Having demonstrated its resilience in 2022, the UK tech sector is now reaching a combined market value of £1 trillion, holding the number one spot in Europe and number three spot worldwide.
Along with a positive job outlook and job growth, tech professionals in the UK command some of the highest average salaries in the country. The average is around £42,000 per year with the top 10% of earners enjoying salaries in excess of £100,000.
Looking to break into this lucrative industry? Some jobs definitely pay better than others. In-demand jobs may pay more than those with a less positive outlook. Here's a look at seven high-paying IT and tech positions.
Technical lead
A technical lead is a supervisor tasked with overseeing a team or department of other technical professionals. The exact job requirements depend on the company. A tech lead might head up a team of developers or be in charge of specific projects with a rotating supply of other tech talent under his or her purview.
Due in part to the supervisory nature of the job, tech leads may be able to earn £100k per year immediately, even if they have less than three years experience in such a role. The average salary in the UK is around £74,000. With more experience, you might even be able to negotiate a higher salary, especially if you're leading the tech effort on critical projects.
IT manager
IT managers oversee teams or departments of technical employees, including information systems, networking or help desk professionals. Compensation depends on what type of team you lead and the size of the team and the company you work for. While average salary is around £54,000 in the UK, generally, larger enterprises offer opportunities for the highest earning capabilities, and that does include positions that pay more than £100k annually.
Developer
Developers create software and application products with code. They may work individually or as part of a team to bring a product to market, and how much you get paid in these types of positions depends on your experience level, what coding languages you know and what other skills you bring to the table.
To break the £100k per year salary barrier, developers typically need at least five years of experience. It's also helpful to be proficient in top programming languages, including java, C++, C# and mobile dev languages required to build apps for Android and iOS devices.
Data scientists or data analyst
Data scientists or data analysts might also be referred to as data analysts, depending on the position and company. These highly skilled individuals collect, manage and analyse large sets of structured and unstructured data. Their duties might include determining what data is important to a specific query or task, creating methods of storing and using big data sets, looking for trends or patterns that can inform tech or business processes and using visual tools, such as charts and graphs, and other methods to communicate pertinent information to other stakeholders.
If you're a data scientist with more than five years of experience, you have a good chance of being able to land a position with a salary of £100k or more per year.
Product owner or manager
Product owners or product managers are specific members of Agile development teams. They communicate with the customer on behalf of the Agile team—either an actual client or the stakeholders in the business—and help prioritise tasks and other items that need the dev team's attention. This allows the developers and others on the team to concentrate on coding and testing to push complete products to market much faster.
While average salary in the UK is around £63,000, agile tech professionals with five or more years of experience as a product owner or in related agile dev work may be able to score a position making £100k a year or more.
Cloud engineer
Cloud engineers work with enterprise organisations that want to drive efficiencies and cost-savings by moving to the cloud. The responsibilities of these professionals can include evaluating the tech needs of an organisation and determining how cloud resources can be leveraged. They also support ongoing cloud use and infrastructure.
As increasing storage and workflow is moved to the cloud, this niche is poised to continue to grow. Currently, IT professionals with five to 10 years of applicable experience can command salaries of £100k per year or more—even if the experience is not all with cloud engineering.
Machine learning engineer
Machine learning is an exciting new frontier in the tech industry. It involves the use of AI to create more robust and efficient systems of all types, and machine learning engineers participate in or oversee the research and development required for that purpose.
A tech professional with 5 to 10 years of relevant experience may be able to land a job making £100k per year in this niche. And since this is an emerging field, there's a decent potential for salary growth in the future.
Looking to progress or move into the world of IT and tech?
- To find out more about the best paying IT and tech roles, see IT and Tech careers and job roles.
