UK IT salaries for 2023: How much should IT pros be earning this year?

After a difficult 2020 and an unpredictable 2021, employers and employees alike were hoping for some stability in the 2022 job market. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. Last year started with the “Great Resignation”, leading to a record number of vacancies caused by burnt-out and disgruntled workers seeking new employment opportunities, and ended with the some of the largest and most widespread rounds of layoffs ever to hit the technology sector.

Despite news of ongoing layoffs in the industry, including Amazon's recent confirmation that it would be laying off more than 18,000 workers, demand for skilled workers has never been higher, according to recruitment specialist Robert Half’s 2023 UK Salary Guide. This has resulted in retention concerns for many employers, and organisations are now relying on counteroffers to retain employees, particularly in software development, DevOps, and cloud infrastructure roles.

Although the consequences of hypergrowth have fuelled the recent wave of layoffs, according to data collected by Robert Half, 79% of UK-based CIOs and CTOs are feeling very confident about their businesses’ growth prospects in the year ahead, with 30% planning to add new positions for permanent full-time employees. The top focus areas for 2023 are IT security, increasing efficiency and cloud computing projects. However, if organisations need to reduce teams, project managers, business analysts and temporary workers are likely to be the first to go.

As with the 2022 salary guide, the 2023 instalment continues to list the UK average salary ranges according to candidate percentiles. In our breakdown of the report, the lowest figure is the 50th percentile, representing an ‘average' candidate, while the 75th percentile represents a candidate with above-average experience that has most or all the necessary skills.

So which roles will see the biggest change? 

Leadership roles

Chief information officer (CIO):

2022: £141,000 (50th percentile) – £176,000 (75th percentile) / 2023: £141,000 (50th percentile) – £176,000 (75th percentile)

Chief technology officer (CTO):

2022: £130,000 – £165,000 / 2023: £130,000 – £165,000

Chief information security officer (CISO):

2022: £141,000 – £158,000 / 2023: £141,000 – £158,000

IT director:

2022: £105,000 – £114,000 / 2023: £94,000 – £112,500

Head of IT:

2022: £75,500 – £85,000 / 2023: £76,750 – £82,500

Chief architect:

2022: £100,000 – £120,000 / 2023: £130,000 – £150,000

Architecture

Enterprise architect:

2022: £87,000 (50th percentile) – £105,000 (75th percentile) / 2023: £93,000 (50th percentile) – £110,000 (75th percentile)

Infrastructure architect:

2022: £74,000 – £87,000 / 2023: £74,000 – £87,000

Data architect:

2022: £78,750 – £87,000 / 2023: £78,750 – £95,000

Solution architect:

2022: £86,000 – £103,000 / 2023: £86,000 – £103,000

IT, systems, and digital transformation

Programme manager:

2022: £81,000 (50th percentile) – £100,000 (75^th percentile) / 2023: £87,000 (50th percentile) – £114,000 (75^th percentile)

Project manager:

2022: £60,000 – £63,000 / 2023: £60,000 – £74,000

Senior business analyst:

2022: £57,000 – £73,000 / 2023: £61,000 – £69,000

Business analyst:

2022: £40,000 – £53,000 / 2023: £49,000 – 58,000

Business intelligence and data analytics

Data scientist:

2022: £55,000 (50th percentile) – £64,500 (75th percentile) / 2023: £64,500 (50th percentile) – £69,500 (75th percentile)

Data analyst:

2022: £28,000 – £34,000 / 2023: £42,000 – £55,000

Database administrator:

2022: £46,500 – £53,500 / 2023: £49,500 – £56,500

Business intelligence analyst:

2022: £39,000 – £45,000 / 2023: £39,000 – £51,500

Cloud, infrastructure, and engineering

Infrastructure manager:

2022: £65,000 (50th percentile) – £74,000 (75th percentile) / 2023: £67,500 (50th percentile) – £78,000 (75th percentile)

Network manager:

2022: £63,000 – £71,000 / 2023: £65,000 – £74,000

Network engineer:

2022: £53,000 – £59,000 / 2023: £53,000 – £61,500

IT support manager:

2022: £44,000 – £48,000 / 2023: £47,000 – £53,000

Network administrator:

2022: £39,000 – £43,000 / 2023: £39,000 – £43,000

First line support:

2022: £24,000 – £27,000 / 2023: £22,750 – £26,000

Compliance, audit, risk, and security

Information security manager:

2022: £70,000 (50th percentile) – £84,000 (75th percentile) / 2023: £70,000 (50th percentile) – £88,000 (75th percentile)

Security network engineer:

2022: £53,750 – £64,000 / 2023: £53,750 – £64,000

Security architect:

2022: £65,750 – £74,750 / 2023: £73,750 – £89,750

Software development, testing, and DevOps

Head of engineering:

2022: £91,000 (50th percentile) – £105,000 (75th percentile) / 2023: £88,000 (50th percentile) – £109,000 (75th percentile)

Lead engineer:

2022: £65,250 – £77,250 / 2023: £60, 250 – £67,250

Full-stack developer:

2022: £48,000 – £65,000 / 2023: £54,250 – £73, 750

DevOps Manager:

2022: £66,000 – £74,000 / 2023: £100,000 – £110,000

DevOps Engineer:

2022: £57,500 – £66,000 / 2023: £60,500 – £69,000

Test manager:

2022: £48,350 – £58,250 / 2023: £57,250 – £77,500

Test analyst:

2022: £35,000 – £40,000 / 2023: £35,000 – £49,250