2020 was a tough year for UK-based businesses and 2021 is expected to be just as challenging. While Brexit negotiations ended just before Christmas with a deal, the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and continuing lockdowns have left 86% of UK businesses fear losing top talent, with a third of organisations worrying that necessary salary reductions will lead to an employee exodus.
According to recruitment specialist Robert Half's 2021 Salary Guide, while the majority of projects and programmes have been put on hold, critical ones such as cloud migration are continuing to see a surge in activity.
The report also notes that businesses are so keen to hire for IT infrastructure roles that 32% of organisations surveyed have advertised fully remote roles in the last 12 months to try and secure the necessary talent.
However, the bad news is that most of the tech roles outlined in the salary guide are likely to see no pay increase in 2021; that said, for most roles salaries are predicted to remain stable.
With salaries stagnating, many CIOs have started focusing on the benefits packages offered to employees, with flexible work hours and home office equipment allowances amongst the most popular offerings.
As with the 2020 salary guide, the 2021 instalment continues to list the UK average salary ranges according to candidate percentiles. In this breakdown of the report, the lowest figure is the 50th percentile, representing an 'average' candidate, while the highest is the 95th percentile, which represents elite candidates.
So which roles will see the biggest change?
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Leadership roles
Chief Information Officer (CIO):
2020: £141,000 (50th percentile) - £250,000 (95th percentile) / 2021: £141,000 - £250,000
Chief Technology Officer (CTO):
2020: £120,000 - £170,000 / 2021: £120,000 - £170,000
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO):
2020: £141,000 – £200,000 / 2021: £141,000 – £160,000
IT Director:
2020: £115,000 - £150,000 / 2021: £115,000 - £150,000
Head of IT:
2020: £75,500 - £95,000 / 2021: £75,500 - £95,000
Chief Architect:
2020: £100,000 - £140,000 / 2021: £100,000 - £140,000
Architecture
Enterprise architect:
2020: £122,000 (50th percentile) - £140,000 (95th percentile) / 2021: £122,000 - £140,000
Infrastructure architect:
2020: £70,000 - £82,000 / 2021: £70,000 - £82,000
Data architect:
2020: £71,750 - £95,750 / 2021: £71,750 - £95,750
Solution architect:
2020: £70,000 - £85,000 / 2021: £70,000 - £85,000
IT, systems, and digital transformation
Programme manager:
2020: £72,500 (50th percentile) - £80,000 (95th percentile) / 2021: £81,000 - £115,000
Project manager:
2020: £58,000 - £85,000 / 2021: £54,200 - £65,000
Senior business analyst:
2020: £57,000 - £80,000 / £57,000 - £80,000
Business analyst:
2020: £40,000 - £56,000 / 2021: £40,000 - £56,000
Business intelligence and data analytics
Data scientist:
2020: £70,000 (50th percentile) - £85,000 (95th percentile) / 2021: £70,000 - £85,000
Data analyst:
2020: £35,000 - £45,000 / £28,000 - £35,000
Database administrator:
2020: £36,500 - £48,000 / 2021: £36,500 - £48,000
Business intelligence analyst:
2020: £42,000 - £50,000 / 2021: £42,000 - £50,000
Cloud, infrastructure, and engineering
Infrastructure manager:
2020: £55,000 (50th percentile) - £70,000 (95th percentile) / 2021: £55,000 - £76,000
Network manager:
2020: £55,000 - £70,000 / 2021: £55,000 - £70,000
Network engineer:
2020: £50,000 - £65,000 / 2021: £50,000 - £65,000
IT support manager:
2020: £48,000 - £60,000 / 2021: £42,000 - £50,000
Network administrator:
2020: £39,000 - £45,000 / 2021: £39,000 - £45,000
Help desk manager:
2020: £40,000 - £50,000 / 2021: £40,000 - £50,000
Help desk support:
2020: £23,000 - £30,000 / 2021: £22,750 - £28,600
Compliance, audit, risk, and security
Information security manager:
2020: £68,000 (50th percentile) - £85,000 (95th percentile) / 2021: £68,000 - £85,000
Security network engineer:
2020: £51,750 - £68,500 / 2021: £51,750 - £68,500
Security systems administrator:
2020: £44,000 - £60,000 / 2021: £44,000 - £60,000
Security architect:
2020: £63,750 - £95,750 / 2021: £63,750 - £95,750
Software development, testing, and DevOps
Developer lead:
2020: £75,250 (50th percentile) - £105,250 (95th percentile) / 2021: £75,250 - £96,000
Development manager:
2020: £64,500 - £100,000 / 2021: £64,500 - £100,00
Developer:
2020: £39,500 - £55,000 / 2021: £42,000 - £57,000
Devops Engineer:
2020: £60,500 - £82,000 / 2021: £60,500 - £75,000
Devops Manager:
2020: £65,000 - £81,500 / 2021: £65,000 - £80,000
Test manager:
2020: £42,250 - £67,750 / 2021: £42,250 - £67,750
Test analyst:
2020: £35,000 - £57,500 / 2021: £35,000 - £48,500