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

 6 months to
21 Jul 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 391 262 264
Rank change year-on-year -129 +2 +190
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 291 324 366
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.55% 0.99% 0.89%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.65% 1.10% 1.04%
Number of daily rates quoted 196 180 274
10th Percentile £300 £306 £384
25th Percentile £400 £407 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £472 £500 £531
Median % change year-on-year -5.60% -5.88% -3.41%
75th Percentile £556 £591 £675
90th Percentile £625 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -4.76%
Number of hourly rates quoted 6 11 3
10th Percentile - £18.82 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £23.63 -
Median hourly rate £19.57 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -69.18% +166.81% -73.56%
75th Percentile £24.29 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £46.40 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £16.33 £43.50 -
% change year-on-year -62.46% - -

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 44,806 29,445 35,310
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.99% 90.36% 85.44%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,768 18,486 22,647
10th Percentile £325 £300 £306
25th Percentile £419 £405 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £520 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +4.00% -4.76% -4.11%
75th Percentile £625 £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 2,649 1,571 2,189
10th Percentile £14.85 £14.20 £13.06
25th Percentile £20.00 £17.44 £16.86
Median hourly rate £43.96 £25.15 £38.12
Median % change year-on-year +74.79% -34.02% -10.31%
75th Percentile £68.55 £50.88 £62.50
90th Percentile £83.00 £68.75 £73.55
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £24.00 £40.00
% change year-on-year +87.50% -40.00% -1.45%

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 21 July 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 21 July 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 21 July 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 -85 247 £465 -7.00% 110
UK excluding London -93 155 £500 +5.26% 75
London -93 105 £450 -13.04% 38
Work from Home -77 89 £470 -6.00% 41
North of England -38 63 £500 +5.26% 22
Yorkshire -15 48 £500 +25.00% 1
South East -40 45 £469 -6.20% 28
Scotland -35 17 £500 +6.67% 2
Midlands -52 15 £550 +10.00% 11
North West -51 12 £459 -3.37% 19
South West -39 11 £385 -25.96% 4
West Midlands -55 11 £600 +19.70% 4
East Midlands -15 4 £413 +7.14% 7
North East -41 3 £275 -26.67% 2
Wales -18 2 £543 +106.67% 1
East of England -43 2 £550 +15.79% 9

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 38 (13.06%) SharePoint
2 23 (7.90%) Microsoft Exchange
3 8 (2.75%) Confluence
4 5 (1.72%) Apache Airflow
5 3 (1.03%) Apache
5 3 (1.03%) Appian
5 3 (1.03%) CMS
6 1 (0.34%) OpenStack
6 1 (0.34%) Palantir Foundry
6 1 (0.34%) SharePoint Server
6 1 (0.34%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 6 (2.06%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.72%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.37%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.34%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.34%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.34%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (1.03%) Dynamics CRM
1 3 (1.03%) Remedy ITSM
2 2 (0.69%) Remedy AR System
3 1 (0.34%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.34%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.34%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.34%) PeopleSoft HCM
3 1 (0.34%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.34%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 127 (43.64%) Azure
2 73 (25.09%) AWS
3 56 (19.24%) Microsoft 365
4 43 (14.78%) Entra ID
5 41 (14.09%) GitHub
6 32 (11.00%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (9.97%) GCP
8 28 (9.62%) GitHub Actions
9 24 (8.25%) Power Platform
10 22 (7.56%) Azure Monitor
11 19 (6.53%) OpenShift
