While the world continues to be rocked by market shock after market shock, one thing has remained constant: the demand for talented software engineering leaders.

“Earlier this year we saw aggressive hiring in response to attrition and ambitious goals. More recently, we’ve witnessed uncertainty, volatility, and contradiction. At a macro level, we face a potential recession, coupled with significant tech hiring freezes and layoffs,” wrote Josh Brenner, CEO of tech recruitment specialist Hired, in its 2022 State of Tech Salaries report, which surveys the US, UK, and Canadian job markets.

Despite these scary looking contractions in the labor market, Hired’s survey data still pointed towards a candidate’s market for technology workers.

“The majority of candidates are considering leaving their current role,” Brenner wrote. “They’re driven by the potential for more lucrative opportunities and an overall better fit. Expectations on salary, pay raises, and work flexibility remain sky high, placing the onus on employers to execute the right strategies to attract, hire, and retain top talent.”

Drilling down further, Hired’s data found that engineering management roles – ranging from engineering manager up to director and VP of engineering – still consistently pay the highest among tech roles across the US, UK, and Canada. In the US specifically, engineering manager salaries average out at $196,000 on Hired’s platform, while remote management salaries are currently tracking even higher at $198,000.

Salaries for engineering management roles 

Here, we have picked out the average salaries for engineering management roles in the US from a different source – Robert Half’s 2023 Salary Guide, which is based on research conducted between May and July 2022. These figures represent the national average salary range for the 50th and 75th percentile of applicants.

Chief Technology Officer (CTO): $198,750-$236,750

Applications architect: $157,500-$188,500

Software and applications manager: $145,250-$170,500

Senior software engineer: $139,250-$167,000

Senior web developer: $132,000-$153,250

Testing/QA manager: $113,250-$129,000