UK IT Salary Guide – September 2026, including Tech and AI Salary & Contractor Rates
The Reality Behind the Data
This UK IT salary guide for September confirms the AI re-pricing is now baseline, not an outlier. September’s national numbers confirm the AI re-pricing is now baseline, not an outlier. Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev pay is up 17.5% year-on-year, AI/ML Engineer up 13.8%, DevSecOps up 10.8% — three different disciplines, one shared driver: anything touching production AI or its security is being re-priced at pace nationally, not just in the capital.
Contractors Are Capturing the Premium Just as Fast
Day rates are moving in step with salaries, not lagging behind them: Prompt Engineer contract rates are up 11.5% year-on-year, close behind the permanent salary rise. Businesses treating contract hiring as the “cheaper, slower” option are misreading the market — for AI-adjacent skills specifically, contractors are pricing in the same premium as permanent hires, sometimes faster.
| 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 | £95,000 | £110,000 | £130,000 | +11.5% | £800 | +8.5% | |
| AI / Machine Learning Engineer | £72,000 | £85,000 | £102,000 | +13.8% | £620 | +9.1% | |
| AI Solutions Architect | £82,000 | £96,000 | £115,000 | +11.2% | £700 | +7.5% | |
| MLOps Engineer | £68,000 | £80,000 | £95,000 | +12.5% | £540 | +8.2% | |
| Automation / RPA Architect | £70,000 | £80,000 | £96,000 | +6.2% | £570 | +4.0% | |
| RPA Developer | £48,000 | £56,000 | £66,000 | +3.5% | £385 | +2.2% | |
| Data Science Lead | £78,000 | £92,000 | £108,000 | +8.1% | £640 | +5.2% | |
| Data Scientist | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | +6.8% | £460 | +4.5% | |
| Data Engineer | £52,000 | £61,000 | £72,000 | +8.8% | £440 | +5.8% | |
| Data Architect | £74,000 | £87,000 | £102,000 | +5.5% | £590 | +3.6% | |
| Business Intelligence (BI) Analyst | £41,000 | £48,500 | £57,500 | +2.0% | £330 | +1.4% | |
| BI Developer | £47,500 | £56,000 | £66,000 | +3.2% | £385 | +2.0% | |
| Power Platform / Low-Code Dev | £52,000 | £61,000 | £72,000 | +8.5% | £440 | +5.5% | |
| Prompt Engineer / AI App Dev | £60,000 | £71,000 | £84,000 | +17.5% | £510 | +11.5% | |
| IT Ops & Leadership | |||||||
| IT Director / CIO | £100,000 | £120,000 | £142,000 | +2.5% | £660 | +1.6% | |
| Head of IT / IT Manager | £65,000 | £76,000 | £90,000 | +1.4% | £510 | +0.9% | |
| IT Business Partner | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | +3.0% | £460 | +1.8% | |
| Service Delivery Manager | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | +0.7% | £440 | +0.5% | |
| IT Operations Manager | £58,000 | £69,000 | £81,000 | +1.1% | £460 | +0.7% | |
| IT Project Manager | £52,000 | £61,000 | £72,000 | -1.2% | £440 | -0.7% | |
| Program Manager | £74,000 | £87,000 | £102,000 | +2.2% | £565 | +1.4% | |
| Scrum Master / Agile Coach | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | -2.8% | £460 | -1.8% | |
| Business Analyst | £47,500 | £56,000 | £66,000 | +1.6% | £385 | +1.1% | |
| 1st Line Support Technician | £22,500 | £26,500 | £31,000 | +0.5% | £160 | +0.0% | |
| 2nd Line Support Engineer | £30,000 | £35,500 | £42,000 | +1.2% | £225 | +0.9% | |
| 3rd Line / Senior Tech Support | £38,500 | £45,500 | £54,000 | +2.0% | £310 | +1.4% | |
