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Technical recruiter salary

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technical recruiter salary

A technical recruiter salary depends on a number of factors, including the level of expertise, location, possessed skills, and others. If you want to check whether you’re being paid fairly, need to prepare yourself for a job interview for the role we’re discussing here, or considering becoming a technical recruiter, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve put together industry-specific data to provide you with a thorough understanding of the subject, so you don’t need to look any further.

What Is A Technical Recruiter Salary

In this post, we will be addressing the following topics

  • Technical recruiter salary
  • Entry-level technical recruiter salary
  • Senior technical recruiter salary
  • Technical recruiter salary NYC, SF, and LA
  • Other factors increasing pay

Technical recruiter salary

Technical recruiter salary

Based on PayScale data, the average Technical Recruiter salary in the US is $56,010 per year (at the time of the publication). Most people in this position move to other roles after 10 years. Based on that data, the median Technical Recruiter hourly rate is $24.59.

Glassdoor data suggests the average base pay is much lower at $45,984 per year, with data based on 8,565 salaries anonymously submitted.

Glassdoor technical recruiter salary
Salary.com reports it’s actually much higher, with a median base salary (core compensation) reaching $73,409 and Median Total Compensation (including bonuses, healthcare, and retirement) reaching $76,161.

Do you want to hire a technical recruiter? Check out The all-in-one technical recruiter hiring guide.

Entry-level technical recruiter salary

Average entry-level technical recruiter salary

Entry-level technical recruiters make on average $43,402 a year according to Glassdoor, or $41,103 year (median) according to PayScale.

Senior technical recruiter salary

Senior technical recruiter salary

Technical recruiter salary levels depend on the level of experience. According to PayScale data, experienced technical recruiters have an average salary of $71,607 per year.

Technical recruiter salary NYC

Technical recruiter salary levels are also affected by the location. According to Salary.com, tech recruiter median base pay in the United States varies on average from $62,264 to $84,926 depending on the geographical location.  However, larger cities tend to attract higher salaries on average.

As an example:

  • NYC technical recruiters earn $88,825 per year
  • SF technical recruiters get on average $91,981 per year
  • LA technical recruiters earn $82,636 per year

Other factors increasing pay

Additional skills

According to PayScale, “the skills that increase pay for this job the most are Negotiation and Full-Cycle Recruiting.”

Average technical recruiter with negotiation skills salary

Average technical recruiter with full-cycle recruiting skills salary

Full-cycle recruiting

So why are full cycle and negotiating such lucrative skills? It all comes down to what responsibilities a technical recruiter has. Full-cycle recruiting encompasses the entire recruitment process. A full-cycle recruiter should have experience with preparation, sourcing, screening, selecting, hiring, and onboarding. Necessarily, this means that an entry-level recruiter probably won’t have full lifecycle skills as they have simply not had enough experience to touch on each part of the process. The value of full-cycle skills also suggests that in recruitment, generalists are more valuable than specialists, at least when you look at the profession as a whole.

Negotiation

Anyone who has got a job will know what a difference negotiating skills can make. Given how fierce the competition is for talent, coupled with the scale of tech salaries, it is essential for tech recruiters to negotiate employment terms that attract the best developers without offering a salary which is unsustainable for the business. A tech recruiter with negotiating skills should know their company’s position and culture, know the market value for the skills and area, ensure consistent salary expectations, be able to put together a competitive compensation package, and be able to respond to their candidate’s counteroffers. These skills only come with practice but can directly affect the quality of candidates the recruiter attracts and the level of salary the company pays.

Other skills

Full-cycle recruiting and negotiating skills are not the only two skills that affect technical recruiter salary. Sourcing, broader HR knowledge, even experience with recruiting tools like applicant tracking systems can all have an affect. The important thing to remember though is that experience is not the same as possessing a different skill. Some tech recruiters double down on specific skills like sourcing while others develop as generals who do full-cycle recruiting. The Important thing to remember is that these decisions are valued differently and affect technical recruiter salary.

technical recruiter salary skillsLocation

Location is one of the most powerful factors influencing the pay of technical recruiters. PayScale’s breakdown of data states that San Francisco technical recruiters earn 59% more than the national average, with New York and Washington coming second and third (24% and 23% respectively).

Technical recruiter pay difference by location

Experience

The pay for Technical Recruiters increases with experience. According to PayScale:

  • Less than 5 years: average total compensation of $41,103 (including bonuses, and overtime pay)
  • 5 to 10 years of experience (mid-career experience): an average total compensation of $69,517
  • 10 to 20 years of experience (experienced): an average total compensation of $71,607
  • 20+ years of experience (late-career experience): an average total compensation of $91,875

Pay by experience level for technical recruiter

Before you go

We also have great resources devoted to software developer salary, make sure to check them out:

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