The ManfredTech Career Report 2024
Your professional life is not a career
It's quite ironic: we've called this the "Career Report" as if work life were really a race, when nothing could be further from the truth.
We talk about "career" as if we should be in a hurry, running at full speed, always moving forward, or with the idea that there's a finish line at the end. But the reality is that it's not like that. Or at least, not in many cases.
In our work life, there are stops, setbacks, lateral moves, disappointments with progress, and also many mistakes.
In our sector in particular, there has always been a perception that the only way to improve salary was by moving into management. And although this has been true for many years, it's increasingly common for someone to continue improving their salary and responsibilities in technical positions, without having to manage anything.
Not everyone shares this way of seeing work life as constant progress. Sometimes, you reach a point in your professional life where you simply want to enjoy what you do day-to-day and help the people around you. Nothing more. Without seeking a better position or a better salary. And that's okay too.
And that doesn't make us less professional. We love what we do, but life, what really matters, always happens outside of work. Let's not forget that.
So, although initially we were going to present the report as a timeline, from the beginnings as a junior to the positions of highest responsibility, we decided not to do it. Because professional life isn't linear either.
We have improved the report from previous years, adding more data, better presented and clearer. Structuring it as what it is: a representation of the national tech ecosystem; both professionals and companies. A representation of what the technical community is like, creating an x-ray of its most representative aspects.
And also of what the sector is like, with those things that companies demand and how they have changed during these years.
We're going to go beyond the data. With opinions and testimonials from all parties involved in the community, analyzing some of the report's data.
I hope it's useful for you and for everyone you share it with, because we've put a lot of love into it and nothing would make us happier than receiving your feedback.
Some data we have used for the report
X-ray of technical talent in Spain: what the community is like
We have analyzed the data from more than 100,000 people that make up the Manfred and Circular community to understand how technologies and roles are distributed in the Spanish community, what are the predominant technologies and languages, what technologies are the least desired or what soft skills They are the defendants.
Talent pool by tech
Distribution of community roles
What are the majority roles of the community. An overview of how technical roles are distributed by percentage.
If you have ever wondered what the technical community is like in Spain, here you have a very clear view of how the roles are distributed. Disclaimer: the percentages do not add up to 100% because, as usual, people usually work in more than one role throughout their working life. 74% of the community identifies with the most traditional roles within development: Backend, Frontend and Full-Stack. The role with the highest percentage is the Backend role. The following percentages are already below 10%, that is, they are roles with fewer people in the community: Software Architect, Project, Mobile, Data Scientist, Infrastructure, Engineering Managers... All of them with a percentage between 5% and 6%.
Most used technologies
Top 10 of the languages, technologies and tools most selected by the community and their percentage with respect to the total of all technologies.
This graph does not vary much over the years. This is the third edition of the Career Report and not many changes are seen annually. But we are all waiting for the moment when Python will surpass Java. The most used languages remain the same. Interesting. 1 in 5 people work with Javascript. In terms of frameworks, there are some interesting movements. Vue and Express are diluted a bit and become behind Spring Boot. And the same thing happens with Spring, its percentage behind .Net is diluted. The most used technologies have an important change on the podium. MySQL surpasses Git and takes the first position. PostgreSQL surpasses AWS, and Jira falls to last place (many will be happy about this xD).
Most disliked technologies
Top 10 selected languages, technologies and tools that people in the community specifically do not want to work with and their percentage of the total. In Manfred, users can select the technologies they do not want to be contacted for.
The least desired technologies remain fairly similar. But it's funny how 1 in 4 people don't even want to hear about Java, and 1 in 5 don't want to work with PHP. Javascript ties with Cobol. As for frameworks and libraries, the vast majority of them are frontend frameworks. Is there a problem in the room with the Frontends? Let them speak now or remain silent forever. However, the least desired framework is .Net. But its percentage of “hate” has decreased from 23.6% (2023) to 16% (2024). Microsoft's strategy of once again betting on Open Source seems to be working. In the technologies with which we least want to work, the percentage is much lower. Wordpress takes the cake, but only with 3%. And Windows with 2%. They are really very low percentages. Although the most curious thing is how NodeJS has 1% of detractors.
