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

6 months to
27 Aug 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 380 254 248
Rank change year-on-year -126 -6 +184
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 309 342 370
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.58% 1.04% 0.95%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.68% 1.15% 1.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 204 195 265
10th Percentile £300 £306 £382
25th Percentile £400 £406 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £489 £500 £525
Median % change year-on-year -2.30% -4.76% -
75th Percentile £556 £588 £638
90th Percentile £625 £675 £710
UK excluding London median daily rate £500 £480 £488
% change year-on-year +4.17% -1.54% -2.50%
Number of hourly rates quoted 10 7 3
10th Percentile £16.33 £17.89 -
25th Percentile £17.44 £40.28 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £63.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -64.08% +166.81% -73.56%
75th Percentile £25.45 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £65.35 £66.05 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.16 £66.50 -
% change year-on-year -66.68% - -

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 45,399 29,629 33,143
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.55% 90.46% 85.37%
Number of daily rates quoted 27,782 18,436 20,950
10th Percentile £325 £300 £310
25th Percentile £425 £402 £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 2,881 1,773 1,687
10th Percentile £14.22 £14.20 £13.86
25th Percentile £17.87 £17.30 £18.13
Median hourly rate £41.00 £25.15 £40.50
Median % change year-on-year +63.02% -37.90% -4.71%
75th Percentile £67.84 £47.50 £65.00
90th Percentile £80.00 £67.50 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £43.96 £23.00 £42.50
% change year-on-year +91.13% -45.88% +6.25%

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 27 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 27 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 27 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 -103 269 £478 -4.50% 90
UK excluding London -101 156 £500 +4.17% 77
London -86 120 £450 -10.00% 31
Work from Home -70 89 £500 - 32
North of England -51 63 £500 +5.26% 13
South East -30 47 £514 +4.37% 13
Yorkshire -30 38 £500 +4.17% 3
North West -47 22 £492 +3.58% 9
Midlands -67 17 £588 +14.08% 17
Scotland -32 13 £469 -0.79% 3
South West -39 11 £325 -37.50% 18
West Midlands -65 10 £600 +15.50% 15
East Midlands -13 7 £413 +7.14% 2
East of England -39 4 £550 +12.24% 9
North East -39 3 £275 +37.50% 1
Northern Ireland - 1 - - 4

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 40 (12.94%) SharePoint
2 22 (7.12%) Microsoft Exchange
3 6 (1.94%) Apache Airflow
3 6 (1.94%) Confluence
4 5 (1.62%) JBoss
5 4 (1.29%) Oracle Workflow
6 3 (0.97%) CMS
7 2 (0.65%) Apache
7 2 (0.65%) OpenStack
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 Excel
2 6 (1.94%) Microsoft Office
3 4 (1.29%) Chatbot
4 1 (0.32%) Microsoft Project
4 1 (0.32%) MS Visio
4 1 (0.32%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 5 (1.62%) Remedy ITSM
2 4 (1.29%) Dynamics CRM
2 4 (1.29%) Remedy AR System
3 1 (0.32%) FIS Private Capital Suite
3 1 (0.32%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.32%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.32%) PeopleSoft HCM
3 1 (0.32%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.32%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 120 (38.83%) Azure
2 73 (23.62%) AWS
3 58 (18.77%) Microsoft 365
4 40 (12.94%) Entra ID
5 36 (11.65%) GitHub
6 33 (10.68%) Azure DevOps
7 32 (10.36%) Power Platform
8 28 (9.06%) GitHub Actions
9 26 (8.41%) Azure Monitor
10 23 (7.44%) GCP
11 21 (6.80%) Microsoft Copilot
12 20 (6.47%) Power Automate
13 18 (5.83%) Amazon S3
14 17 (5.50%) Datadog
