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

 6 months to
12 Aug 2026		 Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 379 259 247
Rank change year-on-year -120 -12 +179
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 305 333 374
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.57% 1.01% 0.96%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.67% 1.12% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 203 189 275
10th Percentile £300 £305 £393
25th Percentile £400 £408 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -9.09% -
75th Percentile £550 £600 £675
90th Percentile £625 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £500
% change year-on-year +4.17% -4.00% -2.44%
Number of hourly rates quoted 9 8 3
10th Percentile - £18.12 -
25th Percentile £16.33 £24.39 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £46.75 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -51.21% +96.43% -73.56%
75th Percentile £24.29 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £34.37 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.16 - -

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 45,292 29,826 33,298
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.86% 90.48% 85.52%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,883 18,657 21,289
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £423 £404 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £525 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year +5.00% -4.76% -3.67%
75th Percentile £625 £625 £638
90th Percentile £725 £725 £750
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £475 £500
% change year-on-year +5.26% -5.00% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,827 1,696 1,836
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £14.05
25th Percentile £18.80 £17.30 £18.35
Median hourly rate £42.50 £25.15 £41.08
Median % change year-on-year +68.99% -38.77% -1.96%
75th Percentile £68.00 £47.66 £65.00
90th Percentile £81.51 £68.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £22.84 £42.50
% change year-on-year +92.47% -46.26% +17.24%

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 12 August 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 12 August 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 12 August 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 -103 268 £475 -5.00% 357
UK excluding London -93 159 £500 +4.17% 146
London -90 116 £450 -13.04% 242
Work from Home -71 88 £475 -5.00% 132
North of England -48 65 £500 +4.17% 37
South East -36 48 £475 -0.52% 36
Yorkshire -20 41 £500 -6.98% 4
North West -46 21 £492 +3.61% 28
Midlands -59 17 £575 +14.71% 18
Scotland -26 13 £469 -1.32% 9
South West -40 11 £385 -25.96% 20
West Midlands -53 11 £600 +14.29% 12
East Midlands -8 6 £413 +7.14% 6
East of England -34 4 £550 +12.24% 14
North East -41 3 £275 -26.67% 5
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 10

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 39 (12.79%) SharePoint
2 21 (6.89%) Microsoft Exchange
3 7 (2.30%) Confluence
4 5 (1.64%) Apache Airflow
5 4 (1.31%) JBoss
6 3 (0.98%) CMS
6 3 (0.98%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.66%) Apache
7 2 (0.66%) OpenStack
8 1 (0.33%) FactoryTalk
8 1 (0.33%) IIS
8 1 (0.33%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.33%) SharePoint Server
8 1 (0.33%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 7 (2.30%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.97%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.31%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.33%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.33%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.33%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.64%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (1.31%) Remedy AR System
3 3 (0.98%) Dynamics CRM
4 1 (0.33%) FIS Private Capital Suite
4 1 (0.33%) FLEXCUBE
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle Applications
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle EBS
4 1 (0.33%) Oracle ERP
4 1 (0.33%) PeopleSoft HCM
4 1 (0.33%) SAP S/4HANA
4 1 (0.33%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 120 (39.34%) Azure
2 73 (23.93%) AWS
3 55 (18.03%) Microsoft 365
