The 5 highest-paying IT career paths

Building a slide deck, pitch, or presentation? Here are the big takeaways:

• CIOs, CTOs, and CISOs are the highest paid employees working in IT. — Infinity Consulting Solutions, 2018
• Top-paying tech job categories include executives, project managers, tech support/systems, database admin/development, and networking. — Infinity Consulting Solutions, 2018

While IT has a reputation for paying top dollar to highly-skilled workers, certain jobs in the field can net you a larger salary than others, according to a Thursday report form staffing and recruiting firm Infinity Consulting Solutions (ICS).

The annual report projects salary ranges based on placements and market trends, as well as competition, location, corporate culture, and budgets. As the tech talent war rages on, gaining a clear understanding of the current market can help businesses better assess budgets and determine a fair salary for the IT workers they are seeking.

"In this extremely competitive employment landscape, hiring managers seek strong guidance, backed by reliable data, to attract and retain the highly skilled employees they need to support continued growth," Jeff Pelliccio, director of marketing at ICS, said in a press release.

IT workers are looking for a combination of high incentive pay and creative compensation, such as work from home opportunities, tuition reimbursement, flexible schedules, ongoing education, and paid healthcare, the report noted.

SEE: IT jobs 2018: Hiring priorities, growth areas, and strategies to fill open roles (Tech Pro Research)

Companies that provide ongoing employee training and career mapping have a "strong advantage" over others, the report stated. While 85% of survey respondents reported training new hires, only 64% said they have advanced skills or leadership training.

"Since on-going education is one of the most valued creative compensation benefits, not offering internal training or employee reimbursement for outside programs is a big miss," Pelliccio said in the release. "In fact, lack of internal training and career mapping are the top two reasons top talent leaves an organization."

Here are the top five highest-paying IT job categories, and how much you can make in certain positions within them.

1. Executives

Chief Information Officer (CIO): $169,300 - $259,200

Chief Technology Officer (CTO): $168,900 - $252, 400

Chief Information Security Officer (CISO): $155,200 - $218,400

VP of Engineering: $155,500 - $212,400

VP of Information Technology: $162,500 - $199,700

2. Project Management Office (PMO)

Director of PMO: $149,700 - $182,100

Program Manager: $108,000 - $131,600

Technical Project Manager: $98,100 - $122,000

Agile Project Manager: $100,700 - $121,200

Infrastructure Project Manager: $91,400 - $120,500

3. Tech Support/Systems

Director of Information Technology: $126,900 - $159,800

Virtualization Engineer: $88,300 - $118,600

Middleware Engineer: $96,500 - $116,000

Systems Engineer: $84,600 - $113,000

Citrix Engineer: $82,000 - $ 96,000

4. Database Admin/Development

Data Architect: $115,700 - $144,100

Oracle DBA: $90,400 - $116,100

MYSQL DBA: $84,900 - $113,900

Database Engineer: $86,700 - $110,200

Data Warehouse Analyst: $77,000 - $100,000

5. Networking

Network Architect: $120,900 - $143,900

Wireless Network Engineer: $90,600 - $125,700

Network Voice Engineer: $96,900 - $121,200

Network Engineer: $96,000 - $118,000

NOC Manager: $93,000 - $116,6000

Other top salaries across different IT job categories include the following, according to the report: Business intelligence architect ($105,700 - $139,900), DevOps manager ($99,500 - $137,200), information security manager ($113,500 - $133,900), senior cyber security analyst ($110,000 - $131,000), and data scientist ($97,500 - $128,400).

Also see

• Special report: IT Jobs in 2020: A leader's guide (free PDF) (TechRepublic)
• Tech jobs: Why the enterprise architect is your new secret weapon (ZDNet)
• Cheat sheet: How to become a data scientist (TechRepublic)
• IT pros will need a diverse skill set to be employed in 2020 (ZDNet)
• Report: 32% of IT pros plan to switch jobs in 2018, most for better pay and training (TechRepublic)