w3r IT Salary Guide 2019

Can you put a price tag on top IT talent? The answer isn’t so simple. Whether you are making an offer or reviewing new job opportunities, your decision depends on isolating accurate salary data from a whirlwind of different factors. A tech professional’s technical skillsets, certifications, and location combined with any local demand contribute to a final salary number. Rather than devoting your precious time to calculating the influence of all these factors, let us handle the hard work and simplify your salary research.

Using our 24 years of industry experience and ongoing work with numerous organizations and tech professionals, we have created the w3r IT Salary Guide 2019. Our guide combines insights into the most influential tech trends, our dynamic understanding of competitive compensation and benefits, and advice on how to improve hiring strategies. Read our IT salary guide and take advantage of our expertise, whether you want to increase your ability to spot competitive offers or attract top talent to your organization.

The 2019 IT Outlook

Innovation isn’t instantaneous. Instead, progress spreads at a slow speed, moving first into applications that offer the least resistance (i.e. startups, think tanks, and R&D-focused enterprises). In the IT industry specifically, we are witnessing these disruptive technologies and ways of thinking spreading into mainstream functions.

Smart Machines Will Encourage Smarter Decisions

Artificial intelligence is at the forefront of many organizations’ priorities. A McKinsey survey revealed that 47% of businesses have now embedded at least one AI capability in their business process, ranging from eCommerce and marketing to sales forecasting and cybersecurity defenses. In many of these facets, machine learning technology is used to augment performance rather than outright replace human workers. This shows the potential opportunities not only for AI developers and machine learning data scientists, but professionals familiar with the increasingly accessible, user-friendly platforms.

Data Analysis Will Grow in Precision

Data analytics is also undergoing a transformation thanks to artificial intelligence tools. Augmented analytics now handles the more routine aspects of data analysis such as parsing, data cleansing, and even some basic analysis. This innovation allows organizations to dedicate more time to advanced analytics and implement the findings.

Additionally, more organizations are exploring the impact of continuous intelligence on their objectives, processes, and insights. The ongoing analytics cycle promises to make organizations more malleable and adaptive, improving their ability to react with change and evolve with market changes.

The Cybersecurity Arms Race Will Intensify

One trend that is unfortunately growing faster than ever is the increase in sophistication of cybercrime. Some dubbed 2018 “The Year of the Next-Gen Cyberattack,” and 2019 is expected to put that title to shame.

Forged corporate announcements using deepfake software, attacks coordinated from the cloud, and tactics designed to co-opt AI tools and existing technology are all on the verge of becoming commonplace cyberattacks. Cybersecurity professionals need to be ready for the unprecedented threats on the horizon and employ cutting-edge strategies to protect sensitive data and key assets from falling into the wrong hands.

The Highest Paying IT Skills on the Market

As demand for many of the top IT trends of 2019 go mainstream, the talent pool has been slow to catch up. Low unemployment numbers combined with a long-running STEM shortage has caused rising compensation for your industry. With that in mind, here are the highest paying skillsets on the U.S. job market.

Data Analysis

As data has become integral to organizations nationwide, expertise in data analysis and big data analysis is skyrocketing. According to Dice, the highest paying big data skills:

Cloud Computing

At $20.4 billion in annual revenue, Amazon is one of the highest earning cloud vendors. Due to their growing popularity, technologies related to Amazon Web Services have elevated in demand. The highest paying cloud computing skills:

DevOps

Though DevOps expertise has been a cornerstone of enterprise IT for several years, this skillset is still rare in the workforce. The highest paying DevOps skills: