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OPC UA Experts

to connect industrial systems, matched in minutes from over 15,000 CVs with the power of AI

Hire experts who design interoperable OPC UA architectures, connect PLCs and SCADA systems, and secure industrial data flows across edge and cloud environments. FRATCH matches you quickly with vetted, available freelancers whose skills fit your project.

Meet FRATCH Experts who have recently used OPC UA

Verified expert

Robert K.

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Interim Manager | Group Manager in the IT Operations & Digitalization division „Databases, Operations & Support" (DOS)

Idstein
Robert K.

Last position:

Interim Manager | Group Manager in the IT Operations & Digitalization division „Databases, Operations & Support" (DOS) at Landwirtschaftliche RentenBank

  • Functional management and further development of a team of 28 IT employees (internal & external) in the areas of HelpDesk / HelpLine, RHEL (Red Hat), MUREX (trading system & applications), SAP basic operations
  • Management of external service providers (including FI-TS for SAP basic operations)
  • Personnel, resource and budget planning for the IT department and projects
  • Introduction and establishment of regular communication formats (regular meetings, team and cross-departmental meetings)
  • Ensuring application operations in a hybrid environment (Windows / Linux with database and web/application servers)
  • Support for transformation projects to modernize the application landscape (e.g. DevOps approaches)
  • Building and introducing digital IT procurement for hardware & software (e.g. with DELL)
  • Development and management of the „IT Operations DOS" department based on the company strategy
  • Preparation of management reports & decision papers on IT projects, optimization potential and automation opportunities
  • Representing the department in Rentenbank committees and ensuring regulatory compliance (BaFin §44, DSGVO, BSI, MaRisk)
Verified expert

Ornel Franck W.

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Purchasing Manager, Logistics, IT Manager & Software Architect

Frankfurt am Main
Ornel Franck W.

Last position:

Sales Partner at ERGO PRO

  • Industry: Insurance, Trade, IT
  • Customers & Projects: Consulting and selling insurance and similar services
  • Main tasks: Insurance consulting (health insurance, retirement planning, wealth building); commercial services, inside and field sales; sales data analysis and forecasting; customer consulting and support; opening a new sales headquarters for private and business customers; business development & innovation management; business use case development; process optimization; stakeholder management; team leadership and training; preparation and delivery of trainings;
  • Technologies used: Microsoft Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Draw.IO, Camunda 8, Java (8, 17,21,25), Git, Spring Boot, Spring Batch, Spring Data REST, Spring Web, Spring Security, J-Unit, Playwright, Lombock, Vaadin, H2, PostgreSQL (16, 17 18), pgAdmin, Docker, LLMs, JasperSoft Studio, JasperReports
Verified expert

Jens R.

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Technical Product Owner

Kerpen
Jens R.

Last position:

Platform Architect & Senior Developer at Direct client, industrial measurement technology, medium-sized company

  • Technical leadership across hardware, firmware, and software teams; scope: hardware/firmware team (4 people) and leadership group (5 people)
  • Consolidated and documented a product family that had grown over more than 15 years and aligned it with CRA compliance — from the bare-metal I/O module to the cloud interface.
  • Provided the most important customer product with the essential requirements and architecture documentation within two months — for a firmware landscape that had grown over more than 15 years. It now supports the customer’s modernization strategy.
  • Established a monthly reporting line to the supervisory board and executive board within three months: nine meetings since 12/2025. The report itself is versioned and built from the CI pipeline; it is based on automatically collected activity and release data instead of assessments.
  • Built a container-based CI/CD infrastructure from scratch: cross-compilation, host tests, and documentation builds in one continuous pipeline.
  • Introduced declarative QA gates for DevOps and development artifacts — from the start using lefthook instead of pre-commit, executed in a dedicated container image.

Technologies used: arc42, req42, tpo42, docToolchain, PlantUML, ArchiMate, C4 model, ADR, C, C++ (GTest), CMake, Bare Metal (ARM Cortex-M3/M7), OCI containers, Jenkins, lefthook, Prometheus, Grafana, SBOM, CRA, OPC, SCADA, PLC integration, IPv6 migration, Zero Trust, Sociocracy 3.0, Cynefin

Verified expert

Denis D.

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Interim Executive Manager

Windach
Denis D.

Last position:

Sole Shareholder-Managing Director at Dlouhy Interim Executive GmbH

  • Own company for Interim Executive Manager mandates; sole shareholder-managing director Denis Dlouhy.
  • Positioning: Transformation, Post-Merger Integration, portfolio steering, HR for international corporations and hidden champions.
Verified expert

Emil O.

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Automation & Software Engineer | Industrial Automation

Emil O.

