Operations manager salary · advertised pay and survey bands, 2026
What an operations manager earns, by region, sector and company size
The median advertised operations manager salary is £60,000, on IT Jobs Watch’s count of 409 salaries in UK job ads over the six months to 5 October 2026.
The range runs from £37,500 to £90,000.
In logistics and manufacturing outside London, Robert Walters’ 2026 survey puts the role at £45,000–£80,000 in a medium-sized business and £55,000–£95,000 in a large one.
Sector and region move the number as much as the title does.
When you hire an operations manager 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
15 minutes · video or phone
Book 15 minutes to hire an operations manager
Tell us the scope and the days a week. We come back with Operations manager 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 manager roles jobs on the board
Operations manager roles on the board
Fractional Quest is a fractional recruitment agency: send a Operations manager brief and we come back with a shortlist of three to five vetted candidates.
01/ the role
What an operations manager does, and what sets the pay
An operations manager runs the day-to-day of a team or site: people, processes, targets and the handoffs between departments.
Skills England’s occupational standard for the role sets it at level 5 and says the role is found in organisations of every size, in the private, public and third sectors.
It sits below a head of operations, who leads the whole function.
Sector sets the pay first, because the title covers very different jobs.
A warehouse or logistics operations manager, a production operations manager in a factory and an IT service operations manager are all called the same thing.
Robert Walters’ 2026 survey publishes separate bands for logistics, manufacturing and banking.
Company size comes next.
In Robert Walters’ logistics tables, an operations manager in a medium enterprise (50 to 250 staff) earns £45,000–£65,000, and in a large one (250+ staff) £55,000–£75,000.
In manufacturing in the North, the bands rise to £60,000–£80,000 and £75,000–£95,000.
Experience matters within each band.
In banking and financial services in the Midlands, Robert Walters puts an operations manager with up to three years in the role at £35,000–£44,000, and one with five years or more at £60,000–£78,000.
The Chartered Manager status from the CMI, which it calls the highest accolade in management and leadership, is one way an experienced manager shows it.
02/ scope
How to set the pay when you hire an operations manager
1. Name the operation first
Say what the manager will run: a warehouse, a production line, a service desk, a back office.
Then benchmark against the band for that sector, not against the title alone.
2. Check the level
If the seat leads the whole operations function, it is a head of operations role and pays more; see head of operations salary.
If it runs several functions, see operations director salary.
3. Choose the route
A permanent appointment suits operations that need a daily owner: hire an operations manager on that basis.
If the work is a defined change, such as a new system or a process rebuild, a fractional operations manager for set days a week may fit.
For full-time cover with an end date, see interim operations manager salary for day rates.
What we do on an operations 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 manager roles
Engagement
- Full-time3
Days a week
- Stated in the posting0
- Not stated3
Day rate
- Verified rate0
- Estimated (est)0
- Rate not stated3
Work arrangement (as the job feed classifies it)
- Remote1
- Hybrid1
- On-site1
Newest posting on the board: 1 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 manager.The work fills part of the week, so buy the days it needs.
A fractional operations manager 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 manager.The work fills the week, and it has an end: a programme, a cover, a transaction.
An interim operations manager 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 manager after.The seat is full time and long term, and the need is now.
An interim operations manager holds it while the permanent search runs, so the seat is not left empty.
The route · Permanent
A permanent operations manager.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 manager salary by source, region and company size
Permanent operations manager pay as each publisher states it. IT Jobs Watch counts salaries advertised in UK IT job ads, so many are IT and service operations roles. Robert Walters, a recruiter, publishes ranges and averages of advertised roles from its 2026 survey; it prints no London table for this role. ONS figures are for the occupation groups an operations manager is coded to, not for the title.
06/ economics
What the salary costs the business, beyond the base
A salary is not the whole cost of an employee.
For 2026 to 2027, employer’s National Insurance is 15% on earnings above £5,000 a year (HMRC rates and thresholds).
On a £60,000 salary that is £8,250 a year (our arithmetic).
Under automatic enrolment, the employer must also pay at least 3% into a workplace pension on qualifying earnings (GOV.UK).
Many schemes pay more.
Robert Walters’ figures are basic salaries, without benefits or bonuses.
Budget for those on top, and for the cost of the hire itself.
The CIPD’s reward factsheet sets out how pay, benefits and recognition fit together in a reward strategy.
07/ vetting
How we vet operations managers
What we undertake on every brief, before a candidate reaches you.
- 01
Qualification screen
Verify Operations manager 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 manager salary uk
Operations manager salary UK: the average operations manager salary, source by source
The national figures measure different things.
The operations manager salary UK median of £60,000 is IT Jobs Watch’s count of salaries in job ads over the six months to 5 October 2026: what employers advertised, not what they agreed.
Its ads lean towards IT, service and security operations.
The middle half of those salaries runs from £45,000 to £75,000.
For the average operations manager salary, Robert Walters publishes the mean of the roles it analysed for its 2026 survey.
Its averages run from £50,005 in a medium-sized Midlands logistics business to £85,000 in a large manufacturer in the North.
Its figures are basic salary only.
For an official view, the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings reports employee pay by occupation, but there is no single code for an operations manager.
The SOC 2020 coding index files the title by industry: manufacturing, transport, logistics, warehousing, IT services, retail and more.
For those six groups, full-time medians run from £37,470 for managers in storage and warehousing to £58,640 for production managers and directors in manufacturing.
Each group also includes people who are not operations managers.
09/ operations manager salary london
Operations manager salary London, and the regions
The operations manager salary London employers advertise has a median of £65,000, on IT Jobs Watch’s count of 149 London ads in the six months to 5 October 2026.
Outside London, the median was £60,000.
Robert Walters prints no London table for this role, so no survey band for London is available to cite.
Outside London, Robert Walters’ 2026 survey gives bands for the Midlands, the North and the South.
The North pays most in its tables: £55,000–£75,000 in logistics and £60,000–£95,000 in manufacturing, depending on company size.
10/ the other routes
Salary or day rate: the other ways to pay for the seat
A permanent salary buys an operations manager every day, with notice on both sides.
A contract or interim manager is paid by the day for full-time cover over a fixed period; see interim operations manager salary for the day rates.
A fractional operations manager works set days a week; see fractional operations manager, and fractional operations manager jobs for roles on the board.
For the permanent salary spread across part-week days (our arithmetic, not a market rate), see fractional operations manager salary.
Compare the total cost for the days you need, not the headline numbers.
11/ questions
Operations manager salary FAQ
The questions people ask before bringing in an operations manager.
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.
