As part of our attract, recruit, retain work, we recently partnered with Yolk Recruitment, a Cardiff-based recruitment agency, to publish a salary survey as guidance for the Welsh public sector when recruiting digital, data, and technology roles.
This survey was carried out by Yolk Recruitment in 2023 and surveyed organisations across both the public and private sector in Wales.
This survey helps us understand the salary gaps in the public and private sector, as well as the competitive salary bandings used in recruitment.
What we found
From this survey, we found that although it’s a misconception that the private sector typically pays more, there isn’t a lot of difference in salaries between the public and private sector when looking at digital, data, and technology roles.
Often, the benefits in the public sector can help bridge the gap even more, through implementing benefits such as increased pension contributions, flexible working hours, holiday allowances and training and development plans.
As best practice, we recommend listing your benefits on the job advert, so that potential candidates are aware of your benefits package.
Note: The public sector salary guide is a range from junior to senior roles.
Data
Job title: Data Analyst
Public sector: £26,000 - £59,000
Private sector: £45,000
Job title: Data Architect
Public sector: £39,000 - £77,000
Private sector: £84,975
Job title: Data Engineer
Public sector: £30,000 - £56,000
Private sector: £50,925
Job title: Data Scientist
Public sector: £33,000 - £77,000
Private sector: £59,225
Job title: Performance Analyst
Public sector: £34,000 - £50,000
Private sector: £45,101
IT operations
Job title: Application Operations Engineer
Public sector: £32,000 - £35,000
Private sector: £39,521
Job title: Business Relationship Manager
Public sector: £52,000 - £72,000
Private sector: £47,062
Job title: Change and Release Manager
Public sector: £33,000
Private sector: £54,426
Job title: Incident Manager
Public sector: £31,000 - £39,000
Private sector: £48,817
Job title: Infrastructure Operations Engineer
Public sector: £34,000 - £45,000
Private sector: £42,410
Job title: IT Service Manager
Public sector: £34,000 - £64,000
Private sector: £40,000
Job title: Service Desk Manager
Public sector: £30,000 - £60,000
Private sector: £31,930
Product and delivery
Job title: Business Analyst
Public sector: £31,000 - £60,000
Private sector: £48,410
Job title: Delivery Manager
Public sector: £27,000 - £64,000
Private sector: £57,168
Job title: Product Manager
Public sector: £30,000 - £61,000
Private sector: £55,000
Job title: Programme Delivery Manager
Public sector: £50,000 - £55,000
Private sector: £73,645
Job title: Service Owner
Public sector: £61,000 - £68,000
Private sector: £48,700
Technical
Job title: Development Operations (DevOps) Engineer
Public sector: £36,000 - £77,000
Private sector: £70,250
Job title: Enterprise Architect
Public sector: £43,000 - £65,000
Private sector: £75,750
Job title: Frontend Developer
Public sector: £36,000 - £67,000
Private sector: £51,500
Job title: Infrastructure Engineer
Public sector: £36,000 - £73,000
Private sector: £48,410
Job title: Security Architect
Public sector: £50,000 - £67,000
Private sector: £90,675
Job title: Software Developer
Public sector: £37,000 - £65,000
Private sector: £55,620
Job title: Technical Architect
Public sector: £39,000 - £70,000
Private sector: £82,675
Quality assurance testing
Job title: Test Engineer
Public sector: £34,000 - £67,000
Private sector: £41,200
Job title: Test Manager
Public sector: £52,000 - £59,000
Private sector: £55,105
User-centred design
Job title: Content Designer
Public sector: £37,000 - £43,000
Private sector: £48,282
Job title: Graphic Designer
Public sector: £31,000
Private sector: £35,962
Job title: Interaction Designer
Public sector: £50,000
Private sector: £34,035
Job title: Service Designer
Public sector: £37,000 - £72,000
Private sector: £64,143
Job title: User Researcher
Public sector: £31,000 - £80,000
Private sector: £44,000
Get in touch
Do you need support in recruiting digital, data, and technology roles in your Welsh public sector organisation?
Get in touch: lauren.power@digitalpublicservices.gov.wales