February 2026 – UK – IT, Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
Overview: February 2026
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The Transformation Premium: We are seeing the CTRO and Head of Data/AI pull significantly ahead of traditional IT Director roles. As per our terminology guide, “Tech*” transformation is currently valued 15-20% higher than “IT*” maintenance.
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Engineering Squeeze: AI and DevOps Engineers at the “High” end are reaching £115k+. This is the “Top 5%” talent that we noted in the newsletter is currently staying put unless a game-changing offer is presented.
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The North West Advantage: For your Crewe clients, the “Low” column (NW -5%) shows that an IT Support Manager at £45k-£50k remains a very competitive regional hire, allowing for strong local retention compared to the London market.
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Architectural Shifts: Cloud and Security Architects remain the highest-paid non-leadership roles. At a £900+ day rate, these professionals are the primary candidates for our “Interim Solution” strategy to prevent Q1 project stagnation
Category |
Job Title |
Yearly Low |
Yearly Median (Base) |
Yearly High |
Contractor Day Rate
|
Leadership |
Chief Transformation Officer (CTRO) |
£122,312 |
£165,500 |
£201,910 |
£1,250 |
Chief Technology Officer (CTO) |
£114,000 |
£160,500 |
£195,810 |
£1,200 |
|
Chief Information Officer (CIO) |
£102,600 |
£150,250 |
£183,305 |
£1,150 |
|
Chief Info Security Officer (CISO) |
£91,437 |
£135,250 |
£165,005 |
£1,100 |
|
IT Director |
£77,662 |
£96,000 |
£117,120 |
£800 |
|
Head of Data / AI |
£85,500 |
£146,400 |
£1,000 |
||
Head of IT |
£68,400 |
£81,500 |
£99,430 |
£750 |
|
£120,000 |
|||||
Operations |
3rd Line Support (SysAdmin) |
£39,900 |
£52,000 |
£63,440 |
£375 |
2nd Line Support |
£30,400 |
£38,000 |
£46,360 |
£275 |
|
1st Line Support |
£22,800 |
£28,500 |
£34,770 |
£200 |
|
IT Support Manager |
£45,600 |
£58,500 |
£71,370 |
£500 |
|
Architecture |
Enterprise Architect |
£77,900 |
£95,250 |
£116,205 |
£950 |
Solution Architect |
£74,100 |
£90,000 |
£109,800 |
£850 |
|
Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure) |
£80,750 |
£102,500 |
£125,050 |
£900 |
|
Security Architect |
£87,400 |
£110,000 |
£134,200 |
£1,050 |
|
Data Architect |
£74,337 |
£89,750 |
£109,495 |
£900 |
|
Engineering |
AI / Machine Learning Engineer |
£71,250 |
£95,000 |
£115,900 |
£900 |
DevOps / SRE Engineer |
£61,750 |
£85,000 |
£103,700 |
£750 |
|
Cyber Security Engineer |
£52,250 |
£75,000 |
£91,500 |
£725 |
|
Software Developer (Senior) |
£61,750 |
£85,000 |
£103,700 |
£650 |
|
Data Engineer |
£57,000 |
£78,000 |
£95,160 |
£700 |
|
Network Engineer |
£42,750 |
£58,000 |
£70,760 |
£500 |
|
Data & PM |
Data Scientist (Senior) |
£66,500 |
£88,000 |
£107,360 |
£825 |
Data Analyst |
£36,100 |
£48,000 |
£58,560 |
£450 |
|
IT Project Manager |
£52,250 |
£72,000 |
£87,840 |
£650 |
|
Business Analyst (Technical) |
£45,600 |
£60,000 |
£73,200 |
£550 |
If your company is thinking of hiring, do it now. As demand rises, so too with the rates of pay and the difficulty levels of attracting and securing the right talent.
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.