Predominant languages and technologies according to years of professional experience
Heat map (darker colors have a higher percentage of people and use, and lighter colors have a lower percentage of people and use) of the top 10 most used languages and technologies based on the different ranges of experience.
| <2y | 2-5y | 5-10y | >10y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSS | 43.1% | 27.1% | 18.5% | 11.3% |
| HTML | 42.9% | 26.9% | 18.7% | 11.4% |
| JavaScript | 34.6% | 28.3% | 22.2% | 14.8% |
| Python | 32.8% | 29.6% | 21.4% | 16.2% |
| Java | 30.2% | 25.7% | 23.4% | 20.7% |
| C++ | 29.9% | 26.5% | 22.4% | 21.2% |
| SQL | 27.2% | 30.2% | 21.7% | 20.9% |
| PHP | 25.9% | 23.1% | 26.4% | 24.6% |
| TypeScript | 25.4% | 34.1% | 26.5% | 13.9% |
| C# | 24.6% | 25.7% | 25.5% | 24.2% |
| <2y | 2-5y | 5-10y | >10y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express | 45.4% | 29.3% | 16.3% | 9.0% |
| Bootstrap | 41.7% | 27.9% | 16.6% | 13.9% |
| React | 37.1% | 30.0% | 21.8% | 11.2% |
| Spring Boot | 26.3% | 27.6% | 25.9% | 20.2% |
| Laravel | 24.1% | 28.5% | 29.5% | 17.8% |
| Angular2+ | 24.1% | 30.1% | 29.0% | 16.8% |
| Vue | 21.3% | 32.9% | 30.2% | 15.6% |
| Spring | 19.7% | 25.6% | 28.2% | 26.5% |
| .NET | 17.4% | 24.3% | 28.5% | 29.8% |
| jQuery | 15.1% | 23.2% | 29.7% | 32.0% |
| <2y | 2-5y | 5-10y | >10y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Github | 41.0% | 28.6% | 17.0% | 13.4% |
| NodeJS | 32.5% | 29.7% | 23.8% | 14.0% |
| MongoDB | 32.4% | 28.1% | 23.5% | 16.0% |
| MySQL | 31.9% | 25.1% | 24.0% | 19.0% |
| Git | 28.9% | 30.9% | 22.0% | 18.2% |
| PostgreSQL | 23.6% | 29.7% | 26.7% | 19.9% |
| Linux | 21.7% | 26.0% | 26.6% | 25.7% |
| Docker | 17.0% | 30.1% | 29.5% | 23.4% |
| Jira | 14.4% | 31.5% | 27.5% | 26.6% |
| AWS | 13.5% | 27.8% | 31.9% | 26.8% |
What happens during your work “career” as you gain experience? Well, normally you learn new technologies and specialize. The predominant languages without experience are those with which you leave training centers: CSS, HTML, JS, Python, Java and C++. But as the years go by, that percentage dilutes and languages such as PHP, C# or Java become more important. C# remains fairly stable throughout its working life. While Typescript claims to be one of the youngest languages with the lowest percentage of use in people with +10 years of experience. As for frameworks, .Net and jQuery have a smaller junior base, almost 3 times smaller than other frameworks such as Express or Bootstrap. The popularity of .Net, jQuery or Spring is noticeable during the last decade with the highest percentages in people with more than ten years of experience. The tools have more varied percentages. You can see the stack that the juniors start with (Github, NodeJS, Mongo, Git, …). Linux has a very stable, varied user base throughout work experience. Tools like AWS or Jira start to be more popular after 5 years of experience.
Soft skills commonly found within the Tech Community vs. Soft skills companies are looking for
Comparison of soft skills within the tech community vs. soft skills companies are looking for.
