A new industry guide from JobsInAdtech, published this week, offers a detailed snapshot of pay across the advertising technology sector, and the picture it paints is one of an industry still short on specialist talent, even as the broader jobs market has cooled elsewhere.
Demand still outstrips supply
According to the guide, adtech continues to be reshaped by artificial intelligence, retail media, connected TV (CTV), commerce media and privacy-first advertising, and these shifts are generating fresh career opportunities across sales, engineering, product, ad operations, data and customer success. Crucially, the report notes that demand for experienced professionals in several specialist areas is still running ahead of supply, which has kept salaries buoyant through 2026 even as many other sectors have tightened hiring. Employers, the guide says, are competing hardest for people who can pair technical fluency with commercial judgement, particularly candidates with a background in programmatic advertising, AI and first-party data strategy.
The figures themselves (compiled from market data, recruiter insight and current hiring activity across the UK, Europe and North America) give a useful benchmark for both jobseekers and employers, though the guide is careful to caveat that actual pay will vary with experience, company size, location and the makeup of a total compensation package.
The numbers, by function
On the commercial side, entry-level SDRs sit in the £35k–£50k range before on-target earnings, rising to £60k–£90k for business development managers and £50k–£80k for account executives. Enterprise-focused AEs can expect £80k–£130k, while sales leadership commands significantly more: £100k–£150k for a sales director and £140k–£200k for a VP of sales.
Customer success roles are narrower in range but still competitive: CSMs typically earn £55k–£80k, rising to £75k–£100k at senior level, with strategic account managers pulling in £70k–£110k.
Ad operations and programmatic roles, long considered the technical backbone of the industry, range from £35k–£50k for an AdOps executive up to £70k–£90k for a senior AdOps professional. Programmatic managers sit at £60k–£90k, while yield managers, who tend to carry direct revenue responsibility, can reach £100k.
Unsurprisingly, engineering and product roles top the scale. Software engineers earn £70k–£130k, rising to £100k–£160k at senior level and £120k–£180k for engineering managers. Product leadership pays even more: a product director role can command £140k–£220k, and data scientists sit in a £80k–£140k band.
Geography still matters
The guide positions the UK as the reference market, but notes clear regional variation. Germany tends to pay 5–15% more than the UK for comparable roles, the Netherlands is broadly in line, and Spain runs 10–20% lower. Eastern European salaries are 20–40% below UK levels, while the United States remains the outlier, often paying 40–100% more than UK equivalents for the same role. For employers hiring internationally, or professionals weighing a relocation, that spread is substantial enough to shape career decisions on its own.
Where the premium skills are
The report identifies a fairly predictable but telling cluster of skills commanding the highest pay: AI and machine learning, retail media, CTV, privacy and identity solutions, and data clean rooms sit alongside more technical staples like cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, GCP), Python, SQL and data engineering. Familiarity with specific platforms, including Google Ad Manager, Amazon DSP, The Trade Desk, Prebid and header bidding, also continues to carry a premium, reinforcing that hands-on platform expertise, not just conceptual knowledge, is what employers are paying for.
Correspondingly, the guide flags AI, retail media, CTV and privacy/identity as the fastest-growing hiring areas overall, a signal that these are the parts of the industry professionals may want to build toward if they’re aiming to maximise both opportunity and pay over the next few years.
Pay isn’t the whole story
The guide is careful to note that compensation decisions increasingly extend beyond salary. Flexible and remote-first working arrangements, healthcare, pensions, bonuses, equity, learning budgets, clear progression paths and enhanced leave are all cited as factors now shaping candidate decisions, a reminder that total package, not headline salary, is what ultimately drives retention.
The takeaways
For professionals, the guide’s advice is straightforward: build specialist expertise (particularly in AI, retail media, CTV or privacy/identity), keep learning, develop commercial awareness, and be willing to move employers strategically when it makes sense. For employers, the message is equally direct: offer competitive pay, move quickly through hiring processes, communicate clearly with candidates, and provide a genuine path for career progression, or risk losing talent to competitors who will.
Taken together, the guide underscores a sector where technical specialism, platform fluency and commercial acumen are being rewarded more richly than ever, and where the gap between generalist and specialist pay looks set to keep widening through the rest of 2026.
Source: JobsInAdtech, “The Ultimate Salary Guide for 2026,” published August 20, 2026.