Last position:

Automation Engineer In House at Prevas AB

Working as an Automation Engineer in Prevas' in-house engineering team. My primary assignment involves developing and expanding ABB 800xA SCADA systems for a large-scale data center project. Responsibilities include SCADA graphic design, alarm management, system integration using OPC UA and Modbus, testing, verification, documentation, and commissioning support. In addition, I contribute to PLC and HMI development projects using Siemens, Rockwell, and ABB platforms and provide 24/7 remote support for industrial customers.

  • ABB 800xA & ControlBuilder/ AC800M
  • Rockwell Studio 5000 Logix Designer
  • Siemens TIA Portal
  • ABB 800xA
  • Remote Support
  • Troubleshooting hardware/software
Verified expert

Matthias S.

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Software Developer and Consultant

Böblingen
Matthias S.

Last position:

Software Developer and Consultant at CLADE GmbH

  • Analysis of the existing CAN communication between microcontrollers
  • Analysis of the sensors used and the measured values collected
  • Planning the CAN messages for transmitting the measured values
  • Iterative adjustment of the microcontroller code to the new CAN messages
  • Cross-compilation from x64 to arm64
Verified expert

Martin W.

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Founder | Hands-On Consulting for Digital Transformation, Industry 4.0 & Interim Management

Hamburg
Martin W.

Last position:

Smart Manufacturing & Production Improvement Implementation at Food & Process Manufacturing

  • Identified operational improvement opportunities together with production, engineering and management teams.
  • Prioritized use cases according to measurable operational value rather than technology availability.
  • Developed solutions around production performance, OEE, quality, traceability, reporting and process transparency.
  • Translated operational requirements into required machine data, interfaces, information models and application requirements.
  • Defined target architectures and integration approaches for heterogeneous brownfield production environments.
  • Moved prioritized use cases from workshop and concept stages into concrete implementation projects.
  • Coordinated manufacturing, OT, IT and technology stakeholders during implementation.
  • Established reusable approaches to scale successful solutions beyond individual machines or pilot areas.
Verified expert

Burhan D.

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Experienced IT and AI Architect

Niederkassel
Burhan D.

Last position:

Enterprise Architect & Solution Architect at DB Netz AG

With project PRIZMA, DB will modernize its infrastructure on the one hand, and develop a fail-safe IT landscape on the other hand, which can be restored quickly and securely in case of a disaster.

  • Capture current architectures of existing systems as well as methodical consulting and development of target architectures
  • Deepen and maintain the building plan / target IT landscape
  • Implement technical architecture concepts & architecture descriptions
  • Implement migration concepts for updating and further developing the platform and information systems
  • Assess submitted improvement suggestions as part of the project
  • Capability management: identify capability gaps, develop target visions, and support transformation planning within the enterprise architecture.
  • Create a compatibility matrix of the components in use and compare dependencies of specific versions
  • Create an IT concept for extending the platform with the following topics: hardware and software requirements, security, licensing, high availability, load balancing, backup & recovery, update strategy, monitoring integration, etc.
  • Coordinate with business architects as well as technical architects from the cross-functional architecture area of the PRISMA program for the topics (backup, Active Directory, monitoring, Citrix, and business applications ...)
  • Status meetings and alignment of project planning with the Release Train Engineer / Project Manager
  • Advise the Release Train Engineer / Project Manager in identifying project risks
  • Advise the System Architect Engineers in steering the implementation of the concept
  • Implement the IT concept
  • Document the infrastructure

Label: MS Project, LINUX, Windows, ORACLE, Java, REST, SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, UML, Enterprise Architect, BPMN, AZURE, AWS, V-MODEL, Micro Service, VisualStudio, SAP S/4HANA, SCRUM(SAFE), ESB (TIBCO), Python, Innovator, LeanIX (TOGAF), Ansible, Ansible Tower, Ansible Automation, ROBOT, SpringBoot

Verified expert

Saqib J.

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Senior Solution & Software Architect · Interim IT Lead · AI/Agentic AI, Cloud, .NET

Erlensee
Saqib J.

Last position:

AI Developer / AI Engineer (Lead) at KOM4TEC GmbH

  • Conceptual design and implementation of modular AI assistants for sales and business processes in the Microsoft ecosystem (Agentic AI, Copilot extensions)
  • Frontend architecture and development with React + TypeScript for embedded chat and assistant surfaces (streaming UI, hooks, React Query, OpenAPI clients)
  • Enterprise-level agent development: reusable skill/agent library, MCP server, review and compliance gates
  • LLM integration into the user experience: Anthropic (Claude), OpenAI, tool use, RAG pipelines, prompt engineering, guardrails
  • Architecture and code review consulting as well as mentoring in the AI development team
  • Integration with Microsoft Graph, Power Platform, and Azure services
  • Technologies: React, TypeScript, Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, MCP, RAG, Microsoft Graph, Power Platform, Azure
Verified expert

Youness R.

