Report: How Philly Tech Salaries Stack Up

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It’s obvious by now that tech professionals are among the highest-paid workers today – but who’s cashing in the biggest paychecks? 

Staffing and temp agency Robert Half Technology released a report on Wednesday revealing the top-paid tech positions and their starting salaries in Philadelphia. According to the study, big data engineers make more money than those in any other tech occupation.

For those who aren’t familiar, big data is a rapidly growing industry that involves using massive data sets (both traditional and digital, like social network interactions and web behavior) to uncover patterns of human behavior. According to a recent trend report by advisory firm Ovum, the big data market, which is currently at $1.7 billion, will swell to $9.4 billion by 2020.

In Philadelphia, the average starting salary for a big data engineer is between $155,250 and $225,400. That’s more than the national average starting salary for the occupation, which is between $135,000 and $196,000, and reflects the occupation’s average salary increase of 5.8 percent from 2016, per the study.

Data scientists ranked directly behind big data engineers, with an average starting salary in the city between $133,400 and $188,025, according to the study. Network security engineers came in third, with an average starting salary between $132,825 and $186,875 in Philly. In every case, starting salaries in the city ranked above the national average.

Tim Mullane, a regional vice president for the mid-Atlantic district of Robert Half, said it’s not uncommon for cities like Philly, a “major hub for business and tech initiatives,” to have higher salaries than the national average. But Philly is still lagging behind other major East Coast cities, like New York, Boston and Washington, D.C., according to Robert Half’s salary guide.

Here’s the report’s full list of starting tech salaries in Philadelphia:

1. Big data engineer, $155,250 to $225,400
2. Data scientist, $133,400 to $188,025
3. Network security engineer, $132,825 to $186,875
4. Software engineer, $124,487 to $189,175
5. Content strategist, $93,437 to $132,537
6. Mobile designer, $92,000 to $139,725
7. User experience (UX) designer with 3-5 years of experience, $87,112 to $118,450
8. Front end web designer with 1-3 years of experience, $64,975 to $92,575

For more information, check out the report.

Follow @ClaireSasko on Twitter.