Operations director salary · base, bonus and package, 2026
What an operations director earns, in base pay, bonus and package
An operations director salary has a median of £100,000 in IT Jobs Watch’s count of permanent job ads over the six months to 5 October 2026, from 21 quoted salaries.
Robert Walters’ 2026 survey puts an operations director at £80,000–£120,000 in a medium enterprise and £95,000–£180,000 in a large one, across its Midlands, North and South tables.
Exec Capital puts mid-market base pay at £110,000–£190,000.
Size, sector and the share of the company’s cost the role controls move the number more than the title does.
When you hire an operations director through us, we send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
How a brief runswhat we undertake
- 01Brief30-MINUTE SCOPING CALLDay 0
- 02Shortlist of 3–5VETTED · RATE BENCHMARK · IR35After the brief
- 03InterviewsYOU MEET THE SHORTLISTYour diary
- 04Scoped startFIRST-MONTH OUTCOMES AGREEDYou set the date
- 05Fractional, interim and permanentIR35 POSITION SET OUTOn every brief
Shortlist3–5
In the press
Fast Company 16 leaders on when fractional C-suite hires make sense · 24 Jun 2026
Leaders disagree on when a fractional hire makes sense and when a seat needs a full-time owner. Read it before you commit to a permanent operations director and the salary that goes with one.
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire an operations director
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Operations Director candidates, their day rates and availability.
- 0115 minutes, video or phone
- 02We scope the role and the days a week
- 03A shortlist of 3–5 after the call
- 04Fractional, interim and permanent briefs
Pick a day that suits · live availability
On the board · last 3 months
Operations director jobs on the board
- InterimSyndicatedFractional Chief Operating Officer (COO)
Algorithmiq Oy · United Kingdom
est £2,000/day2 d/wk - FractionalAvailable now · our mandateFractional COO
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate not statedLondon - InterimAvailable now · our mandateInterim Chief Operating Officer
Confidential client (Fractional Quest mandate) · London
Rate not stated5 d/wk
Operations director roles on the board
Fractional recruitment works differently from a permanent search — shorter, scoped by days a week, and priced on the engagement. Send a Operations Director brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What an operations director does, and what sets the pay
The Institute of Directors describes the operations director as the person who oversees all operational aspects of company strategy, helps set strategic goals and is responsible for the flow of operations information to the chief executive and the board.
In practice that means production or service delivery, the supply chain, purchasing, logistics, health and safety, and the budgets that run them.
For the role in full, see what an operations director does.
The title covers different jobs in different sectors.
Exec Capital’s 2026 guide makes the point: an operations director in manufacturing runs supply chain, production, quality and logistics; in professional services, delivery and resourcing; in financial services, onboarding, settlements and operational risk.
It reports a premium of 15–25% for candidates who have led a major transformation.
Official statistics see the same split.
The ONS has no single code for the title: its occupation coding index files an operations director by industry, under production managers and directors in manufacturing (SOC 1121) or directors in logistics, warehousing and transport (SOC 1140), among others.
Robert Walters, likewise, prints the operations director in its logistics and manufacturing tables.
Operations leaders have professional bodies too: CMI awards Chartered Manager status.
It is a useful signal.
It is not required for the role.
02/ scope
How to set the pay when you hire an operations director
1. Scope the seat
Write down what the role owns: sites, functions, headcount, suppliers and budget, and whether it reports to the managing director, the chief executive or a COO.
Our operations director job description gives a template you can copy.
2. Price it by size and sector
Robert Walters prices the seat by company size: a large enterprise pays more than a medium one in every table it prints.
Exec Capital adds sector and scale: its top band, £160,000–£280,000, is for businesses with significant operational scale, such as logistics, distribution or financial services processing.
3. Set base and bonus together
The CIPD’s reward factsheet separates fixed base pay, which is guaranteed, from variable pay.
For an operations director, tie any bonus to what the role controls, such as cost, service levels or output, and write the measures into the offer.
4. Choose the route
A permanent operations director suits a business whose operations need a senior owner every day.
For full-time cover over a fixed term, see interim operations director salary; for part of the week, see fractional operations director jobs.
For the permanent salary spread across part-week days (our arithmetic, not a market rate), see fractional operations director salary.
What we do on an operations director brief
We recruit permanent, fractional, interim, part-time and temporary operations leaders, and non-executive directors.
We send a shortlist of 3–5, each with pay or day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, and every candidate goes through our five-stage vetting first.
03/ the board
What the board holds.
A read of the roles on the board on this page, counted as they stand: how each is engaged, whether the posting gives the days and the rate, and where the work happens.
On this board, last 90 days · 3 roles · Operations director
Engagement
- Interim2
- Fractional1
Days a week
- Stated in the posting2
- Not stated1
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)1
- Rate not stated2
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote0
- Hybrid1
- On-site0
- Not classified2
Newest posting on the board: 9 Oct 2026.
04/ the route
Fractional, interim or permanent?