| Helpdesk Manager / Service Desk Lead | £43,000 | £50,500 | £59,500 | +0.9% | £330 | +0.4% | |
| Infrastructure & Networking | |||||||
| Infrastructure Manager | £60,000 | £71,000 | £84,000 | +1.4% | £460 | +0.9% | |
| Senior Systems Engineer | £47,500 | £56,000 | £66,000 | +1.8% | £360 | +1.1% | |
| Systems Administrator | £36,000 | £42,500 | £50,000 | -0.7% | £275 | -0.4% | |
| Network Architect | £74,000 | £87,000 | £102,000 | +4.0% | £565 | +2.6% | |
| Network Engineer | £41,000 | £48,500 | £57,500 | +1.6% | £310 | +0.9% | |
| Network Security Engineer | £50,000 | £59,000 | £69,500 | +5.8% | £385 | +3.8% | |
| Unified Communications Specialist | £41,000 | £48,500 | £57,500 | +0.4% | £310 | +0.2% | |
| Storage & Virtualisation Engineer | £45,000 | £52,800 | £62,000 | -1.0% | £330 | -0.7% | |
| Data Centre Engineer | £36,000 | £42,500 | £50,000 | +2.2% | £275 | +1.6% | |
| Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) | £62,000 | £73,000 | £86,000 | +9.1% | £490 | +6.2% | |
| Cloud & DevOps | |||||||
| Cloud Architect (AWS/Azure/GCP) | £82,000 | £96,000 | £113,000 | +7.8% | £640 | +5.2% | |
| Principal Cloud Engineer | £74,000 | £87,000 | £102,000 | +7.1% | £590 | +4.8% | |
| Cloud Systems Engineer | £50,000 | £59,000 | £69,500 | +4.8% | £385 | +3.2% | |
| DevOps Engineer | £64,000 | £75,000 | £89,000 | +6.5% | £510 | +4.2% | |
| DevOps Lead / Architect | £78,000 | £91,500 | £108,000 | +7.5% | £620 | +5.0% | |
| DevSecOps Engineer | £68,000 | £81,000 | £95,000 | +10.8% | £565 | +7.1% | |
| Infrastructure as Code Specialist | £60,000 | £71,000 | £84,000 | +5.6% | £490 | +3.8% | |
| Cloud Migration Specialist | £62,000 | £73,000 | £86,000 | +4.2% | £490 | +2.8% | |
| FinOps Specialist | £58,000 | £69,000 | £81,000 | +7.5% | £460 | +4.8% | |
| Cybersecurity & Risk | |||||||
| Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) | £112,000 | £131,500 | £155,000 | +7.4% | £875 | +5.0% | |
| Information Security Manager | £74,000 | £86,000 | £101,500 | +6.2% | £565 | +4.1% | |
| Cyber Security Engineer | £56,000 | £66,000 | £78,000 | +8.1% | £460 | +5.5% | |
| Cyber Security Analyst | £41,000 | £48,500 | £57,500 | +5.1% | £310 | +3.4% | |
| Penetration Tester / Ethical Hacker | £53,500 | £62,800 | £74,000 | +6.5% | £435 | +4.2% | |
| SOC Analyst | £36,000 | £42,500 | £50,000 | +4.0% | £275 | +2.6% | |
| Security Architect | £78,000 | £91,500 | £108,000 | +9.4% | £620 | +6.1% | |
| Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC) Lead | £64,000 | £76,000 | £89,500 | +5.6% | £490 | +3.7% | |
| Identity & Access Management (IAM) Specialist | £52,000 | £61,000 | £72,000 | +6.8% | £385 | +4.5% | |
| Cloud Security Specialist | £67,000 | £79,000 | £93,000 | +8.8% | £530 | +5.8% | |
| Software & ERP | |||||||
| Software Engineering Manager | £78,000 | £91,500 | £108,000 | +4.5% | £620 | +3.0% | |
| Lead Software Developer | £67,000 | £79,000 | £93,000 | +4.9% | £530 | +3.3% | |
| Senior Full Stack Developer | £58,000 | £69,000 | £81,000 | +3.9% | £460 | +2.5% | |
| Software Engineer (Python/Java/.NET) | £53,500 | £62,800 | £74,000 | +4.2% | £435 | +2.8% | |
| ERP / CRM Manager | £64,000 | £76,000 | £89,500 | +2.0% | £510 | +1.4% | |
| Solution Architect | £75,000 | £89,000 | £105,000 | +5.2% | £580 | +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.