London – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates – February 2026

• London Market Insights

  • The “Commuter Trap”: With a Median 3rd Line Support salary hitting over £63k in London, local firms in the South East are being forced to lean into their “Hybrid/Remote” offerings to compete with the central London salary lure.

  • Architecture Dominance: London Security Architects are now comfortably clearing £130k on a permanent basis. This is where we see the highest concentration of “passive” talent—these individuals are currently very well-catered for, hence the need for the significant “move-incentive” mentioned in your newsletter.

  • Contractor Surge: London day rates have seen a 5-8% lift since January. With the “Day 1 Rights” legislation looming, London clients are willing to pay the £1,400+ premium for a CTRO on a contract basis rather than commit to a permanent executive hire in a volatile Q1.

  • Tech vs IT in the City: In London, the distinction is even sharper. IT infrastructure roles are stable, but Tech roles (AI Engineering/ML) are seeing bidding wars that push the “Yearly High” column toward the £150k mark.

• Job Title	Yearly Low (LDN)	Yearly Median (LDN +22%)	Yearly High (Elite/Fintech)	Contractor Day Rate (LDN)
  Chief Transformation Officer (CTRO)	£165,500	£201,910	£245,000	£1,400
  Chief Technology Officer (CTO)	£160,500	£195,810	£238,000	£1,350
  Chief Information Officer (CIO)	£150,250	£183,305	£225,000	£1,250
  Chief Info Security Officer (CISO)	£135,250	£165,005	£195,000	£1,200
  IT Director	£96,000	£117,120	£142,000	£950
  Head of Data / AI	£120,000	£146,400	£180,000	£1,150
  Head of IT	£81,500	£99,430	£115,000	£850
  3rd Line Support (SysAdmin)	£52,000	£63,440	£78,000	£450
  2nd Line Support	£38,000	£46,360	£56,000	£350
  1st Line Support	£28,500	£34,770	£42,000	£250
  IT Support Manager	£58,500	£71,370	£88,000	£600
  Enterprise Architect	£95,250	£116,205	£140,000	£1,100
  Solution Architect	£90,000	£109,800	£130,000	£950
  Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure)	£102,500	£125,050	£165,000	£1,050
  Security Architect	£110,000	£134,200	£175,000	£1,200
  Data Architect	£89,750	£109,495	£125,000	£1,000
  AI / Machine Learning Engineer	£95,000	£115,900	£152,000	£1,100
  DevOps / SRE Engineer	£85,000	£103,700	£140,000	£850
  Cyber Security Engineer	£75,000	£91,500	£128,000	£800
  Software Developer (Senior)	£85,000	£103,700	£140,000	£750
  Data Engineer	£78,000	£95,160	£122,000	£800
  Network Engineer	£58,000	£70,760	£92,000	£600
  Data Scientist (Senior)	£88,000	£107,360	£145,000	£950
  Data Analyst	£48,000	£58,560	£75,000	£550
  IT Project Manager	£72,000	£87,840	£115,000	£750
  Business Analyst (Technical)	£60,000	£73,200	£95,000	£650

If, however, your company is slowing down – beware! If your IT staff start to feel insecure, talent competitors and recruiters will find it very easy to persuade your staff to interview elsewhere. Despite the stress and negativity that may exist, take the time to focus on reassuring your team and, where appropriate, reward their loyalty. It’s a false economy to avoid salary increases for your best people. Doing so risks leave yourself vulnerable to losing key staff and the larger costs in both time and money of replacing them.

Should you be considering recruitment or simply would like some advice on anything recruitment related, please do not hesitate to give us a call and see how we can really help you to Recruit Someone Worth Recruiting.

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