15 15 (4.85%) OneDrive
16 14 (4.53%) Azure Key Vault
16 14 (4.53%) OpenShift
17 13 (4.21%) AWS Lambda
17 13 (4.21%) SaaS
17 13 (4.21%) Serverless
Communications & Networking
1 48 (15.53%) DNS
2 31 (10.03%) DHCP
3 28 (9.06%) VPN
4 25 (8.09%) Firewall
5 20 (6.47%) TCP/IP
6 16 (5.18%) Network Security
7 10 (3.24%) SAN
7 10 (3.24%) VLAN
8 9 (2.91%) WAN
9 8 (2.59%) SD-WAN
9 8 (2.59%) SSH
10 7 (2.27%) Kerberos
11 5 (1.62%) BIG-IP
11 5 (1.62%) LAN
11 5 (1.62%) Wireless
12 4 (1.29%) Intranet
12 4 (1.29%) PSTN
12 4 (1.29%) Skype
13 3 (0.97%) F5 BIG-IP GTM
13 3 (0.97%) NAS
Database & Business Intelligence
1 29 (9.39%) SQL Server
2 14 (4.53%) Power BI
3 13 (4.21%) Data Warehouse
4 9 (2.91%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (2.91%) Big Data
5 7 (2.27%) Relational Database
6 6 (1.94%) Hadoop
6 6 (1.94%) Metadata
6 6 (1.94%) MySQL
6 6 (1.94%) Sybase ASE
7 5 (1.62%) Data Lake
7 5 (1.62%) PostgreSQL
7 5 (1.62%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 4 (1.29%) EDRMS
8 4 (1.29%) Snowflake Schema
8 4 (1.29%) Tableau
9 3 (0.97%) Amazon Redshift
9 3 (0.97%) BigQuery
9 3 (0.97%) Oracle Database
10 2 (0.65%) Tableau Server
Development Applications
1 35 (11.33%) Git
2 25 (8.09%) GitLab
3 22 (7.12%) Jenkins
4 12 (3.88%) JIRA
5 5 (1.62%) SonarQube
5 5 (1.62%) Sonatype Nexus
6 4 (1.29%) Oracle Forms
7 3 (0.97%) AdminStudio
7 3 (0.97%) Flyway
7 3 (0.97%) InstallShield
7 3 (0.97%) Selenium
8 2 (0.65%) Artifactory
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%) Snyk
8 2 (0.65%) SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
9 1 (0.32%) Visual Studio
General
1 107 (34.63%) Social Skills
2 59 (19.09%) Analytical Skills
3 51 (16.50%) Finance
4 29 (9.39%) Banking
5 17 (5.50%) Legal
5 17 (5.50%) Public Sector
6 13 (4.21%) Organisational Skills
7 9 (2.91%) Documentation Skills
8 6 (1.94%) Financial Institution
8 6 (1.94%) Front Office
9 4 (1.29%) Investment Banking
10 3 (0.97%) Inclusion and Diversity
10 3 (0.97%) Law
10 3 (0.97%) Military
10 3 (0.97%) Retail
11 2 (0.65%) Manufacturing
11 2 (0.65%) Marketing
12 1 (0.32%) International Banking
12 1 (0.32%) Local Government
12 1 (0.32%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 30 (9.71%) Senior
2 28 (9.06%) Infrastructure Engineer
2 28 (9.06%) Support Engineer
3 24 (7.77%) Developer
4 19 (6.15%) DBA
4 19 (6.15%) DevOps Engineer
5 17 (5.50%) Platform Engineer
6 16 (5.18%) Consultant
7 15 (4.85%) Analyst
7 15 (4.85%) Site Reliability Engineer
8 13 (4.21%) Data Engineer
9 12 (3.88%) Architect
9 12 (3.88%) Cloud Engineer
10 11 (3.56%) Site Engineer
11 10 (3.24%) Lead
11 10 (3.24%) Systems Engineer
12 9 (2.91%) Administrator
12 9 (2.91%) Azure Developer
12 9 (2.91%) Linux Engineer
13 8 (2.59%) SQL DBA
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 53 (17.15%) Terraform
2 36 (11.65%) REST
3 19 (6.15%) .NET
4 15 (4.85%) SOAP
5 13 (4.21%) Microsoft Graph
6 12 (3.88%) ARM Templates
6 12 (3.88%) React
7 11 (3.56%) CSS
7 11 (3.56%) JSON
7 11 (3.56%) Kafka
7 11 (3.56%) SPFx
8 10 (3.24%) .NET Framework
9 9 (2.91%) Elastic Stack
9 9 (2.91%) Web Services
9 9 (2.91%) YAML
10 8 (2.59%) HTML
11 7 (2.27%) AWS CDK
12 5 (1.62%) LangChain
12 5 (1.62%) Node.js
12 5 (1.62%) Oracle Fusion
Miscellaneous
1 23 (7.44%) Onboarding
2 16 (5.18%) Hybrid Cloud
3 15 (4.85%) Cloud Native
4 14 (4.53%) AI Agents
5 12 (3.88%) Data Protection Act
5 12 (3.88%) Distributed Systems
5 12 (3.88%) Product Ownership
6 11 (3.56%) Clustering
6 11 (3.56%) Management Information System
6 11 (3.56%) Replication
7 9 (2.91%) Legacy Systems
7 9 (2.91%) Private Cloud
8 7 (2.27%) Enterprise Software
8 7 (2.27%) Self-Motivation
9 6 (1.94%) CMDB
9 6 (1.94%) Data Centre
9 6 (1.94%) Public Cloud
10 5 (1.62%) Analytical Mindset
10 5 (1.62%) Autonomous Agent
10 5 (1.62%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 71 (22.98%) Windows
2 56 (18.12%) Linux
