UK IT Salary Guide – October 2026, including Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
The Reality Behind the Data
October’s national numbers show that AI re-pricing is moving past early experimentation into operational maturity. Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev pay is now up 18.1% year-on-year, AI/ML Engineer up 14.2%, and MLOps Engineer up 12.8%. The shared driver across these disciplines is clear: organisations are prioritising specialists who can deploy, scale, and secure production AI systems over broad coordination.
Contractors Are Capturing the Premium Just as Fast
Contractor day rates are advancing rapidly alongside permanent salaries—Prompt Engineer contract rates are up 12.0% year-on-year, while DevSecOps day rates have climbed 7.4%. Treating contract hiring as a secondary or cheaper option misreads the current market: for specialised AI, Cloud, and Cyber capabilities, contractors are pricing in premiums just as fast as permanent candidates.
| 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 | £96,000 | £112,000 | £132,000 | +11.8% | £810 | +8.7% | |
| AI / Machine Learning Engineer | £73,500 | £86,500 | £104,000 | +14.2% | £630 | +9.5% | |
| AI Solutions Architect | £83,000 | £97,500 | £116,500 | +11.5% | £710 | +7.8% | |
| MLOps Engineer | £69,000 | £81,500 | £96,500 | +12.8% | £550 | +8.5% | |
| Automation / RPA Architect | £70,000 | £80,500 | £96,000 | +6.0% | £575 | +4.1% | |
| RPA Developer | £48,000 | £56,000 | £66,000 | +3.2% | £385 | +2.0% | |
| Data Science Lead | £78,500 | £92,500 | £108,500 | +8.2% | £645 | +5.3% | |
| Data Scientist | £56,500 | £66,500 | £78,500 | +6.9% | £465 | +4.6% | |
| Data Engineer | £52,500 | £61,500 | £72,500 | +8.9% | £445 | +5.9% | |
| Data Architect | £74,000 | £87,000 | £102,000 | +5.4% | £590 | +3.5% | |
| Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst | £41,000 | £48,500 | £57,500 | +1.8% | £330 | +1.2% | |
| BI Developer | £47,500 | £56,000 | £66,000 | +3.0% | £385 | +1.8% | |
| Power Platform / Low-Code Dev | £52,500 | £61,500 | £72,500 | +8.7% | £445 | +5.6% | |
| Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev | £61,500 | £72,500 | £85,500 | +18.1% | £520 | +12.0% | |
| IT Ops & Leadership | |||||||
| IT Director / CIO | £100,000 | £120,000 | £142,000 | +2.3% | £660 | +1.5% | |
| Head of IT / IT Manager | £65,000 | £76,000 | £90,000 | +1.2% | £510 | +0.8% | |
| IT Business Partner | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | +2.8% | £460 | +1.6% | |
| Service Delivery Manager | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | +0.5% | £440 | +0.3% | |
| IT Operations Manager | £58,000 | £69,000 | £81,000 | +1.0% | £460 | +0.5% | |
| IT Project Manager | £51,500 | £60,500 | £71,500 | -1.50% | £435 | -1.00% | |
| Program Manager | £74,000 | £87,000 | £102,000 | +2.0% | £565 | +1.2% | |
| Scrum Master / Agile Coach | £55,000 | £65,000 | £77,000 | -3.10% | £455 | -2.00% | |
| Business Analyst | £47,500 | £56,000 | £66,000 | +1.5% | £385 | +1.0% | |
| 1st Line Support Technician | £22,500 | £26,500 | £31,000 | +0.4% | £160 | +0.0% | |
| 2nd Line Support Engineer | £30,000 | £35,500 | £42,000 | +1.0% | £225 | +0.8% | |
| 3rd Line / Senior Tech Support | £38,500 | £45,500 | £54,000 | +1.8% | £310 | +1.2% | |
| Helpdesk Manager / Service Desk Lead | £43,000 | £50,500 | £59,500 | +0.8% | £330 | +0.3% | |
| Infrastructure & Networking | |||||||
| Infrastructure Manager | £60,000 | £71,000 | £84,000 | +1.2% | £460 | +0.8% | |
| Senior Systems Engineer | £47,500 | £56,000 | £66,000 | +1.6% | £360 | +1.0% | |
| Systems Administrator | £35,500 | £42,000 | £49,500 | -1.00% | £270 | -0.80% | |
| Network Architect | £74,000 | £87,000 | £102,000 | +3.8% | £565 | +2.4% | |
| Network Engineer | £41,000 | £48,500 | £57,500 | +1.4% | £310 | +0.8% | |
| Network Security Engineer | £50,500 | £59,500 | £70,000 | +6.0% | £390 | +4.0% | |
| Unified Communications Specialist | £41,000 | £48,500 | £57,500 | +0.3% | £310 | +0.0% | |
| Storage & Virtualisation Engineer | £44,500 | £52,200 | £61,500 | -1.20% | £325 | -0.90% | |
| Data Centre Engineer | £36,000 | £42,500 | £50,000 | +2.0% | £275 | +1.4% | |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | £62,500 | £73,500 | £87,000 | +9.4% | £495 | +6.5% | |
| Cloud & DevOps | |||||||
| Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure/GCP) | £82,500 | £96,500 | £114,000 | +8.0% | £645 | +5.4% | |
| Principal Cloud Engineer | £74,500 | £87,500 | £102,500 | +7.3% | £595 | +5.0% | |
| Cloud Systems Engineer | £50,000 | £59,000 | £69,500 | +4.6% | £385 | +3.0% | |
| DevOps Engineer | £64,500 | £75,500 | £89,500 | +6.7% | £515 | +4.4% | |
| DevOps Lead / Architect | £78,500 | £92,000 | £108,500 | +7.7% | £625 | +5.2% | |
| DevSecOps Engineer | £68,500 | £81,500 | £95,500 | +11.1% | £570 | +7.4% | |
| Infrastructure as Code Specialist | £60,000 | £71,000 | £84,000 | +5.5% | £490 | +3.6% | |
| Cloud Migration Specialist | £62,000 | £73,000 | £86,000 | +4.0% | £490 | +2.6% | |
| FinOps Specialist | £58,500 | £69,500 | £81,500 | +7.8% | £465 | +5.0% | |
| Cybersecurity & Risk | |||||||
| Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | £113,000 | £132,500 | £156,000 | +7.6% | £885 | +5.2% | |
| Information Security Manager | £74,500 | £86,500 | £102,000 | +6.4% | £570 | +4.3% | |
| Cyber Security Engineer | £56,500 | £66,500 | £78,500 | +8.3% | £465 | +5.7% | |
| Cyber Security Analyst | £41,000 | £48,500 | £57,500 | +5.0% | £310 | +3.2% | |
| Penetration Tester / Ethical Hacker | £54,000 | £63,200 | £74,500 | +6.7% | £440 | +4.4% | |
| SOC Analyst | £36,000 | £42,500 | £50,000 | +3.8% | £275 | +2.4% | |
| Security Architect | £78,500 | £92,000 | £108,500 | +9.6% | £625 | +6.3% | |
| Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Lead | £64,000 | £76,000 | £89,500 | +5.4% | £490 | +3.5% | |
| Identity & Access Management (IAM) Specialist | £52,000 | £61,000 | £72,000 | +6.6% | £385 | +4.3% | |
| Cloud Security Specialist | £67,500 | £79,500 | £93,500 | +9.0% | £535 | +6.0% | |
| Software & ERP | |||||||
| Software Engineering Manager | £78,000 | £91,500 | £108,000 | +4.3% | £620 | +2.8% | |
| Lead Software Developer | £67,000 | £79,000 | £93,000 | +4.7% | £530 | +3.1% | |
| Senior Full Stack Developer | £58,000 | £69,000 | £81,000 | +3.8% | £460 | +2.3% | |
| Software Engineer (Python/Java/.NET) | £53,500 | £62,800 | £74,000 | +4.0% | £435 | +2.6% | |
| ERP / CRM Manager | £64,000 | £76,000 | £89,500 | +1.8% | £510 | +1.2% | |
| Solution Architect | £75,000 | £89,000 | £105,000 | +5.0% | £580 | +3.2% | |
October’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.