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 2 June 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
2 Jun 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 306 241 295
Rank change year-on-year -65 +54 +143
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 364 318 311
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.75% 1.10% 0.72%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.88% 1.21% 0.84%
Number of daily rates quoted 264 175 246
10th Percentile £365 £347 £388
25th Percentile £404 £413 £456
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £500 £550
Median % change year-on-year - -9.09% -
75th Percentile £613 £582 £675
90th Percentile £750 £675 £705
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £475 £550
% change year-on-year - -13.64% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 3 16 3
10th Percentile - £21.00 -
25th Percentile £21.33 £21.92 -
Median hourly rate £22.81 £29.50 £23.80
Median % change year-on-year -22.68% +23.95% -53.56%
75th Percentile £46.40 £65.25 -
90th Percentile £59.66 £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 41,283 26,327 36,811
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 84.64% 90.98% 85.49%
Number of daily rates quoted 25,781 16,819 23,635
10th Percentile £325 £300 £300
25th Percentile £413 £408 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £513 £513 £525
Median % change year-on-year - -2.38% -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £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 2,472 1,115 2,532
10th Percentile £14.64 £14.20 £12.75
25th Percentile £19.91 £17.87 £16.00
Median hourly rate £42.50 £27.99 £36.50
Median % change year-on-year +51.84% -23.32% +0.29%
75th Percentile £67.84 £57.50 £60.75
90th Percentile £81.05 £74.50 £72.50
UK excluding London median hourly rate £45.00 £25.15 £38.12
% change year-on-year +78.93% -34.02% +8.91%

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 2 June 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 2 June 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 2 June 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 -64 312 £500 - 147
UK excluding London -68 183 £475 - 99
London -34 151 £575 +9.52% 66
Work from Home -10 126 £600 +12.46% 80
North of England -33 78 £463 -2.63% 29
Yorkshire -9 61 £470 +1.62% 10
South East -34 41 £405 -19.00% 30
Scotland -18 26 £500 +9.29% 7
Midlands -57 18 £525 +10.53% 8
South West -36 16 £400 -20.00% 14
West Midlands -56 14 £550 +10.00% 5
North West -53 10 £487 +2.53% 16
North East -21 7 £320 -14.67% 3
East Midlands -32 4 £413 +5.77% 3
Wales - 2 £543 -
East of England -57 1 £400 -20.00% 6
Northern Ireland - 1 £675 - 7

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 30 (8.24%) SharePoint
2 21 (5.77%) Microsoft Exchange
3 11 (3.02%) Confluence
4 8 (2.20%) Appian
5 4 (1.10%) Apache Airflow
6 3 (0.82%) Apache
7 2 (0.55%) CMS
7 2 (0.55%) OpenStack
7 2 (0.55%) Palantir Foundry
8 1 (0.27%) Apache Spark