11 19 (6.53%) Power Automate
12 17 (5.84%) Amazon S3
13 16 (5.50%) Azure Key Vault
14 15 (5.15%) Datadog
14 15 (5.15%) Microsoft Copilot
15 14 (4.81%) OneDrive
15 14 (4.81%) PaaS
16 13 (4.47%) PowerApps
16 13 (4.47%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 38 (13.06%) DNS
2 25 (8.59%) DHCP
3 24 (8.25%) Firewall
4 23 (7.90%) VPN
5 14 (4.81%) TCP/IP
6 13 (4.47%) SAN
7 12 (4.12%) Network Security
8 9 (3.09%) VLAN
9 8 (2.75%) SSH
10 7 (2.41%) SD-WAN
10 7 (2.41%) WAN
11 4 (1.37%) Intranet
11 4 (1.37%) LAN
12 3 (1.03%) BGP
12 3 (1.03%) BIG-IP
12 3 (1.03%) Cisco IOS
12 3 (1.03%) Cisco Nexus
12 3 (1.03%) Kerberos
12 3 (1.03%) OSPF
12 3 (1.03%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (12.03%) SQL Server
2 11 (3.78%) Data Warehouse
3 10 (3.44%) Power BI
4 8 (2.75%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (2.41%) Metadata
5 7 (2.41%) MySQL
5 7 (2.41%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (2.06%) Relational Database
6 6 (2.06%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (2.06%) Sybase ASE
7 4 (1.37%) Big Data
7 4 (1.37%) EDRMS
7 4 (1.37%) Oracle Database
7 4 (1.37%) Snowflake Schema
7 4 (1.37%) Tableau
8 3 (1.03%) Amazon Redshift
8 3 (1.03%) Data Lake
8 3 (1.03%) DTS
8 3 (1.03%) MongoDB
8 3 (1.03%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 33 (11.34%) Git
2 27 (9.28%) Jenkins
3 24 (8.25%) GitLab
4 17 (5.84%) JIRA
5 5 (1.72%) SonarQube
5 5 (1.72%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (1.37%) Flyway
7 3 (1.03%) AdminStudio
7 3 (1.03%) InstallShield
7 3 (1.03%) MLflow
7 3 (1.03%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
8 2 (0.69%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.69%) Selenium
9 1 (0.34%) Cypress.io
9 1 (0.34%) JMeter
9 1 (0.34%) Maven
9 1 (0.34%) SoapUI
9 1 (0.34%) TestNG
9 1 (0.34%) VersionOne
9 1 (0.34%) WebDriver
General
1 102 (35.05%) Social Skills
2 51 (17.53%) Finance
3 45 (15.46%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (9.28%) Banking
5 18 (6.19%) Public Sector
6 16 (5.50%) Legal
7 12 (4.12%) Organisational Skills
8 8 (2.75%) Documentation Skills
8 8 (2.75%) Financial Institution
9 5 (1.72%) Front Office
9 5 (1.72%) Investment Banking
10 4 (1.37%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 4 (1.37%) Military
11 3 (1.03%) Law
12 2 (0.69%) Influencing Skills
12 2 (0.69%) Retail
13 1 (0.34%) International Banking
13 1 (0.34%) Local Government
13 1 (0.34%) Marketing
13 1 (0.34%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 29 (9.97%) Developer
2 22 (7.56%) DBA
3 21 (7.22%) Infrastructure Engineer
3 21 (7.22%) Senior
4 19 (6.53%) Support Engineer
5 17 (5.84%) DevOps Engineer
6 16 (5.50%) Consultant
7 15 (5.15%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 14 (4.81%) Platform Engineer
9 12 (4.12%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
9 12 (4.12%) Site Engineer
10 11 (3.78%) Azure Developer
10 11 (3.78%) Data Engineer
10 11 (3.78%) SQL DBA
11 10 (3.44%) Lead
12 9 (3.09%) Analyst
12 9 (3.09%) Architect
12 9 (3.09%) Automation Engineer
12 9 (3.09%) Microsoft 365 Developer
12 9 (3.09%) Technical Support
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 37 (12.71%) REST
2 23 (7.90%) .NET
3 15 (5.15%) Microsoft Graph
3 15 (5.15%) SOAP
4 14 (4.81%) Web Services
5 12 (4.12%) .NET Framework
5 12 (4.12%) ARM Templates
5 12 (4.12%) React
6 11 (3.78%) CSS
6 11 (3.78%) SPFx
7 10 (3.44%) JSON
8 8 (2.75%) AWS CDK
8 8 (2.75%) Elastic Stack
8 8 (2.75%) HTML
8 8 (2.75%) Kafka
9 6 (2.06%) JWT
9 6 (2.06%) Node.js
9 6 (2.06%) Pandas
9 6 (2.06%) PyTorch
9 6 (2.06%) RESTful
Miscellaneous
1 25 (8.59%) Onboarding
2 17 (5.84%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.81%) Legacy Systems
4 13 (4.47%) AI Agents
4 13 (4.47%) Replication
5 12 (4.12%) Distributed Systems
6 11 (3.78%) Cloud Native
6 11 (3.78%) Product Ownership
7 10 (3.44%) Data Protection Act
8 9 (3.09%) Management Information System
9 8 (2.75%) Enterprise Software
10 7 (2.41%) Data Centre
10 7 (2.41%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (2.06%) CMDB
11 6 (2.06%) Private Cloud
11 6 (2.06%) Virtual Team
12 5 (1.72%) Clustering
12 5 (1.72%) FlexPod
