“Why, Sir, you find no man, at all intellectual, who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.” — Samuel Johnson
The above was written in September 1777 but yet it still rings very true today, although with more modern thinking we can thankfully include both men and women into the quote.
[To view a salary benchmark for 2016/2017 click here:]
Let’s start with the Development sector, the driver of all digital advancement and without these lovable, forward-looking, problem-solving people we’d probably still be crawling around in the mud. However, as we’ve stated in the past, this sector rarely attracts applicants searching for permanent roles and a pragmatic approach is needed from both employers and employees otherwise the situation will continue to rumble on.
There’s an ongoing demand for Front-End Developers with solid JavaScript experience, with AngularJS, backbone.js added. From a Back-End Development perspective, we’re seeing continuing demand for both Python and node.js. We’ve also seen QA’s moving in-house and the role of DevOps becoming more mainstream.
User Experience is continuing to see strong growth and we would expect both permanent and freelance rates to rise throughout the year as the demand outstrips supply.
Project management/ Production, the hardest working of all the disciplines has continued to be extremely competitive but we have noticed a drop off in freelance and a push towards permanent roles. Loyalty deserves to be rewarded both from a monetary basis and in the scope of projects available.
Client services, the human glue that binds everything together is massively competitive at present. Agencies are competing against both brands and the large consultancies who are moving heavily into the digital market. Employers really need to understand this and deliver strong career progression plans along with a comparable salary and package if they want to stay competitive.
Strategy, has followed a similar vein and it’s great to see London, the epicentre of planning, living up to its billing. Really good mid to senior planners are in high demand both permanent and freelance but your width of experience must encompass as many channels as possible.
For the Creative sector, those balanced individuals who bring the mundane to life, we are seeing some pretty big changes. We’ve noticed a move away from hiring teams to hiring solo’s whilst freelancers are more open to permanent roles as they seek to add and broaden their portfolios.
Performance Marketing will continue to see growth due to the demand of increased customer profiling whilst paid search campaigns are seeing bigger budgets.
Brands & Clientside so many big brands have been building up their internal teams, changing their structures to suit the 21st century working environment. There are great opportunities on this side of the fence. It’s not easier, it’s just different and it takes adjustment from an agency mindset.
Social & Content has seen meteoric rise over the past four years and it shows no sign of slowing down. If anything the market is crying out for yet more talent to coincide with budgets shifting as clients start to understand and use social channels more effectively.
CREATIVE
| Title | Full Time Salary | Freelance Day Rate |
| Executive Creative Director | £100k to £160k+ | £500 to £700+ |
| Creative Director | £75k to £110k | £350 to £500 |
| Associate Creative Director | £65k to £85k | £350 to £500 |
| Design Director | £60k to £85k | £300 to £400 |
| Creative Director Team | £75k to £110k | £500 to £700 |
| Creative Group Head Team | £55k to £70k | £400 to £550 |
| Senior Team | £45k to £60k | £350 to £450 |
| Mid-weight Team | £28k to £38k | £225 to £300 |
| Junior Team | £18k to £25k | £150 to £200 |
| Senior Art Director | £55k to £65k | £250 to £350 |
| Mid-weight Art Director | £30k to £40k | £200 to £250 |
| Junior Art Director | £18k to £25k | £150 to £200 |
| Head of Copy | £50k to £85k | £350 to £400 |
| Senior Copywriter | £45k to £55k | £250 to £350 |
| Mid-weight Copywriter | £25k to £35k | £200 to £300 |
| Junior Copywriter | £18k to £22k | £150 to £200 |
| Senior Designer | £40k to £55k | £250 to £330 |
| Motion Designer | £25k to £45k | £200 to £300 |
| Mid-weight Designer | £28k to £40k | £200 to £275 |
| Junior Designer | £18k to £25k | £100 to £200 |
DEVELOPMENT
| Title | Full Time | Freelance |
| Chief Technology Officer | £130k+ | n/a |
| Head of Development | £80k to £100k | £350 to £500 |
| Technical Director | £55k to £75k | £350 to £500 |
| Head of Creative Technology | £65k to £85k | £300 to £500 |
| Senior Creative Technologist | £45k to £55k | £350 to £450 |
| Mid-weight Creative Technologist | £35k to £45k | £250 to £350 |
