2025 Wrapped
AI moved from "innovation project" to "work habit"
53% of technology professionals reported using AI in their day-to-day work, and 61% said AI will have a long-term impact on their career
Job mobility stayed high, but decision-making became more cautious
47% of technology professionals were looking for a new role, and 37% had changed jobs in the prior year, yet multiple sources describe more selective hiring and longer processes
Hybrid is the market default, and it is now a retention lever
Most technology professionals (67%) reported working hybrid (3 days are the standard), with only a small minority (5%) reporting fully office-based work
Pay expectations stay elevated
65% of technology professionals expected a salary increase in 2025, even as employers operated with tighter control of headcount increases
Longer time-to-hire became normal
Hiring has become more strategic with longer times-to-hire, driven by multi-stage approvals and higher applicant numbers
Senior leadership pay bands remain wide
Leadership salary ranges are highly diverse, with broad bands across roles like CIO, CTO and COO. Another factor influencing these ranges include domain-expertise
Senior software engineering demand stayed high
Very candidate-driven in 2025 with demand consistently higher than supply for common enterprise stacks and cloud skills
DevOps and Cloud compensation remained premium
Dublin permanent bands for DevOps and Cloud in 2025 climbed sharply with experience, reaching up to €130k for DevOps and up to €120k for Cloud Architecture at 5+ years
Cybersecurity pay bands underline urgency for talent
2025 Dublin cyber contract ranges included senior security architecture up to €700-€800/day (5+ years), indicating continued scarcity at the high end, especially on the security engineering side
Data engineering hiring moved further towards "engineering-heavy" roles
Hiring teams can expect higher salaries for production and engineering-heavy data roles (Big Data, MLOps, cloud data pipelines) and more constrained growth in junior or mid-level bands
Contract day-rates stayed strong for core builders and testing engineers
In Dublin, 2025 contract ranges included Software Engineers up to €620-€720/day (5+ years) and SDET up to €560-€660/day (5+ years)
Contract premiums were most visible in ML and senior delivery
In Dublin, 2025 ML Engineer contract ranges reached €600-€750/day (5+ years), and Principal/Lead/Staff Software Engineer reached €700-€800/day (5+ years).