Learning a new skill can not only be fun but also rewarding, especially if you’re dipping your toes into a completely new space. Nowadays, plenty of employers are looking for first-hand experience of skills in use vs what your education status is; if you can demonstrate the skills required, you’ll stand a much higher chance of landing your dream job.
The tech sector is a rapidly growing industry with more and more roles opening up that require newly developed skills – many of which centre around emerging technologies like AI.
Our latest research examines the most in-demand skills for tech roles, to determine which skills you should prioritise learning, how many current roles are available and what the highest-paying tech roles are.
Key takeaways:
- Technical expertise, along with creativity and innovation, are the most in-demand skills for tech roles
- Over 400,000 tech roles require you to have strong mathematical skills
- Data scientists are the highest-paying tech roles, averaging £58,817 a year
The most in-demand tech skills
Diving into our research, we found that two skills were required for every tech role analysed: technical and creativity/innovation. Whilst technical skills may not be a surprise to many, what stood out is that creativity is increasingly sought after by employers. In a sector that is predominantly mathematical based, this highlights a growing appreciation for innovative thinking.
Other skills that rated highly were adaptability, detail-oriented and communication, with over 80% of jobs requiring them.
The number of tech roles requiring skills
At the time of collecting our data, the UK had over 460,000 tech roles available to apply for, with 100% of those requiring technical and creative skills. For mathematical and learning/adaptability, there were 434,134 and 421,634 roles, respectively.
The tech roles paying the most
In addition to identifying the most in-demand tech skills, we also looked into the tech roles paying the most.
On average, Data Scientists earn £58,817 – the highest of all roles analysed. Second are Network Engineers with an average salary of £58,651, and third are Penetration Testers at £57,782.
What’s clear from our findings is the strong financial packages across the roles we’ve studied. All 15 roles offer salaries above the average UK wage, which currently stands at approximately £37,430 as of June 2025.
This significant difference highlights that for individuals who are career-minded and focused on maximising their earning potential, a pathway into the tech sector presents a highly rewarding opportunity.
Methodology:
We collected a list of the top tech jobs in the UK and used prospects to collect the commonly required skills needed for each of the roles.
These skills were then grouped into categories of skills.
Adzuna was then used to collect the number of job adverts and their average salary for each role.
By combining the number of roles and the skills required for each role, we were able to calculate how many times the specific skill group is mentioned/required across current live tech job ads. These figures were then used to work out the % of tech roles requiring skill.
