The most desirable IT professionals - salary ranking

The pandemic period was characterized by rapid growth in the information technology sector. Due to the rapid shift to a remote work model, there was a significant increase in demand for both the implementation of new technological solutions and IT professionals. Using the analogy of financial markets, where a bull market is inevitably followed by a bust, 2023 brought a noticeable downturn in the sector.

Fortunately, after a crisis year in 2023, the IT industry in Poland is slowly stabilizing and getting on a growth path. Although the number of job offers in the first half of 2024 was slightly lower than in the same period of the previous year, an increase in demand was already evident in the last quarter of 2024, when as many as 22% more offers were published than in the same period of 2023.

Changes in the market have also caused an evolution in the structure of sought-after specializations and salary levels. What positions are currently the most desirable and best paid in the Polish IT industry?

Source: No Fluff Jobs. The report IT Labor Market 2024/2025 -. Will the industry recover

Current situation in the IT labor market

The year 2024 has brought stability after a difficult period for the technology industry. The data clearly shows that after a crisis year in 2023, there is slowly a light at the end of the tunnel. In the past year, both the number of job offers stabilized (there were only 2.6% fewer than the year before) and the level of salaries, although competition for individual positions increased slightly.

Source: No Fluff Jobs. The report IT Labor Market 2024/2025 -. Will the industry recover

Source: No Fluff Jobs. The report IT Labor Market 2024/2025 -. Will the industry recover

Interestingly, there is a noticeable trend in the structure of sought-after specializations away from the dominance of strictly programming positions. For a decade of the dominance of startups and the digitization boom, the IT industry was identified almost exclusively with programming.

However, the data of the last two years shows a fundamental transformation - today's technologies require a diversified ecosystem of competencies, where coding is only part of a broader process. It also consists of data analysis, systems maintenance or security architecture, and thus the demand for specialists in these areas is also growing.

While invariably the largest number of job offers are for Backend developers (one in five offers published in 2024), combined Backend, Fullstack and Frontend positions already account for only 36.6% of the total IT market - significantly less than just a few years ago, when programming categories accounted for more than half of new positions.

The most sought-after IT specialties in 2025

Companies' demand for a variety of specializations shows what a capacious sector IT is. In addition to classic programming positions, the demand for experts in several key areas is clearly growing.

Cyber Security

The Security category saw a year-over-year increase of an impressive 39% in the number of announcements. The growing importance of cyber security, especially in the face of escalating cyber threats, is causing the market to highly value the competencies of people who care about data and systems security.

Especially sought after are pentesters and Cybersecurity Engineers, responsible for testing IT system security and detecting vulnerabilities.

Source: No Fluff Jobs. The report IT Labor Market 2024/2025 -. Will the industry recover

Data & BI and AI

There is also a growing demand for Big Data Analysts, who can not only process massive amounts of data, but also draw valuable business insights from it. The AI and Product Management categories also saw double-digit growth in job openings.

Requirements in job advertisements

*Source: No Fluff Jobs. The report IT Labor Market 2024/2025 -.* *Will the industry recover*

What about the requirements? One in five job offers last year included the need for knowledge of SQL. A slightly smaller number of ads featured requirements for knowledge of the Python programming language. So at the forefront we have two technologies related not only to programming, but also to data analysis, confirming the growing importance of this area.

Moving on to the most interesting part, i.e. earnings in the IT industry - according to the latest No Fluff Jobs report, the leader in salaries in the Polish IT industry remains the Architecture specialization, where the median upper fork on a B2B contract is as high as PLN 31,900 net (+VAT), and on an employment contract PLN 28,000 gross. This is the only area where the upper forks regularly exceed the PLN 30,000 mark on B2B contracts.

Next in terms of salaries are:

ERP - B2B: PLN 21,800 - 29,000, UoP: PLN 14,000 - 20,000.
Security - B2B: PLN 21,800 - 28,000, UoP: PLN 16,000 - 23,000.
DevOps - B2B: PLN 21,800 - 28,000, UoP: PLN 16,000 - 22,000.
AI - B2B: PLN 20,000 - 28,000, UoP: PLN 16,000 - 23,000.
Data & BI - B2B: PLN 21,800 - 26,900, UoP: PLN 16,000 - 22,000.

Interestingly, the Security specialty not only offers some of the highest salaries in the industry, but has also seen significant salary increases in 2024 - up 11.1% for B2B contracts and as much as 15% for top-spec contracts. This is directly related to the growing demand for cybersecurity experts, including specialists such as pentesters, whose role is becoming increasingly strategic for threat-conscious companies.

What technologies are worth mastering?

Knowledge of which technologies can guarantee the highest salaries? The highest salaries in job offers last year were offered to specialists with knowledge of Kubernetes, Python or Java technologies. Depending on the form of employment, this was as follows:

Technology	B2B max (PLN)	UoP max (PLN)
Kubernetes	28 600	23 000
Python	28 000	23 000
Java	27 300	23 000

On the other hand, taking into account the fork, among popular technologies, the highest earnings are offered, for B2B (contract/invoice) contracts:

Python: from 21 800 to 28 000 PLN
Kubernetes: from 23,000 to 28,600 PLN
Java: from 21 800 to 27 300 PLN

In contrast, with an employment contract (UoP):

Kubernetes: from 17,000 to 23,000 PLN
Python: from 16 000 to 23 000 PLN
Java: from 16,300 to 23,000 PLN

In the above two tables, salaries on B2B contracts refer to PLN net (+VAT) amounts, and salaries on employment contracts refer to PLN gross amounts. These are the medians of the lower (Min.) and upper (Max.) salary ranges, and the percentage changes refer to the comparison with 2023.

How do you get qualified for the most desirable positions?

For those interested in entering the IT industry or advancing their careers toward the most desirable specialties, it is crucial to acquire the right qualifications. You can take advantage of numerous postgraduate courses and specialized courses tailored to the needs of the market.

Those interested in the area of cyber security can apply for a post-graduate course that prepares them for the role of IT systems security tester. During such studies, students carry out hundreds of simulated cyber attacks in a specially prepared environment, which allows them to gain practical skills related to identifying weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the security of IT systems.

On the other hand, those interested in the well-paying field of AI should be interested in postgraduate studies: Python - Artificial Intelligence Programming or Artificial Intelligence in Business. It's also worth getting a specialization in Big Data - Big Data engineering.

Summary

The IT labor market in Poland is undergoing a transformation. Instead of uniform growth in all areas, we are seeing clear specialization and diversification. Experts in areas related to security, data analysis and artificial intelligence are becoming the most desirable. This is where three key success factors come together: high salaries, dynamic growth in the number of offers and relatively low competition.

It is also worth remembering that the IT market is becoming increasingly diversified - programming alone is already responsible for just over a third of all job offers. Roles related to data analysis, security and product management are becoming increasingly important, reflecting the maturing of the Polish IT market and its adaptation to global trends.