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 9 March 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 Mar 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 274 224 376
Rank change year-on-year -50 +152 +70
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 404 348 236
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.96% 1.17% 0.53%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.11% 1.30% 0.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 293 208 188
10th Percentile £345 £344 £368
25th Percentile £400 £406 £445
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £522
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% -4.21% -5.09%
75th Percentile £600 £595 £626
90th Percentile £750 £675 £700
UK excluding London median daily rate £464 £473 £500
% change year-on-year -1.96% -5.40% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 13 0
10th Percentile - £21.00 -
25th Percentile £21.33 £22.22 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £29.00 -
Median % change year-on-year -21.34% - -
75th Percentile £35.15 £65.00 -
90th Percentile £41.66 £65.62 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £22.81 £24.66 -
% change year-on-year -7.50% - -

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 36,399 26,862 38,734
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 86.19% 90.27% 86.61%
Number of daily rates quoted 23,113 17,118 25,178
10th Percentile £313 £306 £300
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £612 £638 £638
90th Percentile £725 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £481 £491 £500
% change year-on-year -2.04% -1.80% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,154 913 2,346
10th Percentile £14.64 £15.52 £13.00
25th Percentile £18.50 £21.00 £16.06
Median hourly rate £29.00 £32.50 £32.50
Median % change year-on-year -10.77% - -7.14%
75th Percentile £63.75 £64.52 £57.50
90th Percentile £74.26 £76.25 £71.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £25.77 £31.76 £31.50
% change year-on-year -18.86% +0.83% -10.00%

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 9 March 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 9 March 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Task Automation in the UK

Task Automation
Top 17 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 9 March 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 -50 336 £494 -1.30% 151
UK excluding London -46 194 £464 -1.96% 104
London -28 164 £575 +9.52% 64
Work from Home +22 157 £527 +5.40% 97
North of England -31 64 £450 -4.51% 20
Yorkshire -23 46 £454 -13.52% 8
South East -24 45 £445 +11.25% 38
Midlands -47 31 £503 +6.34% 9
West Midlands -38 29 £527 +8.78% 6
Scotland +4 26 £415 -11.70% 8
South West -39 18 £506 +7.14% 14
North West -37 14 £358 -23.83% 8
East of England -42 6 £500 - 12
North East -11 4 £365 -22.34% 4
Wales - 4 £525 - 3
East Midlands -36 2 £450 +13.92% 3
Northern Ireland - 2 £683 - 1

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 35 (8.66%) Microsoft Exchange
2 31 (7.67%) SharePoint
3 10 (2.48%) Confluence
