Operational Technology Job Trends

Operational Technology (OT)
UK

The table below looks at the prevalence of the term Operational Technology in permanent job vacancies. Included is a benchmarking guide to the salaries 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 530 487 567
Rank change year-on-year -43 +80 +51
Permanent jobs citing Operational Technology 197 168 331
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.22% 0.39% 0.34%
As % of the Miscellaneous category 0.80% 0.93% 0.96%
Number of salaries quoted 99 108 197
10th Percentile £46,939 £44,000 £37,500
25th Percentile £50,000 £56,250 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £65,000 £65,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year - +13.04% -17.86%
75th Percentile £91,250 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £92,875 £77,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £65,000 £65,000 £52,084
% change year-on-year - +24.80% -19.87%

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 permanent job vacancies requiring generic IT skills.

Permanent vacancies with a requirement for generic IT skills 24,751 18,088 34,640
As % of all permanent jobs advertised in the UK 27.30% 41.57% 35.91%
Number of salaries quoted 13,411 9,290 23,040
10th Percentile £30,000 £31,250 £28,000
25th Percentile £40,750 £42,000 £38,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £60,000 £55,000
Median % change year-on-year - +9.09% -15.38%
75th Percentile £80,000 £80,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £100,000 £112,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £50,000 £52,500 £50,000
% change year-on-year -4.76% +5.00% -9.09%

Operational Technology
Job Vacancy Trend

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

Operational Technology job vacancy trend in the UK

Operational Technology
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Operational Technology.

Salary distribution trend for jobs in the UK citing Operational Technology

Operational Technology
Salary Histogram

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

Salary histogram for Operational Technology in the UK

Operational Technology
Top 16 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England -4 175 £65,000 - 95
UK excluding London -77 120 £65,000 - 86
London +18 58 £59,000 -34.44% 22
North of England -67 50 £65,000 - 19
Work from Home +21 46 £66,250 +1.92% 37
North West +7 31 £65,000 -23.53% 10
Midlands -46 25 £56,400 -16.44% 16
East of England +14 24 £95,000 +60.34% 6
West Midlands -44 22 £56,400 -16.44% 16
Yorkshire -74 14 £61,250 -5.77% 7
South East -32 8 £75,000 +15.38% 29
Scotland -18 5 £75,000 +20.00% 8
South West -53 5 £60,000 +30.43% 6
North East -54 5 - - 2
Wales -30 4 £61,963 -18.34% 3
East Midlands -22 3 - -

