Dive Brief:
- AI developers entered the top 10 highest-paid positions for the first time with annual compensation of $160,000, a Stack Overflow survey of 11,027 developers in the U.S found.
- Senior executives and managers command the highest annual salaries within technology departments in the U.S. on average, followed by mobile, back-end and site reliability engineers, according to the survey.
- Mobile developer salaries topped $185,000, while back-end developers make around $10,000 less. Site reliability engineers earn on average $166,500, followed closely by cloud infrastructure engineers at $165,000.
Dive Insight:
Enterprises value employees and potential candidates with highly sought-after and mission-critical skills, especially as tech stacks play a bigger role in the business’ success and growth outlook.
While AI-specific roles are still relatively new, the appetite for these skills is seemingly insatiable, leading enterprises to launch wide-reaching upskilling initiatives and programs.
Skills gaps in AI have resulted in a premium for top tech talent. Amid shortages, job seekers with generative AI skills can earn a salary boost of nearly 50% compared to technology workers without them, according to an Indeed report.
Despite fluctuations in tech talent demand this year, companies continue to invest in attracting topflight workers. One Skillsoft survey last year found average annual salaries increased by nearly $20,000 in 2023, with cloud and IT architecture skills commanding the highest compensation.
Retailers, restaurants, travel businesses and financial institutions have put more emphasis on enhancing mobile apps and platforms to improve satisfaction and retention.
Skills that address common modernization pain points are also a beacon of higher compensation packages. Engineers and developers with data and infrastructure skills have risen in importance as enterprises target efforts at their tech stacks. Cloud specializations are also commanding high wages as organizations continue on adoption paths with most turning to the infrastructure to support AI goals.
