Operational Technology Contract Job Trends

Operational Technology (OT)
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Operational Technology in contract job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the contractor rates offered in vacancies that cited Operational Technology over the 6 months leading up to 9 May 2026, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
9 May 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 300 369 418
Rank change year-on-year +69 +49 +46
Contract jobs citing Operational Technology 362 151 168
As % of all contract jobs in the UK 0.76% 0.52% 0.39%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 2.35% 1.52% 1.28%
Number of daily rates quoted 250 106 116
10th Percentile £370 £413 £358
25th Percentile £461 £500 £463
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £550 £575 £575
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - +0.88%
75th Percentile £675 £638 £691
90th Percentile £800 £728 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £575 £595 £575
% change year-on-year -3.36% +3.48% +4.55%
Number of hourly rates quoted 11 3 1
10th Percentile - £71.68 -
25th Percentile £31.25 £76.00 £62.50
Median hourly rate £32.50 £83.20 £65.00
Median % change year-on-year -60.94% +28.00% -
75th Percentile £65.63 - £67.50
90th Percentile £111.15 - -
UK excluding London median hourly rate £32.50 £83.20 £65.00
% change year-on-year -60.94% +28.00% -

All Generic Skills
UK

Operational Technology falls under the General and Transferable Skills category. For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Contract vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 15,374 9,905 13,106
As % of all contract IT jobs advertised in the UK 32.21% 33.96% 30.39%
Number of daily rates quoted 9,578 6,327 8,422
10th Percentile £308 £300 £268
25th Percentile £413 £413 £413
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £503 £525 £540
Median % change year-on-year -4.17% -2.78% -1.82%
75th Percentile £625 £650 £663
90th Percentile £738 £775 £800
UK excluding London median daily rate £478 £490 £500
% change year-on-year -2.35% -2.10% -
Number of hourly rates quoted 723 393 903
10th Percentile £16.01 £16.95 £12.25
25th Percentile £20.00 £21.00 £15.17
Median hourly rate £45.00 £32.50 £31.00
Median % change year-on-year +38.46% +4.84% +37.87%
75th Percentile £70.00 £64.50 £61.30
90th Percentile £87.50 £83.20 £70.00
UK excluding London median hourly rate £50.00 £31.76 £28.50
% change year-on-year +57.43% +11.44% +29.55%

Operational Technology
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of contract IT job postings citing Operational Technology relative to all contract IT jobs advertised.

Operational Technology job vacancy trend in the UK

Operational Technology
Daily Rate Trend

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Operational Technology.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Operational Technology

Operational Technology
Daily Rate Histogram

Daily rate distribution for jobs citing Operational Technology over the 6 months to 9 May 2026.

Daily rate histogram for Operational Technology in the UK

Operational Technology
Hourly Rate Trend

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Operational Technology.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Operational Technology

Operational Technology
Hourly Rate Histogram

Hourly rate distribution of jobs citing Operational Technology over the 6 months to 9 May 2026.

Hourly rate histogram for Operational Technology in the UK

Operational Technology
Top 16 Contract Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Operational Technology within the UK over the 6 months to 9 May 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 +23 283 £600 +4.35% 95
UK excluding London +29 254 £575 -3.36% 86
Work from Home +10 105 £600 - 36
South East -22 72 £575 -4.17% 29
Midlands -39 58 £600 - 16
West Midlands -42 51 £600 - 16
North of England -29 48 £550 -4.35% 19
London -53 48 £600 +9.09% 22
Scotland +24 31 £488 +0.31% 8
North West -11 30 £550 +37.50% 10
East of England -26 21 £545 +21.11% 6
Yorkshire -41 14 £650 +6.12% 7
South West -22 13 £538 -6.52% 6
Wales -2 10 £468 -28.08% 3
East Midlands - 7 £475 -
North East -20 5 £413 -28.26% 2