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 2 (1.02%) Microsoft Exchange
1 2 (1.02%) SharePoint
2 1 (0.51%) ArchestrA
Applications
1 2 (1.02%) Siemens NX
2 1 (0.51%) Microsoft Excel
Business Applications
1 2 (1.02%) Maximo
2 1 (0.51%) SAP PM
2 1 (0.51%) Teamcenter
Cloud Services
1 19 (9.64%) Azure
2 6 (3.05%) AWS
3 4 (2.03%) Entra ID
4 3 (1.52%) Azure AKS
4 3 (1.52%) Azure Logic Apps
4 3 (1.52%) Azure Service Bus
4 3 (1.52%) iPaaS
4 3 (1.52%) SaaS
4 3 (1.52%) Serverless
5 2 (1.02%) Microsoft 365
5 2 (1.02%) Power Platform
6 1 (0.51%) GCP
6 1 (0.51%) Power Automate
6 1 (0.51%) PowerApps
Communications & Networking
1 18 (9.14%) Network Security
2 11 (5.58%) Firewall
3 7 (3.55%) Modbus
4 4 (2.03%) TCP/IP
5 3 (1.52%) DMZ
5 3 (1.52%) Ethernet
5 3 (1.52%) LAN
5 3 (1.52%) MQTT
5 3 (1.52%) Wi-Fi
6 2 (1.02%) WAN
6 2 (1.02%) Wireless
7 1 (0.51%) 4G
7 1 (0.51%) AMQP
7 1 (0.51%) Cisco IOS
7 1 (0.51%) DNS
7 1 (0.51%) Intrusion Detection
7 1 (0.51%) IPsec
7 1 (0.51%) MPLS
7 1 (0.51%) VLAN
7 1 (0.51%) VPN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 9 (4.57%) GIS
2 7 (3.55%) Oracle Database
2 7 (3.55%) PostgreSQL
3 3 (1.52%) SQL Server
4 1 (0.51%) Power BI
4 1 (0.51%) Semantic Layer
General
1 35 (17.77%) Social Skills
2 29 (14.72%) Manufacturing
3 28 (14.21%) Analytical Skills
4 27 (13.71%) Finance
5 9 (4.57%) Retail
6 8 (4.06%) Cyber-Physical System
6 8 (4.06%) Inclusion and Diversity
7 5 (2.54%) Games
8 4 (2.03%) Aviation
8 4 (2.03%) Law
8 4 (2.03%) Military
9 3 (1.52%) Documentation Skills
9 3 (1.52%) Legal
9 3 (1.52%) Pharmaceutical
9 3 (1.52%) Public Sector
10 1 (0.51%) French Language
10 1 (0.51%) German Language
10 1 (0.51%) Organisational Skills
10 1 (0.51%) Presentation Skills
10 1 (0.51%) Spanish Language
Job Titles
1 42 (21.32%) Architect
2 30 (15.23%) Analyst
2 30 (15.23%) Senior
3 19 (9.64%) Security Analyst
4 18 (9.14%) Security Engineer
5 17 (8.63%) Consultant
5 17 (8.63%) Security Architect
6 16 (8.12%) Cybersecurity Analyst
6 16 (8.12%) Lead
7 15 (7.61%) Cybersecurity Engineer
8 11 (5.58%) Cybersecurity Architect
8 11 (5.58%) Solutions Architect
9 10 (5.08%) Network Engineer
9 10 (5.08%) Senior Architect
9 10 (5.08%) Systems Engineer
10 9 (4.57%) Operations Analyst
10 9 (4.57%) Senior Solutions Architect
11 8 (4.06%) Risk Manager
11 8 (4.06%) Security Consultant
11 8 (4.06%) Senior Consultant
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 7 (3.55%) JSON
1 7 (3.55%) XML
2 4 (2.03%) .NET
3 3 (1.52%) Kafka
3 3 (1.52%) Middleware
3 3 (1.52%) RabbitMQ
3 3 (1.52%) RESTful
4 2 (1.02%) REST
4 2 (1.02%) SOAP
5 1 (0.51%) LangChain
5 1 (0.51%) LangGraph
5 1 (0.51%) OpenID
5 1 (0.51%) SAML
Miscellaneous
1 28 (14.21%) SCADA
2 10 (5.08%) Management Information System
3 9 (4.57%) Cyber Threat
3 9 (4.57%) IoT
3 9 (4.57%) Legacy Systems
4 8 (4.06%) AI Agents
4 8 (4.06%) Cyber Defence
5 7 (3.55%) Data Structures
6 5 (2.54%) Data Centre
6 5 (2.54%) Driving Licence
