Operations Manager Job Trends

Operations Manager
UK

The median Operations Manager salary in the UK is £60,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 12 July 2026.

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

6 months to
12 Jul 2026
Same period 2025 Same period 2024
Rank 382 456 584
Rank change year-on-year +74 +128 +121
Permanent jobs requiring an Operations Manager 452 235 316
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 0.46% 0.48% 0.31%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.49% 0.53% 0.33%
Number of salaries quoted 363 136 242
10th Percentile £40,000 £35,000 £40,000
25th Percentile £45,000 £57,503 £50,159
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £60,000 £65,000 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -7.69% +13.04% -17.86%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,625 £70,000
90th Percentile £85,000 £83,000 £87,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £60,000 £62,500 £57,500
% change year-on-year -4.00% +8.70% -14.81%

All Permanent IT Job Roles
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 92,938 44,220 95,860
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 94.19% 89.85% 94.73%
Number of salaries quoted 63,745 26,085 68,515
10th Percentile £30,000 £28,750 £29,000
25th Percentile £40,000 £38,000 £38,750
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £55,000 £52,500
Median % change year-on-year - +4.76% -12.50%
75th Percentile £75,000 £75,000 £70,000
90th Percentile £95,000 £97,500 £90,000
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £50,000 £50,000
% change year-on-year +5.00% - -5.66%

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 12 July 2026.

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 12 July 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 +84 422 £60,000 -7.69% 72
UK excluding London +83 307 £60,000 -4.00% 50
North of England +72 127 £55,000 +10.00% 17
London +8 123 £65,000 - 27
Work from Home +58 109 £55,000 -26.67% 24
North West +40 70 £72,500 +101.39% 2
Midlands +11 68 £57,500 -4.17% 5
South East +7 52 £65,000 -3.97% 13
Yorkshire +3 45 £55,000 -15.38% 14
West Midlands +7 41 £60,000 -20.00% 2
South West -38 28 £75,000 - 8
East Midlands -11 27 £50,000 +42.86% 3
East of England -27 21 £45,000 -40.00% 4
North East -46 12 £44,222 - 1
Wales - 5 - -
Northern Ireland -59 4 - - 3
Scotland +6 2 - - 1

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

For the 6 months to 12 July 2026, 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 91 (20.13%) Cybersecurity
2 76 (16.81%) Continuous Improvement
3 68 (15.04%) Service Delivery
4 65 (14.38%) Problem-Solving
5 58 (12.83%) Azure
5 58 (12.83%) Microsoft
6 50 (11.06%) Security Operations
7 47 (10.40%) Security Cleared
8 45 (9.96%) Tech Ops
9 44 (9.73%) SC Cleared
10 40 (8.85%) Microsoft 365
11 39 (8.63%) Mentoring
12 37 (8.19%) ITSM
13 35 (7.74%) Cyber Essentials
13 35 (7.74%) Incident Response
14 34 (7.52%) Stakeholder Management
15 33 (7.30%) Service Management
16 32 (7.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
17 31 (6.86%) Coaching
18 30 (6.64%) AI
18 30 (6.64%) SaaS
18 30 (6.64%) Windows
19 29 (6.42%) ITIL
20 28 (6.19%) AWS
20 28 (6.19%) Incident Management
20 28 (6.19%) Wi-Fi
21 27 (5.97%) CRM
21 27 (5.97%) Microsoft Intune
22 26 (5.75%) Decision-Making
22 26 (5.75%) Entra ID

