The technology industry is one of the highest paying industries in the United States. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median annual salary in the technology industry is $105,990. more than twice the median for other occupations. While it’s certainly uncertain whether artificial intelligence will begin to take away jobs, especially in the technology industry, there’s still an opportunity to earn more than your peers in other fields, according to BLS data. If you’re looking for a high-paying career, the technology industry may be worth considering.
Naturally, there are many specializations to choose from if you want to pursue a career in this industry. You can become a software engineer, network engineer, cybersecurity analyst, machine learning engineer, web developer, technical program manager, and more. However, not all specialties have the same earning potential. This is especially true in industries where learning is continuous and pay is determined by what the employer deems most valuable at the moment. In 2025, these will be the highest-paying tech jobs if a good salary is important to you.
Principal Software Engineer
Principal software engineers will be one of the highest paid technology workers in 2025. As such, it comes with enormous responsibilities and requirements. As a senior position compared to a software engineer, a principal software engineer’s day-to-day job includes a variety of tasks and responsibilities.
For example, a lead software engineer can lead the development process of a software product and also participate throughout the process by designing the architecture, writing code, and debugging. As a Principal Software Engineer, you will also be responsible for supervising other software engineers, training and coaching teams of engineers, and collaborating with other team members, including technical project managers.
To qualify, you must have at least a bachelor’s degree in a field such as computer science or computer engineering, as well as proficiency in multiple programming languages such as C, C++, and Python. Additionally, this is not an entry-level job, so you definitely need to have several years of experience working as a software engineer. The average annual salary for a Principal Software Engineer is $244,500, but your income may increase or decrease depending on factors such as experience, skills, and employer.
machine learning engineer
Artificial intelligence (AI) will be a hot topic in 2025. It’s no wonder that machine learning engineers are some of the highest paid professionals in the technology industry. What does a machine learning engineer do? What does it take to become a machine learning engineer? Their responsibilities include creating, training, testing, deploying machine learning systems, and continuously improving them to address weaknesses or add new features.
Like leading software engineers, they work closely with other team members, such as fellow machine learning engineers and project managers, to plan the roadmap for creating new AI systems (or improving existing AI systems). A machine learning engineer’s deliverables may include creating driverless cars, chatbots, systems that power product recommendations on sites like Amazon, or even research-based tasks like locating undiscovered coral reefs.
Machine learning engineer job requirements include a bachelor’s degree in a technology-related program such as computer science, data science, artificial intelligence, or machine learning. Creating algorithms requires strong mathematical skills. Degrees in mathematics and statistics are also accepted. Becoming a machine learning engineer also requires programming skills and familiarity with machine learning frameworks. The average salary for a Machine Learning Engineer is $206,000. But these engineers are in high demand, and we’ve seen reports of Meta offering crazy offers to poach AI talent from competitors.
engineering manager
A software engineering manager’s responsibilities primarily focus on leadership. Like any other managerial position, one of the key responsibilities of an engineering manager is managing employees. In this case, it’s a software engineer. Engineering managers lead software engineering teams and keep projects on track by addressing issues that can threaten development plans, such as staff shortages or software bugs.
Other responsibilities of an engineering manager include creating project plans, hiring engineers, providing training and coaching, conducting both team meetings and one-on-one meetings, and providing individual reviews to team members. They also coordinate with other teams and departments to ensure that set goals (individual or collective) are achieved. Engineering managers also lead the technical aspects of the products their teams are working on, such as architecture, security, and code quality.
Keeping in mind the administrative nature of this role, a variety of skills are required beyond technical expertise. You also need leadership, communication, project management, decision-making, and problem-solving skills. Additionally, a bachelor’s degree in an engineering-related field and several years of engineering experience are required. The average salary for an engineering manager is $203,000.
Staff and Senior Software Engineers
Staff and senior software engineer positions are also some of the highest-paying technology jobs. Although the two roles are related, they are not the same, and the main difference is the scope of work. Staff engineers are involved in the entire technical department, while senior engineers work in one or more teams.
Staff Software Engineer responsibilities include software quality control, collaborating with other teams and departments to achieve joint goals, leading the design and architecture of new software and additional functionality, managing projects, and ensuring that code written by juniors meets established technical standards. Senior engineers may share similar responsibilities with staff-level engineers, but their scope is limited to a specific team. Becoming a senior software engineer requires at least an associate’s degree in an engineering-related field, but also requires several years of experience.
However, a bachelor’s degree and at least 5 years of experience are preferred. In addition to that, you need both technical and leadership skills. Staff Software Engineering roles require a bachelor’s degree and several years of experience between 7 and 15 years. And most importantly, you must have several years of experience working as a senior engineer. In addition to technical skills, soft skills such as communication skills are also required. The average annual salary for senior and staff software engineers is $186,500.
data scientist
As the name suggests, this role primarily involves manipulating data. The primary role of a data scientist is to help companies make data-based decisions. This is a simplistic description of the role, as there is a lot to do before a data scientist can extract insights from data to help companies make decisions. First, you will be responsible for data collection, cleaning, and validation. Then there’s storage, creating algorithms to extract specific insights from the data, analysis, and once the results are in place, presenting them to stakeholders.
With all these duties in mind, a data scientist job requires a variety of skills, including programming, statistics, mathematics, machine learning, data visualization, and more. From an education perspective, becoming a data scientist requires a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, statistics, computer science, and related fields. Additionally, this role requires soft skills, so you’ll need communication, analytical, critical thinking, and curiosity. The average annual salary for a data scientist is $183,000, but like any role, you can be paid more or less depending on your experience, skill set, and location.
How did we rank these technology jobs?
Business Insider ranked the highest-paying jobs in the tech industry, based on data compiled by the University of Cincinnati. This list includes a total of 18 high-paying positions and selected the top 5 from highest to lowest based on average annual salary. The average annual salary for each job was calculated by adding the highest and lowest recorded salaries for each job covered by Business Insider and averaging the salary ranges.
