September 2026 – Mumbai – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
The Reality Behind the Data
The Mumbai Salary Guide Completes the Pattern
Our Mumbai salary guide for September shows the same shape as every other region in this series: Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev up 17.5% year-on-year, AI/ML Engineer up 13.8% — identical percentage moves to New York and near-identical to the UK. At ₹26,98,000 median for Prompt Engineer, the absolute numbers differ hugely by market, but the direction of travel doesn’t. This is a genuinely worldwide re-pricing, not a high-cost-market phenomenon.
Even the Softening Roles Match, Almost Exactly
IT Project Manager (-1.2%) and Scrum Master/Agile Coach (-2.8%) are down here too, at rates within a rounding error of the UK and US figures. Meanwhile CISO pay has reached ₹49,97,000 median (+7.4%), and Security Architect ₹34,77,000 (+9.4%). For companies building or expanding technical teams in India, the message is the same as every other market in this guide: pay for people who build or defend.
Note: Yearly salaries are displayed in Lakhs Per Annum (LPA) (e.g., ₹29.4L = ₹29,400,000 / year). Contractor Day Rates are flat INR amounts.
| Category | Job Title | Yearly Low | Yearly Median (Base) | Yearly High | Annual % Change | Contractor Day Rate (High) | Day Rate Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI, Automation & Data | |||||||
| Head of AI & Automation | ₹3,610,000 | ₹4,180,000 | ₹4,940,000 | +11.5% | ₹30,400 | +8.5% | |
| AI / Machine Learning Engineer | ₹2,736,000 | ₹3,230,000 | ₹3,876,000 | +13.8% | ₹23,560 | +9.1% | |
| AI Solutions Architect | ₹3,116,000 | ₹3,648,000 | ₹4,370,000 | +11.2% | ₹26,600 | +7.5% | |
| MLOps Engineer | ₹2,584,000 | ₹3,040,000 | ₹3,610,000 | +12.5% | ₹20,520 | +8.2% | |
| Automation / RPA Architect | ₹2,660,000 | ₹3,040,000 | ₹3,648,000 | +6.2% | ₹21,660 | +4.0% | |
| RPA Developer | ₹1,824,000 | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | +3.5% | ₹14,630 | +2.2% | |
| Data Science Lead | ₹2,964,000 | ₹3,496,000 | ₹4,104,000 | +8.1% | ₹24,320 | +5.2% | |
| Data Scientist | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | ₹2,964,000 | +6.8% | ₹17,480 | +4.5% | |
| Data Engineer | ₹1,976,000 | ₹2,318,000 | ₹2,736,000 | +8.8% | ₹16,720 | +5.8% | |
| Data Architect | ₹2,812,000 | ₹3,306,000 | ₹3,876,000 | +5.5% | ₹22,420 | +3.6% | |
| Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst | ₹1,558,000 | ₹1,843,000 | ₹2,185,000 | +2.0% | ₹12,540 | +1.4% | |
| BI Developer | ₹1,805,000 | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | +3.2% | ₹14,630 | +2.0% | |
| Power Platform / Low-Code Dev | ₹1,976,000 | ₹2,318,000 | ₹2,736,000 | +8.5% | ₹16,720 | +5.5% | |
| Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev | ₹2,280,000 | ₹2,698,000 | ₹3,192,000 | +17.5% | ₹19,380 | +11.5% | |
| IT Ops & Leadership | |||||||
| IT Director / CIO | ₹3,800,000 | ₹4,560,000 | ₹5,396,000 | +2.5% | ₹25,080 | +1.6% | |
| Head of IT / IT Manager | ₹2,470,000 | ₹2,888,000 | ₹3,420,000 | +1.4% | ₹19,380 | +0.9% | |
| IT Business Partner | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | ₹2,964,000 | +3.0% | ₹17,480 | +1.8% | |
| Service Delivery Manager | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | ₹2,964,000 | +0.7% | ₹16,720 | +0.5% | |
| IT Operations Manager | ₹2,204,000 | ₹2,622,000 | ₹3,078,000 | +1.1% | ₹17,480 | +0.7% | |
| IT Project Manager | ₹1,976,000 | ₹2,318,000 | ₹2,736,000 | -1.2% | ₹16,720 | -0.7% | |
| Program Manager | ₹2,812,000 | ₹3,306,000 | ₹3,876,000 | +2.2% | ₹21,470 | +1.4% | |
| Scrum Master / Agile Coach | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | ₹2,964,000 | -2.8% | ₹17,480 | -1.8% | |
| Business Analyst | ₹1,805,000 | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | +1.6% | ₹14,630 | +1.1% | |
| 1st Line Support Technician | ₹855,000 | ₹1,007,000 | ₹1,178,000 | +0.5% | ₹6,080 | +0.0% | |
| 2nd Line Support Engineer | ₹1,140,000 | ₹1,349,000 | ₹1,596,000 | +1.2% | ₹8,550 | +0.9% | |
