Most in-demand and best-paying tech jobs in South Africa

Michael Page has released its Salary Guide and Hiring Insights report for 2022, which found that the healthcare and technology industries have been the most active in hiring activity.

PageGroup South Africa operating director Paul Newman said they saw a sharp increase in recruitment assignments compared to the previous year for mid-to-senior management level positions during Q1 2021. This pace continued throughout the year.

Newman noted that this was despite Bloomberg reporting that South Africa currently has the highest unemployment rate globally.

“This would indicate that businesses are in need for strong leadership and skilled candidates with considerable experience to drive business recovery during these challenging and uncertain times,” stated Newman.

Almost all the industries and sectors covered in the report showed a positive hiring activity trend.

These include engineering and manufacturing, finance and accounting, procurement and supply chain, sales and marketing, and technology.

“As per our survey with 318 job applicants in South Africa, a majority of 88% believed they could fulfil their tasks or responsibilities remotely, highlighting the need for technology capabilities to be accelerated,” Newman said.

“What started as an enforced work-from-home policy for some companies has now evolved into a long-term strategy for most companies, thereby accelerating digital transformation and technology adoption across nearly all industries.”

Newman said the economic outlook for South Africa and Africa remains uncertain with new Covid–19 waves anticipated, together with slow vaccine rollouts.

“However, what is certain is that with organisations running lean teams, they are looking for top talent to not only lead businesses but perform critical roles within their functions.”

Within the technology sector, the top five positions in demand are:

Cloud computing
Artificial intelligence and machine learning
Data scientist
Software development
Cybersecurity

The most in-demand skills and experience in cloud computing include AWS, Azure, DevOps, Docker, and Kubernetes expertise.

Data analysis and insights skills and experience are also in demand as companies develop their capabilities to make more data-driven decisions.

The report stated that cybersecurity is an issue of critical importance, and companies are prioritising hiring talent with the expertise of putting safeguarding measures in place.

One major challenge for companies in the sector is a shortage of talent with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills.

“Increased effort needs to be undertaken to modernise and develop sustainable education programmes with an emphasis on innovation, science, and technology,” said Robyn Stainbank, managing consultant at Michael Page.

Tech jobs	Small-to-medium enterprises			Multinational corporations
Monthly salary	From	Average	To	From	Average	To
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
Chief Information Officer (CIO)	R100,000	R116,667	R133,333	R133,333	R150,000	R250,000
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)	R83,333	R91,667	R108,333	R116,667	R133,333	R183,333
Chief Information Security Officer (CISO)	R83,333	R100,000	R116,667	R116,667	R133,333	R200,000
IT Director	R83,333	R100,000	R116,667	R100,000	R133,333	R166,667
Head of IT	R83,333	R100,000	R116,667	R100,000	R133,333	R150,000
IT Manager	R62,500	R66,667	R83,333	R75,000	R100,000	R116,667
IT SECURITY
IT Security Manager	R58,333	R66,667	R70,833	R100,000	R100,000	R125,000
IT Security Engineer	R50,000	R62,500	R66,667	R75,000	R100,000	R116,667
IT Security Analyst	R41,667	R54,167	R66,667	R62,500	R66,667	R75,000
APPLICATIONS
IT Applications Director	R79,167	R83,333	R108,333	R83,333	R108,333	R137,500
Business Application Manager	R58,333	R66,667	R75,000	R75,000	R91,667	R116,667
Applications Developer	R25,000	R66,667	R100,000	R33,333	R75,000	R91,667
Technical / Functional Consultant	R50,000	R75,000	R100,000	R58,333	R70,833	R100,000
BUSINESS ANALYSIS & PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Head of PMO	R75,000	R91,667	R116,667	R100,000	R116,667	R133,333
Business Intelligence Manager	R41,667	R66,667	R75,000	R100,000	R116,667	R133,333
IT Business Partner	R50,000	R62,500	R75,000	R83,333	R100,000	R150,000
Programme Manager	R58,333	R66,667	R75,000	R83,333	R100,000	R150,000
IT Project Manager	R41,667	R54,167	R66,667	R66,667	R91,667	R108,333
Senior IT Business Analyst	R41,667	R54,167	R66,667	R66,667	R79,167	R108,333
BI/Business Analyst	R25,000	R37,500	R50,000	R37,500	R58,333	R75,000
BI Analyst	R25,000	R37,500	R41,667	R25,000	R50,000	R66,667
ARCHITECTURE
Chief Enterprise Architect	R100,000	R83,333	R133,333	R125,000	R141,667	R166,667
Senior Information Architect	R58,333	R70,833	R79,167	R58,333	R75,000	R100,000
Enterprise Architect	R66,667	R79,167	R91,667	R75,000	R108,333	R150,000
Information Architect	R50,000	R58,333	R62,500	R50,000	R62,500	R75,000
SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
Head of Software Development	R66,667	R83,333	R100,000	R91,667	R108,333	R166,667
Senior Software Architect	R75,000	R91,667	R133,333	R75,000	R91,667	R133,333
Senior Front End Developer	R54,167	R66,667	R83,333	R54,167	R66,667	R91,667
Senior Back End Developer	R58,333	R75,000	R91,667	R79,167	R83,333	R116,667
Senior Full Stack Developer	R58,333	R75,000	R91,667	R66,667	R70,833	R91,667
NETWORKING
Network Architect	R29,167	R54,167	R62,500	R58,333	R75,000	R100,000
Network Manager	R37,500	R45,833	R54,167	R50,000	R66,667	R91,667
Network Engineer	R16,667	R29,167	R50,000	R29,167	R45,833	R66,667
Network Administrator	R29,167	R37,500	R41,667	R29,167	R41,667	R54,167
DATA / DATABASE ADMINISTRATION
Data Architect	R75,000	R79,167	R91,667	R91,667	R108,333	R133,333
Database Administrator	R54,167	R66,667	R79,167	R54,167	R70,833	R75,000
Database Developer	R33,333	R66,667	R74,167	R33,333	R66,667	R79,167
Data Analytics Manager	R62,500	R70,833	R83,333	R91,667	R108,333	R125,000
Data Scientist	R54,167	R58,333	R70,833	R66,667	R100,000	R133,333
Data Analyst	R25,000	R37,500	R50,000	R41,667	R62,500	R75,000
TECHNICAL SERVICES
Technical Support Manager	R40,000	R50,000	R58,333	R40,000	R50,000	R58,333
IT Support Engineer	R29,167	R33,333	R41,667	R29,167	R37,500	R50,000
Application Support Analyst	R37,500	R45,833	R62,500	R37,500	R45,833	R62,500