Operations Manager Job Trends

Operations Manager
UK

The median Operations Manager salary in the UK is £68,250 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 18 December 2025.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
18 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 425 571 581
Rank change year-on-year +146 +10 +153
Permanent jobs requiring an Operations Manager 228 155 128
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.39% 0.27% 0.26%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.43% 0.29% 0.28%
Number of salaries quoted 146 86 98
10th Percentile £46,250 £48,125 £47,125
25th Percentile £57,500 £55,435 £52,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £68,250 £75,000 £60,394
Median % change year-on-year -9.00% +24.18% -7.09%
75th Percentile £80,000 £93,750 £73,750
90th Percentile £100,000 £116,875 £80,750
UK excluding London median annual salary £61,250 £67,500 £62,500
% change year-on-year -9.26% +8.00% +4.17%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 52,771 53,172 46,462
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.24% 93.59% 95.22%
Number of salaries quoted 32,471 28,551 36,094
10th Percentile £28,500 £32,750 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £43,750 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £77,500 £80,000
90th Percentile £93,634 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £48,500 £52,500 £52,500
% change year-on-year -7.62% - -

Operations Manager
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Operations Manager' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Operations Manager job vacancy trend in the UK

Operations Manager
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Operations Manager job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Operations Manager job vacancies in the UK

Operations Manager
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Operations Manager over the 6 months to 18 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Operations Manager in the UK

Operations Manager
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Operations Manager within the UK over the 6 months to 18 December 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +152 212 £68,250 -9.00% 75
UK excluding London +107 118 £61,250 -9.26% 65
London +103 99 £75,000 -6.25% 26
Work from Home +57 45 £70,000 -15.15% 37
Midlands +38 29 £60,000 +29.73% 16
North of England +40 27 £50,000 -11.52% 19
South East +37 25 £65,000 +13.04% 17
South West +22 17 £80,000 -13.51% 7
East of England +35 16 £70,000 -12.50% 4
West Midlands +47 15 £100,000 +122.22% 4
North West +29 15 £47,500 -15.94% 11
East Midlands 0 14 £50,000 +5.26% 12
Yorkshire +1 10 £75,000 +27.12% 3
Scotland +4 3 - -
North East - 2 - - 5
Northern Ireland - 2 - -
Wales -1 1 - - 3

Operations Manager Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 18 December 2025, Operations Manager job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Operations Manager in the job title.

1 66 (28.95%) Continuous Improvement
2 61 (26.75%) Service Delivery
3 57 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
4 53 (23.25%) ITIL
5 51 (22.37%) QA
6 47 (20.61%) Incident Response
6 47 (20.61%) Service Management
7 39 (17.11%) Incident Management
8 37 (16.23%) Microsoft
9 36 (15.79%) Project Management
10 34 (14.91%) SaaS
11 32 (14.04%) Cybersecurity
12 30 (13.16%) DevOps
13 29 (12.72%) Business Continuity
13 29 (12.72%) Change Management
13 29 (12.72%) Site Reliability Engineering
13 29 (12.72%) Stakeholder Management
14 28 (12.28%) Agile
15 26 (11.40%) Security Operations
16 25 (10.96%) Collaborative Culture
17 24 (10.53%) AI
18 23 (10.09%) Cyber Essentials
18 23 (10.09%) GDPR
18 23 (10.09%) Observability
18 23 (10.09%) Resource Allocation
19 22 (9.65%) Customer Engagement
19 22 (9.65%) Microsoft 365
19 22 (9.65%) Scaled Agile Framework
19 22 (9.65%) Service Design
19 22 (9.65%) Software Engineering