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 8 (1.77%) Microsoft Exchange
2 6 (1.33%) SharePoint
3 5 (1.11%) Apache
3 5 (1.11%) nginx
4 1 (0.22%) WordPress
Applications
1 17 (3.76%) Microsoft Excel
2 3 (0.66%) Microsoft Office
2 3 (0.66%) Microsoft PowerPoint
3 1 (0.22%) Microsoft Project
Business Applications
1 1 (0.22%) NetSuite
Cloud Services
1 58 (12.83%) Azure
2 40 (8.85%) Microsoft 365
3 30 (6.64%) SaaS
4 28 (6.19%) AWS
5 26 (5.75%) Entra ID
6 17 (3.76%) OCI
7 11 (2.43%) Microsoft Purview
8 10 (2.21%) Microsoft Copilot
9 9 (1.99%) Power Platform
10 8 (1.77%) GCP
11 7 (1.55%) Copilot Studio
11 7 (1.55%) Power Automate
12 4 (0.88%) Azure Sentinel
12 4 (0.88%) Cloud Computing
13 2 (0.44%) Asana
13 2 (0.44%) ChatGPT
13 2 (0.44%) IaaS
13 2 (0.44%) OneDrive
13 2 (0.44%) PaaS
14 1 (0.22%) Azure Data Factory
Communications & Networking
1 28 (6.19%) Wi-Fi
2 25 (5.53%) Firewall
3 15 (3.32%) NGFW
3 15 (3.32%) VXLAN
3 15 (3.32%) Wireshark
4 12 (2.65%) WAN
5 11 (2.43%) LAN
6 10 (2.21%) Unified Communications
7 5 (1.11%) SD-WAN
8 4 (0.88%) DNS
9 3 (0.66%) Network Security
9 3 (0.66%) VLAN
9 3 (0.66%) VPN
10 2 (0.44%) Cisco ASA
10 2 (0.44%) Cisco Nexus
10 2 (0.44%) IP Telephony
10 2 (0.44%) MPLS
10 2 (0.44%) OSPF
10 2 (0.44%) WebEx
10 2 (0.44%) Wireless
Database & Business Intelligence
1 8 (1.77%) Power BI
2 3 (0.66%) SQL Server
2 3 (0.66%) Tableau
3 1 (0.22%) Data Lake
3 1 (0.22%) Data Warehouse
3 1 (0.22%) Relational Database
Development Applications
1 10 (2.21%) JIRA
General
1 74 (16.37%) Social Skills
2 64 (14.16%) Finance
3 55 (12.17%) Analytical Skills
4 30 (6.64%) Marketing
5 27 (5.97%) Public Sector
6 19 (4.20%) Retail
7 17 (3.76%) Law
7 17 (3.76%) Manufacturing
8 16 (3.54%) Legal
9 7 (1.55%) Advertising
9 7 (1.55%) Organisational Skills
10 6 (1.33%) Financial Institution
11 5 (1.11%) Influencing Skills
11 5 (1.11%) Police
12 4 (0.88%) Inclusion and Diversity
12 4 (0.88%) Telecoms
13 3 (0.66%) Games
14 2 (0.44%) Aerospace
14 2 (0.44%) Aviation
15 1 (0.22%) Health Technology
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 3 (0.66%) BREW
1 3 (0.66%) Web Services
2 2 (0.44%) LangChain
2 2 (0.44%) LangGraph
3 1 (0.22%) ARM Templates
3 1 (0.22%) EDI
Miscellaneous
1 22 (4.87%) Data Centre
1 22 (4.87%) Onboarding
2 15 (3.32%) PKI
3 12 (2.65%) Cyber Defence
4 8 (1.77%) Educational Technology
4 8 (1.77%) Management Information System
4 8 (1.77%) Security Operations Centre
4 8 (1.77%) Security Posture
5 7 (1.55%) CSOC
6 4 (0.88%) AI Agents
6 4 (0.88%) Driving Licence
6 4 (0.88%) Renewable Energy
7 3 (0.66%) Cloud Native
7 3 (0.66%) Self-Motivation
8 2 (0.44%) Cyber Threat
8 2 (0.44%) Distributed Denial-of-Service
8 2 (0.44%) e-Learning
8 2 (0.44%) FMCG
8 2 (0.44%) Replication
8 2 (0.44%) Video Conferencing
