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 22 January 2026, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Jan 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 252 229 356
Rank change year-on-year -23 +127 +98
Contract jobs citing Task Automation 419 349 240
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 1.11% 1.10% 0.56%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 1.26% 1.24% 0.64%
Number of daily rates quoted 296 214 182
10th Percentile £320 £344 £372
25th Percentile £400 £400 £450
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £490 £475 £525
Median % change year-on-year +3.11% -9.52% -4.55%
75th Percentile £599 £584 £625
90th Percentile £750 £674 £682
UK excluding London median daily rate £469 £470 £500
% change year-on-year -0.21% -6.00% -9.09%
Number of hourly rates quoted 2 8 0
10th Percentile £47.98 £21.00 -
25th Percentile £50.94 £21.92 -
Median hourly rate £56.25 £26.83 -
Median % change year-on-year +109.65% - -
75th Percentile £61.94 £42.12 -
90th Percentile £65.13 £65.62 -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £66.50 £24.66 -
% change year-on-year +169.67% - -

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 33,128 28,199 37,720
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 87.64% 88.95% 87.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 21,004 17,123 24,892
10th Percentile £305 £306 £300
25th Percentile £406 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 £525 £525
Median % change year-on-year -4.76% - -4.55%
75th Percentile £613 £638 £645
90th Percentile £720 £743 £738
UK excluding London median daily rate £475 £500 £500
% change year-on-year -5.00% - -
Number of hourly rates quoted 2,016 901 1,818
10th Percentile £14.50 £15.62 £14.00
25th Percentile £17.69 £21.00 £17.08
Median hourly rate £25.15 £32.50 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -22.62% -13.33% +17.19%
75th Percentile £57.50 £62.50 £62.50
90th Percentile £69.65 £75.00 £75.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £24.00 £30.78 £40.00
% change year-on-year -22.03% -23.05% +53.85%

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 22 January 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 22 January 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 22 January 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 -11 354 £500 +5.26% 189
UK excluding London -25 206 £469 -0.21% 169
London -18 167 £575 +8.24% 39
Work from Home +43 155 £550 +15.79% 93
North of England -37 65 £450 -2.70% 31
South East -17 45 £435 +8.63% 56
Midlands -29 42 £520 +7.44% 22
West Midlands -22 41 £535 +8.74% 10
Yorkshire -28 36 £450 +9.09% 11
Scotland +7 26 £413 -16.88% 3
North West -32 25 £446 -4.34% 13
South West -23 18 £525 +11.70% 29
East of England -22 8 £500 -2.44% 27
North East -11 4 £365 -22.34% 7
Wales - 2 £506 - 7
Northern Ireland - 2 £683 - 3
East Midlands -24 1 £450 +13.92% 11

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 21 (5.01%) Microsoft Exchange
