
OPC UA Experts
to connect industrial systems, matched in minutes from over 15,000 CVs with the power of AIHire 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
Jörg T.
Last position:
Consultant, Requirements Engineer and Database Expert
Project – Evaluation and development of databases for a new product line for a measuring equipment manufacturer
- Current-state analysis
- Requirements analysis of the data storage layer
- Writing benchmark tests
- Design of the new database schema
- Database migrations
- Development of audit logging and Part11
- Creation of backup and recovery concepts
- Design of the persistence layer API
- Writing unit tests
- Creating requirements in Azure
Tools: C#, Visual Studio 2022, Azure DevOps, SonarQube, Git, RestSharp, WebServer, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, SQLite, MinIO, Podman, Docker, DataGrip, SQL Management Studio, HeidiDB, pgAdmin
Loic N.
Last position:
Senior System Engineer at AG Solution
- Create and lead roadmap forecasting of support opportunities, including colleague training, process design and improvement, and new hire onboarding.
- Collaborate seamlessly with cross-functional teams including Professional Services, Support, Product, Sales, and Solution Engineering.
- Manage business and financial KPIs in alignment with overall business objectives.
- Industrial IT & Data Integration: Implement, configure, and integrate OT/IT systems and data flows, connecting control-layer sources (DCS, PLC, SCADA) to historians, data platforms, and enterprise systems through APIs and standard interfaces.
- AVEVA PI & Historian: Configure, maintain, and extend AVEVA PI (PI Data Archive, Asset Framework, interfaces/connectors) to capture, contextualize, and serve real-time and historical operational data.
- Alarm Management: Support and optimize alarm management systems – e.g. Honeywell Alarm Management – including alarm rationalization, classification, and the analysis of alarm performance, critical alarms, and alarm floods.
- Connectivity & Protocols: Set up and troubleshoot industrial connectivity using OPC UA and OPC A&E, including the configuration of tunnelers / wrappers to bridge OT data sources securely and reliably.
- Production Data Flow: Ensure seamless, secure, and well-structured data flow across the industrial IT landscape, transforming raw operational data into meaningful information for operations and decision-making.
- System Support & Troubleshooting: Provide ongoing support for OT/IT applications, troubleshooting issues across networks, software, and data integrations to keep systems running efficiently.
- Knowledge Management & Best Practices: Contribute to internal documentation, best practices, and troubleshooting guides, and help continuously improve how we deliver industrial IT and data solutions.
Tools & Software: Aveva PI, Salesforce, Active Directory, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Jira, Microsoft, Scrum, DevOps, Docker, CI/CD, Jenkins, GitHub.
Thomas K.
Last position:
Founder at PentaVision by Thomas Kreutle
Part-time, full-time operations planned from 01/2027
Management consulting for automation, digitalization, interoperability, track & trace and artificial intelligence · Pharma/MedTech and mechanical engineering
- Built a service portfolio across the five competencies: from analysis, architecture and planning to supported implementation.
- Listed as a consultant by BAFA (09/2026): consulting services for SMEs as part of BAFA funding.
- Established a brand identity, website and quality management handbook as the basis for consistent, transparent consulting quality.
Yusuf C.
Last position:
Senior Software Engineer at LeiKon GmbH
- Development of scalable backend applications with C#/.NET and Java
- Design and implementation of distributed microservice architectures
- Development and integration of REST APIs for industrial applications
- Development of modern web applications with React, Angular, and TypeScript
- Implementation of MQTT-based communication solutions
- Integration of industrial protocols such as OPC UA and Modbus TCP
- Development of batch, process control, and HMI components
- Containerization and deployment of applications with Docker
- Conducting code reviews and supporting architecture decisions
- Close collaboration with Product Owners, QA, and interdisciplinary teams
- Analysis of business requirements and implementation of technical solutions
- Further development of existing software architectures with a focus on maintainability and performance
Technologies: C#, .NET, ASP.NET Core, Java, C++, React, Angular, TypeScript, Vue.JS, MQTT, OPC UA, Modbus TCP, Docker, GitLab, MariaDB, MySQL, Linux
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)
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
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
Ljubomir O.
Last position:
Senior Software Test Engineer at Keil KTM GmbH
Temporary employment
- System black-box integration tests (BBIT, IVVQ): Execution of regression, release, confirmation and conformity tests for safety-critical braking control units in the railway industry
- Software Test Application & Integration: Runtime configuration of software components and libraries, validation of interfaces, configuration dependencies and component interactions
- Test Automation (FEAT Framework): Co-development and further development of an automated test framework for test execution, reporting and result analysis
- Functional Safety (SiL4, FuSi): Ensuring compliance with safety requirements, traceability and coverage as well as conformity with EN50126/28/29
- Test Automation for Communication Components: Configuration and validation of fieldbus (CAN) and Ethernet-based TCMS data communication interfaces (TRDP and CIP)
- Requirements Analysis & Shift-Left (PTC Windchill ALM): Analysis of software and system artifacts to identify gaps, ambiguities and redundancies early in the SDLC
- Test Design & Test Case Development: Derivation of test conditions and coverage strategies and implementation of data-driven test cases (DDT) including reusable test data fixtures
- CI/CD & Automation (Python, PowerShell, Jenkins, SVN): Automation of build, test and HIL deployment processes as well as integration into CI/CD pipelines
