Top 5 best-paying IT roles at IM companies in 2025 be like…
Even the usually highest payers of tech talent like Investment Management (IM) firms have gone bronze. Here’s 10 ways to turn your IT jobs applications golden in 2026.
Daily pay rates in 2025 are nothing like they used to be for technology and IT contractors.
Here, I will list five tech roles that pay pretty handsomely - the best-payers.
But I am forensically aware of a wider technology pay drop off because I place such tech workers week in week out, across London’s Square Mile and other traditionally IT wage-rich investment management hiring hubs, writes Natalie Bowers, founder of niche jobs recruitment agency Bowers Partnership.
3 reasons why tech worker day rates in 2025 are significantly reduced
There are three main reasons why freelance computer contractor rates are down on prior years, and not just at Investment Management (IM) organisations.
The post-pandemic spike in activity has gone;
Budgets are tight, and
IR35 continues to warp the market.
In my world of investment and wealth management, too, I’d say we are firmly in “bronze coin season.” What does this term mean in the technology worker pay stakes?
Here’s a real-world example of bronze coin season
Whereas a “Programme Lead” used to fetch between £950 and £1,250 a day (without the candidate or me even breaking a sweat to find such a role), a lot of Programme Leads are currently having to accept £650- £750.
And be grateful for it!
How 2025 will go down in the UK history books of the tech job sector
If any optimistic Free-Work reader still hopes that this year, in its last few weeks, will make 2025 smashing for IT day rates, à la Boris Johnson ripping through a wall of cardboard boxes on a forklift, I’ve got some disappointing news!
For job candidates, 2025 will go down in the UK history books of the tech jobs sector as being all about taking what you can sensibly get, being smart about positioning, and winning with subtlety rather than chest-beating.
Rates in 2025 - the uncomfortable bit
Here’s a window into the world of a tech recruiter for respected IM companies.
It is not unusual for me to be placing a temporary IT job candidate in 2025 in exactly the same role as I placed in 2005, but at more or less the same rate.
Twenty years. No increase. Nothing different on the daily pay rate.
And that’s despite more regulation, more scrutiny, more tax, more complexity, and a much higher level of expectation from employers about whoever I put forward’s technical skills, ‘soft’ skills and technical interview test performance.
Three things clients who claim to be ‘paying over the market’ forget
So when clients tell me confidently that they are “paying over market,” I have to hide a wry smile. They might have been paying above market five years ago, but if they haven’t increased the rate since then:
It is not premium anymore,
It is not competitive, and
It certainly isn’t aligned with today’s high cost of living.
Inside IR35 - the real terms cut to tech contractor pay
Most of the technology roles for contractors in the Investment Management (IM) sector are now “Inside IR35,” which means contractors are hit with the double-whammy of:
Employer’s NI effectively subtracted from the headline rate, and
Full PAYE taxation on top.
So for a tech job candidate, a respectable-sounding £650 a day, “Inside IR35,” is nowhere near the same as £650 a day was, “Outside IR35” a few years ago.
How much worse off are tech contractors in 2025?
In real spending power, and as 2025 gives way to 2026, our estimate based on the droves of IT contractors that we place at some of the historically top payers for technology talent is that they now earn 30-40% less than in 2019, and in some cases, less than they were earning 20 years ago.
However, as touched upon, the employer’s expectations (or ‘end-client’ expectations to use contractor terminology) on delivery, communication, risk ownership and domain experience are higher than ever.
Supply and demand have flipped
The UK has also got a very simple economics problem: far more technology contractors, far fewer technology contracts.
A few years ago, computer contractors could ‘pick and choose.' They could say ‘No’ to one temporary IT job opportunity, and still have two more options lined up by the very next week!
Four hard truths for today’s tech job candidates, as 2025 ends…
On the eve of 2026 in the UK technology labour market, there are four hard truths:
Contract releases/approvals at IM firms are down significantly;
Technology programmes at IM houses are often stalled, broken into phases or cancelled,
Permanent hiring is the preferred option of IM end-users, due to cost-control advantages, and
Dozens of strong, suitably skilled contractors chase single vacancies
When supply outweighs demand, daily pay rates reduce. Not because people are less skilled, but because the end-hirers know that they can fill roles without paying top rates.
And beware, this dynamic is not unique to the Investment Management (IM) ‘space’ even though that is where I specialise.
How many applicants per tech job at the close of 2025?