4 8 (1.98%) Appian
5 5 (1.24%) IIS
6 3 (0.74%) Apache
6 3 (0.74%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.74%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.50%) iPlanet
7 2 (0.50%) JBoss
7 2 (0.50%) Oracle SOA Suite
7 2 (0.50%) Oracle Workflow
7 2 (0.50%) Palantir Foundry
7 2 (0.50%) WebLogic
7 2 (0.50%) WebSphere
7 2 (0.50%) WebSphere Application Server
8 1 (0.25%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.25%) CMS
8 1 (0.25%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 18 (4.46%) Microsoft Excel
2 4 (0.99%) MS Visio
3 3 (0.74%) Chatbot
4 2 (0.50%) Microsoft Office
4 2 (0.50%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 2 (0.50%) Maximo
1 2 (0.50%) Oracle EBS
1 2 (0.50%) Oracle EBS R12
1 2 (0.50%) Oracle ERP
1 2 (0.50%) Remedy ITSM
2 1 (0.25%) Dynamics CRM
2 1 (0.25%) Oracle Applications
2 1 (0.25%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 202 (50.00%) Azure
2 136 (33.66%) AWS
3 91 (22.52%) GCP
4 61 (15.10%) Entra ID
5 51 (12.62%) Microsoft 365
6 45 (11.14%) GitHub
7 37 (9.16%) OpenShift
8 32 (7.92%) Azure DevOps
8 32 (7.92%) GitHub Actions
9 23 (5.69%) Power Platform
10 22 (5.45%) AWS CloudFormation
10 22 (5.45%) Azure Monitor
10 22 (5.45%) Serverless
11 21 (5.20%) PaaS
11 21 (5.20%) Power Automate
12 18 (4.46%) Amazon S3
13 17 (4.21%) Azure Key Vault
14 16 (3.96%) Azure App Service
14 16 (3.96%) Azure Service Bus
14 16 (3.96%) Azure WebJobs
Communications & Networking
1 38 (9.41%) DNS
2 29 (7.18%) DHCP
3 26 (6.44%) Firewall
4 19 (4.70%) SSH
5 18 (4.46%) Kerberos
6 14 (3.47%) TCP/IP
7 12 (2.97%) VPN
8 10 (2.48%) Network Security
9 5 (1.24%) SAN
9 5 (1.24%) WAN
10 4 (0.99%) AMQP
10 4 (0.99%) Cisco Nexus
10 4 (0.99%) HTTP
10 4 (0.99%) LAN
11 3 (0.74%) Cisco IOS
11 3 (0.74%) SSL
12 2 (0.50%) DWDM
12 2 (0.50%) Internet
12 2 (0.50%) SMTP
12 2 (0.50%) SNMP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 33 (8.17%) SQL Server
2 26 (6.44%) PostgreSQL
3 18 (4.46%) Power BI
3 18 (4.46%) Relational Database
4 12 (2.97%) Amazon RDS
5 11 (2.72%) Data Warehouse
6 10 (2.48%) Oracle Database
7 9 (2.23%) MySQL
8 8 (1.98%) Pinecone
9 6 (1.49%) Azure SQL Database
9 6 (1.49%) MongoDB
9 6 (1.49%) RDBMS
10 5 (1.24%) Metadata
10 5 (1.24%) NoSQL
10 5 (1.24%) Snowflake Schema
10 5 (1.24%) Tableau
11 4 (0.99%) Data Lake
11 4 (0.99%) InfluxDB
11 4 (0.99%) Power Query
11 4 (0.99%) SQL Server Integration Services
Development Applications
1 50 (12.38%) Jenkins
2 43 (10.64%) Git
3 38 (9.41%) GitLab
4 19 (4.70%) JIRA
5 15 (3.71%) Sonatype Nexus
6 9 (2.23%) CircleCI
7 8 (1.98%) MLflow
8 7 (1.73%) Maven
9 6 (1.49%) Bitbucket
10 5 (1.24%) Gatling
10 5 (1.24%) JMeter
10 5 (1.24%) LoadRunner
10 5 (1.24%) SonarQube
11 4 (0.99%) JUnit
11 4 (0.99%) Postman
11 4 (0.99%) Selenium
12 3 (0.74%) Cypress.io
12 3 (0.74%) Gradle
12 3 (0.74%) Snyk
12 3 (0.74%) webpack
General
1 165 (40.84%) Social Skills
2 71 (17.57%) Finance
3 53 (13.12%) Analytical Skills
4 38 (9.41%) Public Sector
5 24 (5.94%) Banking
6 9 (2.23%) Legal
7 7 (1.73%) Influencing Skills
7 7 (1.73%) Organisational Skills
