 7 (1.90%) Data Centre
8 7 (1.90%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (1.90%) Management Information System
8 7 (1.90%) Replication
9 6 (1.63%) PKI
9 6 (1.63%) Public Cloud
9 6 (1.63%) Security Operations Centre
10 5 (1.36%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (1.08%) Analytical Mindset
11 4 (1.08%) Data Protection Act
11 4 (1.08%) NHS
Operating Systems
1 102 (27.64%) Linux
2 65 (17.62%) Windows
3 26 (7.05%) Unix
4 21 (5.69%) Windows Server
5 9 (2.44%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 8 (2.17%) CentOS
6 8 (2.17%) VMS
7 5 (1.36%) Ubuntu
8 4 (1.08%) AIX
9 3 (0.81%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.27%) Android
10 1 (0.27%) Debian
Processes & Methodologies
1 128 (34.69%) CI/CD
2 125 (33.88%) Problem-Solving
3 114 (30.89%) DevOps
4 72 (19.51%) Agile
5 70 (18.97%) Infrastructure as Code
6 63 (17.07%) Containerisation
7 44 (11.92%) Site Reliability Engineering
8 40 (10.84%) Migration
9 39 (10.57%) Continuous Improvement
10 38 (10.30%) Incident Response
11 36 (9.76%) AI
12 35 (9.49%) Disaster Recovery
13 34 (9.21%) Configuration Management
14 33 (8.94%) High Availability
14 33 (8.94%) Identity Access Management
15 32 (8.67%) Observability
16 31 (8.40%) Root Cause Analysis
16 31 (8.40%) Workflow
17 29 (7.86%) ITIL
18 28 (7.59%) SIEM
Programming Languages
1 198 (53.66%) Python
2 119 (32.25%) PowerShell
3 75 (20.33%) Bash
4 68 (18.43%) SQL
5 48 (13.01%) Java
6 34 (9.21%) Shell Script
7 33 (8.94%) Go
8 18 (4.88%) JavaScript
9 16 (4.34%) TypeScript
10 14 (3.79%) C#
11 13 (3.52%) Kusto Query Language
12 12 (3.25%) Bicep
13 11 (2.98%) Perl
13 11 (2.98%) VBA
14 8 (2.17%) Groovy
15 6 (1.63%) PL/SQL
15 6 (1.63%) T-SQL
16 4 (1.08%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 2 (0.54%) Ruby
17 2 (0.54%) VB.NET
Qualifications
1 87 (23.58%) Security Cleared
2 62 (16.80%) SC Cleared
3 35 (9.49%) Degree
4 21 (5.69%) BPSS Clearance
5 15 (4.07%) Computer Science Degree
5 15 (4.07%) DV Cleared
6 12 (3.25%) Microsoft Certification
7 11 (2.98%) Azure Certification
8 10 (2.71%) CISSP
9 9 (2.44%) Master's Degree
10 8 (2.17%) AWS Certification
11 6 (1.63%) CFCE
11 6 (1.63%) GCFA
11 6 (1.63%) GCIA
11 6 (1.63%) GCIH
11 6 (1.63%) GIAC
12 4 (1.08%) Cisco Certification
12 4 (1.08%) OCP
12 4 (1.08%) Oracle Certification
13 3 (0.81%) ITIL Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 26 (7.05%) GDPR
2 20 (5.42%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 17 (4.61%) NIST
4 15 (4.07%) QA
5 12 (3.25%) Data Quality
6 6 (1.63%) HIPAA
7 5 (1.36%) PCI DSS
8 4 (1.08%) SLA
9 2 (0.54%) EU AI Act
9 2 (0.54%) PMO
10 1 (0.27%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.27%) COBIT
10 1 (0.27%) GRC
10 1 (0.27%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.27%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.27%) SOC 2
System Software
1 61 (16.53%) Docker
2 47 (12.74%) Active Directory
3 29 (7.86%) VMware Infrastructure
4 13 (3.52%) Oracle RAC
5 9 (2.44%) Firmware
6 5 (1.36%) Hyper-V
6 5 (1.36%) Tivoli Directory Server
7 2 (0.54%) KVM
7 2 (0.54%) Virtual Desktop
7 2 (0.54%) Virtual Machines
7 2 (0.54%) VMware ESXi
7 2 (0.54%) Xen
8 1 (0.27%) iptables
8 1 (0.27%) Microsoft App-V
8 1 (0.27%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.27%) vSphere
8 1 (0.27%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 86 (23.31%) Terraform
2 77 (20.87%) Kubernetes
3 66 (17.89%) Ansible
4 41 (11.11%) Grafana
5 35 (9.49%) Prometheus
6 19 (5.15%) Progress Chef
7 18 (4.88%) SCCM
8 13 (3.52%) Microsoft Intune
8 13 (3.52%) Oracle RMAN
8 13 (3.52%) Puppet
9 11 (2.98%) Data Guard
10 10 (2.71%) NetBackup
11 9 (2.44%) Single Sign-On
11 9 (2.44%) yum
12 7 (1.90%) Podman
13 6 (1.63%) CA Single Sign-On
14 5 (1.36%) CA Wily
14 5 (1.36%) Computer Emergency Response Teams
14 5 (1.36%) Kibana
14 5 (1.36%) Tivoli
Vendors
1 114 (30.89%) Microsoft
2 44 (11.92%) Oracle
3 34 (9.21%) Google
4 33 (8.94%) Splunk
5 31 (8.40%) VMware
6 21 (5.69%) CyberArk
7 16 (4.34%) Atlassian
8 13 (3.52%) ServiceNow
9 12 (3.25%) Cisco
9 12 (3.25%) SAP
10 11 (2.98%) Palo Alto
11 10 (2.71%) Veritas
12 9 (2.44%) Red Hat
13 8 (2.17%) BeyondTrust
13 8 (2.17%) Databricks
14 7 (1.90%) IBM
15 6 (1.63%) ArcSight
15 6 (1.63%) LogRhythm
16 5 (1.36%) AppDynamics
16 5 (1.36%) F5