To put the currently high level of candidate availability into context, it’s now common to have between 60 and 100 candidates for a single IT role that previously would have had maybe no more than six applicants.
Just securing an interview feels like a win! And remember, there is only one job at the end of what I’ve outlined can sometimes be an exhausting, marathon-esque hiring process.
Why patience and persistence can be IT job application pre-requisites
That said, if it’s the one of the currently five best-paying IT roles at IM organisations which still pays the successful applicant up to a ‘grand’ for a day’s work, then maybe a lot of patience and persistence are pre-requisites.
Without further explanations as to why the five best-paid technology roles might not sound all that ‘top’ to some techies if they last freelanced around 2019, here are the:
Top 5 best-paying IT roles my agency placed in 2025
(N.B. These are anonymised but real-world, actually placed tech jobs in London’s IM sector)
1. Cloud Migration Programme Lead - Tier 1 Asset Manager
Pay: £900–£1,000 a day (outside IR35)
Location: City / Canary Wharf
Job advert requirement: “Multi-year migration across trading and risk systems.”
Translated by me: It wasn’t stated in the ad, but candidates needed real gravitas to be in with a chance of final stage interviews.
2. VIP / End-User Support Engineer - Global Wealth & Investment Business
Pay: £500–£650 a day (inside IR35)
Location: City / Mayfair
Job advert requirement: “White-glove, Front-Office support.”
Translated by me: ‘Soft skills’ were everything to this client’s hiring manager.
3. Senior Data Engineer - Snowflake / Modern Stack
Pay: £750–£900 a day (outside IR35)
Location: West End
Job advert requirement: “Full rebuild of a data platform.”
Translated by me: The successful applicant had a rare blend of domain and engineering skills.
4. ESG / Regulatory Reporting Technologist
Pay: £650–£800 a day (inside IR35)
Location: City
Job advert requirement: “Heavy SFDR/CSRD and Climate Reporting.”
Translated by me: The client needed and ultimately hired someone who could translate regulation into systems.
5. IT Service Delivery Lead
Pay: £600–£750 a day (inside IR35)
Location: Canary Wharf
Job advert requirement: “Stabilising operations, Vendor Management.”
Translated by me: The successful contractor demonstrated better than anybody else that they could manage the massive pressure that the organisation’s SLAs (Service Level Agreements) were under!
In 2026, tech job applicants must continue to ‘read between the lines’
As these snapshots of real-world tech job vacancies that we filled hopefully show, there can be a gap between what the advertisement requires and who the job candidate they are ultimately seeking is or can demonstrate.
Be aware — there’s no sign that IT job candidates won’t have to run these translations in 2026 as well.
Speaking of 2026, here’s the top IT job to watch if money matters:
Head of Data Platform / Data Product Lead
Pay: Expect £1,000+ a day, albeit for the right individual!
AI, regulatory scrutiny and the realisation that data is a competitive advantage, not merely technical plumbing, mean these roles will heat up fast from Q1 2026.
It feels very similar to where cloud programme leads were around 2019.
6 must-dos to earn high pay in 2026 tech job applications
The IT contractors who are still landing the rare top-end assignments, where the highest daily pay rates are reserved, share a few key habits. They:
Lead with domain first: investments knowledge (in IM) is worth more than another technical acronym);
Have the ‘rate conversation’ very early, but calmly and professionally,
Interview like a consultant: not an engineer reading out a CV,
Profile only the 3 most relevant certifications, avoiding alphabet spaghetti,
Move quickly: the first 24–48 hours after a job ad goes live really matter,
Quantify value: CV/application is all outcomes, not responsibilities.
To land a premium rate in 2026, this last, sixth trait is vita las an IT contractor. If you can’t talk business outcomes, you’re not getting the business-outcome rate.
Finally, four qualities of premium rate IT contractors
The 2025 market for techies, especially freelance contractors, has been tough.
Brutal, frankly, and that goes too for IT workers at even the UK’s usually top-payers of technology/IT skills, like Investment Management (IM), Wealth and Asset-Owner companies.
There are gold coins still out there — they’re just fewer, harder to find, and extremely competitive to secure.
Follow the six traits above, but also, the IT contractors winning them are:
Commercially-minded;
Calm,
Well-positioned, and
Excellent at telling their career story.
Lead with these 10 in your IT job applications in 2026, and regardless of sector, you’ll be giving yourself and your tech career the best chance of earning gold rather than bronze.
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