The technical architect (also known as the IT systems architect) has one of the biggest tech jobs within a given organization. They must plan and implement the tech stack, which isn’t just a technical feat—they must also use their “soft skills” such as communication and empathy to secure buy-in from a wide range of stakeholders, from C-suite executives to software engineers.
Given all that, you can expect that technical architects with the right mix of experience and skills will earn healthy compensation. But how much? For an answer, we can turn to Blind, which surveys (anonymous) technologists about a range of issues; the website recently broke down the top cities for technical architect compensation. Here are the top 15 cities on the list:
You can visit Blind’s blog for the full list of 56 cities. According to the website’s calculations, the national average for technical architects’ compensation ranges between $137,578 and $371,772.
Learning how to architect systems can unlock all kinds of opportunities (and superior pay). Earlier this year, for example, enterprise architect topped Glassdoor’s latest Best Jobs list, placing ahead of ultra-popular tech positions such as full-stack engineer, data scientist, and DevOps engineer. Enterprise architect is a huge job, incorporating lots of apps, services, and hardware within a sprawling tech stack. Updating an enterprise tech stack is usually a massive undertaking.
As more and more companies gravitate toward the cloud, there’s a rising need for cloud architects, as well. According to Emsi Burning Glass, which collects and analyzes millions of job postings from across the country, cloud architects can earn a median annual salary of $131,513; top skills necessary for the position include Microsoft Azure, AWS, Python, Java, and understanding the principles of software development, SaaS, PaaS, and Linux.
Whatever kind of architect job you might choose, just keep in mind that it’s a very detail-oriented position; great project-management skills will help see you through, in addition to your technical and soft skills.
