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You’ve earned an IT Degree, established a career in IT, and now you want to take it to the next level. It’s hard to map out the next move, especially with the rate of change in all the areas of IT.

If you’re contemplating moving forward, knowing your salary options as you achieve career growth can help you make decisions on where you’re going.

Of course job location in the country plays an important role in how much a person would make as well. While sites such as salary.com report that the difference is usually around 10% in salary between Central (Texas) and West (California), my personal experience is that the differences are close to 25%.

The following pay scales for the highest paid senior level IT jobs are according to the salary.com national averages.

#1 – A Data Administration Manager requires at least 7 years of experience and can expect a an average salary of $90,000. Experienced Data Administration Manager working for consulting companies can easily make anywhere between $130,000 to $150,000.

Skills they bring to the table: They manage the administration of an organization’s database. Responsibilities include analyzing the organization’s database needs and developing a long-term strategy for data storage. This individual also oversees the design, maintenance and implementation of the systems that manage an internal database.

*Image source salary.com

#2 – An Application Architect requires 7 years of experience and can expect an average starting salary of $100,000. Some application architects working for companies such as EBay and Google make as much as $180,000.

What skills they bring to the table: Application architects are responsible for architectural system design. They usually design and develop in a specific technology (Java, .NET, CRM, etc) and consults with clients to refine application needs. This individual needs to be familiar with a variety of the field’s concepts, practices, and procedures.

*Image source salary.com

#3 – A Data Architect requires a bachelor’s degree and at least 8-10 years of experience in the field. They can expect an average salary of $110,000.

Skills they bring to the table: They design and build relational databases for data storage or processing. They also develop strategies for warehouse implementation, data acquisition, and archive recovery. They evaluate data sources for adherence to the organization’s quality standards and ease of integration.

*Image source salary.com

#4 – A Managing Web Editor position requires a bachelor’s degree and potential upgrade in education in business management with at least 5 years of experience in the field. They can expect a pay rate of $ 115,000 with the more experienced managing editors making as much as $170,000.

Skills they bring to the table: They design and develop online content. They set the tone by establishing the journalistic style of magazine. They also supervise writers, freelancers, and research assistants and manage schedules by coordinating production teams.

*Image source salary.com

#5 – A Content Engineer requires a bachelor’s degree and at least 5 years of experience and can expect an average salary of roughly $120,000 per year.

What skills they bring to the table: They develop and design interfaces, front pages, and the tools to navigate a website. They also set the code standards, review specifications, and provide time estimates on the development of projects and features.

*Image source salary.com

#6 – A Web Creative Director has at least 5 years if experience and can expect a starting salary of $125,000.

Skills they bring to the table: With a higher level of experience, they are able to advance the overall quality of strategic thinking and design applied technology. They develop creative briefs and design concepts to meet the business objectives of the organization. They are responsible for establishing the creative direction for the entire line of online services, products, and programs.

*Image source salary.com

#7 – An Information Technology Director requires at least 12 years of experience in the field and can expect an average salary of $145,000. Most large companies are willing to pay more than $200,000 for their IT directors.

What skills they bring to the table: They establish plans, and administer the overall policies and goals for the information technology department. They analyze the needs of departments and establish priorities of systems design and implementation to develop and modify the company’s information processing systems.

*Image source salary.com

#8 – A Web Systems Director position requires a bachelor’s degree with at least 12 years of experience in the field, and can expect an average salary of $150,000 with few directors making as much as $220,000.

Skills they bring to the table: They direct and oversee all aspects of Web systems (intranet and extranet) including design, release, and maintenance. The position relies on extensive experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals since this individual leads and directs the work of others.

*Image source salary.com

#9 – A Chief Systems Applications Executive has at least 15 years of experience and can expect an average salary of $160,000.

What skills they bring to the table: This individual must be familiar with a variety of the field’s concepts, practices, and procedures and relies on extensive experience and judgment to plan and accomplish goals. This individual develops and implements security standards and procedures.

*Image source salary.com

#10 – A Chief Information Technology Officer (CTO) has at least 15 years of experience and can expect an average salary of $210,000 per year. Large E-commerce portals and Fortune 1000 companies have been known to pay upwards of $300,000 for their CTOs.

What skills they bring to the table: This individual establishes and directs the strategic long term goals, policies and procedures for an information technology department. They use their advanced skills to determine an organization’s long-term systems needs and hardware acquisitions to accomplish the organization’s business objectives.

*Image source salary.com

You can also expect online companies such as Google, Amazon, and EBay to pay a lot more competitive salaries compared to traditional companies.

Companies such as Microsoft rely heavily on paying top bonuses to their employees as opposed to trying to compete at the base salary levels. JP Morgan has been known to pay up to 50% bonus for their top performing engineers.

What determines where you fall in the wide salary range? Training, qualifications, and prior experience all play a part. Working for a large corporation versus smaller start-ups will also play a factor in your starting salary.