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Dipl.-Ing. (FH) Automation Technology | Self-employed Entrepreneur

Neuss
Youness R.

Last position:

Communication modernization and recipe management between S7-300, S7-1500 and WinCC V7 at Siemens AG

  • Consulting and development of suitable communication concepts between S7-300 and S7-1500, taking the existing PROFIBUS infrastructure into account
  • Technical support for connecting the S7-300 controllers to the existing recipe data block of the S7-1500
  • Assisting in the development of the communication sequence for recipe access (read, write, acknowledge, status handling)
  • Configuration of S7 communication (PUT/GET)
  • Creation and adaptation of WinCC V7 scripts (C scripts and VBS scripts) for WinCC-based recipe management
  • Development, optimization, and integration of recipe processes into the existing WinCC project structure
  • Commissioning of the new communication interfaces and recommissioning of the recipe logic on existing systems
  • Creation of technical documents: communication sequences, functional descriptions, commissioning documentation
Verified expert

Jorge M.

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Data Expert

Würzburg
Jorge M.

Last position:

Technical Lead / Fractional CTO at Würth GmbH

I designed and developed an AI-powered multi-tenant platform on Azure that transforms SAP process recordings into technical documentation, presentations and automated tests, processing over 15,000 process recordings for enterprise customers like Würth. I owned the architecture, the production releases and the DevOps setup. I also designed a multi-tenant system with SSO and role-based access on Azure. Implemented an MCP Server with Dynamic OAuth Authentication.

Main Tasks:

  • Sprint planning and feature preparation
  • Design the multi-tenant platform architecture (FastAPI, SQLAlchemy, PostgreSQL row-level security for tenant isolation)
  • Develop AI pipelines with Prefect for transcription (Azure Speech API), document generation and SAP screen-recording analysis (Claude, gpt-4-mini)
  • Design and implement an MCP server to expose tenant knowledge to LLM clients (Claude), with async retrieval and reranking
  • Implement LLM cost tracking, rate limiting and client pooling for Anthropic/OpenAI/Azure OpenAI endpoints
  • Set up CI/CD: Docker images to Azure Container Registry, GitHub Actions, Azure Static Web Apps, Alembic migrations in containers
  • Manage production releases and execute live data migrations for enterprise customers
  • Define engineering standards and architecture patterns for the team

Environment: Azure / Azure Foundry / Python / FastAPI / Prefect / React / PostgreSQL

Verified expert

Giuseppe A.

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Software, AI & Automation Architect

Germering
Giuseppe A.

Last position:

Embedded Software Developer at Inheco

  • AI Integration (LLM & RAG): Design and build of an internal intelligent RAG system (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) based on LLMs, n8n, and vector data for the automated analysis of technical documents and error logs.
  • Design & Implementation: Design of a robust RS-232/UART communication interface for an SBC-based embedded device to control medical shaker systems.
  • Architecture & Protocol Design: Implementation of a highly maintainable software structure (OOP, SOLID) and definition of hardware-close, resilient communication protocols including multithreading and advanced error handling.
  • Quality Assurance & DevOps: Test automation using xUnit, integration tests directly on the hardware target, and maintenance of technical documentation according to strict medical technology standards via Azure DevOps.

Label: C#, .NET, LLMs, RAG, n8n, RS-232, UART, Multithreading, async/await, xUnit, gRPC/protobuf, Blazor, MudBlazor, EF Core, Visual Studio 2026, Azure DevOps

Verified expert

Kusay T.

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Engineer

Rülzheim
Kusay T.

Last position:

Freelance System & Software Architect - DNA-Extraction Robot at QIAGEN GmbH

  • System and software architecture for the QIA-symphony Connect DNA-extraction robot in Life Science / IVD automation.
  • Designed features and control logic for extraction, pipetting, lysis and eluate modules using C++, PLC/ST (Beckhoff IPC / TwinCAT 3) and model-based concepts.
  • Delivered ISO 13485-oriented requirements, architecture, unit/integration/regression tests and DHF/VEP/VER/TCL documentation.
  • Used Polarion, Jira, Confluence, Azure and AI-assisted documentation to improve traceability and engineering efficiency.
Verified expert

Andreas G.

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Senior Fullstack Developer · .NET & Angular · AI Integration · Cloud · DevOps

Erkrath
Andreas G.