8 1 (0.27%) SharePoint 2013
8 1 (0.27%) Skype for Business
Applications
1 8 (2.20%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (1.65%) Chatbot
3 4 (1.10%) MS Visio
4 3 (0.82%) Microsoft Office
5 1 (0.27%) Microsoft PowerPoint
5 1 (0.27%) Microsoft Project
5 1 (0.27%) Spreadsheet
Business Applications
1 3 (0.82%) Dynamics CRM
2 2 (0.55%) Maximo
2 2 (0.55%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.27%) FLEXCUBE
3 1 (0.27%) Oracle EBS
3 1 (0.27%) Oracle ERP
3 1 (0.27%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.27%) SAP S/4HANA
3 1 (0.27%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 183 (50.27%) Azure
2 120 (32.97%) AWS
3 74 (20.33%) GCP
4 49 (13.46%) Entra ID
5 47 (12.91%) Microsoft 365
6 44 (12.09%) GitHub
7 32 (8.79%) OpenShift
8 29 (7.97%) GitHub Actions
9 28 (7.69%) Power Platform
10 26 (7.14%) Power Automate
11 24 (6.59%) Azure DevOps
12 20 (5.49%) Amazon S3
13 17 (4.67%) Azure Monitor
14 16 (4.40%) PaaS
15 15 (4.12%) Azure Key Vault
16 14 (3.85%) AWS CloudFormation
17 13 (3.57%) Serverless
18 12 (3.30%) Microsoft Copilot
18 12 (3.30%) OneDrive
18 12 (3.30%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 42 (11.54%) DNS
2 33 (9.07%) DHCP
3 20 (5.49%) Firewall
4 18 (4.95%) Kerberos
5 15 (4.12%) VPN
6 12 (3.30%) SAN
7 10 (2.75%) Network Security
8 9 (2.47%) SSH
8 9 (2.47%) WAN
9 8 (2.20%) TCP/IP
9 8 (2.20%) VLAN
10 7 (1.92%) SD-WAN
11 5 (1.37%) LAN
11 5 (1.37%) SSL
12 4 (1.10%) Cisco Nexus
13 3 (0.82%) BIG-IP
13 3 (0.82%) F5 BIG-IP LTM
13 3 (0.82%) Intranet
13 3 (0.82%) Wi-Fi
14 2 (0.55%) DWDM
Database & Business Intelligence
1 39 (10.71%) SQL Server
2 17 (4.67%) PostgreSQL
3 14 (3.85%) Power BI
4 9 (2.47%) Amazon RDS
4 9 (2.47%) Data Warehouse
5 8 (2.20%) Pinecone
6 7 (1.92%) Oracle Database
7 6 (1.65%) Metadata
7 6 (1.65%) MongoDB
7 6 (1.65%) SQL Server Integration Services
8 5 (1.37%) Data Lake
8 5 (1.37%) MySQL
8 5 (1.37%) Snowflake Schema
8 5 (1.37%) Tableau
9 4 (1.10%) Amazon Redshift
9 4 (1.10%) Big Data
9 4 (1.10%) DynamoDB
9 4 (1.10%) Oracle Reports
9 4 (1.10%) Relational Database
10 3 (0.82%) EDRMS
Development Applications
1 35 (9.62%) Jenkins
2 32 (8.79%) GitLab
3 27 (7.42%) Git
4 22 (6.04%) JIRA
5 12 (3.30%) Sonatype Nexus
6 8 (2.20%) MLflow
7 7 (1.92%) SonarQube
8 5 (1.37%) CircleCI
9 4 (1.10%) Flyway
10 3 (0.82%) AdminStudio
10 3 (0.82%) Bitbucket
10 3 (0.82%) InstallShield
10 3 (0.82%) Maven
10 3 (0.82%) Selenium
11 2 (0.55%) Artifactory
11 2 (0.55%) Cypress.io
11 2 (0.55%) JUnit
11 2 (0.55%) Postman
11 2 (0.55%) Snyk
12 1 (0.27%) REST Assured
General
1 152 (41.76%) Social Skills
2 60 (16.48%) Finance
3 46 (12.64%) Analytical Skills
4 31 (8.52%) Banking
4 31 (8.52%) Public Sector
5 12 (3.30%) Legal
6 11 (3.02%) Organisational Skills
7 6 (1.65%) Documentation Skills
8 5 (1.37%) Financial Institution
8 5 (1.37%) Influencing Skills
8 5 (1.37%) Investment Banking
9 4 (1.10%) Inclusion and Diversity
9 4 (1.10%) Law
10 3 (0.82%) Military
10 3 (0.82%) Presentation Skills
11 2 (0.55%) Front Office
