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

6 months to
24 Sep 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 392 257 254
Rank change year-on-year -135 -3 +143
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 308 347 361
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.56% 1.05% 0.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.66% 1.16% 1.10%
Number of daily rates quoted 200 199 246
10th Percentile £320 £305 £361
25th Percentile £409 £400 £425
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £480 £500
Median % change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -3.66%
75th Percentile £556 £578 £625
90th Percentile £681 £669 £704
UK excluding London median daily rate £515 £475 £470
% change year-on-year +8.42% +1.06% -6.00%
Number of hourly rates quoted 8 7 3
10th Percentile - £17.89 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £40.28 -
Median hourly rate £22.25 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -64.96% +166.81% -73.56%
75th Percentile £35.63 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £66.05 £66.05 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £18.92 £66.50 -
% change year-on-year -71.56% - -

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 46,342 29,835 32,681
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.41% 90.50% 85.76%
Number of daily rates quoted 28,074 18,533 19,873
10th Percentile £325 £300 £309
25th Percentile £425 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -2.78%
75th Percentile £626 £625 £638
90th Percentile £730 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3,192 1,836 1,405
10th Percentile £13.74 £14.31 £15.00
25th Percentile £17.25 £17.32 £20.00
Median hourly rate £40.00 £25.15 £43.00
Median % change year-on-year +59.05% -41.51% -
75th Percentile £67.25 £43.75 £65.00
90th Percentile £78.75 £65.25 £74.65
UK excluding London median hourly rate £40.00 £22.32 £43.00
% change year-on-year +79.25% -48.10% +1.18%

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 24 September 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 24 September 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 24 September 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 -136 262 £500 +1.57% 536
UK excluding London -107 158 £515 +8.42% 260
London -105 110 £450 -10.00% 294
Work from Home -85 87 £500 - 209
North of England -48 65 £500 +5.26% 79
South East -40 49 £538 +18.20% 64
Yorkshire -19 37 £516 +7.48% 21
North West -52 24 £492 +3.61% 48
Midlands -69 16 £600 +17.94% 24
Scotland -37 12 £438 -4.89% 10
West Midlands -66 11 £600 +15.50% 15
South West -40 8 £535 +2.88% 37
East of England -43 8 £503 +11.67% 27
East Midlands -19 5 £500 +19.76% 9
North East -41 4 £275 +37.50% 11
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 14

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 (10.39%) SharePoint
2 15 (4.87%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.27%) Apache Airflow
4 5 (1.62%) JBoss
5 4 (1.30%) Confluence