12 5 (1.72%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.72%) Security Posture
Operating Systems
1 65 (22.34%) Windows
2 58 (19.93%) Linux
3 25 (8.59%) Windows Server
4 19 (6.53%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 11 (3.78%) Unix
6 9 (3.09%) Windows 10
7 7 (2.41%) Mac OS
8 6 (2.06%) VMS
8 6 (2.06%) Windows Server 2019
9 5 (1.72%) CoreOS
9 5 (1.72%) Data ONTAP
10 2 (0.69%) AIX
10 2 (0.69%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.69%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.69%) Windows Server 2012
10 2 (0.69%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.34%) Android
11 1 (0.34%) CentOS
11 1 (0.34%) Solaris
11 1 (0.34%) zOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 79 (27.15%) CI/CD
2 78 (26.80%) DevOps
3 73 (25.09%) Problem-Solving
4 59 (20.27%) AI
5 58 (19.93%) ITIL
6 55 (18.90%) Agile
7 47 (16.15%) Infrastructure as Code
8 46 (15.81%) Migration
9 40 (13.75%) Analytics
9 40 (13.75%) Continuous Improvement
9 40 (13.75%) Observability
10 36 (12.37%) Disaster Recovery
11 34 (11.68%) Workflow
12 32 (11.00%) High Availability
12 32 (11.00%) Performance Tuning
13 31 (10.65%) Change Management
14 30 (10.31%) Containerisation
14 30 (10.31%) Data Protection
15 28 (9.62%) Site Reliability Engineering
16 27 (9.28%) Infrastructure Engineering
Programming Languages
1 124 (42.61%) Python
2 109 (37.46%) PowerShell
3 58 (19.93%) SQL
4 46 (15.81%) Bash
5 29 (9.97%) JavaScript
6 19 (6.53%) C#
7 16 (5.50%) TypeScript
8 15 (5.15%) Java
9 12 (4.12%) Bicep
9 12 (4.12%) Kusto Query Language
9 12 (4.12%) T-SQL
10 10 (3.44%) Go
11 8 (2.75%) Shell Script
12 7 (2.41%) PL/SQL
13 3 (1.03%) VBScript
14 2 (0.69%) ActionScript
14 2 (0.69%) Scala
15 1 (0.34%) ABAP
15 1 (0.34%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 1 (0.34%) REXX
Qualifications
1 77 (26.46%) Security Cleared
2 48 (16.49%) SC Cleared
3 29 (9.97%) Degree
4 27 (9.28%) DV Cleared
5 18 (6.19%) Computer Science Degree
6 11 (3.78%) Microsoft Certification
7 8 (2.75%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.72%) AWS Certification
8 5 (1.72%) OCP
8 5 (1.72%) Oracle Certification
9 4 (1.37%) BPSS Clearance
9 4 (1.37%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (1.03%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (1.03%) CCNP
10 3 (1.03%) CISSP
11 2 (0.69%) CCNA
11 2 (0.69%) CISM
11 2 (0.69%) MCITP
11 2 (0.69%) MCTS
11 2 (0.69%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (7.56%) Data Quality
2 9 (3.09%) QA
3 8 (2.75%) NIST
3 8 (2.75%) SLA
4 7 (2.41%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 3 (1.03%) Accessibility
5 3 (1.03%) GDPR
6 2 (0.69%) Sarbanes-Oxley
7 1 (0.34%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.34%) GRC
7 1 (0.34%) SOC 2
System Software
1 57 (19.59%) Active Directory
2 26 (8.93%) Docker
3 23 (7.90%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (4.81%) Virtual Machines
5 11 (3.78%) NFS
6 8 (2.75%) vSphere
7 7 (2.41%) Virtual Desktop
8 6 (2.06%) VMware ESXi
9 5 (1.72%) Hyper-V
10 2 (0.69%) BitLocker
10 2 (0.69%) Firmware
10 2 (0.69%) Virtual Servers
11 1 (0.34%) KVM
11 1 (0.34%) OpenSSH
11 1 (0.34%) Oracle RAC
11 1 (0.34%) UAG
11 1 (0.34%) VMware NSX
Systems Management
1 54 (18.56%) Ansible
2 51 (17.53%) Terraform
3 39 (13.40%) Kubernetes
4 29 (9.97%) Microsoft Intune
5 18 (6.19%) SCCM
6 14 (4.81%) Grafana
7 11 (3.78%) Prometheus
8 10 (3.44%) Progress Chef
9 9 (3.09%) Puppet
9 9 (3.09%) SCOM
9 9 (3.09%) vCenter Server
10 7 (2.41%) Single Sign-On
11 6 (2.06%) Red Hat Satellite
12 5 (1.72%) SnapMirror
13 3 (1.03%) Foglight
13 3 (1.03%) Nessus
13 3 (1.03%) PowerCLI
13 3 (1.03%) WSUS
14 2 (0.69%) Nagios
14 2 (0.69%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 105 (36.08%) Microsoft
2 31 (10.65%) VMware
3 25 (8.59%) ServiceNow
4 24 (8.25%) Google
5 18 (6.19%) Red Hat
6 17 (5.84%) Oracle
7 16 (5.50%) Splunk
8 12 (4.12%) OpenAI
9 10 (3.44%) Databricks
10 9 (3.09%) Cisco
10 9 (3.09%) SolarWinds
11 7 (2.41%) AppDynamics
12 6 (2.06%) Bloomberg
12 6 (2.06%) Citrix
12 6 (2.06%) CrowdStrike
12 6 (2.06%) Palo Alto
12 6 (2.06%) Sybase
13 5 (1.72%) Broadcom
13 5 (1.72%) F5
13 5 (1.72%) NetApp
127 Task Automation jobs Nationwide