| 3rd Line / Senior Tech Support | ₹1,463,000 | ₹1,729,000 | ₹2,052,000 | +2.0% | ₹11,780 | +1.4% | |
| Helpdesk Manager / Service Desk Lead | ₹1,634,000 | ₹1,919,000 | ₹2,261,000 | +0.9% | ₹12,540 | +0.4% | |
| Infrastructure & Networking | |||||||
| Infrastructure Manager | ₹2,280,000 | ₹2,698,000 | ₹3,192,000 | +1.4% | ₹17,480 | +0.9% | |
| Senior Systems Engineer | ₹1,805,000 | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | +1.8% | ₹13,680 | +1.1% | |
| Systems Administrator | ₹1,368,000 | ₹1,615,000 | ₹1,900,000 | -0.7% | ₹10,450 | -0.4% | |
| Network Architect | ₹2,812,000 | ₹3,306,000 | ₹3,876,000 | +4.0% | ₹21,470 | +2.6% | |
| Network Engineer | ₹1,558,000 | ₹1,843,000 | ₹2,185,000 | +1.6% | ₹11,780 | +0.9% | |
| Network Security Engineer | ₹1,900,000 | ₹2,242,000 | ₹2,641,000 | +5.8% | ₹14,630 | +3.8% | |
| Unified Communications Specialist | ₹1,558,000 | ₹1,843,000 | ₹2,185,000 | +0.4% | ₹11,780 | +0.2% | |
| Storage & Virtualisation Engineer | ₹1,710,000 | ₹2,006,000 | ₹2,356,000 | -1.0% | ₹12,540 | -0.7% | |
| Data Centre Engineer | ₹1,368,000 | ₹1,615,000 | ₹1,900,000 | +2.2% | ₹10,450 | +1.6% | |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | ₹2,356,000 | ₹2,774,000 | ₹3,268,000 | +9.1% | ₹18,620 | +6.2% | |
| Cloud & DevOps | |||||||
| Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure/GCP) | ₹3,116,000 | ₹3,648,000 | ₹4,294,000 | +7.8% | ₹24,320 | +5.2% | |
| Principal Cloud Engineer | ₹2,812,000 | ₹3,306,000 | ₹3,876,000 | +7.1% | ₹22,420 | +4.8% | |
| Cloud Systems Engineer | ₹1,900,000 | ₹2,242,000 | ₹2,641,000 | +4.8% | ₹14,630 | +3.2% | |
| DevOps Engineer | ₹2,432,000 | ₹2,850,000 | ₹3,382,000 | +6.5% | ₹19,380 | +4.2% | |
| DevOps Lead / Architect | ₹2,964,000 | ₹3,477,000 | ₹4,104,000 | +7.5% | ₹23,560 | +5.0% | |
| DevSecOps Engineer | ₹2,584,000 | ₹3,078,000 | ₹3,610,000 | +10.8% | ₹21,470 | +7.1% | |
| Infrastructure as Code Specialist | ₹2,280,000 | ₹2,698,000 | ₹3,192,000 | +5.6% | ₹18,620 | +3.8% | |
| Cloud Migration Specialist | ₹2,356,000 | ₹2,774,000 | ₹3,268,000 | +4.2% | ₹18,620 | +2.8% | |
| FinOps Specialist | ₹2,204,000 | ₹2,622,000 | ₹3,078,000 | +7.5% | ₹17,480 | +4.8% | |
| Cybersecurity & Risk | |||||||
| Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | ₹4,256,000 | ₹4,997,000 | ₹5,890,000 | +7.4% | ₹33,250 | +5.0% | |
| Information Security Manager | ₹2,812,000 | ₹3,268,000 | ₹3,857,000 | +6.2% | ₹21,470 | +4.1% | |
| Cyber Security Engineer | ₹2,128,000 | ₹2,508,000 | ₹2,964,000 | +8.1% | ₹17,480 | +5.5% | |
| Cyber Security Analyst | ₹1,558,000 | ₹1,843,000 | ₹2,185,000 | +5.1% | ₹11,780 | +3.4% | |
| Penetration Tester / Ethical Hacker | ₹2,033,000 | ₹2,386,000 | ₹2,812,000 | +6.5% | ₹16,530 | +4.2% | |
| SOC Analyst | ₹1,368,000 | ₹1,615,000 | ₹1,900,000 | +4.0% | ₹10,450 | +2.6% | |
| Security Architect | ₹2,964,000 | ₹3,477,000 | ₹4,104,000 | +9.4% | ₹23,560 | +6.1% | |
| Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Lead | ₹2,432,000 | ₹2,888,000 | ₹3,401,000 | +5.6% | ₹18,620 | +3.7% | |
| Identity & Access Management (IAM) Specialist | ₹1,976,000 | ₹2,318,000 | ₹2,736,000 | +6.8% | ₹14,630 | +4.5% | |
| Cloud Security Specialist | ₹2,546,000 | ₹3,002,000 | ₹3,534,000 | +8.8% | ₹20,140 | +5.8% | |
| Software & ERP | |||||||
| Software Engineering Manager | ₹2,964,000 | ₹3,477,000 | ₹4,104,000 | +4.5% | ₹23,560 | +3.0% | |
| Lead Software Developer | ₹2,546,000 | ₹3,002,000 | ₹3,534,000 | +4.9% | ₹20,140 | +3.3% | |
| Senior Full Stack Developer | ₹2,204,000 | ₹2,622,000 | ₹3,078,000 | +3.9% | ₹17,480 | +2.5% | |
| Software Engineer (Python/Java/.NET) | ₹2,033,000 | ₹2,386,000 | ₹2,812,000 | +4.2% | ₹16,530 | +2.8% | |
| ERP / CRM Manager | ₹2,432,000 | ₹2,888,000 | ₹3,401,000 | +2.0% | ₹19,380 | +1.4% | |
| Solution Architect | ₹2,850,000 | ₹3,382,000 | ₹3,990,000 | +5.2% | ₹22,040 | +3.4% | |
September’s numbers make one thing clear: pay for people who build or defend, and be more selective on pure coordination roles.
If you’re hiring or reviewing pay in light of these figures, get in touch — call us on 0207 788 6600 or email james@langleyjames.com.