What are the soft skills most in demand by companies and which ones do candidates have? The most requested are: Teamwork, Proactivity, Continuous Learning, Self-management ability and Attention to detail. However, there is no real correlation between what companies ask for and what candidates excel at. Those in which candidates exceed what is requested by companies are: Continuous learning, Adaptability to change, Analytical thinking and Autonomy in learning. In which there is the most difference are: Verbal communication, Written communication, Self-management capacity, Continuous learning and Teamwork.
What do professionals want?
Salary and job perks
The technology job market has changed quite a bit in recent years. What do the candidates prefer? Remote or hybrid? And the companies? We represent the average salary by role and different years of experience. And the impact that English has on salary.
Work location preference
Comparison of the three work set-ups that candidates registered with Manfred can choose from. Hybrid refers to the set-up that is partially remote. We have improved the location graph by adding a comparison of the location that candidates prefer (it does not have to be just one) and the location that companies offer in their job offers.
There is no discussion in this. Hybrid and in-person offerings have increased compared to previous years. But what do the candidates prefer? And what are the offers like? The history of OUR offers is mainly remote, but in recent years the hybrid modality has increased considerably. Candidates are very clear: more than 90% prefer remote or hybrid modalities. If you are thinking about which modality to choose for your offers, people prefer remote with the possibility of going to the office whenever you want.
Average salary by role
Heat map linking the main job roles with their percentage distribution based on salary.
| €20-30K | €31-40K | €41-50K | €51-60K | €61-80K | >80K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Developer | 70.7% | 17.7% | 5.7% | 2.4% | 1.9% | 1.6% |
| Data Analyst & BI | 64.8% | 23.1% | 6.5% | 2.2% | 1.6% | 1.9% |
| Data Engineer | 47.7% | 32.5% | 9.0% | 4.0% | 3.3% | 3.4% |
| Data Scientist | 44.5% | 33.4% | 12.2% | 4.2% | 3.6% | 2.1% |
| DevOps & Infrastructure & SRE | 48.9% | 26.8% | 11.9% | 5.6% | 5.0% | 1.9% |
| Engineering Management | 23.3% | 29.7% | 18.0% | 11.0% | 5.2% | 12.8% |
| Frontend Developer | 71.6% | 16.7% | 5.4% | 2.7% | 1.8% | 1.7% |
| Full-Stack Developer | 70.1% | 18.1% | 6.1% | 2.7% | 1.6% | 1.5% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 60.7% | 25.6% | 6.4% | 3.3% | 1.2% | 2.8% |
| Mobile Developer | 67.5% | 17.5% | 6.7% | 3.2% | 2.3% | 2.8% |
| Product Design (UI/UX) | 74.5% | 17.5% | 4.5% | 1.1% | 0.9% | 1.3% |
| Product Manager | 42.1% | 34.1% | 13.5% | 7.1% | 2.4% | 0.8% |
| Project Manager & Delivery Manager | 34.5% | 34.2% | 16.5% | 7.9% | 5.0% | 1.8% |
| QA & Testing | 61.4% | 21.0% | 8.2% | 3.8% | 2.5% | 3.1% |
| Scrum Master & Agile Coach | 59.2% | 24.5% | 9.2% | 4.1% | 1.0% | 2.0% |
| Software Architect | 45.3% | 28.7% | 10.3% | 6.3% | 4.3% | 5.0% |
| SysAdmin | 77.6% | 15.9% | 2.3% | 1.4% | 1.4% | 1.4% |
| Tech Lead | 31.6% | 30.3% | 11.8% | 14.5% | 5.3% | 6.6% |