2 19 (4.53%) SharePoint
3 13 (3.10%) Confluence
4 8 (1.91%) Apache
4 8 (1.91%) IIS
5 5 (1.19%) Appian
5 5 (1.19%) iPlanet
5 5 (1.19%) JBoss
5 5 (1.19%) OpenStack
5 5 (1.19%) WebSphere
5 5 (1.19%) WebSphere Application Server
6 2 (0.48%) Apache Airflow
6 2 (0.48%) Oracle SOA Suite
6 2 (0.48%) Oracle Workflow
6 2 (0.48%) WebLogic
7 1 (0.24%) Apache Spark
7 1 (0.24%) CMS
7 1 (0.24%) SharePoint 2013
Applications
1 24 (5.73%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.72%) Chatbot
2 3 (0.72%) Microsoft Project
2 3 (0.72%) MS Visio
3 2 (0.48%) Microsoft Office
3 2 (0.48%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Business Applications
1 3 (0.72%) SAP ERP
2 2 (0.48%) Maximo
2 2 (0.48%) Oracle EBS
2 2 (0.48%) Oracle EBS R12
2 2 (0.48%) Oracle ERP
2 2 (0.48%) Remedy ITSM
3 1 (0.24%) Dynamics CRM
3 1 (0.24%) Oracle Applications
3 1 (0.24%) SAP S/4HANA
Cloud Services
1 201 (47.97%) Azure
2 139 (33.17%) AWS
3 101 (24.11%) GCP
4 48 (11.46%) Entra ID
5 39 (9.31%) GitHub
6 37 (8.83%) Microsoft 365
7 35 (8.35%) OpenShift
8 30 (7.16%) GitHub Actions
9 28 (6.68%) Azure DevOps
10 26 (6.21%) AWS CloudFormation
11 23 (5.49%) Serverless
12 22 (5.25%) Power Platform
13 18 (4.30%) Power Automate
14 15 (3.58%) Amazon EKS
15 14 (3.34%) Amazon S3
15 14 (3.34%) Datadog
16 13 (3.10%) Azure AKS
17 12 (2.86%) OneDrive
18 10 (2.39%) AWS Lambda
18 10 (2.39%) PaaS
Communications & Networking
1 36 (8.59%) DNS
1 36 (8.59%) Firewall
2 29 (6.92%) DHCP
3 21 (5.01%) Kerberos
4 18 (4.30%) SSH
5 17 (4.06%) TCP/IP
6 14 (3.34%) Network Security
7 10 (2.39%) VPN
7 10 (2.39%) WAN
8 7 (1.67%) LAN
9 6 (1.43%) Cisco IOS
10 5 (1.19%) BGP
10 5 (1.19%) NX-OS
10 5 (1.19%) WLAN
11 4 (0.95%) AMQP
11 4 (0.95%) HTTP
11 4 (0.95%) SD-WAN
12 3 (0.72%) SSL
13 2 (0.48%) MPLS
13 2 (0.48%) SMTP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 35 (8.35%) SQL Server
2 30 (7.16%) PostgreSQL
3 22 (5.25%) Relational Database
4 21 (5.01%) Oracle Database
5 16 (3.82%) Power BI
6 10 (2.39%) Amazon RDS
6 10 (2.39%) MySQL
7 7 (1.67%) Data Warehouse
8 6 (1.43%) NoSQL
8 6 (1.43%) Oracle Reports
8 6 (1.43%) Pinecone
8 6 (1.43%) RDBMS
9 5 (1.19%) MongoDB
9 5 (1.19%) Power Query
9 5 (1.19%) Tableau
10 4 (0.95%) Azure SQL Database
10 4 (0.95%) BigQuery
10 4 (0.95%) Elasticsearch
10 4 (0.95%) InfluxDB
10 4 (0.95%) Snowflake Schema
Development Applications
1 58 (13.84%) Git
2 52 (12.41%) Jenkins
3 39 (9.31%) GitLab
4 19 (4.53%) JIRA
5 18 (4.30%) Sonatype Nexus
6 11 (2.63%) Bitbucket
6 11 (2.63%) CircleCI
7 10 (2.39%) Maven
8 8 (1.91%) JUnit
8 8 (1.91%) SonarQube
9 6 (1.43%) Artifactory
9 6 (1.43%) Postman
9 6 (1.43%) Selenium
10 5 (1.19%) Bitbucket Server
10 5 (1.19%) CA Release Automation
10 5 (1.19%) Gatling
10 5 (1.19%) LoadRunner
10 5 (1.19%) MLflow
10 5 (1.19%) Snyk
10 5 (1.19%) webpack
General
1 173 (41.29%) Social Skills
2 68 (16.23%) Finance
3 60 (14.32%) Analytical Skills
4 40 (9.55%) Public Sector
5 27 (6.44%) Banking
6 7 (1.67%) Investment Banking