Operations Manager Skill Set
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 10 (4.39%) Microsoft Exchange
2 9 (3.95%) SharePoint
3 4 (1.75%) CMS
4 3 (1.32%) HCL Domino
4 3 (1.32%) HCL Notes
5 1 (0.44%) Umbraco
Applications
1 8 (3.51%) Microsoft Excel
2 6 (2.63%) Microsoft PowerPoint
2 6 (2.63%) Microsoft Project
3 5 (2.19%) Microsoft Office
4 4 (1.75%) Spreadsheet
5 3 (1.32%) Adobe Creative Suite
5 3 (1.32%) Adobe Illustrator
5 3 (1.32%) Photoshop
Business Applications
1 3 (1.32%) Dynamics CRM
1 3 (1.32%) Shopify
2 1 (0.44%) Dynamics GP
Cloud Services
1 34 (14.91%) SaaS
2 22 (9.65%) Microsoft 365
3 20 (8.77%) Azure
4 9 (3.95%) OneDrive
5 8 (3.51%) Entra ID
6 7 (3.07%) AWS
6 7 (3.07%) Microsoft Purview
7 6 (2.63%) Power Platform
8 4 (1.75%) Amazon ECS
8 4 (1.75%) AWS CloudFormation
8 4 (1.75%) Microsoft Copilot
8 4 (1.75%) Power Automate
8 4 (1.75%) PowerApps
9 3 (1.32%) Dynamics 365
10 1 (0.44%) Azure Key Vault
10 1 (0.44%) Azure Logic Apps
10 1 (0.44%) Azure Sentinel
10 1 (0.44%) Canva
10 1 (0.44%) Serverless
10 1 (0.44%) Squarespace
Communications & Networking
1 8 (3.51%) LAN
1 8 (3.51%) WAN
2 7 (3.07%) WebEx
2 7 (3.07%) Wi-Fi
3 5 (2.19%) Network Security
4 3 (1.32%) Wireless
4 3 (1.32%) Wireless Security
5 2 (0.88%) Firewall
6 1 (0.44%) Intrusion Detection
6 1 (0.44%) Modbus
6 1 (0.44%) MPLS
6 1 (0.44%) SAN
6 1 (0.44%) Structured Cabling
6 1 (0.44%) VoIP
6 1 (0.44%) VPN
6 1 (0.44%) WLAN
Database & Business Intelligence
1 6 (2.63%) Power BI
2 3 (1.32%) SQL Server Integration Services
2 3 (1.32%) SQL Server Reporting Services
3 1 (0.44%) DTS
3 1 (0.44%) SQL Server
Development Applications
1 7 (3.07%) JIRA
2 4 (1.75%) GitLab
2 4 (1.75%) Jenkins
General
1 77 (33.77%) Finance
2 70 (30.70%) Social Skills
3 31 (13.60%) Marketing
4 23 (10.09%) Manufacturing
5 22 (9.65%) Aviation
5 22 (9.65%) Fire and Rescue
5 22 (9.65%) Police
5 22 (9.65%) Public Sector
6 20 (8.77%) Analytical Skills
7 17 (7.46%) Electronics
8 15 (6.58%) Influencing Skills
9 14 (6.14%) Retail
10 13 (5.70%) Telecoms
11 11 (4.82%) Advertising
11 11 (4.82%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 9 (3.95%) Legal
12 9 (3.95%) Organisational Skills
13 7 (3.07%) Billing
14 6 (2.63%) Banking
14 6 (2.63%) Presentation Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 5 (2.19%) EDI
2 3 (1.32%) BREW
3 1 (0.44%) Java RMI
3 1 (0.44%) Microsoft Graph
Miscellaneous
1 22 (9.65%) Robotics
2 18 (7.89%) Self-Motivation
3 17 (7.46%) Onboarding
4 9 (3.95%) Data Centre
5 7 (3.07%) Security Operations Centre
5 7 (3.07%) Social Media
6 3 (1.32%) Legacy Systems
7 2 (0.88%) CMDB
7 2 (0.88%) Cyber Threat
7 2 (0.88%) Driving Licence
7 2 (0.88%) Management Information System
7 2 (0.88%) NHS
7 2 (0.88%) PropTech
7 2 (0.88%) Replication
7 2 (0.88%) Security Posture
