I’m still employed, but I’m not sure my job has a future

I have written few days ago about the layoffs at the company I am working for and that this wave didn't include me as well. But while I'm still employed - well, having a predefined term contract - i don't see a long future for my job. I had a weird call with my boss - which is a chronic liar - and he told me the story surrounding one of my team mate that was laid off and he said that for the next year I am good and that I will get a new contract. But what was weird about it us that he mumbled that after that probably the road will end, which I am not sure he was referring explicitly to me or in general.

We are left four automation test engineers in the team from which I consider myself second best. But the other two colleagues that are technically behind me, they are sweet talking my boss and are willing to do anything to get in his good grace. And I am not like that, I keep things professionally and I prove my worth through my work. So as I see it, as further decisions will be made, I am afraid they will not be done based on meritocracy, but rather on politics and preference of having people around managers that kiss their feet. It is not correct, but I've learned and accepted that the world us weak and works this way. So I am preparing for anything.

One thing that gives me hope is that the department leader knows me very well and I worked with him closely. He even hired me back in the day and even if at times we had diverging technical opinions, I went his way even if the end result proved I was right. But while he might have not liked that at times, he knows that I am quite good at my job and that I do the work with responsibility and professionalism. So he should now my worth, but if my boss whispers in his ear, the end result might be different. But myself understanding this from the work experience and the people I've encountered, takes dome of the pressure as I see clear how things are and my risks in the given situation.

In the same time the company didn't bring new projects in a while and all we've done was to rewrite the apps with open source technologies like anything Java related. We are 95% done with that and while some Change Requests are popping here and there, we are moving mostly towards maintenance mode. Being a software test engineer I will have to do a lot of automation in the next period, so I will have my hands full. But while I finish that, I will integrate the automated tests in development pipelines and those can be run by devs in nightly builds or on final compiled code. Thus this might shift in their ownership, thus remaining less in my hands and the role disappearing. While have a QA critical thinking I believe that I can bring more value from this point of view, management might only see numbers and a simple equation. In conclusion while I am good for now probably for another year, unfortunately I don't see a future for myself on the current company. So I am preparing for that and probably will be looking next year for others opportunities if the time will come.