Operating Systems
1 30 (6.64%) Windows
2 14 (3.10%) Windows Server
3 7 (1.55%) Linux
4 3 (0.66%) Windows 10
4 3 (0.66%) Windows Server 2019
5 2 (0.44%) Mac OS
6 1 (0.22%) Android
6 1 (0.22%) Apple iOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 91 (20.13%) Cybersecurity
2 76 (16.81%) Continuous Improvement
3 68 (15.04%) Service Delivery
4 65 (14.38%) Problem-Solving
5 50 (11.06%) Security Operations
6 45 (9.96%) Tech Ops
7 39 (8.63%) Mentoring
8 37 (8.19%) ITSM
9 35 (7.74%) Incident Response
10 34 (7.52%) Stakeholder Management
11 33 (7.30%) Service Management
12 31 (6.86%) Coaching
13 30 (6.64%) AI
14 29 (6.42%) ITIL
15 28 (6.19%) Incident Management
16 27 (5.97%) CRM
17 26 (5.75%) Decision-Making
18 22 (4.87%) Process Improvement
18 22 (4.87%) Project Management
19 20 (4.42%) Customer Experience
Programming Languages
1 16 (3.54%) Python
2 8 (1.77%) SQL
3 4 (0.88%) PowerShell
4 2 (0.44%) XAML
5 1 (0.22%) Bicep
5 1 (0.22%) Ruby
Qualifications
1 47 (10.40%) Security Cleared
2 44 (9.73%) SC Cleared
3 14 (3.10%) Azure Certification
4 10 (2.21%) PMI Certification
4 10 (2.21%) PMP
5 9 (1.99%) Degree
6 8 (1.77%) CIPD
6 8 (1.77%) DBS Check
7 7 (1.55%) CISSP
8 6 (1.33%) Microsoft Certification
9 5 (1.11%) VMware Certified Professional (VCP)
10 3 (0.66%) CCA
10 3 (0.66%) DV Cleared
11 2 (0.44%) ITIL Certification
12 1 (0.22%) CCIE
12 1 (0.22%) CCNP
12 1 (0.22%) Cisco Certification
12 1 (0.22%) Computer Science Degree
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 35 (7.74%) Cyber Essentials
2 32 (7.08%) ISO/IEC 27001
3 23 (5.09%) Cyber Essentials PLUS
4 20 (4.42%) GDPR
5 10 (2.21%) NIST
5 10 (2.21%) QA
6 8 (1.77%) Data Quality
7 7 (1.55%) SLA
8 5 (1.11%) Automotive SPICE
8 5 (1.11%) ISO 26262
8 5 (1.11%) ISO 9001
9 2 (0.44%) EU AI Act
9 2 (0.44%) ISO 22301
9 2 (0.44%) PCI DSS
9 2 (0.44%) SOC 2
10 1 (0.22%) Accessibility
10 1 (0.22%) Actionable Recommendations
10 1 (0.22%) NIST 800
10 1 (0.22%) PMO
10 1 (0.22%) Sarbanes-Oxley
System Software
1 20 (4.42%) Active Directory
2 11 (2.43%) Hyper-V
2 11 (2.43%) VMware Infrastructure
3 5 (1.11%) VMware ESXi
4 3 (0.66%) Squid
4 3 (0.66%) VMware Server
5 2 (0.44%) IAG
6 1 (0.22%) Docker
Systems Management
1 27 (5.97%) Microsoft Intune
2 16 (3.54%) Terraform
3 15 (3.32%) Ansible
4 2 (0.44%) HAProxy
4 2 (0.44%) Single Sign-On
5 1 (0.22%) Autotask
5 1 (0.22%) Kubernetes
Vendors
1 58 (12.83%) Microsoft
2 15 (3.32%) Arista
2 15 (3.32%) Aruba
2 15 (3.32%) NetScout
3 13 (2.88%) HubSpot
4 11 (2.43%) Freshdesk
4 11 (2.43%) VMware
5 6 (1.33%) Cisco
5 6 (1.33%) Meraki
6 5 (1.11%) ServiceNow
6 5 (1.11%) Veeam
7 3 (0.66%) BMC
7 3 (0.66%) CrowdStrike
8 2 (0.44%) CheckPoint
8 2 (0.44%) LogRhythm
8 2 (0.44%) Oracle
8 2 (0.44%) Palo Alto
8 2 (0.44%) Ruckus Wireless
8 2 (0.44%) UiPath
8 2 (0.44%) Xero