Last position:

Senior Fullstack .NET (Core) & Angular Developer at IT Service Provider

  • Supporting several agile teams in the new product development of an enterprise CRM and ERP application
  • Web frontend development with Angular 17–21 (microfrontends, Domain-Driven Design, MDB-Bootstrap)
  • Backend development with C# and .NET 7–10, MongoDB, MassTransit, RabbitMQ, Entity Framework Core, ElasticSearch (microservices, DDD)
  • Technical feature design for assigned tasks
  • Technical architecture design including forward-looking planning of AI-supported extension options
  • Proof-of-concept implementation of AI-supported workflows with n8n and a locally hosted LLM (Ollama)
  • Coordination with stakeholders and Product Owners, support with sprint planning

Result: Delivery of production-ready microservices and frontend modules in agile sprint cycles.

Environment: .NET 7–10 · Angular 17–21 · C# · TypeScript · OpenAPI · Microfrontends · DDD · Kubernetes · Docker · Helm · MS SQL Server · PostgreSQL · MongoDB · MassTransit · RabbitMQ · EF Core · ElasticSearch · Kibana · Azure DevOps · KeyCloak · n8n · Ollama

Discover over 15,000 top freelancers

Statistics of experts using OPC UA

Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.

Experience

23 years

OPC UA experts have 23 years of professional experience on average.

Position duration

3.1 years

OPC UA experts stay in a single position for 3.1 years on average.

Positions per freelancer

15

OPC UA experts have completed 15 positions on average over the course of their careers.

Top business areas

Information Technology, Product Development, Quality Assurance

OPC UA experts have gathered most of their hands-on project experience in Information Technology, Product Development, and Quality Assurance.

Top industries

Manufacturing, Information Technology, Automotive

OPC UA experts are most in demand in Manufacturing, Information Technology, and Automotive.

Certification focus areas

Information Technology, Operations, Business Intelligence

OPC UA experts earn their certifications most often in Information Technology, Operations, and Business Intelligence.

Bachelor's degree or higher

89%

89% of OPC UA experts hold at least a Bachelor's degree.

Master's degree or higher

50%

50% of OPC UA experts hold at least a Master's degree.

Doctorate

7%

7% of OPC UA experts have a doctorate (PhD).

Certifications per freelancer

3

OPC UA experts hold 3 professional certifications on average.

Most common languages

German, English, French

OPC UA experts most often speak German, English, and French.

Speak two or more languages

100%

100% of OPC UA experts speak two or more languages.

Based on our profile pool as of 16 Oct 2026.

Daily rate distribution

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%
41% of OPC UA experts charge less than €800 per day.
49% of OPC UA experts charge between €800 and €1200 per day.
6% of OPC UA experts charge between €1200 and €1600 per day.
4% of OPC UA experts charge €1600 or more per day.
<€800 €800-​1200 €1200-​1600 €1600+

The chart shows how the daily rates of experts in this technology are distributed, based on recent contracts on our platform. Each bar covers a rate range — its height shows the share of experts charging within that range.

Average rates of experts using OPC UA

Rates are based on recent contracts and do not include FRATCH margin.

1000
750
500
250
Rate comparison chart
Daily rate avg. 833 €

The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.

1000
750
500
250
Rate comparison chart
Median rate 800 €

The median daily rate is the middle value of all daily rates — half of comparable freelancers charge less, half charge more. Unlike the average, it is barely affected by outliers.

Calculated based on our freelancers’ daily rates as of 16 Oct 2026. Actual rates may vary depending on seniority level, experience, skill specialization, project complexity, and engagement length.

OPC UA experts industry focus

See which industries our matched freelancers work in most often — every figure is calculated live from the freelancers on FRATCH.

  • Manufacturing (82%)
  • Information Technology (79%)
  • Automotive (56%)
  • Education (33%)
  • Energy (33%)
  • Healthcare (32%)
  • Transportation (30%)
  • Professional Services (28%)

Please note that freelancers can work across multiple industries, so percentages overlap.

About the technology

What OPC UA Does

OPC UA, or OPC Unified Architecture, is a platform-independent standard for exchanging industrial data securely and consistently. It connects machines, sensors, control systems and business applications without tying an integration to one vendor. Its information model carries values, metadata, relationships, events and methods, not only raw signals.

Where It Runs

OPC UA appears across manufacturing, energy, process industries, building automation, logistics and laboratory environments. It supports communication between PLCs, robots, CNC systems, SCADA, MES, historians and cloud services. Companies use it to create machine-to-machine connections, production dashboards, traceability flows and industrial data spaces.

