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PLC / Automation Programmer: skills in demand in German IT freelance projects 2026

4.4% of the analysed IT freelance engineering projects look for a PLC / Automation Programmer – 694 projects, rank 11 of 16 roles. In October 2026 it was 4% (−0.5 percentage points from the month before). Below are the skills these projects ask for, which of them are typical for the role, and how demand develops.

By . Data: 52,306 project listings from German IT freelance project boards, May 2026 – October 2026, of which 15,798 are engineering projects. Published , last updated .

What the role covers

PLC and automation programmers program controllers and industrial plants: Siemens TIA Portal, PCS 7, SCADA systems and robots. Every project counts exactly once, under the role that is its main requirement – the title and the required skills decide. How all roles are delimited is explained in the overview of all developer roles.

The most requested skills

The 15 most frequent skills of the 694 projects of this role. The bar is the share of projects that mention the skill. Blue skills are typical for the role – asked for here at least three times as often as in engineering projects overall. Grey skills are also in demand in other roles. The black tick shows how often the skill is requested across all engineering projects. Languages and soft skills are left out.

Under each skill: how often the role lists it as required, and its share across all engineering projects.

  1. PLC Programmingrequired 58% · all 3.1%63%
  2. Commissioningrequired 43% · all 2.6%51%
  3. Siemens TIA Portalrequired 39% · all 2.1%45%
  4. Automation Technologyrequired 18% · all 1.1%22%
  5. Troubleshootingrequired 12% · all 4.2%17%
  6. Electrical Engineeringrequired 12% · all 1.9%17%
  7. Control Technologyrequired 12% · all 1%15%
  8. Automationrequired 11% · all 7.1%14%
  9. Siemensrequired 8.9% · all 0.6%12%
  10. Problem Analysisrequired 7.5% · all 4.5%12%
  11. Beckhoffrequired 9.5% · all 0.6%12%
  12. Technical Documentationrequired 5.3% · all 6%12%
  13. Drive Technologyrequired 8.2% · all 0.6%12%
  14. HMIrequired 8.2% · all 0.7%11%
  15. Documentationrequired 5.2% · all 7.4%11%

Typical for the role – asked for at least three times as often as in engineering projects overall – are Siemens TIA Portal (45%), PLC Programming (63%), Beckhoff (12%), Siemens (12%), Drive Technology (12%), Automation Technology (22%).

Also asked for in other roles and taken for granted here: Automation (14%), Problem Analysis (12%), Technical Documentation (12%), Documentation (11%).

How demand develops

Share of PLC / Automation Programmer projects among the engineering projects per month, by the month of the first listing. Single months fluctuate; a shift of less than one percentage point is not a trend yet.

  1. May 20261.7%
  2. June 20263.8%
  3. July 20263.8%
  4. August 20266%
  5. September 20264.5%
  6. October 20264%

Remote share

Since July 2026, 37% of this role's projects state a remote share. Of those, 15% are fully remote, 52% hybrid and 33% fully on site. All roles and cities compared: How remote are IT freelance projects?.

Contract length and start

Since July 2026, 59% of this role's projects state a contract length: 6 months in the median, 22% of them a year or longer. 33% of the projects name an option to extend, and 56% of those stating a start want to begin immediately. All roles compared: IT contract length in Germany.

For English speakers

Since July 2026, 8.2% of this role's projects (49 projects) say German is not needed or name English as the only language; 10% of those are fully remote. 35% demand German, 57% name no language. All roles and cities compared: English-speaking IT contracts in Germany.

Hourly rate

Too few listings for this role name an hourly rate yet for a page of its own. All roles compared: IT contractor rates in Germany: hourly and day rates.

Related roles

Roles that share many of the shown skills with this one – often within reach with a few additional skills.

How to use the data for your profile

  1. Check your profile against the blue skills: they are what clients look for in this role.
  2. Grey skills with long bars are taken for granted – if you have them, they belong in your profile.
  3. Look at the related roles: a few additional skills often put many more projects within reach.

Projectmatch matches new projects against your profile automatically and shows, per project, which of the required skills your profile covers. Browse current projects or try it now.

All roles compared: Most in-demand developer roles in German IT freelance projects. See also: Monthly IT freelance market report, IT contractor rates in Germany, AI freelance & contract jobs in Germany and Most in-demand IT skills in German freelance projects.

Method

An AI model assigns each project exactly one role from its title and required skills – the main requirement – or marks it as not an engineering project. The skills come from the AI analysis of the project descriptions; spelling variants are merged into one skill. A skill counts as typical for the role when its projects mention it at least three times as often as engineering projects overall. The figures are updated every month.