6 5 (2.54%) Smartphone
7 4 (2.03%) Embedded Systems
7 4 (2.03%) Industry 4.0
7 4 (2.03%) Manufacturing Execution System
7 4 (2.03%) Security Posture
8 3 (1.52%) Algorithms
8 3 (1.52%) Analytical Mindset
8 3 (1.52%) Cyber Kill Chain
8 3 (1.52%) Hybrid Cloud
8 3 (1.52%) Industrial Internet of Things
Operating Systems
1 9 (4.57%) Windows
2 8 (4.06%) Linux
3 7 (3.55%) Windows Server
4 4 (2.03%) Red Hat Enterprise Linux
5 1 (0.51%) Mac OS
Processes & Methodologies
1 97 (49.24%) Cybersecurity
2 32 (16.24%) Continuous Improvement
3 30 (15.23%) Problem-Solving
4 29 (14.72%) Roadmaps
5 22 (11.17%) Incident Response
6 21 (10.66%) Information Security
7 20 (10.15%) Risk Management
7 20 (10.15%) Stakeholder Management
8 19 (9.64%) Computer Science
9 16 (8.12%) Cyber Resilience
9 16 (8.12%) Software Engineering
9 16 (8.12%) Stakeholder Engagement
10 14 (7.11%) AI
11 13 (6.60%) Mentoring
12 12 (6.09%) Agile
12 12 (6.09%) Decision-Making
12 12 (6.09%) Digital Transformation Programme
12 12 (6.09%) Technology Strategy
13 11 (5.58%) Asset Management
13 11 (5.58%) Machine Learning
Programming Languages
1 17 (8.63%) Python
2 16 (8.12%) SQL
3 7 (3.55%) Perl
3 7 (3.55%) VB
4 4 (2.03%) C#
4 4 (2.03%) C++
4 4 (2.03%) Go
4 4 (2.03%) Rust
5 3 (1.52%) T-SQL
Qualifications
1 42 (21.32%) Security Cleared
2 30 (15.23%) SC Cleared
3 27 (13.71%) Degree
4 12 (6.09%) CISSP
4 12 (6.09%) Master's Degree
5 9 (4.57%) CISM
5 9 (4.57%) ISO 27001 Lead Auditor
6 8 (4.06%) CISA
7 6 (3.05%) DBS Check
7 6 (3.05%) DV Cleared
8 5 (2.54%) Cisco Certification
9 4 (2.03%) CEH
9 4 (2.03%) OSCP
10 3 (1.52%) CCNA
10 3 (1.52%) CCNP
10 3 (1.52%) Computer Science Degree
10 3 (1.52%) GIAC
10 3 (1.52%) HND
10 3 (1.52%) SANS
11 2 (1.02%) MCSE
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 21 (10.66%) NIST
2 17 (8.63%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 11 (5.58%) GRC
4 9 (4.57%) NCSC
5 6 (3.05%) ISO/IEC 27005
6 5 (2.54%) Accessibility
7 4 (2.03%) Data Quality
8 3 (1.52%) ISO/IEC 27002 (supersedes ISO/IEC 17799)
8 3 (1.52%) QA
9 2 (1.02%) 21 CFR Part 11
9 2 (1.02%) Cyber Essentials
9 2 (1.02%) GxP
10 1 (0.51%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.51%) EU AI Act
10 1 (0.51%) GDPR
10 1 (0.51%) PCI DSS
10 1 (0.51%) PMO
System Software
1 6 (3.05%) VMware Infrastructure
2 4 (2.03%) Active Directory
2 4 (2.03%) Hyper-V
3 3 (1.52%) Docker
4 2 (1.02%) Firmware
4 2 (1.02%) vSphere
Systems Management
1 3 (1.52%) Kubernetes
2 2 (1.02%) SCCM
2 2 (1.02%) Single Sign-On
3 1 (0.51%) Functional Safety
3 1 (0.51%) RSA Archer
Vendors
1 13 (6.60%) Oracle
2 7 (3.55%) VMware
3 5 (2.54%) Aruba
3 5 (2.54%) Cisco
3 5 (2.54%) Cognizant
3 5 (2.54%) HP
3 5 (2.54%) Microsoft
4 4 (2.03%) Red Hat
5 3 (1.52%) Rockwell
5 3 (1.52%) SAP
6 2 (1.02%) Agilent
6 2 (1.02%) Qualys
6 2 (1.02%) ServiceNow
6 2 (1.02%) Siemens
6 2 (1.02%) Veeam
7 1 (0.51%) Ariba
7 1 (0.51%) Fortinet
7 1 (0.51%) OneTrust
7 1 (0.51%) Rapid7
7 1 (0.51%) Tenable