6 7 (1.67%) Legal
6 7 (1.67%) Presentation Skills
7 6 (1.43%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (1.43%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.43%) Retail
8 5 (1.19%) Influencing Skills
9 4 (0.95%) Games
10 3 (0.72%) Front Office
10 3 (0.72%) Law
10 3 (0.72%) Manufacturing
10 3 (0.72%) Military
10 3 (0.72%) Organisational Skills
11 2 (0.48%) Corporate Banking
11 2 (0.48%) Retail Banking
Job Titles
1 47 (11.22%) Developer
2 41 (9.79%) Architect
3 37 (8.83%) CyberArk Architect
4 29 (6.92%) Administrator
4 29 (6.92%) DevOps Engineer
5 28 (6.68%) Senior
6 25 (5.97%) Automation Engineer
7 24 (5.73%) Analyst
8 21 (5.01%) Site Reliability Engineer
9 19 (4.53%) Java Developer
10 18 (4.30%) Platform Engineer
11 15 (3.58%) DBA
11 15 (3.58%) Infrastructure Engineer
12 14 (3.34%) Site Engineer
13 13 (3.10%) Lead
14 12 (2.86%) Network Engineer
15 11 (2.63%) Artificial Intelligence Engineer
15 11 (2.63%) Consultant
15 11 (2.63%) Support Engineer
16 9 (2.15%) Applications Engineer
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 64 (15.27%) REST
2 54 (12.89%) LDAP
3 40 (9.55%) SOAP
4 30 (7.16%) OAuth
5 26 (6.21%) Elastic Stack
6 25 (5.97%) Node.js
7 23 (5.49%) SAML
8 16 (3.82%) FastAPI
9 15 (3.58%) .NET
10 12 (2.86%) Web Services
11 11 (2.63%) Kafka
11 11 (2.63%) RESTful
12 9 (2.15%) JSON
12 9 (2.15%) Microsoft Graph
12 9 (2.15%) OpenID
12 9 (2.15%) Pandas
12 9 (2.15%) YAML
13 7 (1.67%) GraphQL
13 7 (1.67%) JWT
13 7 (1.67%) NumPy
Miscellaneous
1 44 (10.50%) Security Posture
2 41 (9.79%) Enterprise Software
3 25 (5.97%) Onboarding
4 21 (5.01%) Distributed Systems
4 21 (5.01%) Replication
5 20 (4.77%) Cloud Native
6 9 (2.15%) Data Centre
7 8 (1.91%) Legacy Systems
7 8 (1.91%) Private Cloud
8 7 (1.67%) Clustering
8 7 (1.67%) Data Protection Act
8 7 (1.67%) Low-Code
8 7 (1.67%) PKI
9 6 (1.43%) AI Agents
9 6 (1.43%) Linux Command Line
10 5 (1.19%) Management Information System
10 5 (1.19%) Product Ownership
11 4 (0.95%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (0.95%) NHS
11 4 (0.95%) Public Cloud
Operating Systems
1 115 (27.45%) Linux
2 83 (19.81%) Windows
3 33 (7.88%) Windows Server
4 29 (6.92%) Unix
5 13 (3.10%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
6 9 (2.15%) VMS
7 8 (1.91%) CentOS
8 4 (0.95%) AIX
8 4 (0.95%) Ubuntu
9 3 (0.72%) Mac OS
9 3 (0.72%) Windows 10
10 1 (0.24%) Android
10 1 (0.24%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 174 (41.53%) Problem-Solving
2 144 (34.37%) CI/CD
3 112 (26.73%) DevOps
4 73 (17.42%) Infrastructure as Code
5 67 (15.99%) Containerisation
6 66 (15.75%) Agile
7 57 (13.60%) SIEM
8 52 (12.41%) Site Reliability Engineering
9 50 (11.93%) Disaster Recovery
9 50 (11.93%) High Availability
10 45 (10.74%) Stakeholder Engagement
11 43 (10.26%) Observability
12 42 (10.02%) Identity Access Management
13 41 (9.79%) Continuous Improvement
13 41 (9.79%) Technical Leadership
14 40 (9.55%) Migration
14 40 (9.55%) Privileged Access Management
15 39 (9.31%) Configuration Management
