Skilled IT pay defined by volatility, security, and AI

Last quarter was one of the most volatile for cash pay premiums for IT skills and certifications in the last three years, according to Foote Partners.

Almost one-third of the 682 non-certified IT skills and 614 IT certifications they track changed in value — and for certifications, those changes, more often than not, were downward.

This volatility can make it hard for IT workers to decide where to focus their career development efforts, but there are at least some areas of stability in the market: despite all other changes in pay premiums, workers with AI skills and security certifications continued to reap rich rewards.

The most valuable AI-related skills last quarter were AIops, MLops, artificial intelligence, natural language processing, prescriptive analytics, deep learning, Google TensorFlow and the related Keras API, machine learning, neural networks, the PyTorch machine learning framework, H2O.ai, Azure ML, DataRobot, and — a new entrant to the list — generative AI.

AI skills more valuable than certifications

There were a couple of stand-outs among those. Prescriptive analytics, or recommending solutions based on data analysis, attracts an average pay premium of 18% of base salary — and its value has risen 29% over the last six months; skill in the broader category of AI attracts a similar premium, but has only risen in value by 6% over the last six months; the value of other AI-related skills, while still high, is growing more slowly still. Premiums for skill in DataRobot tied with those for generative AI skills, but DataRobot is on its way down, while generative AI, predictably, is on the rise.

No obviously AI-related IT certifications made it onto Foote Partners’ list of highest payers, although the two-year-old IBM Certified Specialist — AI Enterprise Workflow V1 may make it to the top one day. The premium it attracts rose by more than 10%, making it the fastest-rising AI-related certification.

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AndyC

Andy Curtis is an award-winning security consultant, researcher and public speaker. He has been working in the computer security industry since the early 1990s, having been employed by state and federal government, leading healthcare and banking providers across three continents. He has given talks about computer security for some of the world’s largest companies, worked with law enforcement agencies on investigations into hacking groups, and is a regular voice on TV and radio explaining IT security threats.

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