The tech jobs that pay the most in the UK
Key Points
- IT directors earn a median £98,127, second only to specialist doctors
- Software developers earn a median £59,863, up 5.4% on the year
- IT network professionals saw the biggest pay rise at 16.6%
- IT testers were the only tech role where median pay fell
IT directors are some of the best paid workers in the UK, earning a median £98,127 a year. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) published the figures on 22 October in its 2026 Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. The survey breaks down full-time pay for hundreds of individual occupations across the UK.
Only specialist medical practitioners earned more, with a median full-time salary of £108,281, according to those jobs tracked by the ONS. IT directors also out-earned chief executives and senior officials, whose median pay fell 5.1% to £95,516.
The typical full-time employee in the UK earned £40,911 over the same period. That means IT directors earn more than twice the national median. Pay for IT directors rose 3.3% on the year, below the 4.5% increase for all full-time employees.
Software developers lead the tech workforce
Programmers and software developers form the largest tech workforce in the ONS figures, with 362,000 full-time jobs. Their median salary rose 5.4% to £59,863, while the top 10% earned more than £114,051.
Across all IT professional roles, the ONS counted 933,000 full-time jobs with a median annual salary of £59,320. That figure rose 4.7% on the year.
The highest-paying tech jobs in the UK by median full-time salary were:
| Occupation | Median full-time salary | Annual change |
|---|---|---|
| IT directors | £98,127 | 3.3% |
| IT business analysts, architects and systems designers | £64,326 | 6.5% |
| Programmers and software development professionals | £59,863 | 5.4% |
| IT project managers | £59,647 | 0.4% |
| Other IT professionals | £59,048 | 8.3% |
| IT managers | £58,086 | 2.5% |
| IT network professionals | £56,591 | 16.6% |
| Cyber security professionals | £55,373 | 0.3% |
| Web design professionals | £50,963 | 4.7% |
| IT quality and testing professionals | £45,165 | -4.3% |
| Data analysts | £41,247 | 5.6% |
| Database administrators and web content technicians | £40,998 | 9.4% |
| IT operations technicians | £38,189 | 8.2% |
| IT user support technicians | £36,320 | 3.5% |
Network professionals see the biggest pay jump
IT network professionals recorded the biggest pay increase of any tech role, with their median salary rising 16.6%. Database administrators and web content technicians saw a 9.4% rise, while IT operations technicians gained 8.2%.
IT quality and testing professionals were the only tech occupation where median pay fell, dropping 4.3% to £45,165. Cyber security professionals saw pay rise just 0.3%, and IT project managers gained only 0.4%.
The ONS said all 2026 estimates are provisional, and it will publish final figures in October 2027. It added that changes in the make-up of the workforce, not just pay rises, affect its year-on-year growth figures.
The ONS rated its estimates for smaller occupations, including web designers and IT testers, as less precise than those for larger groups such as software developers.