| €20-30K | €31-40K | €41-50K | €51-60K | €61-80K | >80K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Developer | 22.1% | 32.7% | 22.7% | 9.9% | 8.8% | 3.8% |
| Data Analyst & BI | 18.5% | 31.3% | 28.8% | 11.7% | 6.5% | 3.3% |
| Data Engineer | 12.2% | 26.1% | 28.4% | 16.2% | 12.6% | 4.6% |
| Data Scientist | 10.9% | 28.8% | 28.3% | 15.5% | 12.0% | 4.6% |
| DevOps & Infrastructure & SRE | 11.3% | 23.3% | 26.7% | 18.1% | 14.3% | 6.3% |
| Engineering Management | 7.4% | 18.3% | 22.8% | 20.7% | 19.0% | 11.9% |
| Frontend Developer | 27.3% | 32.6% | 19.5% | 8.6% | 8.8% | 3.3% |
| Full-Stack Developer | 24.1% | 32.5% | 20.7% | 9.6% | 9.2% | 4.0% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 13.9% | 28.0% | 30.7% | 16.1% | 8.5% | 2.7% |
| Mobile Developer | 20.2% | 30.1% | 24.5% | 10.4% | 10.4% | 4.4% |
| Product Design (UI/UX) | 34.3% | 40.9% | 15.8% | 3.9% | 3.3% | 1.9% |
| Product Manager | 12.0% | 27.5% | 34.9% | 15.5% | 7.9% | 2.1% |
| Project Manager & Delivery Manager | 10.6% | 29.8% | 30.8% | 14.6% | 10.9% | 3.4% |
| QA & Testing | 21.2% | 35.0% | 22.7% | 12.4% | 6.2% | 2.6% |
| Scrum Master & Agile Coach | 19.3% | 35.4% | 25.5% | 14.3% | 3.7% | 1.9% |
| Software Architect | 9.6% | 22.7% | 27.5% | 18.3% | 14.2% | 7.7% |
| SysAdmin | 35.2% | 36.6% | 17.6% | 8.1% | 2.1% | 0.4% |
| Tech Lead | 7.2% | 24.8% | 28.6% | 23.0% | 11.2% | 5.1% |
| €20-30K | €31-40K | €41-50K | €51-60K | €61-80K | >80K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Developer | 5.3% | 18.3% | 25.0% | 19.1% | 21.2% | 11.2% |
| Data Analyst & BI | 7.6% | 19.7% | 28.5% | 22.0% | 16.5% | 5.7% |
| Data Engineer | 2.9% | 11.6% | 21.6% | 25.0% | 24.7% | 14.3% |
| Data Scientist | 4.7% | 12.1% | 21.7% | 24.1% | 23.3% | 14.1% |
| DevOps & Infrastructure & SRE | 3.9% | 10.9% | 18.1% | 21.0% | 30.2% | 15.9% |
| Engineering Management | 0.8% | 6.6% | 13.9% | 18.9% | 31.5% | 28.2% |
| Frontend Developer | 6.7% | 18.8% | 24.4% | 17.7% | 20.7% | 11.7% |
| Full-Stack Developer | 5.7% | 18.8% | 25.7% | 17.6% | 20.9% | 11.2% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 3.9% | 9.9% | 23.3% | 26.3% | 25.0% | 11.6% |
| Mobile Developer | 6.0% | 15.9% | 19.9% | 19.4% | 24.2% | 14.5% |
| Product Design (UI/UX) | 13.6% | 29.9% | 31.8% | 12.7% | 7.7% | 4.3% |
| Product Manager | 3.2% | 12.9% | 36.9% | 21.4% | 18.8% | 6.8% |
| Project Manager & Delivery Manager | 5.4% | 15.8% | 27.0% | 19.7% | 21.7% | 10.5% |
| QA & Testing | 8.5% | 19.0% | 22.5% | 22.8% | 20.1% | 7.1% |
| Scrum Master & Agile Coach | 6.7% | 21.3% | 35.1% | 22.2% | 11.7% | 2.9% |
| Software Architect | 1.3% | 6.0% | 16.4% | 21.7% | 30.9% | 23.7% |
| SysAdmin | 20.9% | 30.6% | 23.1% | 12.3% | 10.1% | 3.0% |
| Tech Lead | 1.6% | 7.7% | 22.9% | 26.4% | 29.1% | 12.3% |
| €20-30K | €31-40K | €41-50K | €51-60K | €61-80K | >80K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Developer | 3.8% | 12.0% | 23.1% | 20.7% | 24.5% | 15.9% |
| Data Analyst & BI | 5.8% | 14.5% | 24.7% | 20.2% | 25.0% | 9.8% |
| Data Engineer | 3.9% | 7.9% | 18.0% | 18.2% | 30.7% | 21.4% |
| Data Scientist | 5.3% | 9.1% | 18.3% | 18.3% | 29.7% | 19.4% |
| DevOps & Infrastructure & SRE | 3.7% | 6.7% | 15.8% | 19.9% | 30.8% | 23.2% |
| Engineering Management | 0.9% | 3.1% | 7.7% | 13.7% | 35.4% | 39.1% |
