The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
Many IT organisations are in a state of transition, with many traditional functions having been outsourced to the cloud.
And with new requirements developing all the time (Digital transformation! DevOps! Continuous delivery! Agile! All by next Thursday!) now is a great time to take stock of your career, and make sure you're on the right trajectory.
To that end, we've put together a list of the top 10 best paid, and most in-demand, jobs in IT.
All salaries are approximate, and per annum. In many cases there will be a surrounding package including bonus and share options, which hasn't been taken into account here.
10. Analytics manager - £60,000
Analytics is increasingly important to organisations, and the person tasked with the job of gathering and managing that data has risen in prominence accordingly.
The analytics manager also has to select and manage the big data and analytics systems, and find the most relevant insights to share with the business.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
9. Data architect - £65,000
This is another role that has benefited from organisations' hunger for big data. Data architects used to confine themselves to looking after corporate databases, but are tasked today with designing and building complex data management systems that need to cope with structured and unstructured information.
They also examine all potential data sources, and try to understand how to harvest, store and mine it for value. They'll work closely with analytics staff to do this.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
8. Systems architect - £70,000
One step up the salary ladder from data architect is the systems architect. This role designs complex IT systems, which could be a large software project involving multiple global order processing and management tools, or an infrastructure refresh or entirely new data centre.
Figures seen by Computing in 2015 showed that the very best paid in this role can get up to £180,000, although most will earn significantly less.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
7. Applications development manager - £80,000
An applications development manager oversees a team of developers creating software most likely to be designed for the web or mobile.
The very best package we've seen for this role is £180,000 for an iOS app and web development lead, which shows how important app design for smartphones has become.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
6. Solutions architect - £85,000
A solutions architect often sits in the pre-sales team, and combines with sales to provide a technical overview of how complex customer projects can be delivered. In this way they're like the consulting arm of a solutions provider, and will manage the bulk of the design work in meeting customer needs.
Expect this role to grow in the coming years as it encompasses IoT technologies into its solutions portfolio.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
5. Software architect - £86,000
A software architect, unsurprisingly, designs complex software. This role, almost more than any other in this list, contains a wide variety of disciplines and salary ranges.
One factor determining salary is the languages in which the architect is able to design and develop. Some Java developers enjoy a basic salary of up to £180,000.
Hays IT's UK Salary Guide said that, of all the vacancies offering £100,000 or more in 2015, those featuring the descriptions of 'Java' or 'developer' in the title were among the most frequently posted (23 and 46 respectively).
Computing 's DevOps Summit 2016 will be held on 5 July in Central London. Attendance is free for qualified end users.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
4. Data scientist - £90,000
Some compare them to the Yeti for their scarcity, some bemoan the fact that they get hoovered up by Google and Amazon before they've even finished their post-graduate courses, but one thing's for certain: data scientists are hot property.
In fact, one CIO told Computing recently that organisations should start looking at graduates of other disciplines, then train them themselves to be data scientists.
The job is, quite simply, to find actionable insight in the vast volumes of data organisations gather and store today. As such, data scientists must be logical and analytical, but possess a keen understanding of the business so that they know what sort of questions to ask.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
3. Chief information security officer - £100,000
The salary range for CISOs varies depending on the size of the organisation and the industry. For instance, a CISO at a FT100 bank - an organisation especially sensitive to security risks - can expect a package several tens of thousands above others in his peer group.
Security threats are multiplying, and there have been many high-profile attacks on large firms in recent years, so CISO salaries have increased faster than many other technology roles.
Computing 's Enterprise Security and Risk Management Summit 2016 will be on 24 November in Central London. Attendance is free to qualified end users.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
2. Chief digital officer - £110,000
Digital transformation is one of the buzz phrases of the moment, and organisations are rushing to recruit CDOs if anything more rampantly than they hunt data scientists.
There are many often discordant definitions of a CDO's role, but broadly it's about transforming any non-digital process or system into a digital one. This means using web, mobile and other technologies to speed up and improve processes, and user and customer experiences.
Aaron Powell, of NHS Blood and Transplant, recently won the coveted CDO of the Year gong at the V3 Digital Technology Leaders Awards.
The 10 top earning technology roles
Computing gives you the rundown of the ten highest earning jobs in technology - plan your next move here!
1. Chief information officer - £185,000
CIOs in London's IT, banking and financial services are seeing the highest salaries in the UK technology industry currently, and some of the fastest growth in their overall packages.
It's no wonder that the best CIOs are so well rewarded. Firms are competing to be the fastest and most agile, and there are increasing demands to get actionable insight from big data.
Companies also need to build a DevOps culture to enable continuous delivery of software and updates, use IoT technologies to better understand the supply chain and underpinning systems, exploit the cloud for its agility, and do all of this while motivating staff, staying closer than ever to the business and remaining secure.
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And that concludes Computing's look at the top 10 best paid and most sought after roles in the UK IT industry. Have we missed a key role? Placed a salary wildly out of position? Let us know in the comments below.