Four taps. The answer names the route for the seat and the page that covers it.
The route · Fractional
A fractional operations director.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional operations director holds the seat on agreed days for as long as the seat is needed, and works for other clients on the rest.
The route · Interim
An interim operations director.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim operations director takes the seat full time for that stretch and hands it over when it is done.
The route · Interim, then permanent
Interim now, a permanent operations director after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim operations director holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent operations director.A full-time seat that sits at the table for years is a permanent hire.
There is time to run a search, so run one.
05/ rates by stage
Operations director salary by source, region and company size
Permanent base pay as each source publishes it. IT Jobs Watch counts salaries in the permanent job ads it tracks. Robert Walters’ 2026 survey gives ranges and averages of advertised roles by company size: medium enterprise (50–250 staff) and large enterprise (250+). Exec Capital and Robert Walters are recruiters; their figures are their own. The ONS groups are the nearest official occupations, not the title itself.
06/ economics
Salary is not the whole cost: what an operations director costs you
An employer pays employer’s National Insurance at 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year in 2026–27.
On the £100,000 IT Jobs Watch median, that is £14,250 a year (15% of £95,000, our arithmetic).
The employer must also contribute to a workplace pension: at least 3% of qualifying earnings.
Bonus sits on top of base.
Exec Capital reports bonus potential of 20–35% of base at PE-backed businesses where operational improvement is central to the equity value creation plan.
Robert Walters’ and Exec Capital’s figures are base pay only, so budget for the variable part as well.
07/ vetting
How we vet operations directors
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Operations Director tenure, sector context and stage fit.
SOURCING - 02
Mandate fit
Match to your situation — stage, board dynamics, timing.
MATCHING - 03
Reference deep-dive
We take references ourselves, from recent past clients — real outcomes, not titles.
VERIFY - 04
Shortlist
Three to five candidates with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out.
SHORTLIST OF 3–5
08/ operations director salary uk
Operations director salary UK: by region and company size
The operations director salary UK picture is clearest in Robert Walters’ 2026 survey, which prints the role in its supply chain and logistics tables for the Midlands, the North and the South, and in its manufacturing tables for the Midlands and the North.
The North pays most in logistics: £100,000–£120,000 in a medium enterprise and £130,000–£165,000 in a large one.
Company size matters more than region.
In every Robert Walters table, the large-enterprise range starts above the medium-enterprise one.
The highest figure in any of its tables is £180,000, for a large manufacturing enterprise in the North.
IT Jobs Watch puts the median advertised salary outside London at £100,000, the same as its UK figure, over the six months to 5 October 2026.
Its sample is IT-sector job ads, so read it beside the survey figures, not instead of them.
09/ operations director salary london
Operations director salary London, and why the figures are thin
No source we trust publishes a reliable operations director salary London figure for 2026.
Robert Walters prints no London table for the role, and IT Jobs Watch’s London count rests on too few ads to quote.
The nearest London benchmark is one level down.
Robert Half puts a head of operations in London at £80,000–£100,000, median £90,000, against a national median of £66,250.
Expect an operations director in London to be priced above the regional figures on this page, and ask candidates for their current package.
10/ average operations director salary
Average operations director salary: what Robert Walters and the ONS publish
Robert Walters’ 2026 survey gives an average operations director salary for each table it prints: £89,360–£110,000 in a medium enterprise and £120,265–£151,000 in a large one.
Robert Walters’ averages are the mean of advertised roles, base pay only.
The ONS publishes official medians for the occupation groups the title falls into, from its Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings.
Directors in logistics, warehousing and transport (SOC 1140) had a full-time median of £83,447 in April 2025, from about 10,000 jobs.
Production managers and directors in manufacturing (SOC 1121) had a median of £58,640, but that group is mostly production managers, so it understates the director’s pay.
11/ one level down
Operations director vs head of operations: what the pay gap reflects
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Robert Half puts a head of operations at £58,750–£73,500 nationally, median £66,250.
That is well below the operations director figures on this page, because a head of operations usually runs the operating teams day to day and reports to an operations director, a COO or the managing director.
In a smaller company the two titles can describe the same job.
Compare what the role owns, not the label: a head of operations with several sites, the supply chain and a budget is closer to a director, and paid accordingly.
See head of operations salary for that seat.
12/ the other routes
Salary, day rate or part of the week: which pay basis fits
Read this sectionClose this section
A permanent operations director is paid a salary and package, with employer’s National Insurance and pension on top.
An interim is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed term; see interim operations director salary.
A fractional operations director works part of the week on a day rate; see fractional operations director jobs.
For the permanent salary spread across part-week days (our arithmetic, not a market rate), see fractional operations director salary.
If the remit is the whole operating model at board level, it is a COO hire; see COO salary.
13/ questions
Operations director salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in an operations director.
Book 15 minutes · shortlist of 3–5
Bring the brief. We architect the team.
A shortlist of 3–5 with day rate, availability and IR35 position set out, after five-stage vetting.