| Frontend Developer | 5.9% | 14.5% | 24.2% | 20.6% | 21.6% | 13.1% |
| Full-Stack Developer | 4.1% | 12.6% | 23.6% | 20.5% | 24.0% | 15.1% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 4.4% | 10.1% | 12.6% | 21.4% | 29.6% | 22.0% |
| Mobile Developer | 1.5% | 9.5% | 19.0% | 21.3% | 25.8% | 22.8% |
| Product Design (UI/UX) | 12.4% | 26.0% | 24.0% | 14.3% | 12.7% | 10.6% |
| Product Manager | 2.4% | 6.2% | 20.6% | 23.5% | 34.0% | 13.4% |
| Project Manager & Delivery Manager | 2.1% | 7.7% | 19.6% | 23.2% | 32.8% | 14.5% |
| QA & Testing | 4.4% | 14.1% | 23.0% | 20.5% | 27.0% | 11.0% |
| Scrum Master & Agile Coach | 4.0% | 8.0% | 29.2% | 25.9% | 27.0% | 5.8% |
| Software Architect | 1.3% | 3.6% | 12.6% | 18.2% | 32.9% | 31.5% |
| SysAdmin | 11.2% | 26.2% | 24.6% | 18.4% | 13.8% | 5.8% |
| Tech Lead | 1.4% | 4.0% | 15.7% | 24.7% | 33.8% | 20.4% |
Technical leadership roles have the highest salary expectations. It is striking that Infrastructure roles are above average, with the majority concentrated in the annual salary range of €50K and over, while QA and Product Design (UX/UI) roles are concentrated in the €20-40K range. There is a general trend in roles requiring more experience such as Product & Project Manager, Architecture or Leadership roles: the highest percentages (i.e. the most of the profiles) are concentrated in the €50K and above range.
Proficiency in English and its impact on salary
English is the language par excellence in our environment for the communication of many companies. But... How important is it to know languages (precisely English) and how does it influence your salary? Well, here we tell you. Basic levels of English correspond to A2 standard, Intermediate to B1, Fluent to B2-C1 and native to C2.
We have changed the display of this chart to make it look much more visual. How does knowing English impact salary? The difference between knowing fluent English and not knowing it is very big. Almost double the salary, specifically about €35K when you have 10 years or more of experience. However, the difference between intermediate and fluent English is not that big, but it is impactful. The difference is €18K.
What are companies looking for and offering?
What is the other part of the market like? The companies that hire. We are going to review the salaries offered, the most in-demand roles, the most offered perks and the locations of the offers.
Salary offered by employers vs. Salary wanted by candidates
What is the other part of the market like? The companies that hire. We are going to review the salaries offered, the most in-demand roles, the most offered perks and the locations of the offers. Comparison between the salary offered by companies and the salary expected by candidates according to job roles.
This is one of the most revealing graphs in the report. The positions in which there is a greater gap between what candidates aspire to earn and what companies offer are those that involve technical leadership. And, surprisingly, this year the gap between what they expect to earn and what they are offered to Data Scientists and Machine Learning Engineers has widened greatly. In the case of MLE, they expect to charge up to €20K less than what they are offered.