Operational Technology
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 8 (2.21%) SharePoint
2 7 (1.93%) Confluence
3 2 (0.55%) CMS
4 1 (0.28%) FactoryTalk
4 1 (0.28%) MS Project Server
4 1 (0.28%) NetWeaver
Applications
1 7 (1.93%) Microsoft Excel
2 5 (1.38%) Microsoft Project
3 3 (0.83%) Microsoft Office
3 3 (0.83%) Microsoft PowerPoint
4 1 (0.28%) MS Visio
Business Applications
1 2 (0.55%) Maximo
1 2 (0.55%) Primavera
Cloud Services
1 39 (10.77%) Azure
2 23 (6.35%) Entra ID
3 12 (3.31%) AWS
4 11 (3.04%) Microsoft 365
4 11 (3.04%) Nutanix
5 9 (2.49%) SaaS
6 8 (2.21%) Azure DevOps
7 6 (1.66%) IaaS
7 6 (1.66%) PaaS
8 4 (1.10%) GCP
8 4 (1.10%) Power Platform
9 3 (0.83%) Azure ExpressRoute
10 2 (0.55%) Azure Sentinel
11 1 (0.28%) Amazon ELB
11 1 (0.28%) Amazon GuardDuty
11 1 (0.28%) Amazon Macie
11 1 (0.28%) AWS CloudTrail
11 1 (0.28%) GitHub Actions
11 1 (0.28%) SuccessFactors
11 1 (0.28%) Virtual Private Cloud
Communications & Networking
1 41 (11.33%) Firewall
2 20 (5.52%) Network Security
3 15 (4.14%) VPN
3 15 (4.14%) WAN
4 13 (3.59%) IPsec
5 12 (3.31%) Modbus
5 12 (3.31%) SD-WAN
6 11 (3.04%) LAN
7 10 (2.76%) VLAN
8 7 (1.93%) MPLS
8 7 (1.93%) MQTT
9 5 (1.38%) Ethernet
9 5 (1.38%) TCP/IP
10 4 (1.10%) BGP
10 4 (1.10%) Intrusion Detection
10 4 (1.10%) OSPF
10 4 (1.10%) WLAN
11 3 (0.83%) Internet
11 3 (0.83%) RS-485
11 3 (0.83%) VoIP
Database & Business Intelligence
1 5 (1.38%) SQL Server
2 4 (1.10%) Power BI
3 1 (0.28%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.28%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle Database
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle Database 12c
3 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Integration Services
3 1 (0.28%) SQL Server Reporting Services
Development Applications
1 14 (3.87%) JIRA
2 2 (0.55%) GitLab
3 1 (0.28%) AppScan
3 1 (0.28%) Burp Suite
3 1 (0.28%) Jenkins
3 1 (0.28%) Metasploit
General
1 97 (26.80%) Social Skills
2 46 (12.71%) Manufacturing
3 37 (10.22%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (7.46%) Finance
5 16 (4.42%) Aerospace
5 16 (4.42%) Public Sector
6 8 (2.21%) Documentation Skills
7 6 (1.66%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 6 (1.66%) Legal
7 6 (1.66%) Pharmaceutical
8 4 (1.10%) Influencing Skills
8 4 (1.10%) Marketing
8 4 (1.10%) Military
8 4 (1.10%) Telecoms
9 3 (0.83%) Law
9 3 (0.83%) Presentation Skills
10 2 (0.55%) Organisational Skills
11 1 (0.28%) Back Office
11 1 (0.28%) Banking
11 1 (0.28%) Retail
Job Titles
1 77 (21.27%) Architect
2 43 (11.88%) Analyst
3 30 (8.29%) Consultant
3 30 (8.29%) Security Architect
4 24 (6.63%) Lead
4 24 (6.63%) Project Manager
5 19 (5.25%) Solutions Architect
6 18 (4.97%) Security Consultant
7 17 (4.70%) Security Analyst
8 16 (4.42%) Senior
9 15 (4.14%) Business Analyst
9 15 (4.14%) IT Engineer
9 15 (4.14%) Network Engineer
9 15 (4.14%) Security Engineer
10 14 (3.87%) Cybersecurity Architect
10 14 (3.87%) Security Specialist
11 12 (3.31%) Cybersecurity Analyst
11 12 (3.31%) Cybersecurity Specialist
12 11 (3.04%) Infrastructure Engineer
13 10 (2.76%) Cybersecurity Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 6 (1.66%) REST
1 6 (1.66%) SailPoint
1 6 (1.66%) SAML
2 5 (1.38%) ADO
2 5 (1.38%) OpenID
3 4 (1.10%) Middleware
4 3 (0.83%) OAuth
5 2 (0.55%) LDAP
5 2 (0.55%) SOAP
6 1 (0.28%) 802.1X
6 1 (0.28%) Elastic Stack
6 1 (0.28%) Jinja
6 1 (0.28%) JSON
6 1 (0.28%) Node-RED
6 1 (0.28%) Regular Expression
Miscellaneous
1 104 (28.73%) SCADA
2 23 (6.35%) Management Information System
3 19 (5.25%) Security Posture
4 18 (4.97%) Onboarding
5 10 (2.76%) Life Science
6 9 (2.49%) Analytical Mindset
6 9 (2.49%) Cyber Threat
