IT Job Titles and Salaries: A Practical Guide for HR and Compensation Teams

Introduction

IT job titles and salaries in the United States present one of the most challenging benchmarking puzzles for HR and compensation professionals. With the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting a median annual wage of $105,990 for computer and information technology occupations in May 2024—more than double the all-occupations median of $49,500—the stakes for accurate pricing are exceptionally high. Getting IT compensation wrong means either overpaying relative to market or losing critical talent to competitors who benchmark more effectively.

This guide is designed for HR, total rewards, and compensation professionals who need to benchmark IT roles, build defensible pay ranges, and align job titles with current market data. It is not career advice for job seekers. The scope covers U.S.-based information technology occupations across major job families, from entry-level roles through executive positions, with practical workflows for pricing and structuring IT pay.

The challenges are real: inconsistent IT job titles across companies, rapidly evolving skills in cloud computing, AI, and data security, salary survey data that lags market reality by months, and difficulty pricing hybrid roles that blend software development with infrastructure or cybersecurity. Many IT professionals hold titles that don’t map cleanly to traditional survey codes, and new roles like “AI Platform Engineer” or “DevSecOps Specialist” appear faster than annual surveys can track.

The best way to price IT job titles and salaries is to anchor them to clearly defined job architectures—standardized job families, levels, and responsibilities—and validate ranges using real-time market data rather than relying solely on annual salary surveys that may be 6–12 months stale.

What you’ll learn:

• How IT job families and levels are structured for pay equity and defensible decisions

• Typical 2025 U.S. salary ranges for major IT roles across software engineering, infrastructure, data, security, and product functions

• How to handle hybrid and emerging IT job titles that don’t fit traditional benchmarks

• A step-by-step process for benchmarking IT roles using modern compensation intelligence tools

• How SalaryCube’s real-time salary benchmarking can streamline IT market pricing from weeks to minutes

---

Understanding IT Job Families, Titles, and Levels

Before benchmarking any IT role, compensation teams need a shared vocabulary. An “IT job family” groups related roles that share similar work types, competencies, and career advancement paths—like Software Engineering or Cybersecurity. A “job title” describes the specific role within that family, such as Software Engineer or Security Analyst. A “job level” indicates where that role sits on the progression ladder, from entry level through senior, lead, manager, and executive tiers.

Standardization matters because it enables pay equity analysis, consistent salary banding, and defensible compensation decisions. Without clear definitions, organizations end up with title inflation, inconsistent pay for similar work, and difficulty explaining compensation to employees or auditors.

Core IT Job Families (Infrastructure, Development, Data, Security, Product)

Most organizations group IT roles into a manageable number of job families to simplify pay structures and career path mapping. Common families include:

• Infrastructure & Operations: Roles focused on computer systems, network infrastructure, operating systems, and system administration (e.g., Systems Administrator, Network Administrator, Site Reliability Engineer)

• Software Engineering & Development: Roles building software applications, software programs, and digital products (e.g., Software Engineer, Full-Stack Developer, Mobile Developer)

• Data & Analytics: Roles managing data integrity, data analysis, and AI/ML systems (e.g., Data Engineer, Data Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer)

• Cybersecurity & Information Security: Roles protecting against cyber threats, security breaches, and data security risks (e.g., Security Engineer, Information Security Analyst, Chief Information Security Officer)

• Product & Digital Technology: Roles bridging IT and business objectives (e.g., Technical Product Manager, Business Systems Analyst, IT Project Manager)

Within each family, common role archetypes—engineer, analyst, architect, manager—map to different levels and salary bands. This connects to why SalaryCube’s Job Description Studio helps HR teams normalize titles into consistent job families while preserving company-specific naming conventions.