5 4 (1.30%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.97%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 3 (0.97%) WebLogic
6 3 (0.97%) WebLogic Portal
7 2 (0.65%) CMS
7 2 (0.65%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.32%) Apache
8 1 (0.32%) ArcGIS
8 1 (0.32%) FactoryTalk
8 1 (0.32%) IIS
8 1 (0.32%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.32%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (2.27%) Microsoft Office
2 6 (1.95%) Microsoft Excel
3 3 (0.97%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 7 (2.27%) Remedy ITSM
2 6 (1.95%) Remedy AR System
3 4 (1.30%) Oracle EBS
4 3 (0.97%) Dynamics CRM
4 3 (0.97%) Oracle EBS R12
4 3 (0.97%) SAP S/4HANA
5 1 (0.32%) FIS Private Capital Suite
5 1 (0.32%) FLEXCUBE
5 1 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
5 1 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
5 1 (0.32%) PeopleSoft HCM
5 1 (0.32%) Salesforce CRM
5 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 116 (37.66%) Azure
2 75 (24.35%) AWS
3 48 (15.58%) Microsoft 365
4 33 (10.71%) Entra ID
5 32 (10.39%) GitHub
6 30 (9.74%) GCP
7 29 (9.42%) Azure DevOps
7 29 (9.42%) Power Platform
8 24 (7.79%) GitHub Actions
9 21 (6.82%) Amazon S3
9 21 (6.82%) Microsoft Copilot
10 19 (6.17%) AWS Lambda
10 19 (6.17%) Power Automate
10 19 (6.17%) Serverless
11 18 (5.84%) Azure Monitor
11 18 (5.84%) Datadog
12 15 (4.87%) AWS CloudFormation
13 14 (4.55%) OneDrive
13 14 (4.55%) SaaS
14 12 (3.90%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 49 (15.91%) DNS
2 28 (9.09%) DHCP
3 27 (8.77%) VPN
4 26 (8.44%) Firewall
5 21 (6.82%) TCP/IP
6 17 (5.52%) Network Security
7 8 (2.60%) SSH
7 8 (2.60%) VLAN
8 7 (2.27%) Kerberos
8 7 (2.27%) SAN
8 7 (2.27%) WAN
9 6 (1.95%) SD-WAN
9 6 (1.95%) Skype
9 6 (1.95%) Wireless
10 5 (1.62%) BIG-IP
11 4 (1.30%) Intranet
11 4 (1.30%) PSTN
11 4 (1.30%) Reverse Proxy
11 4 (1.30%) Wi-Fi
12 3 (0.97%) LAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 24 (7.79%) SQL Server
2 13 (4.22%) Data Warehouse
3 12 (3.90%) Power BI
4 11 (3.57%) Amazon RDS
5 7 (2.27%) Metadata
5 7 (2.27%) MySQL
6 6 (1.95%) Hadoop
6 6 (1.95%) Oracle Database
6 6 (1.95%) Relational Database
7 5 (1.62%) Big Data
7 5 (1.62%) Sybase ASE
8 4 (1.30%) Data Lake
8 4 (1.30%) EDRMS
8 4 (1.30%) PostgreSQL
8 4 (1.30%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 3 (0.97%) BigQuery
9 3 (0.97%) Oracle Database 10g
9 3 (0.97%) Oracle Database 11g
9 3 (0.97%) Oracle Database 12c
9 3 (0.97%) SSDT
Development Applications
1 38 (12.34%) Git
2 22 (7.14%) GitLab
3 20 (6.49%) Jenkins
4 11 (3.57%) JIRA
5 5 (1.62%) SonarQube
6 4 (1.30%) Flyway
6 4 (1.30%) Oracle Forms
6 4 (1.30%) Sonatype Nexus
7 3 (0.97%) Artifactory
7 3 (0.97%) Oracle APEX
8 2 (0.65%) Claude Code
8 2 (0.65%) Cypress.io
8 2 (0.65%) JUnit
8 2 (0.65%) Maven
8 2 (0.65%) Postman
8 2 (0.65%) Selenium
8 2 (0.65%) Snyk
8 2 (0.65%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.32%) TestRail
9 1 (0.32%) webpack
General
1 94 (30.52%) Social Skills
2 56 (18.18%) Analytical Skills
3 53 (17.21%) Finance
4 33 (10.71%) Banking
5 17 (5.52%) Legal
