Tech jobs of the future – jobs in fields like artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and blockchain – are in demand and pay well.
How good? According to his just-released Aquent 2024 Salary Guide, machine learning engineers whose job is to develop, troubleshoot, and maintain generative AI models can expect to earn a salary of about $170,000 on the low end and a high of $35,000 on the high end. It could be as much as $1,000,000. The mid-level salary for an augmented reality or virtual reality engineer is approximately $287,000.
Aquent, a global staffing firm based in Boston, has published a salary guide annually since 2017. The 2024 guide is based on his 21,000+ salary data by region, gender and emerging roles, with a focus on marketing, creative and design professionals. .
Is it worth pivoting to future technology?
Is it worth upskilling, or for a title like Metaverse Event Manager (starting at around $100,000), is it worth adapting to a new space? Perhaps. Some of these positions will come and go, but your willingness to evolve and adapt as technology changes will help you remain valuable in the industry.
As Aquent points out in the guide, even these so-called “new” roles that seem brand new are often based on existing skills in design, engineering, and operations. .
Other new roles and their mid-level salaries for 2024 are:
- Character artist ($100,000)
- Prototype maker ($183,000)
- Immediate Engineer ($145,000)
- Data Engineer ($156,000)
- Language Model Product Manager ($183,000)
- UX Researcher, Immersive ($170,000)
Most of these types of jobs are at technology companies, game studios, or early adopters in other industries like General Motors, Live Nation, and Major League Baseball, all of which are currently offering immersive services on LinkedIn. We are looking for engineers. But the tech job options of the future are likely to be even bigger and more widespread.
What about the gender pay gap?
Akento also found that the pay gap between women and men still exists. In the technology industry, a woman earns on average 90% of a man’s income in the same position. That’s an improvement over his 30-cent pay gap in the 2010s and his current 17-cent pay gap across all industries.
According to the data, what are the most egalitarian roles?
- Product designer with over 5 years of experience. No gap was seen in 2023, with the support rate among women decreasing by 0.05% compared to the previous year.
- Graphic designer with over 5 years of experience. There will be no gap in 2023, with women’s support rate being 1.4% compared to the previous year.
- Marketing directors will only have a 0.4% approval rating among men in 2023
- UX Designer with less than 5 years of experience. It is shown that a woman’s income will increase slightly in 2022 and her 2023.
According to the Salary Guide, examples of the largest gender pay gaps include:
- Creative director, wage gap is 11.2% year-on-year
- Digital designer experience of 5 years or more, wage gap of 11.8% or more compared to the previous year
- Wage gap for production artists is 12.7% compared to the previous year
While the data shows that experience levels the pay field, the guide attributes this to the “cost of flexibility” that women often choose to actively negotiate starting salaries and raises. (a factor that is becoming outdated).
Still, flexibility is the norm in many workplaces, with 63% of employees working either hybrid (56%) or fully remote (7%), according to a 2023 McKinsey Global Study. Technical.ly’s exclusive Technology Economy Dashboard includes proprietary data provided by Lightcast, covering major cities such as Washington DC, Denver (each with 15.4% remote workers), Atlanta (13.2%), and Philadelphia. shows a high number of remote workers (11.7%). According to a 2023 Aspen Institute study, flexible workplace options are often cited as a work-life balance solution and stress-reducing solution, especially when workplaces lack diversity. x
And salaries continue to increase in most cases for both future and non-technical jobs. You can download the full 39-page Aquent 2024 Salary Guide to check trends in your city.
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