Sarah K. White
Senior Writer

10 fastest growing US tech hubs for IT talent

Feature
Apr 07, 20239 mins
CareersSalaries

You don’t need to move to Silicon Valley to cash in on the boom for IT talent. These 10 cities are among the fastest growing tech hubs by salary, according to Dice.

Phoenix, Arizona, USA downtown cityscape at dusk.
Credit: Sean Pavone / Shutterstock

Tech salaries are on the rise thanks to a demand for talent across nearly every industry. Salaries increased 2.3% between 2021 and 2022, reaching an average tech salary of $111,348 per year, according to the 2023 Dice Tech Salary Report. Salaries vary by location, with the technologists reporting the highest average salaries of $144,962 per year in Silicon Valley, the original tech hub.

But you don’t have to live in Silicon Valley to earn a high-tech salary. There are several other cities that are considered growing tech hubs where technologists can earn higher than average salaries, often with a lower cost of living. Dice defines a growing tech hub as a city with universities and colleges to recruit from, venture funding opportunities, a strong social scene for networking, and existing companies looking to hire talent.

These 10 cities are the fastest growing tech hubs by salary, according to Dice.

1. Phoenix

Phoenix is home to the “Silicon Desert,” and it’s quickly becoming a hot spot for the tech industry, with a focus on telecommunications, electronics manufacturing, and aerospace. Operational costs in Phoenix are 36% less than in California, according to the Phoenix Business Journal, making it an appealing spot for tech companies looking for a less expensive home base for headquarters. It’s also the fifth-largest data center market in the nation, with a “low natural disaster risk, inexpensive power, and a competitive colocation and cloud market.” Phoenix is home to tech companies such as ADP, Workiva, ServiceNow, Traffic Tech, BigTime Software, and General Motors.

The average tech salary in Phoenix is $120,731 per year — a 26.2% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

2. Tampa, Fla.

Tampa alone makes up 25% of Florida’s tech jobs, with more than 50 IT and software companies located in the city and an additional 2,000 jobs expected to be added in the coming year. Companies such as Amazon, Infosys, IBM, Wipro, Apple, Oracle, Microsoft, Capgemini, Uber, Dell, Google, and Salesforce all have offices in Tampa. The Tampa Bay Tech organization was formed over 21 years ago to connect the technology community in Tampa and has since grown into one of the biggest networks for technologists. Tampa is also home to Embarc Collective, billed as the state’s “fastest-growing startup hub.” Embarc Collective raised a total of $107 million in venture capital in the past year, according to Tampa Magazines.

The average tech salary in Tampa is $120,900 per year — a 19% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

3. Columbus, Ohio

Columbus has always held interest for businesses due to the area’s diverse population, which has historically made it a popular test market for companies looking to launch new products. In recent years, it’s become a popular spot for the tech industry, with companies such as Facebook and Amazon moving into the city. And Intel recently announced plans to construct two chip factories right outside Columbus, slated to bring more than 3,000 jobs to the area. The city hasn’t lost its draw as a place for testing and launching new products either — there’s a growing startup community in Columbus. Between 2017 and 2021, investments into city startups started peaking, going from $583 million in 2020 to over $1 billion, with half of  the funding going to Olive, a healthcare technology company, and Path Robotics, an autonomous robotics company, according to TechCrunch.

The average tech salary in Columbus is $107,413 per year — a 15.7% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

4. Portland, Ore.

Dubbed the Silicon Forest, Portland is home to several high-tech companies such as Tektronix, Intel, Pixelworks, Hewlett-Packard, Xerox, and Epson. While Intel’s headquarters were established in California, starting in the 1990s the company moved its most advanced technical operations to Oregon, and it’s now the company’s largest operating hub. Other tech companies that have opened offices in Portland include Airbnb, Google, IBM, Amazon, Logitech, Apple, Nvidia, Oracle, and Salesforce among others.

The average tech salary in Portland is $127,734 per year — a 15.5% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

5. Charlotte, N.C.

Charlotte has been hailed as the tech hub of the south, with a rich startup community in healthcare, fintech, and logistics. There’s strong traction with tech jobs in the financial services industry, as banking turns more to digital transformation. In October 2022, Lowe’s opened a $153 million Tech Hub to promote innovation, attract top talent, and accelerate digital transformation. Charlotte is home to tech companies such as Red Ventures, Credit Karma, EPAM Systems, Torc Robotics, Axios, Cisco, LendingTree, and AvidXchange. There’s high demand for software engineers, web developers, IT support specialists, network administrators and architects, data scientists, and cybersecurity professionals, according to CompTIA.