6 14 (4.55%) Public Sector
7 10 (3.25%) Organisational Skills
8 7 (2.27%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.27%) Front Office
9 6 (1.95%) Financial Institution
10 3 (0.97%) Investment Banking
10 3 (0.97%) Law
10 3 (0.97%) Military
11 2 (0.65%) Billing
11 2 (0.65%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 2 (0.65%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.65%) Marketing
11 2 (0.65%) Retail
12 1 (0.32%) Local Government
12 1 (0.32%) Presentation Skills
Job Titles
1 40 (12.99%) Senior
2 31 (10.06%) Support Engineer
3 29 (9.42%) Infrastructure Engineer
4 22 (7.14%) DevOps Engineer
5 19 (6.17%) Cloud Engineer
6 18 (5.84%) Developer
7 17 (5.52%) Analyst
8 16 (5.19%) DBA
8 16 (5.19%) Platform Engineer
9 14 (4.55%) Consultant
10 13 (4.22%) Data Engineer
11 12 (3.90%) Site Reliability Engineer
12 11 (3.57%) Architect
13 10 (3.25%) Azure Engineer
13 10 (3.25%) Lead
13 10 (3.25%) Linux Engineer
13 10 (3.25%) Site Engineer
14 8 (2.60%) Data Analyst
14 8 (2.60%) Security Engineer
14 8 (2.60%) Senior Infrastructure Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 67 (21.75%) Terraform
2 29 (9.42%) REST
3 18 (5.84%) React
4 15 (4.87%) ARM Templates
5 12 (3.90%) JSON
6 11 (3.57%) .NET
6 11 (3.57%) CSS
6 11 (3.57%) Kafka
6 11 (3.57%) Node.js
6 11 (3.57%) SPFx
7 10 (3.25%) Elastic Stack
8 9 (2.92%) YAML
9 8 (2.60%) HTML
9 8 (2.60%) SOAP
10 7 (2.27%) Middleware
11 6 (1.95%) JWT
11 6 (1.95%) RESTful
12 5 (1.62%) ASP.NET
12 5 (1.62%) AWS CDK
12 5 (1.62%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 22 (7.14%) Cloud Native
2 21 (6.82%) Onboarding
3 16 (5.19%) Hybrid Cloud
4 15 (4.87%) Distributed Systems
5 14 (4.55%) AI Agents
6 13 (4.22%) Data Protection Act
7 12 (3.90%) Clustering
8 11 (3.57%) Management Information System
9 10 (3.25%) Legacy Systems
9 10 (3.25%) Private Cloud
9 10 (3.25%) Replication
10 9 (2.92%) CMDB
10 9 (2.92%) Product Ownership
11 8 (2.60%) Self-Motivation
12 7 (2.27%) Public Cloud
12 7 (2.27%) Virtual Team
13 6 (1.95%) Blackberry
14 5 (1.62%) Data Centre
14 5 (1.62%) Enterprise Software
14 5 (1.62%) Handset
Operating Systems
1 67 (21.75%) Windows
2 59 (19.16%) Linux
3 23 (7.47%) Windows Server
4 21 (6.82%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 14 (4.55%) Windows 10
6 13 (4.22%) Unix
6 13 (4.22%) Windows Server 2019
7 8 (2.60%) Android
7 8 (2.60%) Mac OS
8 7 (2.27%) Windows 7
9 6 (1.95%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (0.97%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.65%) AIX
11 2 (0.65%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.65%) VMS
11 2 (0.65%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.65%) zOS
12 1 (0.32%) MVS
12 1 (0.32%) Rocky
Processes & Methodologies
1 94 (30.52%) CI/CD
2 80 (25.97%) DevOps
3 68 (22.08%) Infrastructure as Code
3 68 (22.08%) ITIL
4 66 (21.43%) Problem-Solving
5 65 (21.10%) Agile
6 53 (17.21%) AI
7 51 (16.56%) Continuous Improvement
8 48 (15.58%) Migration
9 46 (14.94%) Observability
10 45 (14.61%) Root Cause Analysis
11 44 (14.29%) Workflow