- Test Data & Configuration Management (XML): Maintenance and adjustment of XML test vectors and system configurations with automated integration into test environments
- Non-Functional Testing: Execution of performance and load tests to assess stability and system behavior
- Agile Development & Defect Management (JIRA, Confluence): Work in Scrum teams, test coordination, review of test artifacts as well as defect tracking and root-cause analysis
- Error Analysis & Debugging (CANoe, CANalyzer): Analysis of errors and message flows across multiple system levels (application to bus)
- Model-Based Analysis (UML, Enterprise Architect): Specification of SUT/SOW and support for systematic test control
- Process & Test Documentation: Creation of integration and test documentation according to internal quality and certification requirements
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.
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
Saqib J.
Last position:
AI Developer / AI Engineer (Lead) at KOM4TEC GmbH
- Designed and implemented modular AI assistants for sales and business processes within 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 servers, 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, and mentoring within 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
Aleksei R.
Last position:
QA Engineer at Cybus GmbH
- Led QA and test automation for a distributed industrial IoT and data-integration platform connecting shop-floor systems with enterprise applications.
- Designed and maintained automated API and UI tests using Playwright, TypeScript, and Python, covering REST APIs, authentication, resource management, integrations, permissions, and end-to-end workflows.
- Tested distributed services, data pipelines, messaging infrastructure, containerized applications, and integrations across Kubernetes, OpenShift, Docker, and Docker Compose environments.
- Performed functional, integration, regression, endurance, resilience, load, chaos, and exploratory testing across complex distributed systems.
- Used Chaos Mesh and Toxiproxy for network fault injection, latency, packet loss, and partition scenarios to validate system resilience and failure handling.
- Automated infrastructure provisioning, configuration, and environment setup with Ansible and managed deployments using Kubernetes and Helm.
- Tested integrations with industrial protocols, messaging systems, databases, HTTP/REST APIs, and external enterprise systems using simulators, emulators, and dedicated test environments.
- Worked with MQTT, Kafka, SQL databases, InfluxDB, REST APIs, OAuth 2.0, JWT, LDAP, Active Directory, OpenLDAP, mTLS, TLS, MFA, SSO, and RBAC.
- Investigated and resolved 40+ defects across backend services, integrations, distributed components, and web applications, using AI-assisted analysis with Claude to accelerate debugging, test design, and root-cause investigation.
- Improved deployment reliability through Kubernetes/OpenShift configuration and health-check tuning and monitored distributed systems using Grafana, Prometheus, and Loki.
- Collaborated with developers and product teams on sprint planning, technical refinement, quality strategy, release testing, and continuous improvement.
- Applied AI-assisted and agentic testing approaches to expand automated coverage and identify complex edge cases.
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
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.
Giuseppe A.
Last position:
Embedded Software Development at Inheco
- AI Integration (LLM & RAG): Designed and built an internal intelligent RAG system (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) based on LLMs, n8n, and vector data to automatically analyze technical documents and error logs.
- Design & Implementation: Designed a robust RS-232/UART communication interface for an SBC-based embedded device used to control medical shaker systems.
- Architecture & Protocol Design: Built a highly maintainable software structure (OOP, SOLID) and defined resilient, hardware-level communication protocols, including multithreading and advanced error handling.
- Quality Assurance & DevOps: Automated testing with xUnit, ran integration tests directly on the hardware target, and maintained technical documentation 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
Discover over 15,000 top freelancers
Statistics of experts using OPC UA
Aggregated from the professional profiles of matched freelancers.
Experience
23 years

Position duration
3.1 years

Positions per freelancer
15

Top business areas
Information Technology, Product Development, Quality Assurance

Top industries
Manufacturing, Information Technology, Automotive

Certification focus areas
Information Technology, Operations, Project Management
Bachelor's degree or higher
88%
Master's degree or higher
53%
Doctorate
6%

Certifications per freelancer
3

Most common languages
German, English, French

Speak two or more languages
100%
Based on our profile pool as of 5 Nov 2026.
Daily rate distribution
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.
The average daily rate is the mean of all daily rates from recent contracts of comparable freelancers on our platform.
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 5 Nov 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 (83%)
- Information Technology (78%)
- Automotive (53%)
- Energy (33%)
- Education (32%)
- Healthcare (32%)
- Transportation (30%)
- Professional Services (27%)
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.
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 828 € based on an 8-hour working day.
Of the freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects, 88% hold at least a Bachelor's degree, 53% hold at least a Master's degree, and 6% 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 (97%), and French (22%).
The most common industries among freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects are Manufacturing (83%), Information Technology (78%), and Automotive (53%).
The most common business areas among freelancers who have used OPC UA in their recent projects are Information Technology (97%), 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.
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.
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.
Countries:
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