Demand to be “always on” from people in top IT jobs is higher than from others in the IT department, according to results of the latest survey commissioned by Emerson Network Power.

Executive directors and administrators in IT reported the most hours of the working week during which they have to always be available, always work at peak capacity and always be accurate. IT procurement professionals, CIOs and IT managers and directors followed on the list of most demanding IT jobs.

Blake Carlson, VP of Emerson’s IT business segment, said IT professionals had to be smart, flexible and quick, just like the technology they support.

“And, they must be able to handle multiple tasks at once and figure out how to get things done with limited or inadequate resources,” Carlson said. “In my experience, IT professionals are a breed apart.”

About 800 IT professionals from the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia participated in the survey. “Always available” and “always on” were some of the most commonly heard responses.

The average time those surveyed expected to be available to work during the week was 119 hours.

About one-quarter of the participants said success depended on things out of their control. In other words, they consider themselves accountable for the organization’s success or failure.

Here are the top 10 most “Always-On” IT jobs, according to Emerson’s survey:

1. Executive director/administrator
2. IT procurement
3. CIO
4. IT manager/director
5. IT operations
6. Data center manager
7. Engineering
8. IT security
9. Applications/software development
10. Database management