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 labour 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 UK specifically, engineering manager salaries average out at £113,358 on Hired’s platform.

What does that mean for specific engineering management roles?

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

Chief Technology Officer (CTO): £130,000-£165,000

Chief architect: £130,000- £150,000

DevOps manager: £100,000-£110,750

Head of engineering: £88,000-£109,000

Lead engineer: £60,250-£67,250

Test manager: £57,250-£77,500