4 39 (12.79%) Entra ID
5 37 (12.13%) GitHub
6 30 (9.84%) Azure DevOps
7 27 (8.85%) GitHub Actions
7 27 (8.85%) Power Platform
8 23 (7.54%) GCP
9 21 (6.89%) Azure Monitor
10 20 (6.56%) Microsoft Copilot
11 19 (6.23%) Power Automate
12 18 (5.90%) OpenShift
13 17 (5.57%) Datadog
14 16 (5.25%) Amazon S3
15 14 (4.59%) Azure Key Vault
16 13 (4.26%) OneDrive
16 13 (4.26%) SaaS
17 12 (3.93%) PowerApps
17 12 (3.93%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 45 (14.75%) DNS
2 29 (9.51%) DHCP
3 26 (8.52%) VPN
4 24 (7.87%) Firewall
5 17 (5.57%) TCP/IP
6 14 (4.59%) Network Security
7 11 (3.61%) SAN
8 10 (3.28%) VLAN
9 9 (2.95%) WAN
10 8 (2.62%) SD-WAN
10 8 (2.62%) SSH
11 6 (1.97%) Kerberos
12 5 (1.64%) BIG-IP
12 5 (1.64%) LAN
13 4 (1.31%) Cisco IOS
13 4 (1.31%) Intranet
13 4 (1.31%) Skype
13 4 (1.31%) SNMP
13 4 (1.31%) Wireless
14 3 (0.98%) PSTN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 31 (10.16%) SQL Server
2 12 (3.93%) Power BI
3 10 (3.28%) Data Warehouse
4 8 (2.62%) Amazon RDS
4 8 (2.62%) Big Data
5 7 (2.30%) MySQL
5 7 (2.30%) Relational Database
6 6 (1.97%) Metadata
6 6 (1.97%) PostgreSQL
6 6 (1.97%) SQL Server Integration Services
6 6 (1.97%) Sybase ASE
7 5 (1.64%) Hadoop
8 4 (1.31%) EDRMS
8 4 (1.31%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (1.31%) Tableau
9 3 (0.98%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.98%) Data Lake
9 3 (0.98%) DTS
9 3 (0.98%) MongoDB
9 3 (0.98%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 32 (10.49%) Git
2 28 (9.18%) GitLab
3 25 (8.20%) Jenkins
4 13 (4.26%) JIRA
5 6 (1.97%) Sonatype Nexus
6 5 (1.64%) SonarQube
7 4 (1.31%) Flyway
8 3 (0.98%) AdminStudio
8 3 (0.98%) InstallShield
8 3 (0.98%) Oracle Forms
8 3 (0.98%) Selenium
9 2 (0.66%) Artifactory
9 2 (0.66%) Claude Code
9 2 (0.66%) Cypress.io
9 2 (0.66%) JUnit
9 2 (0.66%) Maven
9 2 (0.66%) Postman
9 2 (0.66%) Snyk
9 2 (0.66%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
10 1 (0.33%) Visual Studio
General
1 107 (35.08%) Social Skills
2 59 (19.34%) Analytical Skills
3 46 (15.08%) Finance
4 26 (8.52%) Banking
5 17 (5.57%) Legal
5 17 (5.57%) Public Sector
6 12 (3.93%) Organisational Skills
7 8 (2.62%) Documentation Skills
8 7 (2.30%) Front Office
9 6 (1.97%) Financial Institution
10 4 (1.31%) Investment Banking
11 3 (0.98%) Inclusion and Diversity
11 3 (0.98%) Law
11 3 (0.98%) Military
11 3 (0.98%) Retail
12 2 (0.66%) Manufacturing
12 2 (0.66%) Marketing
13 1 (0.33%) Billing
13 1 (0.33%) Influencing Skills
13 1 (0.33%) Local Government
Job Titles
1 27 (8.85%) Senior
2 26 (8.52%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 26 (8.52%) Support Engineer
3 25 (8.20%) Developer
4 21 (6.89%) DBA
5 17 (5.57%) Consultant
5 17 (5.57%) Platform Engineer
6 16 (5.25%) DevOps Engineer
7 15 (4.92%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 14 (4.59%) Analyst
9 11 (3.61%) Architect
9 11 (3.61%) Site Engineer
9 11 (3.61%) SQL DBA
10 10 (3.28%) Cloud Engineer
10 10 (3.28%) Data Engineer
10 10 (3.28%) Lead
11 9 (2.95%) Azure Developer
11 9 (2.95%) Systems Engineer
12 8 (2.62%) Administrator
12 8 (2.62%) Network Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 34 (11.15%) REST
2 19 (6.23%) .NET
3 15 (4.92%) SOAP
4 13 (4.26%) Microsoft Graph
5 12 (3.93%) React
6 11 (3.61%) ARM Templates
6 11 (3.61%) CSS
6 11 (3.61%) SPFx
7 10 (3.28%) .NET Framework
7 10 (3.28%) JSON
8 9 (2.95%) Elastic Stack
8 9 (2.95%) Web Services
8 9 (2.95%) YAML
9 8 (2.62%) AWS CDK
9 8 (2.62%) HTML
9 8 (2.62%) Kafka
10 6 (1.97%) Node.js
11 5 (1.64%) ASP.NET
11 5 (1.64%) LangChain
12 4 (1.31%) ASP.NET Core
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.54%) Onboarding
2 17 (5.57%) Hybrid Cloud
3 14 (4.59%) AI Agents
4 13 (4.26%) Data Protection Act
5 12 (3.93%) Cloud Native
5 12 (3.93%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (3.93%) Replication
6 11 (3.61%) Product Ownership
7 10 (3.28%) Legacy Systems
7 10 (3.28%) Management Information System
8 9 (2.95%) Clustering
9 8 (2.62%) Private Cloud
10 7 (2.30%) CMDB
10 7 (2.30%) Enterprise Software
10 7 (2.30%) Self-Motivation
11 6 (1.97%) Analytical Mindset
11 6 (1.97%) Data Centre
11 6 (1.97%) Public Cloud
12 5 (1.64%) Autonomous Agent
12 5 (1.64%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 69 (22.62%) Windows
