3,700 Open Positions, Barely Any Applicants: The Power Automate Skills Shortage

Anyone who wants to hire a Power Automate specialist as a permanent employee today is competing with thousands of other employers for a very small pool of talent. The skills shortage in Power Automate isn't just a feeling, it can be read directly off the job boards: StepStone currently lists around 3,700 open Power Automate positions, while qualified applicants are scarce. For small and medium-sized businesses, this raises a very practical question: search and hire yourself, or buy in the expertise through a consultant?

How big is the Power Automate skills shortage really?

The bottleneck is measurable, not just a gut feeling from HR departments. Power Automate is Microsoft's tool for digital process automation and robotic process automation (RPA), and because almost every company works with Microsoft 365, demand is growing faster than the supply of new talent.

On the job board StepStone, there are currently around 3,700 open positions requiring Power Automate (StepStone, Power Automate positions. For the sought-after developer roles, the Microsoft certification Power Automate RPA Developer Associate (PL-500) is often a mandatory requirement (Microsoft Learn, PL-500). This certification requires hands-on experience that newly trained candidates rarely bring, which widens the gap between open positions and suitable applicants even further.

What does an in-house Power Automate developer cost?

A permanently employed RPA or Power Automate developer costs, according to StepStone salary data, between around 44,200 euros in the lower quartile and 62,000 euros in the upper quartile per year, with a median gross annual salary of 50,700 euros (StepStone, RPA Developer salary). But that's only the visible part of the calculation.

On top of the gross salary come employer social security contributions, equipment, training, and the time it takes to become productive. Then there's the license, which many forget to factor in. Under Microsoft's official licensing rules, every developer who builds attended RPA workflows needs a Power Automate Premium license at a list price of 15 US dollars per user per month. If the automation runs unattended, the Power Automate Process license at 150 US dollars per bot per month is added on top.

The exact license tiers can be found in the official documentation (Microsoft Learn, Power Automate licensing). Anyone who leaves a position unfilled because no one can be found also pays a hidden price: the processes that were supposed to be automated keep running manually.

Consultant instead of an in-house hire: when it pays off for SMEs

For most small and medium-sized businesses, an external consultant is the faster and lower-risk path to automation, because they deliver immediately available expertise instead of advertising a position for months that is hard to fill. The decision depends less on the hourly rate than on four sober points:

• Immediate instead of months away: A consultant typically starts within days, while refilling a specialist role in this tight market often takes half a year or longer.
• No license and setup pitfalls: The experience of knowing which Power Automate license a use case actually needs and where premium connector costs lurk comes built in with the consultant, instead of you learning it at your own expense.
• No single point of failure: A single specialist who resigns takes all the knowledge with them. A consultant documents and hands over the work so that your team can operate the automation itself.
• You pay for the outcome: You pay for the finished, running process, not for a year-round salary, including in months without an automation project.

A typical entry point is automatic invoice approval: Power Automate reads the incoming invoice, matches it against the purchase order, and only requests human approval in case of a discrepancy. NordFlux takes on the role of the Power Automate developer as external capacity, builds the workflow, and hands it over ready to operate. Find out more on our page about Power Automate, and if you want to know in advance what to expect, you'll find the figures under What does an automation project cost.

Frequently asked questions

How many open Power Automate positions are there in Germany?

On the job board StepStone, around 3,700 positions requiring Power Automate are currently advertised. Qualified applicants with the matching certification are far scarcer than the number of open positions, which makes the skills shortage in this field clearly visible.

What does an RPA or Power Automate developer earn?

According to StepStone salary data, the gross annual salary ranges from around 44,200 euros in the lower quartile to 62,000 euros in the upper quartile, with a median of 50,700 euros. On top of that come employer contributions, equipment, and license costs for Power Automate.

Which license does Power Automate need for RPA?

For attended RPA workflows, every developer needs a Power Automate Premium license at a list price of 15 US dollars per user per month. Unattended automation runs via the Power Automate Process license at 150 US dollars per bot per month.

Is a consultant worth it instead of a permanent hire?

For companies that want to automate individual processes and don't have permanent full-time workload for their own position, a consultant is usually faster and cheaper. You pay for the finished result instead of a year-round salary and carry no HR risk.