3 27 (8.74%) Windows Server
4 21 (6.80%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (5.83%) Windows 10
6 11 (3.56%) Unix
7 9 (2.91%) Windows Server 2019
8 6 (1.94%) Mac OS
8 6 (1.94%) Windows 7
9 5 (1.62%) Android
9 5 (1.62%) Windows Server 2003
10 3 (0.97%) VMS
10 3 (0.97%) Windows Server 2012
11 2 (0.65%) AIX
11 2 (0.65%) Apple iOS
11 2 (0.65%) Oracle Linux
11 2 (0.65%) Ubuntu
11 2 (0.65%) Windows Server 2016
11 2 (0.65%) zOS
12 1 (0.32%) Windows Server 2008
Processes & Methodologies
1 84 (27.18%) CI/CD
2 81 (26.21%) DevOps
3 77 (24.92%) Problem-Solving
4 68 (22.01%) ITIL
5 60 (19.42%) AI
6 56 (18.12%) Agile
7 55 (17.80%) Infrastructure as Code
8 47 (15.21%) Observability
9 46 (14.89%) Continuous Improvement
10 44 (14.24%) Analytics
11 43 (13.92%) Migration
12 42 (13.59%) Performance Tuning
13 38 (12.30%) Disaster Recovery
13 38 (12.30%) Root Cause Analysis
13 38 (12.30%) Workflow
14 35 (11.33%) Runbook
15 34 (11.00%) High Availability
16 32 (10.36%) Infrastructure Engineering
17 31 (10.03%) Change Management
17 31 (10.03%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 125 (40.45%) Python
2 122 (39.48%) PowerShell
3 60 (19.42%) SQL
4 51 (16.50%) Bash
5 35 (11.33%) JavaScript
6 18 (5.83%) Java
7 17 (5.50%) Bicep
8 15 (4.85%) C#
8 15 (4.85%) TypeScript
9 10 (3.24%) Go
9 10 (3.24%) Kusto Query Language
9 10 (3.24%) Shell Script
9 10 (3.24%) T-SQL
10 6 (1.94%) PL/SQL
10 6 (1.94%) VBScript
11 4 (1.29%) Scala
12 3 (0.97%) Perl
13 2 (0.65%) REXX
14 1 (0.32%) ABAP
14 1 (0.32%) ActionScript
Qualifications
1 100 (32.36%) Security Cleared
2 64 (20.71%) SC Cleared
3 34 (11.00%) Degree
3 34 (11.00%) DV Cleared
4 20 (6.47%) Computer Science Degree
5 12 (3.88%) Microsoft Certification
6 10 (3.24%) Azure Certification
7 5 (1.62%) AWS Certification
7 5 (1.62%) Cisco Certification
8 4 (1.29%) BPSS Clearance
9 3 (0.97%) AWS Certified DevOps Engineer
9 3 (0.97%) CCNA
9 3 (0.97%) CCNP
10 2 (0.65%) CISM
10 2 (0.65%) CISSP
10 2 (0.65%) DBS Check
10 2 (0.65%) GSEC
10 2 (0.65%) Master's Degree
10 2 (0.65%) MCTS
10 2 (0.65%) OSCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 25 (8.09%) Data Quality
2 16 (5.18%) SLA
3 9 (2.91%) QA
4 8 (2.59%) NIST
5 5 (1.62%) ISO/IEC 27001
6 2 (0.65%) Accessibility
7 1 (0.32%) GDPR
7 1 (0.32%) Government Security Classifications
7 1 (0.32%) NIST 800
7 1 (0.32%) PCI DSS
7 1 (0.32%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 65 (21.04%) Active Directory
2 29 (9.39%) VMware Infrastructure
3 26 (8.41%) Docker
4 11 (3.56%) Virtual Machines
5 9 (2.91%) Virtual Desktop
5 9 (2.91%) VMware ESXi
6 7 (2.27%) Hyper-V
6 7 (2.27%) NFS
7 4 (1.29%) vSphere
8 2 (0.65%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.65%) Firmware
8 2 (0.65%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.32%) NDS
9 1 (0.32%) NetIQ eDirectory
9 1 (0.32%) OpenSSH
9 1 (0.32%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.32%) UAG
9 1 (0.32%) Virtual Servers
Systems Management
1 48 (15.53%) Ansible
2 35 (11.33%) Kubernetes
3 30 (9.71%) Microsoft Intune
4 26 (8.41%) SCCM
5 16 (5.18%) Grafana
5 16 (5.18%) Puppet
6 14 (4.53%) Prometheus
7 13 (4.21%) SCOM
8 12 (3.88%) Progress Chef
9 11 (3.56%) Red Hat Satellite
9 11 (3.56%) vCenter Server
10 6 (1.94%) Failover Clustering
10 6 (1.94%) Single Sign-On
11 3 (0.97%) Istio
11 3 (0.97%) WSUS
12 2 (0.65%) Data Guard
12 2 (0.65%) Foglight
12 2 (0.65%) FortiGate
12 2 (0.65%) Nagios
12 2 (0.65%) Oracle RMAN
Vendors
1 115 (37.22%) Microsoft
2 33 (10.68%) VMware
3 21 (6.80%) ServiceNow
4 20 (6.47%) Oracle
5 19 (6.15%) Google
5 19 (6.15%) Red Hat
6 16 (5.18%) Splunk
7 12 (3.88%) Cisco
8 11 (3.56%) SolarWinds
9 8 (2.59%) Broadcom
9 8 (2.59%) Databricks
9 8 (2.59%) OpenAI
10 7 (2.27%) AppDynamics
11 6 (1.94%) BMC
11 6 (1.94%) F5
11 6 (1.94%) Sybase
12 5 (1.62%) Citrix
12 5 (1.62%) Ivanti
12 5 (1.62%) Palo Alto
12 5 (1.62%) Remedy