8 6 (1.49%) Inclusion and Diversity
8 6 (1.49%) Investment Banking
8 6 (1.49%) Presentation Skills
9 5 (1.24%) Retail
10 4 (0.99%) Documentation Skills
10 4 (0.99%) Financial Institution
10 4 (0.99%) Military
11 3 (0.74%) Law
12 2 (0.50%) Corporate Banking
12 2 (0.50%) Front Office
12 2 (0.50%) Games
12 2 (0.50%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 57 (14.11%) Developer
2 40 (9.90%) Architect
3 37 (9.16%) CyberArk Architect
4 27 (6.68%) DevOps Engineer
5 24 (5.94%) Administrator
6 23 (5.69%) Analyst
6 23 (5.69%) Automation Engineer
7 20 (4.95%) Platform Engineer
8 19 (4.70%) DBA
9 18 (4.46%) Java Developer
9 18 (4.46%) Site Reliability Engineer
10 16 (3.96%) Senior
11 14 (3.47%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
11 14 (3.47%) Azure Developer
12 13 (3.22%) Lead
13 12 (2.97%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 12 (2.97%) Site Engineer
14 11 (2.72%) Consultant
14 11 (2.72%) Support Engineer
15 10 (2.48%) Microsoft 365 Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 72 (17.82%) REST
2 51 (12.62%) LDAP
3 50 (12.38%) SOAP
4 29 (7.18%) OAuth
5 26 (6.44%) Web Services
6 25 (6.19%) .NET
7 24 (5.94%) Node.js
8 21 (5.20%) Elastic Stack
9 20 (4.95%) SAML
10 19 (4.70%) Microsoft Graph
11 17 (4.21%) .NET Framework
12 13 (3.22%) Kafka
12 13 (3.22%) RESTful
13 11 (2.72%) JWT
14 10 (2.48%) Pandas
14 10 (2.48%) PyTorch
15 9 (2.23%) JSON
15 9 (2.23%) NumPy
15 9 (2.23%) TensorFlow
15 9 (2.23%) YAML
Miscellaneous
1 44 (10.89%) Security Posture
2 42 (10.40%) Enterprise Software
3 22 (5.45%) Onboarding
4 20 (4.95%) Replication
5 17 (4.21%) Cloud Native
6 13 (3.22%) Distributed Systems
6 13 (3.22%) Legacy Systems
7 11 (2.72%) Clustering
7 11 (2.72%) Hybrid Cloud
8 9 (2.23%) Data Protection Act
8 9 (2.23%) Low-Code
9 7 (1.73%) Data Centre
9 7 (1.73%) PKI
10 6 (1.49%) Management Information System
11 5 (1.24%) FlexPod
11 5 (1.24%) Linux Command Line
11 5 (1.24%) Product Ownership
12 4 (0.99%) Analytical Mindset
12 4 (0.99%) Security Operations Centre
12 4 (0.99%) Virtual Team
Operating Systems
1 98 (24.26%) Linux
2 81 (20.05%) Windows
3 37 (9.16%) Windows Server
4 19 (4.70%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 18 (4.46%) Unix
6 12 (2.97%) VMS
7 8 (1.98%) CentOS
8 5 (1.24%) CoreOS
8 5 (1.24%) Data ONTAP
8 5 (1.24%) Mac OS
8 5 (1.24%) Windows 10
9 4 (0.99%) Ubuntu
10 2 (0.50%) AIX
10 2 (0.50%) Android
10 2 (0.50%) Apple iOS
11 1 (0.25%) Windows Server 2016
Processes & Methodologies
1 151 (37.38%) Problem-Solving
2 134 (33.17%) CI/CD
3 103 (25.50%) DevOps
4 69 (17.08%) Infrastructure as Code
5 58 (14.36%) Containerisation
6 56 (13.86%) Agile
7 52 (12.87%) SIEM
8 51 (12.62%) Migration
9 50 (12.38%) Observability
10 48 (11.88%) Continuous Improvement
10 48 (11.88%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 46 (11.39%) High Availability
12 45 (11.14%) Analytics
12 45 (11.14%) Site Reliability Engineering
13 44 (10.89%) AI
13 44 (10.89%) Disaster Recovery
14 41 (10.15%) Root Cause Analysis
14 41 (10.15%) Technical Leadership
15 39 (9.65%) Privileged Access Management