11 2 (0.55%) Retail
12 1 (0.27%) International Banking
12 1 (0.27%) Manufacturing
12 1 (0.27%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 43 (11.81%) Architect
2 37 (10.16%) Developer
3 36 (9.89%) CyberArk Architect
4 22 (6.04%) DBA
5 19 (5.22%) Administrator
5 19 (5.22%) Automation Engineer
5 19 (5.22%) Site Reliability Engineer
6 17 (4.67%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
7 16 (4.40%) Consultant
7 16 (4.40%) DevOps Engineer
7 16 (4.40%) Infrastructure Engineer
8 13 (3.57%) Site Engineer
9 12 (3.30%) Analyst
9 12 (3.30%) Platform Engineer
10 11 (3.02%) Azure Developer
10 11 (3.02%) Support Engineer
11 10 (2.75%) Lead
11 10 (2.75%) Senior
11 10 (2.75%) Technical Support
12 9 (2.47%) Microsoft 365 Developer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 70 (19.23%) REST
2 50 (13.74%) LDAP
3 47 (12.91%) SOAP
4 25 (6.87%) OAuth
5 21 (5.77%) .NET
6 20 (5.49%) Web Services
7 17 (4.67%) Elastic Stack
7 17 (4.67%) SAML
8 15 (4.12%) Node.js
9 13 (3.57%) JWT
10 12 (3.30%) .NET Framework
10 12 (3.30%) Microsoft Graph
10 12 (3.30%) RESTful
11 11 (3.02%) JSON
11 11 (3.02%) Pandas
11 11 (3.02%) PyTorch
12 10 (2.75%) FastAPI
12 10 (2.75%) NumPy
13 9 (2.47%) Kafka
13 9 (2.47%) scikit-learn
Miscellaneous
1 42 (11.54%) Enterprise Software
2 38 (10.44%) Security Posture
3 22 (6.04%) Onboarding
3 22 (6.04%) Replication
4 16 (4.40%) Cloud Native
4 16 (4.40%) Legacy Systems
5 15 (4.12%) Distributed Systems
6 13 (3.57%) Hybrid Cloud
6 13 (3.57%) Product Ownership
7 11 (3.02%) Data Protection Act
8 8 (2.20%) Clustering
8 8 (2.20%) Data Centre
8 8 (2.20%) Low-Code
9 7 (1.92%) AI Agents
9 7 (1.92%) Self-Motivation
10 5 (1.37%) Analytical Mindset
10 5 (1.37%) FlexPod
10 5 (1.37%) Virtual Team
11 4 (1.10%) Data Structures
11 4 (1.10%) Private Cloud
Operating Systems
1 75 (20.60%) Linux
2 73 (20.05%) Windows
3 28 (7.69%) Windows Server
4 22 (6.04%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 15 (4.12%) Unix
6 9 (2.47%) Mac OS
7 8 (2.20%) VMS
7 8 (2.20%) Windows 10
8 5 (1.37%) CoreOS
8 5 (1.37%) Data ONTAP
9 3 (0.82%) CentOS
10 2 (0.55%) AIX
10 2 (0.55%) Apple iOS
10 2 (0.55%) Oracle Linux
10 2 (0.55%) Ubuntu
11 1 (0.27%) Rocky
11 1 (0.27%) Solaris
11 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2012
11 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2016
11 1 (0.27%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 132 (36.26%) Problem-Solving
2 112 (30.77%) CI/CD
3 86 (23.63%) DevOps
4 62 (17.03%) AI
5 55 (15.11%) Agile
5 55 (15.11%) Disaster Recovery
6 53 (14.56%) Infrastructure as Code
7 51 (14.01%) High Availability
8 50 (13.74%) Migration
9 47 (12.91%) Technical Leadership
10 46 (12.64%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 44 (12.09%) Continuous Improvement
11 44 (12.09%) ITSM
12 43 (11.81%) Containerisation
13 42 (11.54%) ITIL
13 42 (11.54%) SIEM
14 41 (11.26%) Observability
15 40 (10.99%) Analytics
16 39 (10.71%) Integration Patterns
17 38 (10.44%) Site Reliability Engineering