IT Job Levels: From Entry-Level to Executive

Typical career levels for IT roles follow a progression that directly connects to salary banding, promotion pathways, and compa-ratio analysis:

Level	Typical Titles	Scope & Autonomy
Entry Level (I/Associate)	Junior Developer, IT Support Specialist, Help Desk Technician	Performs defined tasks under supervision; learning phase
Level II	Software Engineer II, Systems Administrator II	Works independently on moderate complexity; growing expertise
Senior	Senior Engineer, Senior Analyst	Leads complex work; mentors others; deep technical expertise
Lead/Principal	Principal Engineer, Lead Architect	Sets technical direction; cross-team influence; strategic decision making
Manager	IT Manager, Engineering Manager, Support Manager	People leadership; team performance; budget responsibility
Director	Director of Engineering, Director of IT	Multi-team leadership; department strategy; executive alignment
VP/Executive	VP of Engineering, Chief Technology Officer, Chief Information Officer	Organization-wide technology strategy; C-suite accountability
Level definitions connect directly to salary banding. An organization might set a salary range of $90,000–$120,000 for Software Engineer II but $150,000–$190,000 for Principal Engineer. Without clear level criteria, HR teams struggle to explain why two people with the same title earn different amounts.

HR teams should create a simple leveling framework for IT that defines scope, autonomy, and impact at each tier. SalaryCube’s real-time benchmarking in DataDive Pro can validate whether your level-to-market alignment holds, identifying where internal ranges drift from external medians.

Building on this foundation of job families and levels, the next section provides concrete salary ranges for the most commonly benchmarked IT job titles.

---

Key IT Job Titles and Typical U.S. Salary Ranges

This section walks through commonly benchmarked IT titles with 2025-oriented U.S. salary ranges based on national market medians. These figures represent typical base compensation—not guarantees or offers—and actual salaries vary significantly by geography, company size, industry vertical, and specific technology stack.

The ranges below reflect current market data for full-time roles. Bigfoot Live provides daily-updated market data that can refine these baseline numbers for your specific organizational context and help you keep pace with rapid market changes.

Software Engineering and Development Roles

Software developers and software engineering roles typically represent the largest IT population in most technology-forward organizations. These roles directly build the software applications and systems that drive business value, making their compensation highly visible and competitive.

Key titles and 2025 U.S. salary ranges:

• Software Engineer I (Entry Level): $80,000–$105,000 — Writes code under supervision; learning codebase and development practices; bachelor’s degree in computer science or related field typically required

• Software Engineer II: $105,000–$135,000 — Works independently on features; participates in code reviews; growing expertise in programming language and software development practices

• Senior Software Engineer: $135,000–$175,000 — Leads complex technical work; mentors junior team members; deep expertise in multiple technology domains

• Principal/Staff Engineer: $170,000–$220,000 — Sets technical direction; influences architecture decisions; cross-team technical leadership

• Full-Stack Developer: $115,000–$165,000 — Builds both front-end and back-end systems; versatility across technology stack

• Software Engineering Manager: $160,000–$220,000 — Leads development teams; manages project delivery; coordinates with stakeholders

A common challenge: titles like “developer,” “engineer,” and “programmer” are used inconsistently across companies. HR should rely on responsibilities and level—not just job title naming—when assigning salary bands. SalaryCube’s salary benchmarking helps compare “equivalent” software roles across companies even when titles differ significantly.

Infrastructure, Systems, and Network Operations Roles

Infrastructure roles—covering computer hardware, data communication networks, network systems, and operating systems—are essential for maintaining uptime, reliability, and security. These roles have evolved significantly with cloud computing adoption, shifting from purely on-premise expertise to hybrid and cloud-native infrastructure management.

Key titles and 2025 U.S. salary ranges:

• Help Desk Technician / IT Support Specialist: $50,000–$75,000 — First-line technical support; troubleshoots technical problems with hardware and software; strong communication skills required

• Systems Administrator: $75,000–$110,000 — Manages servers, operating systems, and computer systems; ensures reliability for hybrid work environments

• Network Administrator / Network Engineer: $95,000–$135,000 — Designs and maintains network infrastructure and data communication networks; implements security measures

• Cloud Administrator/Engineer: $110,000–$155,000 — Manages cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure, GCP); implements cloud-native solutions

• Site Reliability Engineer (SRE): $130,000–$175,000 — Bridges software development and infrastructure; automates deployments; ensures system reliability and uptime

• DevOps Engineer: $120,000–$165,000 — Implements CI/CD pipelines; automates infrastructure; works across development and operations

Responsibilities shift significantly with cloud adoption. A “Systems Administrator” managing on-premise servers has different skills and market value than one managing hybrid cloud environments. Benchmarking should reflect these distinctions.

Data, Analytics, and AI Roles

Data-focused IT titles—including information research scientist computer roles, Data Engineer, and Machine Learning Engineer—have seen significant salary growth since 2020 as organizations invest heavily in data analysis, AI capabilities, and actionable insights from their data assets.