Most in-demand roles
At times when companies go into “maintenance mode” or prioritize profit, there are always areas of technology teams that tend to suffer. Also, advances make some positions more in demand than others. We have created a history of the most in-demand roles over the last 3 years.
We wanted to know how market demand has evolved over the past few years. And we have found very interesting data: the most in-demand role is always that of backend developer. Full-Stack are increasingly requested; going from seventh position in 2022 to second in 2024. The demand for Data Engineers has also decreased significantly. But the most significant decline is in the role of QA.
Most commonly-found job perks
Free fruit, pizza and coffee in the office are long gone (although we still see them in some offers). But the benefits offered by companies are not always the same. We have created a ranking and we have measured it against previous years.
And now that we have data from several years, we also wanted to see which benefits are the most offered and what their evolution has been. The most offered are always teambuildings and training. Language classes drop a couple of places and the budget for conferences rises again.
Work set-ups on offer
What locations are offered in job offers. It is no secret that in-person is taking away from remote. But we wanted to see it compared to previous years to see the trend and the difference.
The gender gap
The bad news is that the gender gap still exists. And we will continue to make it visible until it ceases to exist. We have identified female representation in the sector and the average salary by gender and experience.
Total female representation by roles
We have drawn what roles the femenine representation is divided to clearly show what technical positions women occupy.
Of the almost 17,000 women that make up the Manfred community, the roles with the most representation are backend and frontend. And thirdly, the product roles appear. Technical leadership positions occupy a very low percentage.
Total female representation by roles vs male
And furthermore, we have compared it with male representation in most technical roles.
This graph complements the one above. What is the percentage and difference between the main roles between women and men? In the best of cases, the percentage of women in a role is a little less than 10% such as in Backend or Frontend. While in others, it is diluted even more.
Female representation vs. male
Comparison between male and female representation according to the different roles.
In terms of percentage, by roles, there is no role in which there is a certain parity. Only in UX/UI design are the percentages very close. Technical leadership roles have the fewest women. While Product, Testing and Data are what they deal with the most.
Salary aspirations by gender and role
Do men earn more than women? On average, the answer is yes. And here you have the data. In virtually all roles, women are paid less than men.
In the role of Software Architect, women earn very little more than men. But it is the only role in which the difference is not too notable. The Engineering Manager role takes the cake, averaging €10K above male salaries.
Salary calculator + Average salary by gender and experience
Get an accurate picture of the gender pay gap with this calculator. Choose a role and an experience range and our calculator will return the average salary for men and women.
Calculadtor
Average salary by gender and level of experience
Across all levels of professional experience, there is a gender pay gap. Having said that, it is not as obvious in more junior profiles, where the gap is less than €1K, while in professional profiles with over 10 years of experience, the gap can exceed €10K in some cases.
Insights
Methodology
This report was based on Manfred’s database, which currently counts over 101.692 professional profiles as of September 18th, 2024.
Years of experience
Type of role
Almost 50 professional roles were included in the analysis, which can all be found in Manfred’s taxonomy.
To the right, you can see the 10 roles with the greatest levels of representation.
Gender
Because we don't ask about gender in our registration form. The alternative to using an API would be to conduct an anonymous survey among our users or to ask about gender in the onboarding and store it in a separate database without relating it to the users. Both alternatives would have prevented us from shedding light on the issue of the gender pay gap, due to lack of data and lack of technical resources to carry it out.
The GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) discourages it as it is not strictly necessary in order to identify the best candidates for a given job. And although it is not part of the data considered sensitive according to Art.9 of the GDPR, some groups do want to include it as such.
We have evaluated several alternatives, and, although we understand that this is not the best way to obtain the most realistic result, we believe that it does serve the purpose of shedding light on an existing and real problem within the sector.
- Females
- Men
- Not defined
This report was made possible with the help of our usual suspects: illustrations by Hugo Tobío and Álex Orbe, design by La Personnalité and layout by Swwweet. Thank you ❤️