16 38 (9.41%) Incident Response
Programming Languages
1 195 (48.27%) Python
2 164 (40.59%) PowerShell
3 69 (17.08%) SQL
4 63 (15.59%) Bash
5 50 (12.38%) Java
6 33 (8.17%) Shell Script
7 26 (6.44%) JavaScript
8 24 (5.94%) C#
9 23 (5.69%) Kusto Query Language
9 23 (5.69%) TypeScript
10 22 (5.45%) Go
11 9 (2.23%) VBA
12 6 (1.49%) Bicep
12 6 (1.49%) Perl
12 6 (1.49%) PL/SQL
13 5 (1.24%) T-SQL
14 4 (0.99%) Data Analysis Expressions
15 3 (0.74%) Groovy
15 3 (0.74%) PHP
15 3 (0.74%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 142 (35.15%) Security Cleared
2 110 (27.23%) SC Cleared
3 31 (7.67%) Degree
4 24 (5.94%) BPSS Clearance
5 19 (4.70%) Computer Science Degree
6 14 (3.47%) DV Cleared
7 12 (2.97%) Azure Certification
8 11 (2.72%) CISSP
9 10 (2.48%) Microsoft Certification
9 10 (2.48%) OCP
9 10 (2.48%) Oracle Certification
10 9 (2.23%) AWS Certification
11 4 (0.99%) CFCE
11 4 (0.99%) Cisco Certification
11 4 (0.99%) CISM
11 4 (0.99%) GCIA
11 4 (0.99%) GCIH
11 4 (0.99%) GIAC
11 4 (0.99%) Master's Degree
11 4 (0.99%) RHCE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (8.91%) GDPR
2 24 (5.94%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 21 (5.20%) Data Quality
4 17 (4.21%) NIST
5 14 (3.47%) Sarbanes-Oxley
6 11 (2.72%) QA
7 6 (1.49%) SLA
8 5 (1.24%) HIPAA
8 5 (1.24%) PCI DSS
9 3 (0.74%) SOC 2
10 2 (0.50%) Accessibility
10 2 (0.50%) GRC
11 1 (0.25%) COBIT
11 1 (0.25%) GMP
11 1 (0.25%) HMG Security Policy Framework
11 1 (0.25%) PMO
System Software
1 95 (23.51%) Active Directory
2 56 (13.86%) Docker
3 25 (6.19%) VMware Infrastructure
4 14 (3.47%) Virtual Machines
5 7 (1.73%) vSphere
6 5 (1.24%) NFS
7 4 (0.99%) Hyper-V
7 4 (0.99%) KVM
7 4 (0.99%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.74%) Xen
9 2 (0.50%) Oracle RAC
9 2 (0.50%) Tivoli Directory Server
9 2 (0.50%) Virtual Servers
10 1 (0.25%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 1 (0.25%) HDFS
10 1 (0.25%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.25%) RHEV
10 1 (0.25%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.25%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 83 (20.54%) Kubernetes
2 82 (20.30%) Terraform
3 75 (18.56%) Ansible
4 40 (9.90%) Grafana
5 32 (7.92%) Prometheus
6 22 (5.45%) Single Sign-On
7 20 (4.95%) Microsoft Intune
8 19 (4.70%) Progress Chef
9 16 (3.96%) Active Directory Federation Services
10 12 (2.97%) Puppet
11 10 (2.48%) SCCM
12 7 (1.73%) Oracle RMAN
13 6 (1.49%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
13 6 (1.49%) Podman
14 5 (1.24%) SnapMirror
15 4 (0.99%) Kibana
15 4 (0.99%) logstash
15 4 (0.99%) Packer
15 4 (0.99%) Proxmox
15 4 (0.99%) vCenter Server
Vendors
1 112 (27.72%) Microsoft
2 41 (10.15%) CyberArk
3 35 (8.66%) BeyondTrust
4 34 (8.42%) Centrify
4 34 (8.42%) Google
5 30 (7.43%) Oracle
5 30 (7.43%) VMware
6 28 (6.93%) Splunk
7 24 (5.94%) Red Hat
8 20 (4.95%) ServiceNow
9 19 (4.70%) Okta
10 13 (3.22%) OpenAI
11 11 (2.72%) Databricks
12 9 (2.23%) Cisco
13 8 (1.98%) Automation Anywhere
13 8 (1.98%) UiPath
14 6 (1.49%) Palo Alto
14 6 (1.49%) SAP
15 5 (1.24%) Citrix
15 5 (1.24%) NetApp