| Junior Creative Technologist | £25k to £35k | £150 to £250 |
| Technical Lead | £50k to £65k | £350 to £400 |
| Development Consultant | £45k to £60k | £350 to £450 |
| Technical Project Manager | £40k to £65k | £250 to £450 |
| Mobile Developer (iOS / Android) | £30k to £65k | £300 to £450 |
| Java Technical Architect | £50k to £75k | £350 to £500+ |
| Senior Java Developer | £55k to £70k | £375 to £500 |
| Java Developer | £45k to £55k | £300 to £400 |
| Lead Technical Architect (Big Data) | £85k to £100k | £700 to £850 |
| Senior Developer (Big Data) | £75k to £85k | £500 to £650 |
| Senior Front End Developer | £45k to £60k | £350 to £400 |
| Mid-weight Front End Developer | £30k to £40k | £250 to £300 |
| Junior Front End Developer | £20k to £30k | £150 to £250 |
| Senior Back End Developer | £45k to £50k | £300 to £400 |
| Mid-weight Back End Developer | £35k to £45k | £250 to £350 |
| Junior Back End Developer | £20k to £30k | £150 to £250 |
| Lead QA Tester | £50k to £55k | £350 to £400 |
| QA Analyst | £30k to £40k | £250 to £350 |
CLIENT SERVICES
| Title | Full Time | Freelance |
| Managing Director | £140k+ | n/a |
| Client Services Director/Head of digital | £100k to £160k+ | £500+ |
| Client Partner/Business Director | £80k to £120k+ | £500+ |
| Group Account Director | £70k to £90k | £350 to £500 |
| Senior Account Director | £60k to £75k | £300 to £400 |
| Account Director | £45k to £60k | £220 to £350 |
| Senior Account Manager | £35k to £45k | £150 to £250 |
| Account Manager | £24k to £35k | £150 to £200 |
| Account Executive | £20k to £25k | £100 to £150 |
PROJECT MANAGEMENT/PRODUCTION
| Title | Full Time | Freelance |
| Operations Director | £90k + | £450+ |
| Head of Project Management | £70k to £120k+ | £400 to £700 |
| Project Director | £60k to £80k | £350 to £500 |
| Senior Project Manager | £45k to £65k | £300 to £375 |
| Project Manager | £30k to £45k | £225 to £275 |
| Junior Project Manager | £22k to £35k | £150 to £200 |
| Senior Resource/Traffic Manager / Director | £45k to £65k | £250 to £350 |
| Resource / Traffic Manager | £24k to £45k | £120 to £250 |
STRATEGY
| Title | Full Time | Freelance |
| Head of Planning / Strategy | £90k to £150k+ | £600 to £1,000+ |
| Planning / Strategy Director | £70k to £100k | £400 to £750 |
| Senior Planner / Strategist | £50k to £80k | £350 to £500 |
| Planner / Strategist | £30k to £50k | £225 to £350 |
| Research Analyst / Junior Planner | £25k to £35k | £150 to £200 |
USER EXPERIENCE
| Title | Full Time | Freelance |
| Head of User Experience | £80k to £90k | £500 to £600 |
| Senior User Experience Architect | £50k to £60k | £350 to £450 |
| Mid-weight User Experience Architect | £30k to £45k | £300 to £350 |
| Junior User Experience Architect | £20k to £30k | £200 to £275 |
| Senior User Researcher | £48k to £60k | £350 to £450 |
| Mid-weight User Researcher | £30k to £45k | £300 to £350 |
BRANDS / CLIENTSIDE
| Title | Full Time | Freelance |
| Head of Sales and Marketing | £60k to £100k+ | £350 to £500+ |
| Head of Ecommerce | £75k to £100k+ | £350 to £500+ |
| Digital /Online Marketing Manager | £35k to £60k | £200 to £280 |
| Digital/Online Marketing Executive | £25k to £35k | £150 to £200 |
| Web Content Strategist | £60k to £75k | £375 to £450 |
| Web Content Manager | £40k to £50k | £250 to £325 |
| Web Content Editor / Producer | £30k to £40k | £180 to £250 |
| Scrum Master | £65k to £80k | £400 to £500 |
| Senior Product Manager | £65k to £80k | £400 to £550 |
| Product Manager | £50k to £65k | £350 to £450 |
| Online Games Producer | £45k to £55k | £250 to £325 |
| Mobile Producer | £40k to £55k | £275 to £325 |
| Web Content Editor / Producer | £30k to £38k | £180 to £250 |
| Social Media / Community Manager | £30k to £40k | £180 to £250 |
| Marketing Executive (Integrated) | £24k to £27k | £120 to £150 |
PERFORMANCE MARKETING
| Business Analyst (Web) | £50k to £65k | £350 to £500 |
| Web Analytics Manager | £50k to £65k | £325 to £380 |
| Web Analytics Executive | £30k to £45k | £180 to £250 |
| Senior Data Analyst | £50k to £70k | £400 to £600 |
| Data Analyst | £35k to £45k | £220 to £375 |
| SEO Manager | £35k to £45k | £230 to £300 |
| SEO Executive | £22k to £30k | £140 to £200 |
| Paid Search Manager | £35k to £45k | £230 to £300 |
| Paid Search Executive | £22k to £30k | £140 to £200 |
SOCIAL & CONTENT
| Head of Social | £65k to £80k+ | £300 to £450 |
| Senior Social Strategist | £45k to £70k | £250 to £350 |
| Social Strategist | £30k to £45k | £200 to £300 |
| Senior Content Strategist | £60k to £70k | £300 to £450 |
| Content Strategist | £45k to £60k | £240 to £360 |
| Senior Community Manager | £30k to £45k | £150 to £250 |
| Community Manager | £25k to £35k | £100 to £200 |