2 60 (19.67%) Linux
3 25 (8.20%) Windows Server
4 23 (7.54%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 16 (5.25%) Windows 10
6 11 (3.61%) Unix
7 7 (2.30%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (1.97%) Windows 7
9 5 (1.64%) Android
9 5 (1.64%) Mac OS
9 5 (1.64%) VMS
9 5 (1.64%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (0.98%) CoreOS
10 3 (0.98%) Data ONTAP
10 3 (0.98%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.66%) AIX
11 2 (0.66%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.66%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.66%) Ubuntu
12 1 (0.33%) Solaris
Processes & Methodologies
1 80 (26.23%) CI/CD
2 79 (25.90%) Problem-Solving
3 78 (25.57%) DevOps
4 65 (21.31%) ITIL
5 58 (19.02%) AI
6 53 (17.38%) Agile
7 49 (16.07%) Infrastructure as Code
8 46 (15.08%) Migration
9 44 (14.43%) Observability
10 42 (13.77%) Continuous Improvement
11 41 (13.44%) Analytics
12 38 (12.46%) Disaster Recovery
13 37 (12.13%) Performance Tuning
14 36 (11.80%) Workflow
15 35 (11.48%) High Availability
16 33 (10.82%) Data Protection
16 33 (10.82%) Runbook
17 31 (10.16%) Infrastructure Engineering
18 29 (9.51%) Root Cause Analysis
18 29 (9.51%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 122 (40.00%) Python
2 118 (38.69%) PowerShell
3 60 (19.67%) SQL
4 50 (16.39%) Bash
5 35 (11.48%) JavaScript
6 18 (5.90%) Java
7 16 (5.25%) TypeScript
8 15 (4.92%) C#
9 13 (4.26%) Bicep
10 12 (3.93%) T-SQL
11 10 (3.28%) Go
11 10 (3.28%) Kusto Query Language
12 9 (2.95%) Shell Script
13 6 (1.97%) PL/SQL
14 5 (1.64%) VBScript
15 3 (0.98%) Perl
16 2 (0.66%) ActionScript
16 2 (0.66%) Scala
17 1 (0.33%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 1 (0.33%) Korn
Qualifications
1 95 (31.15%) Security Cleared
2 62 (20.33%) SC Cleared
3 33 (10.82%) Degree
4 32 (10.49%) DV Cleared
5 20 (6.56%) Computer Science Degree
6 12 (3.93%) Microsoft Certification
7 7 (2.30%) Azure Certification
8 5 (1.64%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (1.31%) AWS Certification
9 4 (1.31%) BPSS Clearance
10 3 (0.98%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
10 3 (0.98%) CCNA
10 3 (0.98%) CCNP
10 3 (0.98%) OCP
10 3 (0.98%) Oracle Certification
11 2 (0.66%) CIPD
11 2 (0.66%) DBS Check
11 2 (0.66%) Master's Degree
11 2 (0.66%) MCITP
11 2 (0.66%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (7.21%) Data Quality
2 14 (4.59%) SLA
3 8 (2.62%) NIST
3 8 (2.62%) QA
4 5 (1.64%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 2 (0.66%) Accessibility
6 1 (0.33%) GDPR
6 1 (0.33%) Government Security Classifications
6 1 (0.33%) NIST 800
6 1 (0.33%) PCI DSS
6 1 (0.33%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 62 (20.33%) Active Directory
2 30 (9.84%) VMware Infrastructure
3 21 (6.89%) Docker
4 13 (4.26%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (2.95%) NFS
5 9 (2.95%) Virtual Desktop
6 8 (2.62%) VMware ESXi
7 7 (2.30%) Hyper-V
7 7 (2.30%) vSphere
8 2 (0.66%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.66%) Firmware
8 2 (0.66%) Virtual Servers
8 2 (0.66%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.33%) NDS
9 1 (0.33%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 1 (0.33%) OpenSSH
9 1 (0.33%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.33%) UAG
Systems Management
1 50 (16.39%) Ansible
2 49 (16.07%) Terraform
3 32 (10.49%) Kubernetes
4 29 (9.51%) Microsoft Intune
5 24 (7.87%) SCCM
6 15 (4.92%) Puppet
7 14 (4.59%) Grafana
8 12 (3.93%) Progress Chef
8 12 (3.93%) Prometheus
9 11 (3.61%) SCOM
10 10 (3.28%) Red Hat Satellite
10 10 (3.28%) vCenter Server
11 6 (1.97%) Single Sign-On
12 4 (1.31%) Failover Clustering
13 3 (0.98%) Foglight
13 3 (0.98%) SnapMirror
13 3 (0.98%) WSUS
14 2 (0.66%) FortiGate
14 2 (0.66%) Oracle RMAN
14 2 (0.66%) PowerCLI
Vendors
1 110 (36.07%) Microsoft
2 37 (12.13%) VMware
3 23 (7.54%) ServiceNow
4 21 (6.89%) Red Hat
5 20 (6.56%) Google
6 19 (6.23%) Oracle
7 15 (4.92%) Splunk
8 14 (4.59%) Cisco
9 10 (3.28%) Databricks
9 10 (3.28%) SolarWinds
10 8 (2.62%) OpenAI
11 7 (2.30%) AppDynamics
11 7 (2.30%) F5
12 6 (1.97%) Bloomberg
12 6 (1.97%) BMC
12 6 (1.97%) Broadcom
12 6 (1.97%) Citrix
12 6 (1.97%) Palo Alto
12 6 (1.97%) Sybase
13 5 (1.64%) Remedy
407 Task Automation jobs Nationwide