Operations Research Contract Job Trends in the UK excluding London

Operations Research (or Operational Research)
UK > UK excluding London

The table below provides summary statistics and contractor rates for jobs advertised in the UK excluding London requiring Operations Research skills. It covers vacancies from the 6 months leading up to 20 September 2025, with comparisons to the same periods in the previous two years.

6 months to
20 Sep 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 364 - 417
Rank change year-on-year - - +94
Contract jobs citing Operations Research 6 0 6
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.039% - 0.028%
As % of the Processes & Methodologies category 0.044% - 0.031%
Number of daily rates quoted 4 0 5
10th Percentile - - £328
25th Percentile - - £350
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £500 - £450
75th Percentile £531 - £538
90th Percentile £588 - £628
UK median daily rate £500 £550 £450
% change year-on-year -9.09% +22.22% -19.64%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £22.84 - -
UK median hourly rate £22.84 £21.50 -
% change year-on-year +6.23% - -

All Process and Methodology Skills
UK excluding London

Operations Research 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 in the UK excluding London.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for process or methodology skills 13,779 14,910 19,115
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 89.23% 83.14% 88.25%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,285 8,562 12,574
10th Percentile £234 £243 £260
25th Percentile £368 £388 £400
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - -
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £663 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -4.76% -2.78% -1.82%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,450 1,209 1,271
10th Percentile £14.00 £14.63 £14.25
25th Percentile £16.96 £17.75 £17.72
Median hourly rate £22.50 £43.00 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -47.67% +1.18% +84.78%
75th Percentile £42.44 £66.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £67.25 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £43.79
% change year-on-year -41.51% -1.81% +53.66%

Operations Research
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings citing Operations Research as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Operations Research in the UK excluding London

Operations Research
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Operations Research.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Operations Research

Operations Research
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Operations Research.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK excluding London citing Operations Research

Operations Research
Contract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Operations Research within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 20 September 2025. 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
South East - 3 £500 - 5
Wales - 2 - - 3
Scotland - 1 £600 -
Operations Research
UK

Operations Research
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

Applications
1 2 (33.33%) CPLEX
1 2 (33.33%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (33.33%) Microsoft Office
1 2 (33.33%) Microsoft PowerPoint
Cloud Services
1 2 (33.33%) Power Platform
Database & Business Intelligence
1 2 (33.33%) Power BI
1 2 (33.33%) Spotfire
1 2 (33.33%) Tableau
General
1 3 (50.00%) Analytical Skills
2 2 (33.33%) Manufacturing
2 2 (33.33%) Social Skills
Job Titles
1 2 (33.33%) Analyst
1 2 (33.33%) Consultant
1 2 (33.33%) Data Analyst
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 2 (33.33%) NumPy
1 2 (33.33%) Pandas
1 2 (33.33%) SciPy
Miscellaneous
1 5 (83.33%) Algorithms
2 1 (16.67%) Analytical Mindset
2 1 (16.67%) Cloud Native
Processes & Methodologies
1 3 (50.00%) Agile
1 3 (50.00%) Analytics
1 3 (50.00%) Data Science
1 3 (50.00%) Mathematics
2 2 (33.33%) Actionable Insight
2 2 (33.33%) Data Analysis
2 2 (33.33%) Data Visualisation
2 2 (33.33%) Data-Driven Decision Making
2 2 (33.33%) Linear Programming
2 2 (33.33%) Machine Learning
2 2 (33.33%) Predictive Analytics
2 2 (33.33%) Prescriptive Analytics
2 2 (33.33%) Problem-Solving
2 2 (33.33%) Statistical Modelling
2 2 (33.33%) Statistics
2 2 (33.33%) Supply Chain Planning
2 2 (33.33%) Visualisation
3 1 (16.67%) Data Modelling
3 1 (16.67%) Economics
3 1 (16.67%) People Management
Programming Languages
1 6 (100.00%) Python
2 2 (33.33%) R
2 2 (33.33%) SQL
Qualifications
1 4 (66.67%) Degree
1 4 (66.67%) Master's Degree
2 2 (33.33%) PhD
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 1 (16.67%) QA
Vendors
1 2 (33.33%) Microsoft
1 2 (33.33%) TIBCO