12 41 (13.31%) Performance Tuning
13 38 (12.34%) ITSM
14 35 (11.36%) Disaster Recovery
14 35 (11.36%) Runbook
15 34 (11.04%) Analytics
15 34 (11.04%) Containerisation
16 33 (10.71%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 30 (9.74%) High Availability
Programming Languages
1 137 (44.48%) Python
2 110 (35.71%) PowerShell
3 63 (20.45%) SQL
4 54 (17.53%) Bash
5 36 (11.69%) JavaScript
6 17 (5.52%) Bicep
6 17 (5.52%) Java
7 15 (4.87%) Go
8 13 (4.22%) TypeScript
9 12 (3.90%) T-SQL
10 11 (3.57%) Shell Script
11 9 (2.92%) PL/SQL
12 7 (2.27%) C#
13 5 (1.62%) Perl
13 5 (1.62%) VBScript
14 2 (0.65%) REXX
14 2 (0.65%) Scala
15 1 (0.32%) JCL
15 1 (0.32%) Korn
15 1 (0.32%) Kusto Query Language
Qualifications
1 104 (33.77%) Security Cleared
2 67 (21.75%) SC Cleared
3 38 (12.34%) DV Cleared
4 33 (10.71%) Degree
5 20 (6.49%) Computer Science Degree
6 15 (4.87%) Azure Certification
7 14 (4.55%) Microsoft Certification
8 6 (1.95%) AWS Certification
9 5 (1.62%) BPSS Clearance
9 5 (1.62%) Cisco Certification
10 3 (0.97%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (0.97%) CCNA
10 3 (0.97%) CCNP
11 2 (0.65%) CIPD
11 2 (0.65%) CISM
11 2 (0.65%) CISSP
11 2 (0.65%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.65%) GSEC
11 2 (0.65%) OSCP
12 1 (0.32%) A+ Certification
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (7.14%) Data Quality
2 18 (5.84%) SLA
3 13 (4.22%) QA
4 9 (2.92%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 6 (1.95%) NIST
6 4 (1.30%) HIPAA
6 4 (1.30%) SOC 2
7 2 (0.65%) Accessibility
7 2 (0.65%) GDPR
8 1 (0.32%) Government Security Classifications
8 1 (0.32%) NIST 800
8 1 (0.32%) PCI DSS
8 1 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 62 (20.13%) Active Directory
2 30 (9.74%) VMware Infrastructure
3 28 (9.09%) Docker
4 14 (4.55%) Virtual Machines
4 14 (4.55%) VMware ESXi
5 10 (3.25%) Virtual Desktop
6 6 (1.95%) Hyper-V
6 6 (1.95%) NFS
6 6 (1.95%) vSphere
7 2 (0.65%) BitLocker
7 2 (0.65%) Firmware
7 2 (0.65%) VMware NSX
8 1 (0.32%) NDS
8 1 (0.32%) NetIQ eDirectory
8 1 (0.32%) OpenSSH
8 1 (0.32%) Oracle RAC
Systems Management
1 44 (14.29%) Ansible
2 41 (13.31%) Kubernetes
3 26 (8.44%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (7.79%) SCCM
5 18 (5.84%) Grafana
6 17 (5.52%) SCOM
7 16 (5.19%) Prometheus
7 16 (5.19%) Puppet
8 14 (4.55%) vCenter Server
9 11 (3.57%) Progress Chef
9 11 (3.57%) Red Hat Satellite
10 7 (2.27%) Failover Clustering
10 7 (2.27%) Single Sign-On
11 5 (1.62%) Oracle RMAN
12 3 (0.97%) Istio
12 3 (0.97%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 2 (0.65%) Data Guard
13 2 (0.65%) linkerd
13 2 (0.65%) Podman
13 2 (0.65%) WSUS
Vendors
1 107 (34.74%) Microsoft
2 34 (11.04%) VMware
3 24 (7.79%) Google
4 22 (7.14%) Oracle
4 22 (7.14%) ServiceNow
5 20 (6.49%) Red Hat
6 17 (5.52%) Splunk
7 15 (4.87%) SolarWinds
8 12 (3.90%) Broadcom
9 11 (3.57%) Cisco
10 8 (2.60%) BMC
11 7 (2.27%) AppDynamics
11 7 (2.27%) Citrix
11 7 (2.27%) OpenAI
11 7 (2.27%) Remedy
12 6 (1.95%) Dynatrace
12 6 (1.95%) Ivanti
12 6 (1.95%) Okta
13 5 (1.62%) BeyondTrust
13 5 (1.62%) F5