Tech workers offers $100,000 to stay in role

For example, the average salary for CRM software developers who specialise in Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics increased more than 51 per cent to a high of $210,000.

Salaries increased 47 per cent for senior developers with skills in the common software programming language Java, to a high of $205,000.

The head of product, who has ownership of digital products and services, had the highest average annual salary of $280,000, an increase of 22 per cent compared with six months earlier, the report found.

But the salary rises are occurring throughout the technology workforce.

On average, technology salaries for permanent roles in Australia increased by 26 per cent over the six months from June to December 2021, the survey found.

Talent puts about 1000 professionals in permanent placements and 3000 to 4000 contractors in technology roles each year.

Mr Munson said it was “unprecedented” that the salaries for most roles covered by the survey had increased by more than 10 per cent in the second half of 2021.

“I’ve never seen that in my 17 years in recruitment. I’ve never seen anything like that in one year, let alone six months,” he said.

Next-gen talent

“You’ve had this perfect storm where there are a lot fewer candidates available and a lot more demand, and therefore people have been outbidding each other in the war for talent.”

Before the pandemic, about one in 10 candidates would receive a counter-offer from their current employer to entice them to stay, Mr Munson said. That has now increased to one in every two or three offers.

Technology salaries in mining, energy and resources had risen up to 40 per cent, Mr Munson said, because of the demand for specialised subject-matter experts.

“Technology specialists within the energy, resources and mining sector are another layer of rarity,” he said.

Bridget Gray, vice-president for technology at Korn Ferry, said Australia’s pay war for talent had escalated over the past six months and businesses were offering competitive salaries to more junior professionals to secure the next generation of tech talent.

“We are seeing heightened demand and salaries for early-career technologists,” Ms Gray said.

“Grads with a couple of years of specialist deep experience in areas like cloud engineering and data have been able to command significant increases, and at times competitive organisations have been offering this future talent a double-digit uplift to move across to them.”

Mr Munson said the talent market for technology professionals would remain competitive for at least another 12 to 24 months before there was a “correction” in pay rates.

“We don’t think we’re anywhere near seeing the net migration into Australia that we’d need to combat any of these impacts. That’s still some way off,” he said.

“And there’s still such an appetite for all organisations across all industry sectors to invest in the technology space. That demand is just going to continue to increase.”

‘Cheeky behaviour’

Callum Senior, general manager of Creative Natives Victoria, a recruitment firm that specialises in digital marketing and technology, said salaries for developers and technology leads were up to 18 per cent higher than 12 months ago.

He has also seen “cheeky” behaviour from confident job seekers, including a candidate who asked for $25,000 to $50,000 more than they had originally asked for after three interviews.

Another reached the offer stage for a full-time role and asked to work 2.5 days per week for the same pay. In both cases, the companies declined to meet the candidate’s demands.

“I think they know that they’re probably in a pretty good position that they can potentially find another job,” Mr Senior said.