Top 10 Highest Paying IT Jobs In 2023: Skillsoft Survey (2024)

There’s a high-paying, in-demand area of tech that you might be overlooking: information technology, or IT.

Broadly speaking, IT is technology that stores, organizes, and processes information and communication. There are tons of fascinating careers that you can have in IT — from Computer Information Systems Manager to Cybersecurity Analyst — with rewarding salaries.

The Skillsoft IT Skills and Salary survey is one of the largest studies of IT salaries, skills, and certifications. In 2023, more than 5,700 people who work in technology answered anonymous questions about their salaries, how they feel about work, the certifications they want to get, and more.

Here are the jobs in IT with the top highest annual salaries, according to the survey. Learn what it takes to get hired in these roles, plus discover resources and relevant courses that will help launch your career in IT.

(FYI: This list focuses on the salaries of survey respondents in North America. To see how IT salaries pan out around the world, download the full report.)

Business Operations

Average salary: $119,393

Business Operations Managers handle a company’s most important logistics and administrative systems, often reporting to the Chief Operations Officer (COO). A Business Operations Manager focuses on streamlining an organization’s internal operations and activities so they’re efficient and productive.

Data Science, Analytics, and Business Intelligence

Average salary: $121,664

If you’re fascinated by data science and enjoy translating data into actionable business insights, you might thrive as a Business Intelligence Analyst. In these types of jobs, you’d use technologies like SQL, Python, or R to perform advanced data analysis and querying; you’d also work with data visualization dashboards like Tableau and Looker. You can learn all of these technical skills and get job-ready with our career path Data Scientist: Analytics Specialist.

Want to learn more about data and business? Check out our Business Intelligence Data Analyst career path to start analyzing data for business-advancing insights. And be sure to browse all of our data science courses to fill out your knowledge gaps — you can even start learning for free with Learn SQL and Getting Started Off-Platform for Data Science.

Cybersecurity, Information Security

Average salary: $128,521

There’s a huge demand for cybersecurity professionals who can protect an organization’s computer systems and networks from bad actors, attacks, and security breaches. Information Security (aka “InfoSec”) is a highly sought-after cybersecurity specialty that focuses on protecting information and data from unauthorized access and attacks.

Brand new to cybersecurity? Start with our beginner-friendly free course Introduction to Cybersecurity. If you want to explore further and learn to identify cyber attacks (and prevent them from happening), you can check out the path Fundamentals of Cybersecurity. And to practice answering cybersecurity job interview questions and scripting challenges, try the Cybersecurity Analyst Interview Prep path.

DevOps

Average salary: $133,682

DevOps (short for “Development Operations”) is an industry-standard approach to building software that prioritizes collaboration. DevOps practices enable businesses to be responsive, develop products quickly, and continuously improve them. IT professionals who specialize in DevOps help organizations put DevOps practices, tools, and platforms in place.

DevOps Engineers need to know how to work with data management, cloud architecture, automation, and programming languages. You can master DevOps practices and get an overview of modern infrastructure management in our free course Introduction to DevOps. As you prep your DevOps resume and start applying to jobs, be sure to review this guide to answering DevOps interview questions.

IT Auditing or Governance, Risk, and Compliance

Average salary: $137,538

Governance, Risk, and Compliance (or “GRC”) is the part of an organization that establishes best practices and security frameworks, and makes sure that team members follow them. An IT audit is essentially an investigation of an organization’s technologies and systems to make sure that they’re safe and meet regulatory requirements. Risk management is not only a lucrative specialty within cybersecurity, but it’s also in demand. To learn more about how companies establish secure practices and policies, try our path Fundamentals of Cyber Resilience and Risk Management.

Product and Project Management

Average salary: $141,913

Product Managers manage the development and launch of a product, which is easier said than done. Product Managers have a deep understanding of an organization’s business goals so they can define what success will look like and empower technical teams to execute the company’s high-level vision.

Though Product Managers aren’t writing code on a day-to-day basis, they need technical skills to work closely with developers. (Here’s a list of the best programming languages for Product Managers to learn.) Product Managers also need to have strong communication skills, because they often liaise with engineering teams and leadership.

Sound like a career you’d like to have? Start your journey towards becoming a Product Manager by taking our Code Foundations path or head to the full course catalog to choose a programming language to learn.

IT Architecture and Design

Average salary: $142,689

Enterprise Architect is a high-paying leadership role that deals with overall IT architecture and design. These IT pros are responsible for making high-level decisions about an organization’s overall IT strategy. An Enterprise Architect’s tasks can include things like setting up and creating a network infrastructure, maintaining software and hardware, communicating with business stakeholders, and managing cybersecurity systems.

You need a fair amount of professional experience under your belt to become an Enterprise Architect. Inspired to start working towards this career? Take a look at the beginner-friendly IT courses to learn the key skills used in IT architecture and design. Aspects of computer science and IT often overlap, so consider taking our Computer Science Career Path — you’ll learn how to code like a professional and understand the theory behind programming.

Cloud

Average salary: $165,056

The vast world of cloud computing involves storing and accessing data and programs on the internet. There are plenty of job opportunities for folks with technical skills to work with the cloud. Some of the highest-paying cloud careers include Cloud Engineer and Computer and Information Systems Manager.

Executive

Average salary: $168,027

Dream of running a tech company someday? Unsurprisingly, C-Suite Executives — like Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer — had the highest salaries in Skillsoft’s 2023 IT Skills and Salaries survey. Executives are responsible for calling the shots, making major decisions for the company, and often acting as the face of an organization (think Tesla’s Elon Musk or Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg). In short, that’s why they get paid the big bucks.

Want to read more of the survey findings? Download the 2023 Skillsoft IT Skills and Salaries report here.

If you’re not sure which tech career is right for you, start by taking our programming personality quiz. You’ll answer questions about your personal preferences and get custom recommendations for programming languages and courses you might want to try.

This blog was originally published on November 1, 2022 and has been updated with information from the 2023 IT Skills and Salary Report.