Key titles and 2025 U.S. salary ranges:

• Data Analyst: $70,000–$100,000 — Analyzes data to generate business insights; creates reports and visualizations; strong data analysis and problem solving skills

• Database Administrator: $100,000–$140,000 — Manages database systems; ensures data integrity; optimizes performance; implements backup and recovery procedures

• Data Engineer: $115,000–$160,000 — Builds ETL pipelines and data warehouses; works with SQL, Spark, and cloud data platforms; foundational for AI infrastructure

• Data Scientist: $125,000–$175,000 — Applies statistical methods and machine learning; extracts insights from complex datasets; translates findings into business recommendations

• Machine Learning Engineer: $140,000–$195,000 — Develops and deploys ML models; works with TensorFlow, PyTorch, and cloud ML services; optimizes model performance

• Data Architect: $150,000–$200,000 — Designs enterprise data strategy; creates data models; ensures data governance across organizations

Many data roles blend IT and product/analytics functions, making them challenging to benchmark. SalaryCube’s hybrid role pricing is designed to help HR teams place these roles accurately between “pure IT” and “business analytics” salary bands.

Cybersecurity and Information Security Roles

Cybersecurity roles have experienced sustained demand growth due to increased cyber threats, regulatory requirements, and the expanded attack surface from remote work. Organizations across all industries now require dedicated security professionals to protect data security and prevent security breaches.

Key titles and 2025 U.S. salary ranges:

• Information Security Analyst: $90,000–$130,000 — Monitors security systems; investigates incidents; implements security measures; entry point for many IT security careers

• Security Engineer: $120,000–$165,000 — Designs and implements security solutions; conducts vulnerability assessments; manages security infrastructure

• Penetration Tester: $100,000–$145,000 — Simulates attacks to identify vulnerabilities; provides remediation recommendations; specialized technical skills required

• Cybersecurity Architect: $150,000–$200,000 — Designs enterprise security architecture; develops security strategy; aligns security with business objectives

• Information Security Manager: $140,000–$185,000 — Leads security teams; manages security programs; reports to executive leadership

• Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): $220,000–$350,000+ — Executive accountability for security strategy; board-level reporting; organizational risk management

Pay premiums exist for in-demand certifications (CISSP, OSCP, CompTIA Security+) and specific industry verticals like financial services and healthcare. HR teams should validate these premiums using real-time data rather than assumptions—Bigfoot Live provides daily-updated compensation intelligence to support these decisions.

IT Product, Digital, and Business-Facing Technology Roles

Modern IT organizations increasingly blend traditional IT with digital product roles that sit between technology and business units. These roles—including IT analysts, project managers, and business systems professionals—require both technical knowledge and excellent communication skills to translate between stakeholder groups.

Key titles and 2025 U.S. salary ranges:

• IT Support Manager: $85,000–$120,000 — Leads technical support specialists and help desk teams; manages service levels; improves support processes

• Business Systems Analyst: $90,000–$125,000 — Analyzes business processes; defines information systems requirements; bridges IT and business units

• IT Project Manager: $105,000–$145,000 — Manages IT project delivery; coordinates resources and timelines; Agile/Scrum or traditional project management expertise

• Technical Product Manager: $130,000–$175,000 — Defines product roadmaps for technical products; works with engineering teams; translates business requirements into technical specifications

• IT Director: $160,000–$220,000 — Leads IT department or function; strategic decision making; budget and vendor management

• Chief Technology Officer (CTO): $250,000–$400,000+ — Executive responsibility for technology strategy; innovation leadership; C-suite accountability

Compensation teams should decide whether to benchmark these roles as IT, product, or hybrid categories. SalaryCube’s DataDive Pro supports this analysis by enabling comparison across multiple job families simultaneously.

With these salary ranges as context, the next section addresses how to actually benchmark IT roles and build defensible pay structures.

---

How to Benchmark IT Job Titles and Build Salary Ranges

Understanding typical titles and salary ranges is only the first step. HR and compensation teams still need a repeatable process to benchmark roles and create pay structures that withstand audits, executive scrutiny, and employee questions. This section provides a practical workflow for IT compensation benchmarking.

Step-by-Step Process for Benchmarking IT Roles

A structured approach to IT benchmarking ensures consistency, defensibility, and efficiency:

1. Inventory and normalize internal IT job titles. Identify all IT roles in your organization and group equivalents together. “Developer II” and “Software Engineer II” may be the same level with different naming—consolidate them for benchmarking purposes.

2. Write or refine job descriptions with clear scope and requirements. Document key responsibilities, technical stack, required skills, and level expectations. Job Description Studio provides AI-assisted templates that connect directly to benchmarking data.

3. Match internal roles to external market benchmarks. Use a modern salary benchmarking platform rather than a patchwork of PDFs and spreadsheets. Match based on responsibilities and level, not just title naming.

4. Adjust for geography, company size, and industry. Apply market differentials using real-time data. A Software Engineer in San Francisco commands different pay than one in Austin or a remote worker based in a lower-cost market.

5. Build or refine salary ranges and bands. Set minimum, midpoint, and maximum values for each level. Decide on band width (narrow for specialized roles, broader for roles with more variation).

6. Run compa-ratio analysis to identify outliers. Compare current employee pay to your new ranges. Flag employees significantly below or above range for review. SalaryCube’s compa-ratio calculator can support this analysis.

Each step can be completed in minutes rather than weeks when using modern compensation intelligence tools versus traditional survey-cycle workflows.

Using Real-Time Data vs. Traditional Salary Surveys

Traditional annual or biannual IT salary surveys from providers like Mercer, Radford, or Culpepper have significant limitations in fast-moving markets. By the time survey data is collected, processed, and published, it may lag market reality by 6–12 months. New roles like “Generative AI Engineer” or “Platform Engineering Lead” may not appear in survey codes at all. Participation requirements create administrative burden, and incomplete coverage leaves gaps for emerging specializations.

Criterion	Traditional Survey Providers	SalaryCube
Update frequency	Annual or biannual	Daily
Emerging role coverage	Limited; new codes take 12–24 months	Continuous; reflects current job market
Workflow speed	Weeks to price new roles	Minutes
Hybrid role support	Limited or none	Built-in hybrid role pricing
Participation required	Yes, typically mandatory	No participation burden
Bigfoot Live and SalaryCube’s salary benchmarking product provide daily-updated U.S. IT salary data, unlimited reports, and easy exports in CSV, PDF, and Excel formats—enabling faster pricing cycles without survey participation requirements.

When might HR still use legacy surveys? Organizations with specific industry comparisons or historical trending needs may retain survey participation while integrating that data into SalaryCube workflows. This creates a single source of truth that combines survey depth with real-time market validation.

Designing IT Salary Ranges, Bands, and Geo Differentials

IT pay structures require more frequent recalibration than many other occupations because of rapid market shifts, hot skills premiums, and intense competition for talent. Compensation teams face several key decisions:

Narrow vs. broad bands: Narrow bands (e.g., 20% spread) work for roles with clear progression and limited variation. Broader bands (30–40% spread) accommodate roles with significant experience variation or where internal equity concerns require flexibility.

Geographic differentials: Decide whether to use a single national structure, location-specific ranges, or a hybrid approach with a national base plus city-specific premiums. Remote work has complicated this—many organizations now tier locations into cost-of-labor zones rather than maintaining city-level granularity.

Review frequency: At minimum, review IT ranges annually. For critical roles (cloud architects, ML engineers, security specialists), conduct quarterly spot checks using real-time data to ensure ranges haven’t drifted significantly from market.

SalaryCube enables modeling different band scenarios and running compa-ratio distributions for IT teams to see which ranges need adjustment before compensation becomes a retention risk.

Even with good data and well-designed ranges, HR teams face ongoing challenges when working with IT leadership. The next section addresses common problems and practical solutions.

---

Common Challenges with IT Job Titles and Salaries—and How to Solve Them

Even with solid data and defined ranges, HR teams often encounter friction when managing IT compensation. Title inflation, hybrid roles, rapid market changes, and budget constraints create ongoing challenges that require practical solutions.

Title Inflation and Misaligned Levels

IT managers frequently push for “Senior” or “Architect” titles to attract or retain talent, leading to inconsistent internal leveling and pay compression. When everyone is a “Senior Engineer,” the title loses meaning and creates internal equity problems.