Programming Languages
1 172 (47.25%) Python
2 145 (39.84%) PowerShell
3 66 (18.13%) SQL
4 49 (13.46%) Bash
5 38 (10.44%) Java
6 29 (7.97%) JavaScript
7 24 (6.59%) Shell Script
8 20 (5.49%) C#
9 19 (5.22%) Go
10 18 (4.95%) TypeScript
11 11 (3.02%) Kusto Query Language
12 9 (2.47%) PL/SQL
12 9 (2.47%) T-SQL
13 4 (1.10%) Bicep
14 2 (0.55%) ActionScript
14 2 (0.55%) Data Analysis Expressions
14 2 (0.55%) Korn
14 2 (0.55%) Scala
14 2 (0.55%) VBScript
15 1 (0.27%) VB
Qualifications
1 133 (36.54%) Security Cleared
2 104 (28.57%) SC Cleared
3 26 (7.14%) Degree
4 22 (6.04%) Computer Science Degree
5 19 (5.22%) DV Cleared
6 15 (4.12%) BPSS Clearance
7 8 (2.20%) OCP
7 8 (2.20%) Oracle Certification
8 6 (1.65%) CISSP
8 6 (1.65%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (1.37%) AWS Certification
9 5 (1.37%) Azure Certification
10 4 (1.10%) Cisco Certification
10 4 (1.10%) CISM
11 3 (0.82%) CCNA
11 3 (0.82%) CCNP
11 3 (0.82%) JNCIA
11 3 (0.82%) JNCIS
11 3 (0.82%) Master's Degree
12 2 (0.55%) MCTS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 22 (6.04%) Data Quality
2 21 (5.77%) GDPR
3 14 (3.85%) Sarbanes-Oxley
4 12 (3.30%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 11 (3.02%) NIST
6 10 (2.75%) QA
7 8 (2.20%) SLA
8 3 (0.82%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.55%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.55%) HIPAA
9 2 (0.55%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.27%) GMP
10 1 (0.27%) GRC
10 1 (0.27%) PMO
System Software
1 91 (25.00%) Active Directory
2 36 (9.89%) Docker
3 19 (5.22%) VMware Infrastructure
4 16 (4.40%) Virtual Machines
5 10 (2.75%) NFS
6 7 (1.92%) Virtual Desktop
6 7 (1.92%) vSphere
7 6 (1.65%) Hyper-V
8 2 (0.55%) BitLocker
8 2 (0.55%) Firmware
8 2 (0.55%) KVM
8 2 (0.55%) Virtual Servers
9 1 (0.27%) Apache ZooKeeper
9 1 (0.27%) HDFS
9 1 (0.27%) Oracle RAC
9 1 (0.27%) RHEV
9 1 (0.27%) UAG
9 1 (0.27%) VMware ESXi
9 1 (0.27%) VMware NSX
9 1 (0.27%) Xen
Systems Management
1 67 (18.41%) Kubernetes
2 60 (16.48%) Ansible
2 60 (16.48%) Terraform
3 25 (6.87%) Microsoft Intune
4 24 (6.59%) Grafana
5 20 (5.49%) Single Sign-On
6 19 (5.22%) Prometheus
7 14 (3.85%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 12 (3.30%) Progress Chef
9 11 (3.02%) SCCM
10 9 (2.47%) Puppet
11 5 (1.37%) Data Guard
11 5 (1.37%) Oracle RMAN
11 5 (1.37%) Red Hat Satellite
11 5 (1.37%) SnapMirror
12 4 (1.10%) Nessus
12 4 (1.10%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
12 4 (1.10%) SCOM
13 3 (0.82%) Foglight
13 3 (0.82%) Nagios
Vendors
1 100 (27.47%) Microsoft
2 37 (10.16%) CyberArk
3 34 (9.34%) BeyondTrust
3 34 (9.34%) Centrify
4 26 (7.14%) Red Hat
5 25 (6.87%) Oracle
5 25 (6.87%) ServiceNow
5 25 (6.87%) VMware
6 24 (6.59%) Google
7 19 (5.22%) Okta
8 18 (4.95%) Splunk
9 17 (4.67%) OpenAI
10 12 (3.30%) Databricks
11 8 (2.20%) Automation Anywhere
11 8 (2.20%) Cisco
11 8 (2.20%) UiPath
12 7 (1.92%) F5
12 7 (1.92%) Palo Alto
13 5 (1.37%) AppDynamics
13 5 (1.37%) Informatica