7 8 (2.21%) Data Centre
8 7 (1.93%) Cyber Defence
8 7 (1.93%) IoT
8 7 (1.93%) Legacy Systems
8 7 (1.93%) Security Operations Centre
9 6 (1.66%) PKI
9 6 (1.66%) Private Cloud
10 5 (1.38%) Data Protection Act
10 5 (1.38%) Robotics
11 4 (1.10%) CMDB
11 4 (1.10%) Driving Licence
11 4 (1.10%) Hybrid Cloud
11 4 (1.10%) Renewable Energy
Operating Systems
1 31 (8.56%) Windows
2 24 (6.63%) Linux
3 8 (2.21%) Unix
3 8 (2.21%) Windows Server
4 1 (0.28%) CatOS
4 1 (0.28%) Kali Linux
4 1 (0.28%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
4 1 (0.28%) Windows Server 2019
Processes & Methodologies
1 195 (53.87%) Cybersecurity
2 66 (18.23%) Stakeholder Engagement
3 50 (13.81%) Risk Management
4 49 (13.54%) Stakeholder Management
5 47 (12.98%) Roadmaps
6 41 (11.33%) SIEM
6 41 (11.33%) Vulnerability Management
7 39 (10.77%) Continuous Improvement
8 36 (9.94%) Information Security
9 35 (9.67%) Security Architecture
10 34 (9.39%) AI
10 34 (9.39%) Risk Assessment
11 33 (9.12%) Problem-Solving
12 29 (8.01%) Incident Response
13 28 (7.73%) Decision-Making
13 28 (7.73%) Generative AI
14 27 (7.46%) Enterprise Architecture
14 27 (7.46%) Validation
14 27 (7.46%) Zero Trust
15 24 (6.63%) ITIL
Programming Languages
1 15 (4.14%) PowerShell
1 15 (4.14%) Python
2 6 (1.66%) SQL
3 4 (1.10%) Kusto Query Language
4 1 (0.28%) Bash
4 1 (0.28%) Bicep
4 1 (0.28%) Lisp
Qualifications
1 61 (16.85%) Security Cleared
2 49 (13.54%) SC Cleared
3 41 (11.33%) CISSP
4 40 (11.05%) Degree
5 29 (8.01%) CISM
6 21 (5.80%) Cisco Certification
7 14 (3.87%) CCNP
8 12 (3.31%) CCNA
9 11 (3.04%) GIAC
9 11 (3.04%) PMI Certification
10 10 (2.76%) CISA
11 8 (2.21%) CEH
11 8 (2.21%) CESG Certified Professional
12 7 (1.93%) PMP
13 6 (1.66%) BPSS Clearance
13 6 (1.66%) DV Cleared
13 6 (1.66%) Master's Degree
14 5 (1.38%) (ISC)2 CCSP
14 5 (1.38%) CREST Certified
14 5 (1.38%) SANS
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 79 (21.82%) NIST
2 60 (16.57%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 19 (5.25%) NCSC
4 18 (4.97%) Cyber Essentials
5 16 (4.42%) GRC
6 12 (3.31%) ISO 31000
7 11 (3.04%) ISO/IEC 27005
7 11 (3.04%) NIST 800
8 8 (2.21%) GDPR
8 8 (2.21%) QA
9 7 (1.93%) COBIT
9 7 (1.93%) GxP
9 7 (1.93%) SOC 2
10 6 (1.66%) ISA99
11 5 (1.38%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
11 5 (1.38%) Def Stans
11 5 (1.38%) GMP
11 5 (1.38%) PMO
12 4 (1.10%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
13 3 (0.83%) NEBOSH
System Software
1 28 (7.73%) Active Directory
2 11 (3.04%) VMware Infrastructure
3 7 (1.93%) Virtual Machines
4 4 (1.10%) VMware NSX
5 2 (0.55%) Hyper-V
6 1 (0.28%) Firmware
6 1 (0.28%) KVM
6 1 (0.28%) VMware ESXi
6 1 (0.28%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 4 (1.10%) Ansible
2 2 (0.55%) Active Directory Federation Services
3 1 (0.28%) Cisco CUCM
3 1 (0.28%) Cisco Prime
3 1 (0.28%) CSIRT
3 1 (0.28%) FortiGate
3 1 (0.28%) Host Intrusion Detection System
3 1 (0.28%) Microsoft Intune
3 1 (0.28%) MOM
3 1 (0.28%) Nessus
3 1 (0.28%) Network Intrusion Detection System
3 1 (0.28%) Nmap
3 1 (0.28%) Oracle RMAN
3 1 (0.28%) Packer
3 1 (0.28%) Progress Chef
3 1 (0.28%) Proxmox
3 1 (0.28%) QRadar
3 1 (0.28%) SCCM
3 1 (0.28%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.28%) Terraform
Vendors
1 46 (12.71%) Microsoft
2 33 (9.12%) Cisco
3 19 (5.25%) VMware
4 13 (3.59%) Palo Alto
5 12 (3.31%) Fortinet
6 11 (3.04%) AVEVA
6 11 (3.04%) SAP
7 9 (2.49%) ServiceNow
8 6 (1.66%) Juniper
8 6 (1.66%) Siemens
8 6 (1.66%) Veeam
9 5 (1.38%) BeyondTrust
9 5 (1.38%) Rockwell
10 4 (1.10%) BiZZdesign
11 3 (0.83%) Aruba
11 3 (0.83%) CheckPoint
11 3 (0.83%) CyberArk
11 3 (0.83%) Meraki
11 3 (0.83%) Qualys
11 3 (0.83%) Starlink