15 39 (9.31%) Root Cause Analysis
16 38 (9.07%) ITSM
Programming Languages
1 224 (53.46%) Python
2 154 (36.75%) PowerShell
3 72 (17.18%) Bash
4 68 (16.23%) SQL
5 63 (15.04%) Java
6 49 (11.69%) Shell Script
7 36 (8.59%) Go
8 26 (6.21%) JavaScript
9 22 (5.25%) TypeScript
10 15 (3.58%) C#
11 12 (2.86%) Kusto Query Language
11 12 (2.86%) VBA
12 11 (2.63%) Perl
13 10 (2.39%) Bicep
14 7 (1.67%) Groovy
15 6 (1.43%) PL/SQL
16 4 (0.95%) Data Analysis Expressions
17 3 (0.72%) PHP
17 3 (0.72%) Ruby
18 2 (0.48%) Korn
Qualifications
1 148 (35.32%) Security Cleared
2 113 (26.97%) SC Cleared
3 30 (7.16%) Degree
4 27 (6.44%) BPSS Clearance
5 16 (3.82%) DV Cleared
6 15 (3.58%) Computer Science Degree
7 12 (2.86%) Azure Certification
8 9 (2.15%) Microsoft Certification
9 8 (1.91%) AWS Certification
9 8 (1.91%) CISSP
10 6 (1.43%) Cisco Certification
11 5 (1.19%) CCNP
11 5 (1.19%) Master's Degree
11 5 (1.19%) OCP
11 5 (1.19%) Oracle Certification
12 4 (0.95%) CFCE
12 4 (0.95%) GCFA
12 4 (0.95%) GCIA
12 4 (0.95%) GCIH
12 4 (0.95%) GIAC
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 38 (9.07%) GDPR
2 22 (5.25%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 17 (4.06%) NIST
4 14 (3.34%) Data Quality
4 14 (3.34%) Sarbanes-Oxley
5 10 (2.39%) QA
6 6 (1.43%) SLA
7 5 (1.19%) HIPAA
7 5 (1.19%) PCI DSS
8 3 (0.72%) SOC 2
9 2 (0.48%) EU AI Act
10 1 (0.24%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.24%) COBIT
10 1 (0.24%) GMP
10 1 (0.24%) GRC
10 1 (0.24%) HMG Security Policy Framework
10 1 (0.24%) ISO/IEC 42001
10 1 (0.24%) PMO
System Software
1 90 (21.48%) Active Directory
2 66 (15.75%) Docker
3 23 (5.49%) VMware Infrastructure
4 11 (2.63%) Oracle RAC
5 6 (1.43%) Virtual Machines
6 5 (1.19%) Tivoli Directory Server
7 4 (0.95%) Hyper-V
8 3 (0.72%) KVM
8 3 (0.72%) Virtual Desktop
8 3 (0.72%) Xen
9 2 (0.48%) Firmware
10 1 (0.24%) Apache ZooKeeper
10 1 (0.24%) HDFS
10 1 (0.24%) Microsoft App-V
10 1 (0.24%) RHEV
10 1 (0.24%) VMware ESXi
10 1 (0.24%) vSphere
10 1 (0.24%) XenApp
Systems Management
1 90 (21.48%) Kubernetes
2 84 (20.05%) Terraform
3 76 (18.14%) Ansible
4 47 (11.22%) Grafana
5 40 (9.55%) Prometheus
6 25 (5.97%) Single Sign-On
7 24 (5.73%) Progress Chef
8 16 (3.82%) Active Directory Federation Services
8 16 (3.82%) Puppet
9 13 (3.10%) Microsoft Intune
9 13 (3.10%) SCCM
10 12 (2.86%) Data Guard
11 11 (2.63%) Oracle RMAN
12 9 (2.15%) yum
13 8 (1.91%) Podman
14 6 (1.43%) CA Single Sign-On
14 6 (1.43%) NetBackup
15 5 (1.19%) CA Wily
15 5 (1.19%) Kibana
15 5 (1.19%) Oracle Enterprise Manager
Vendors
1 107 (25.54%) Microsoft
2 52 (12.41%) CyberArk
3 46 (10.98%) Oracle
4 42 (10.02%) BeyondTrust
5 34 (8.11%) Centrify
5 34 (8.11%) Google
6 32 (7.64%) Splunk
7 24 (5.73%) VMware
8 18 (4.30%) Okta
9 17 (4.06%) Red Hat
10 15 (3.58%) ServiceNow
11 12 (2.86%) Cisco
11 12 (2.86%) OpenAI
12 8 (1.91%) Databricks
12 8 (1.91%) Palo Alto
12 8 (1.91%) SAP
13 7 (1.67%) F5
13 7 (1.67%) IBM
14 6 (1.43%) Atlassian
14 6 (1.43%) Veritas