UK technology salary benchmarks: what actually clears the market
Published salary surveys lag the market by six months. Here is what we are seeing candidates accept right now across engineering, cloud and data roles in the UK.
Every salary survey we read describes a market that existed two quarters ago. The numbers below come from offers our candidates accepted — and declined — over the last three months.
Where the pressure is
Cloud platform and security roles remain the tightest part of the market. Senior platform engineers with production Kubernetes experience are commanding a premium over general backend engineers at the same level, and that gap has widened rather than closed.
Where it has softened
Front-end and general full-stack hiring has cooled. Candidates who would have held three offers eighteen months ago are now holding one, which makes it a good moment to hire if your process is quick.
What to do about it
- Re-benchmark any band you set more than nine months ago.
- Publish the range in the advert — omitting it costs you applications and tells candidates nothing good.
- Decide in advance what you will pay for the exceptional candidate, so you are not renegotiating internally while they accept elsewhere.
If you want the detail for a specific role and location, ask us. We will share what we are seeing.