  • Connect PLCs, machines and sensors
  • Expose production data to MES and SCADA
  • Stream contextualized data to edge or cloud systems
  • Integrate equipment from different vendors

Ecosystem and Tooling

Strong specialists work with OPC UA Client and Server implementations, address spaces, namespaces, node classes, subscriptions and monitored items. Common tools and components include open62541, Unified Automation SDKs, Prosys OPC UA tools, OPC UA gateways and vendor-specific PLC libraries. They also understand companion specifications for domains such as robotics, packaging and machine tools.

Security and Deployment

OPC UA security depends on sound certificate management, application authentication, encryption policies and user authorization. Professionals configure trust lists, certificate rotation, endpoint settings and least-privilege access rather than treating security as a final add-on. They can deploy communication across industrial networks, edge gateways and containerized or cloud-connected environments while respecting operational constraints.

When to Bring in Specialists

Freelance expertise is useful when an integration must cross vendor boundaries, replace legacy OPC Classic connections or expose machine data to a modern application. It also helps during commissioning, brownfield upgrades, proof-of-concept work and audits of an existing information model.

  • A gateway needs reliable connections to mixed equipment
  • A plant needs a consistent information model
  • Certificates or secure endpoints are causing incidents
  • Production data must reach MES, historians or cloud services

What Good Work Looks Like

A capable OPC UA professional begins with the required data, update behavior, failure modes and operating constraints. They create a clear namespace, choose suitable transport and subscription settings, handle reconnects and validate behavior under load. Quality is visible in documented nodes, tested security, useful diagnostics and a handover that plant teams can operate without guesswork.

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Frequently asked questions

Questions about OPC UA? Start with the answers below.

OPC UA is used to exchange structured, secure industrial data between equipment, control systems and enterprise applications. It is common in machine integration, SCADA, MES, historians, edge processing and cloud-connected production systems.

OPC UA is platform-independent and does not depend on the Windows-specific COM and DCOM model used by OPC Classic. It also provides a richer information model, built-in security concepts and transport options suited to modern distributed systems.

OPC UA is often preferable when a project needs modeled industrial data, browsing, methods, events and strong relationships between values. MQTT can be a good choice for lightweight publish-and-subscribe transport, and the two technologies are frequently combined through gateways or OPC UA PubSub.

A strong OPC UA specialist usually understands PLCs, SCADA, industrial Ethernet, ISA-95 concepts and production data models. Experience with MES, historians, MQTT, REST APIs, Linux, containers and certificate infrastructure can also be valuable depending on the integration.

The required depth depends on the scope. A simple client connection may need focused implementation skills, while a plant-wide information model or secure gateway rollout calls for experience with commissioning, vendor equipment, failure recovery and operational change management.

OPC UA configuration, information modeling and client or server implementation can often be completed remotely with secure access to test environments. On-site work may still be needed for commissioning, network diagnosis, certificate deployment or validation on physical machines.

Ask for examples of real client and server integrations, namespace design, security configuration and troubleshooting under connection loss. A quality professional can explain why they selected particular endpoints, subscriptions and data models, and can provide clear test and handover documentation.

An effective OPC UA information model uses meaningful names, consistent units, clear relationships and domain-relevant semantics. It exposes the data users need without copying every internal machine detail, and it remains understandable as equipment, lines and applications change.

The average hourly rate of freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects is 104 €, which corresponds to a daily rate of about 833 € based on an 8-hour working day.

Of the freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects, 89% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 50% hold at least a Master's degree, and 7% hold a doctorate.

On average, freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects have 23 years of professional experience, with a single engagement typically lasting around 3.1 years.

The most common languages among freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects are German (100%), English (96%), and French (21%).

The most common industries among freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects are Manufacturing (82%), Information Technology (79%), and Automotive (56%).

The most common business areas among freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects are Information Technology (96%), Product Development (88%), and Quality Assurance (77%).

Main locations of FRATCH Experts, who have recently used OPC UA

Our freelancers and interim experts are at home all over Germany — available on-site in Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and every major business hub, or fully remote. Choose a city to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.

Berlin Hamburg Munich Cologne Frankfurt Stuttgart Dusseldorf Leipzig Dortmund Essen Bremen Dresden Hanover Nuremberg

In Austria our freelancers and interim experts support companies from Vienna to Graz — on-site where your project needs them, or fully remote. Choose a city to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.

Vienna Graz

Across Switzerland our specialists are active in Zurich, Geneva, Basel and Bern — working on-site or fully remote. Choose a city to discover matched specialists, local market insights and up-to-date availability.

Zurich Geneva Basel Bern

Countries:

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FRATCH CEO

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