What are the highest-paid UK tech roles?

On average, Senior Software Engineers can expect to earn around £63,000 a year

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On average, Senior Software Engineers can expect to earn around £63,000 a year

Amid an ongoing tech talent crisis, which roles are now the highest paid as demand for cloud, security and DevOps experts grows?

At the same time, constrained supply - also known as the skills gap - has worked with this higher demand to boost tech salaries to record levels. And in an industry where the norm is to change jobs every couple of years, compensation keeps climbing.

Some IT leaders fear this is a bubble that will inevitably burst.

Speaking to our end user sister brand Computing, Andy Caddy, CIO of PureGym, cites "the over-inflation of developer and engineer salaries" as one of his top concerns in IT today.

"You only have to talk to any friendly recruiter to hear horror stories of people leaving for £20,000, £30,000 jumps in salary, just crazy stuff.

"That's a worry for a couple of reasons.

"One is it's clearly some sort of bubble, it can't go on like that forever, and you worry where you're going to end up; you're going to end up with graduates on ninety grand. It's kind of crazy, it's not sustainable. I mean, good luck to them, but it's not sustainable."

On the other hand, IT professionals outside the C-level are enjoying a golden era of high demand and high pay, with above-inflation pay rises the norm in some roles.

With the industry thriving - UK tech reached a $1tn valuation last year - TechShielder has used Indeed's Salary Guide Tool to find the best-paid roles in the industry outside leadership level.

  1. Senior Software Engineer: £63,824
  2. Operations Engineer: £61,745
  3. Data Engineer: £60,731
  4. Back End Developer: £57,550
  5. Full Stack Developer: £56,915
  6. Front End Developer: £55,342
  7. Software Developer: £55,015
  8. Net Developer: £52,677
  9. Software Engineer: £49,267
  10. UX Designer: £45,305

Engineers and developers unsurprisingly dominate the list, taking nine of the 10 top spots.

First place goes to the Senior Software Engineers, a position revolving around building systems and supporting other software developers. It often requires lengthy experience (five years or more) in the field.

Operations Engineers have - unsurprisingly - more of an operational function, making sure the processes and functions they oversee work correctly. They also work with senior team members to fine-tune the systems other teams use.

Although they share an 'engineer' title, the role of Data Engineer is distinct from others we've talked about so far. Data Engineers prepare data for analytical or operational use and build data pipelines to gather information from different sources.

The next five roles are all developers. Back End Devs build and maintain the mechanisms that process back end data and actions, while Full Stack Devs work on both the front- and back end of websites and systems. On the other hand, Front End Developers work exclusively on audience-facing systems.

Software Developers, in line with their wide-ranging job title, design, programme, build, deploy and maintain software. Net Developers are more focused, using the .Net Framework to design and build applications. Software Engineers, like Software Devs, create applications to solve real-world problems by applying engineering principles.

Finally, UX Designers - the only non-engineer/developer entry on the list - focus on developing the relationship between a product and a user. They can work on many aspects of a product's development, including design, usability and function.