IT Job Market Overview 2021: Germany
When looking at IT job markets in Europe, it’s hard to miss the EU’s largest economy. And a very resilient one at that. Germany has been able to cope with the effects of the pandemic very well: the government expects a 4% economic growth in 2021 and a full recovery by 2022. This will inevitably lead to new jobs, as well as create recruitment challenges.
The IT sector is no exception. Let’s take a closer look at the current state of affairs.
The German job market in 2021
The market overview is based on data research performed in April 2021
The German IT market is booming, with its total value expected to reach a staggering $129 billion in 2025. The International Trade Administration estimated that the country had a 990,000 strong ICT workforce in 2019, and the figures have only gone up since then.
The German SMEs embrace digital technologies, fuelling the IT jobs growth. Munich and Berlin, Germany's leading tech hubs, attract talent — both within and outside the country. In 2020, local IT-related startups raised $4,5 billion in venture capital. International giants like HP, Microsoft, Hitachi, Dell, Adobe, and Oracle have long had a strong presence in the German market.
These factors stand behind the growing number of IT jobs in Germany, with vacant roles ranging from trainees to senior specialists. Speaking of numbers, we have them right below.
10 top tech positions and IT salaries in Germany
Overall, the country has a vast pool of well-trained and experienced IT pros to choose from. To give you a clearer picture of the local IT job market, we’ve conducted extended research on the top positions and the average salary in Germany for IT professionals.
Let’s look at our findings.
Frontend developer
The work of frontend developers is indispensable for most IT projects, and it shows. A worldwide employment website, Indeed, lists 9,251 open positions with an average salary of $66,204.00. Glassdoor, another industry-leading source of salary insights, has 5,844 open frontend developer positions and puts the average yearly earnings at $62,836.
A median frontend developer salary of $75,000 per year is reported by Wellfound, a resource mostly focused on startups. If we look at the data provided by LinkedIn, we’ll see a very similar estimate of $74,045 and a total count of 3,462 vacancies currently available.
According to the sources above, the average yearly compensation that frontend developers can expect to receive in Germany is set at $69,521.
Backend developer
While frontend developers provide the visible-to-all client-side functionality, backend devs are the unsung heroes who work relentlessly on the server side of things. Here’s what backend developer salary distribution looks like across the board.
As per Indeed’s data, there are 9,882 vacancies presently available in Germany, and the employers are ready to pay an average of $65,094 per year to keep their backend up and running. Glassdoor sets the numbers at 3,003 open positions and median pay of $65,301.
LinkedIn lists $62,461 as the average yearly wage. Angel.co has 5,945 backend developer vacancies and offers a significantly higher compensation of $79,000.
Salesforce developer
IT projects rely on these specialists in designing business workflows and translating requirements into actual system solutions. The number of open salesforce developer positions in Germany reaches 6,420 on LinkedIn, with an average yearly pay of $66,880.
Glassdoor backs this data with their estimate of $67,058 per year.
Indeed shows a slightly lower number of jobs at 5,254, with a higher median salary of $75,370. Based on the info on salesforce developer salaries from all job sites, we arrive at an average of $71,214.
Full-stack developer
Some of the most universally skilled pros in the industry, full-stack devs are always in demand. Startup companies are ready to bid as high as $78,000 when it comes to filling full stack developer jobs, Angel.co’s website shows.
Indeed’s figure is practically identical at $78,055, with 3,692 positions available. German employers are looking for 3,995 full-stack devs and are willing to pay $68,031 per year, according to Glassdoor. The average salary listed on LinkedIn’s pages is somewhat lower at $58,759, with businesses looking to hire 3,122 developers.
JavaScript developer
While we don’t necessarily notice it, JavaScript is omnipresent, be it on web pages, in games, or mobile apps. That may explain the astonishing figure of 18,060 JavaScript developer jobs listed on Indeed. The same resource sets the average JavaScript developer salary at $62,729.
Glassdoor shows a higher range of compensation — $71,005, but with only 4,066 positions currently vacant. 6,342 job offers are listed on LinkedIn, with a median salary of $66,044 to be paid yearly. On average, a skilled JavaScript developer in Germany can expect to make $66,592 a year.
DevOps engineer
Providing a critical link between software development and IT operations, good DevOps engineers aren’t easy to come by. So the average compensation of $82,039 among the 8,443 jobs posted on Indeed is no surprise.
Angel.co comes second at $74,000, followed by Glassdoor with a $72,400 average salary and 3,564 DevOps engineer jobs. LinkedIn adds another 4,921 open positions, reporting a mean salary of $71,657 in the segment.
Combining all available data, we arrive at $75,024 as the average DevOps engineer salary in the segment.
Cloud architect
Given the popularity of cloud technologies, startups and software companies are always on the lookout for cloud architects of a different caliber. The highly sought-after pros can expect to make an average of $95,449 (the highest number so far on this job list), according to Indeed. The resource puts the number of available cloud architect jobs at 2,806.
Glassdoor has almost twice the number of vacancies — 5,467, to be exact — listing $78,058 as the mean salary. LinkedIn comes third with a lower value of $59,714 for remuneration and 4,782 open positions as of 2021.
Software engineer
Software engineers are the core workforce of any IT project, which explains the sheer number of available vacancies on the German market in 2021. Just look at the stats provided by different hiring platforms:
- LinkedIn — 18,084
- Indeed — 15,208
- Glassdoor — 12,936
Naturally, Angel.co lists the highest median compensation level of $81,000. Between LinkedIn’s $77,628 and Glassdoor’s $68,373, software engineers can make an average of $74,562 a year working for German employers.
Mobile app developer
According to Glassdoor, the upper range for the salary of a mobile app developer is in the likes of $94,466 per year for a senior position. The market average, however, sits at a much lower value of $67,021.
Glassdoor has the highest share of open positions in its database, with 12,521 mobile app developer jobs listed as of 2021. Indeed adds another 2,538, and 2,820 more vacancies come from LinkedIn.
QA engineer
No project can run without the meticulous work of QA engineers. However, with the advance of Agile and automation approaches, the number of QA engineer jobs has lately been on the decline. This becomes evident if you look at the current listings:
- Indeed — 2,243 open positions
- Glassdoor — 1,528
- LinkedIn — only 556 vacancies across Germany
Angel.co’s number of $70,000 is the peak point for a QA engineer salary, with $58,732 being the average figure for the German market.
Conclusion
Despite the challenges posed by the COVID pandemic, the German IT market is growing steadily. New vacancies open daily, and companies are prepared to pay well above the $134,000 mark for a senior cloud architect position, according to this research.
In general, IT salaries in Germany remain very reasonable. Hiring a QA engineer will require spending an average of $58,732 per year on compensation, which is quite acceptable by today’s standards. In Denmark, for instance, the same specialists can command as much as $75,914 a year.
By the way, feel free to check out our recent articles on the IT job markets in the UK, Denmark, and the Netherlands to compare data and get a better idea of the European job landscape.
And if you don’t feel like doing all the work yourself, MagicHire will gladly lend you a hand. We specialize in tech recruitment and can easily locate the talent you require. Whether you’re a startup or an organization with IT needs, contact us to get help with recruiting the right pros in Germany or as a dedicated remote team.
With 6 years of experience and a talent pool of over 60,000 specialists, MagicHire is the hiring partner of choice for a project of any size, with the tightest deadline.