The average tech salary in Charlotte is $118,465 per year — a 11.1% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

6. Miami

From 2020 to 2021, the number of tech workers moving to the Miami-Fort Lauderdale area increased by over 15%. Interest in the city spiked during the pandemic, with people trying to escape cold cities and ultimately deciding to stay. Some say that Miami’s growth as a tech hub is in part thanks to a simple Twitter exchange between Delian Asparouhov, an entrepreneur who had grown disillusioned with Silicon Valley, and Miami mayor Francis Suarez. Asparouhov joked about “moving” Silicon Valley to Miami, and the mayor responded asking how he could help. After that, Google searches for “Miami Tech” doubled amidst the pandemic and the city continued to gain momentum in the tech scene.

The average tech salary in Miami is $104,542 per year — a 10.6% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

7. Sacramento, Calif.

The city of Sacramento has been dedicated to clean technology and energy since 2005, is one of the top 10 cities adopting smart grid technology, and now holds around 25% of the Region’s Clean Energy Technology establishments. CleanStart, a nonprofit cleantech business accelerator in the Sacramento Region, identified a 96% growth in jobs, 29% growth in revenue, and notes that said growth has added 4,850 jobs and nearly $1 billion in revenue to the Sacramento region. It’s close to the Bay Area, also known as Silicon Valley, but offers a better cost of living and has a growing base of millennial workers (28%) bolstering the workforce. Sacramento not only has a strong stake in clean technology and energy, but also in health sciences, biomedicine, power engineering, education, and the visual arts.

The average tech salary in Sacramento is $111,961 per year — a 9.7% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

8. Raleigh, N.C.

Tech companies have set their sights on Raleigh in the past few years, in part thanks to the area’s high-powered network infrastructure. North Carolina has also embraced tech development, promising Apple $846 million in funding over the next 39 years and becoming the first US state to incentivize esports after establishing a $5 million esports grant fund. Apple has also promised to invest $1 billion into a new campus in the “Research Triangle,” which includes nearby colleges and universities such as Duke, UNC Chapel Hill, and North Carolina State University. Epic Games also announced plans to convert a defunct shopping mall in nearby Cary, N.C., into its new company headquarters.

The average tech salary in Raleigh is $115,204 per year — a 9.4% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

9. Boston

Boston has grown to become a popular tech hub in recent years, with companies such as Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle opening offices in the city. Amazon recently opened a technology hub in the Seaport district, with space for over 2,000 employees and more than 1,000 technology and corporate roles available. There’s also a hot market for startups in the city and access to graduates from MIT, Harvard, BU, Tufts, and Northeastern. VC’s have relocated to the area to keep an eye on emerging startups given the city’s success rate with startups such as Hubspot, Care.com, TripAdvisor, and Wayfair.

The average tech salary in Boston is $130,399 per year — a 9% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

10. Seattle

Seattle was the birthplace to some of the world’s largest tech companies such as Microsoft and Amazon. It’s now home to the headquarters of companies such as T-Mobile, Expedia, Nintendo of America, and offices for companies such as Twitter, Zendesk, Facebook, and Google. Twitter opened a family-friendly community learning center called the NeighborNest that offers residents and organizations access to technology and life skills. They offer programs such as digital literacy courses, coding for kids classes, and other family-friendly events for locals, and Twitter employees can volunteer their time and experience to the NeighborNest and to help foster future tech talent.

The average tech salary in Seattle is $129,456 per year — a 7.6% increase from 2021, according to Dice.

2022’s Top 10

  1. Pittsburgh (up 14.0%)
  2. Atlanta (up 13.9%)
  3. Chicago (up 12.6%)
  4. Miami (up 11.4%)
  5. Seattle (up 11.2%)
  6. Philadelphia (up 10.6%)
  7. Tampa (up 10.6%)
  8. Detroit (up 10.3%)
  9. Los Angeles (up 10.2%)
  10. Portland, Ore. (up 9.3%)