Solutions:

• Anchor titles to clear level definitions with documented criteria for scope, autonomy, and impact

• Separate internal level from external business card title if necessary—an employee can be “Senior Engineer” externally while mapped to “Level III” internally for compensation purposes

• Use SalaryCube’s benchmarks to show IT leaders how their proposed titles compare in the market, making title-to-market alignment visible

Pricing Hybrid and Emerging IT Roles

Roles like “DevSecOps Engineer,” “AI Platform Engineer,” or “Cloud Security Architect” don’t map cleanly to traditional survey codes. The IT industry creates new specializations faster than salary surveys can track them, leaving compensation teams without clear benchmarks.

Solutions:

• Decompose hybrid roles into component percentages (e.g., 60% software engineering, 25% security, 15% infrastructure) and use a weighted blend of market data

• Document the rationale for all hybrid pricing decisions, creating an audit trail for future reviews and managerial conversations

• Use SalaryCube’s hybrid role pricing features, which are specifically designed to handle blended roles that span multiple job families

Keeping Up with Rapid Market Changes

IT compensation can become outdated quickly, especially for hot skills like AI, Kubernetes, or zero-trust security architectures. What was competitive six months ago may now lag market by 10–15%.

Solutions:

• Schedule periodic IT market reviews—quarterly for critical roles, semi-annually for stable roles—using real-time tools rather than waiting for annual survey updates

• Apply market adjustments when compa-ratios consistently fall below external medians for specific roles or skill sets

• Use SalaryCube’s unlimited reporting to build recurring dashboards that HR and IT leadership can review together, tracking how internal pay compares to market trends

Balancing Pay Equity, Budget, and Market Pressures

Tension exists between meeting market rates for scarce IT skills and maintaining internal pay equity and budget constraints. Paying a new ML Engineer $180,000 while tenured software engineers earn $145,000 creates internal friction—but not hiring ML engineers puts AI initiatives at risk.

Solutions:

• Use structured pay bands with documented exception processes for market-driven premiums, ensuring adjustments are fair and consistent

• Conduct equity analysis within IT job families to identify whether pay disparities correlate with legitimate factors (level, performance, experience) or signal potential equity issues

• Leverage SalaryCube’s real-time data and compa-ratio insights to run targeted pay equity reviews that surface issues before they become compliance or retention problems

Building on these challenges and solutions, the final section provides concrete next steps for HR and compensation teams ready to improve their IT benchmarking practices.

---

Conclusion and Next Steps for HR and Compensation Teams

Standardized IT job families and levels—combined with real-time salary data—create a defensible foundation for fair, competitive IT pay. Organizations that rely solely on annual surveys and inconsistent job titles risk both overpaying for common roles and losing critical talent in high-demand specializations like AI, cloud computing, and cybersecurity.

Concrete next steps:

1. Audit your existing IT titles and levels. Identify inconsistencies, duplicates, and roles that don’t map to clear level definitions.

2. Update job descriptions for your highest-volume and highest-risk IT roles. Ensure scope, skills, and level expectations are documented clearly.

3. Run a quick benchmark of your top 10 IT roles. Compare current ranges to market data and identify where gaps exist.

4. Identify pay outliers within IT. Use compa-ratio analysis to flag employees significantly above or below range for review.

5. Align with IT leadership on a title/level framework. Get buy-in for consistent definitions that support both career advancement and compensation decisions.

Moving from static, survey-only approaches to a modern compensation intelligence platform enables faster IT pay decisions with better defensibility. For teams that want to see IT salary benchmarking and hybrid role pricing in action, book a demo or watch interactive demos of SalaryCube.

---

Additional Resources for IT Compensation Strategy

This section curates tools and references specifically useful when working on IT job titles and salaries.

• Salary Benchmarking Product: Detailed workflows for IT market pricing, hybrid role benchmarking, and unlimited reporting

• Bigfoot Live: Real-time IT salary data methodologies and daily-updated market intelligence

• Job Description Studio: Create standardized IT job descriptions that connect directly to benchmarks

• Free Tools: Compa-ratio calculator, salary-to-hourly converter, and other resources to support quick compensation analysis

• Methodology and Resources: How SalaryCube sources and validates U.S. IT pay data for defensible decisions

If you want real-time, defensible salary data for IT roles that HR and compensation teams can actually use day-to-day, book a demo with SalaryCube.