The Datum Report

Occupation 1137 · Managers, directors and senior officials

Information technology directors

Half of full-time information technology directors in the UK earn more than £91,671 a year, and half earn less.

Information technology directors plan, organise, direct and co-ordinate the work and resources necessary to provide and operate IT infrastructure and services, including networks, devices, servers and software that runs on the infrastructure within an organisation. IT programme managers and directors direct and provide technical oversight to particular IT programmes of a discrete duration and/or budget.

How people enter it

There are no pre-set entry requirements although candidates usually possess a degree or equivalent qualification together with substantial, relevant work experience. A variety of professional and postgraduate qualifications is available.

What the work involves

• develops in consultation with other senior management the IT strategy of the organisation
• directs the implementation within the organisation of IT strategy, infrastructure, procurement, procedures and standards
• develops the periodic business plan and operational budget for IT to deliver agreed service levels
• considers the required IT staffing levels, oversees recruitment and appointment of staff and directs training policy
• prioritises and schedules major IT projects
• ensures that new technologies are researched and evaluated in the light of the organisation’s broad requirements
• works with client or senior management to establish and clarify the aims, objectives and requirements of an IT programme
• plans, directs, reviews and provides technical oversight to IT programmes, involving the co-ordination of multiple IT projects

Also called

Chief Information officer · IT Director · Managing director (computer services) · Programme manager (computing/IT) · Technical director (computer services)

What it pays

How pay has changed

Median gross annual pay for information technology directors, full-time employees, 2023 to 2025. Each point is that year's ASHE April snapshot as published — revisions are not backfilled into earlier years, and a year ONS withheld is a gap rather than a joined line.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Year-on-year change

The change from each year to the next, in per cent, computed from the figures in the chart above — so the two cannot disagree.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Table

Pay by region

Median gross annual pay for full-time employees, ranked, against the UK figure. 6 of 11 regions are published: ONS withholds a cell where the survey sample cannot support it, and those are shown as gaps rather than dropped — an absent region is not a region without the work in it.

ONS, ASHE Table 14 - occupation by four-digit SOC (national). Period 2025. Table

Every regional figure

ONS does not publish occupational pay below region. Cells the survey could not support are shown as withheld, with its reason — adding a region split to a specific occupation leaves roughly a tenth of cells publishable.

Common questions

Classified alongside this

Charitable organisation managers and directors · Financial managers and directors · Functional managers and directors n.e.c. · Human resource managers and directors · Marketing, sales and advertising directors · Public relations and communications directors · Purchasing managers and directors