7 2 (0.88%) Virtual Team
8 1 (0.44%) CCTV
8 1 (0.44%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
8 1 (0.44%) Graphic Design
8 1 (0.44%) SCADA
Operating Systems
1 20 (8.77%) Windows
2 4 (1.75%) Windows Server
3 3 (1.32%) Linux
Processes & Methodologies
1 66 (28.95%) Continuous Improvement
2 61 (26.75%) Service Delivery
3 57 (25.00%) Problem-Solving
4 53 (23.25%) ITIL
5 47 (20.61%) Incident Response
5 47 (20.61%) Service Management
6 39 (17.11%) Incident Management
7 36 (15.79%) Project Management
8 32 (14.04%) Cybersecurity
9 30 (13.16%) DevOps
10 29 (12.72%) Business Continuity
10 29 (12.72%) Change Management
10 29 (12.72%) Site Reliability Engineering
10 29 (12.72%) Stakeholder Management
11 28 (12.28%) Agile
12 26 (11.40%) Security Operations
13 25 (10.96%) Collaborative Culture
14 24 (10.53%) AI
15 23 (10.09%) Observability
15 23 (10.09%) Resource Allocation
Programming Languages
1 7 (3.07%) PowerShell
2 5 (2.19%) SQL
3 4 (1.75%) Bash
3 4 (1.75%) Java
3 4 (1.75%) Python
3 4 (1.75%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 20 (8.77%) CISSP
2 15 (6.58%) PMP
3 14 (6.14%) PMI Certification
4 12 (5.26%) Degree
5 6 (2.63%) GCIH
6 4 (1.75%) (ISC)2 CCSP
6 4 (1.75%) AWS Certification
6 4 (1.75%) CCSP
6 4 (1.75%) Cisco Certification
7 3 (1.32%) AWS Certified Solutions Architect
7 3 (1.32%) GIAC
8 2 (0.88%) Computer Science Degree
8 2 (0.88%) DBS Check
8 2 (0.88%) Master's Degree
9 1 (0.44%) CISM
9 1 (0.44%) CompTIA CySA+
9 1 (0.44%) CREST Certified
9 1 (0.44%) GCFA
9 1 (0.44%) SANS
9 1 (0.44%) SC Cleared
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 51 (22.37%) QA
2 23 (10.09%) Cyber Essentials
2 23 (10.09%) GDPR
3 19 (8.33%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 13 (5.70%) ISO/IEC 27001
5 10 (4.39%) NIST
6 8 (3.51%) SLA
7 4 (1.75%) PCI DSS
8 3 (1.32%) Data Quality
8 3 (1.32%) GRC
8 3 (1.32%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.88%) Accessibility
9 2 (0.88%) NEBOSH
9 2 (0.88%) PERC
10 1 (0.44%) California Consumer Privacy Act
10 1 (0.44%) ISO 22301
10 1 (0.44%) NCSC
10 1 (0.44%) PSD2
10 1 (0.44%) SEPA
10 1 (0.44%) WCAG
System Software
1 7 (3.07%) Active Directory
2 3 (1.32%) Hyper-V
3 2 (0.88%) VMware Infrastructure
4 1 (0.44%) Virtual Desktop
4 1 (0.44%) Virtual Machines
Systems Management
1 8 (3.51%) Microsoft Intune
2 4 (1.75%) Ansible
2 4 (1.75%) Kubernetes
3 1 (0.44%) FortiGate
3 1 (0.44%) SCCM
Vendors
1 37 (16.23%) Microsoft
2 14 (6.14%) SAP
3 9 (3.95%) Cisco
3 9 (3.95%) Meraki
4 7 (3.07%) Ruckus Wireless
5 5 (2.19%) HubSpot
6 4 (1.75%) Adobe
6 4 (1.75%) Oracle
7 3 (1.32%) IBM
7 3 (1.32%) Lotus
7 3 (1.32%) VMware
8 2 (0.88%) Veeam
9 1 (0.44%) Fortinet
9 1 (0.44%) NVIDIA
9 1 (0.44%) Sage
9 1 (0.44%) ServiceNow
9 1 (0.44%) Siemens
9 1 (0.44%) Sophos