Tech Salary Trends

Salaries Continue to Rise, Especially in Key Sectors, for Key Skills

There’s great news in the tech industry as far as salaries go! US Tech Salaries and Bonuses are on the rise. The latest Dice Salary Survey reports a 2% annual salary increase over last year on average. Bonuses were also up for 37% of tech professionals, with a $9,538 bonus on average. Over the last five years, average tech salaries have grown each year – 2010: 0.7%, 2011: 2.4%, 2012: 5.3%, 2013: 2.6%,2014: 1.9%

Silicon Valley offered the highest tech salaries on average at $112610 91 3.7% rise), followed by Seattle, Baltimore/Washington, Boston, and Sacramento. You can consult Dice’s interactive salary map at dice.com/salarymap.

The highest paid in 2014 were those with Big Data and Cloud skills. The number one highest paying tech skill was Platform as a Service (PaaS) at $130,081, followed by Cassandra, MapReduce, Coudera, HBase, Pig, ABAP, Chef, Flume, and Hadoop.

The roles that high roll: IT Management garners the top salary, followed by Systems Architect, Data Architect, IT Management, and Project Manager. So you are golden in 2015 if you are a Silicon Valley Big Data IT Manager! The demand for Information Technology Project Managers with big data skills has increased 123% in the last year.

According to McKinsey & Company, the US has a shortage of 140,000 to 190,000 professionals with analytical expertise and 1.5 million managers and analysts with big data skills. Recruiting talented big data project managers means finding hybrid talents that encompass engineer, sales, advocate, educator, and systems planning, with the concrete hard skills and the right soft skills to mesh with the team.

The Robert Half 2015 Technology Salary Guide predicts that the demand for highly skilled technology professionals will remain higher than the supply in the now and in the upcoming years, with the squeeze especially felt in the three main areas of mobile, security and big data. And with one third of IT professionals surveyed planning on searching for a new job in the coming year, retention and recruiting strategies are imperative.

Creative positions are also in demand according to The Creative Group Moohlah Palooza 2015 Salary Guide, with talent for these folks harder and harder to come by. There is a lot of competition for Account Managers, Content Strategists, Digital Marketing Strategists, Front-End Web Developers, Graphic Designers, Social Media Managers, and more. Hot sectors are digital and mobile, as well as healthtech. The highest paid in the “creative” roles are the Creative Director at a high of $185,500 with 8 or more years of experience, Front-End Web Developer (with 3+ years) hit a high of $100,000, User Experience (UX) Designer $126,500, Information Architect $130,000, Web Content Writer (5+ years) $95,000, Content Strategist $100,000, Chief Marketing Officer $220,750, Marketing Director $143,000, Web Analytics Specialist (with 3+ years) $106,250 and SEO/SEM Specialist (with 3+ years) hit $97,750 on the high end. For an exhaustive sampling of creative salaries see the Moohlah Palooza report.

The Robert Walters 2015 Salary Survey foresees a year of continued growth in the business development, sales and marketing recruitment space, particularly in the sectors of the Internet of Things (IoT), SaaS, consumer mobile technology, mobile gaming, and ad tech. New York and the Bay Area continue to be among the most competitive and well-paid areas, and biz dev, sales and marketing professionals can anticipate continued compensation increases through both salary and equity. In NY, the annual salary for a Vice President Sales ranges from $180 – $250k, National Sales Manager/Director: $120 – $180k, Regional Sales Manager/Director: $90 – $150k, Account Manager: $85 – $110k, and Business Development Manager/Director: $85 – $150k.

Recruiting top tech talent requires paying a competitive wage but also thinking like a marketer: what does this talent want, how can we attract this talent to our company? When the talent you need is in short supply locally, relocation is a great strategy. Training and career advancement are huge incentives for ambitious professionals. Remote work, flex-time, childcare, transportation services, and work-life balance options can distinguish an employer. Company culture as well as perks and benefits are important aspects of retaining and recruiting the employees you want.