Publish date: 22 October, 2024Who gets what salary? For the IT industry in Bulgaria this is a question for literally billions of BGN, which we monitor and analyze in the Job Board of H512.com. This is why for the second year in a row we share the data with you, and this is due to the fact that we work with over 1500 companies, some of which publicly announce their salaries on our platform.
Before we share the aggregated information, however, we note the specifics.
1. The data. The conclusions are based on nearly 2 thousand salaries announced on the H512.com website.
2. The period. The data reflect all salaries published for the relevant categories since the beginning of 2024.
3. Net salaries. All figures are net in BGN and subject to change from the maximum social security threshold of £3,750 from 1 January this year.
4. Overstatements are also allowed. Companies that announce their salaries are sometimes the ones that offer higher ones. In this way, they claim a competitive advantage in the struggle for personnel on the market. We therefore assume that some values may be inflated compared to the actual national average.
5. Categories. We consider junior/intern listings (for people with little or no previous IT experience who are now starting their careers), salaries for mid (with 2-5 years of experience) and for senior professionals (with more than 5 years of experience).
6. The scope. Even though there are hundreds of companies on our platform, listing salaries is only optional and yet a large number of them do not. In turn, this affects the volume of data, which is smaller for some roles and technologies, so we choose not to publish them for now. Over time, however, the scope of the survey is expanding – for example, this year we are sharing information on 7 more categories.
7. Methodology. Most employers present not an exact amount, but a range – the lowest and highest possible pay. In the H512.com survey, we pay attention to the minimum and maximum pay levels for individual ranges. The data are considered as an arithmetic mean and as a median.
How much do mid and senior professionals earn ?
Looking at the arithmetic averages for people with between 2 and 5 years of experience, the highest salaries are for those involved in mobile app development. A similar trend emerges for the median, with DevOps and Java specialists also in the top 5 according to these values. If we were to compare the main categories for developers (by median), Fullstack Development positions are better paid, followed by Frontend and Backend.
Things are a little different for Senior Professionals who have 5+ years of experience in the IT industry. There is a realignment here that puts ML/AI/ Data Modelling, Data Science and again DevOps in the top 3 categories according to the arithmetic averages. When we look at the medians, we see that the same categories are leading except for Data Science which has been replaced by Android Development.
Salaries for mid and senior staff in the IT labour market
| Category in H512.com | Mid level (2-5 years of experience) | Mid level (2-5 years experience) | Senior level (5 years experience) | Senior level (5 years experience) |
| Arithmetic mean (net/en) | Median (net/lv) | Arithmetic mean (net/en) | Median (net/lv) | |
| Backend Development | 4240 – 7245 | 4000 – 7000 | 6310 – 9841 | 6000 – 9500 |
| Java | 4800 – 8260 | 5000 – 9000 | 7261 – 10557 | 7500 – 11000 |
| .NET | 3521 – 5974 | 3500 – 6185 | 5244 – 8018 | 5000 – 7155 |
| C/C/Embedded | 4250 – 6867 | 3500 – 6000 | 6156 – 9856 | 6000 – 10850 |
| PHP | 4007 – 6707 | 4000 – 7000 | 5119 – 7868 | 5500 – 8000 |
| Python | 4563 – 7252 | 5000 – 8000 | 7208 – 11592 | 7000 – 8300 |
| Node.js | 4233 – 8033 | 4000 – 8000 | 5920 – 10480 | 6000 – 10000 |
| Frontend Development | 4151 – 7813 | 4000 – 7200 | 5847 – 8613 | 5500 – 8000 |
| JavaScript | 4180 – 7611 | 4000 – 7200 | 5868 – 8801 | 5500 – 8250 |
| Angular | 3663 – 7577 | 3500 – 8000 | 6308 – 9799 | 6000 – 9000 |
| React | 4180 – 7576 | 4000 – 7000 | 6098 – 9253 | 5750 – 9000 |
| Fullstack Development | 4257 – 7323 | 4000 – 8000 | 5940 – 9331 | 5750 – 8750 |
| Mobile Development | 5229 – 8938 | 5500 – 10000 | 6652 – 10379 | 6500 – 10000 |
| iOS | 5196 – 8839 | 5500 – 10000 | 6517 – 10417 | 6500 – 10750 |
| Android | 5125 – 8653 | 5500 – 8500 | 6875 – 11375 | 6500 – 12000 |
| Quality Assurance | 3783 – 5948 | 3750 – 5500 | 4520 – 7196 | 4000 – 7000 |
| Manual QA | 2100 – 3567 | 1800 – 3200 | * | * |
| Automation QA | 4376 – 6788 | 4450 – 7000 | 5042 – 7408 | 5000 – 7500 |
| Data Science | 5090 – 8462 | 4500 – 7700 | 7222 – 11968 | 7000 – 10500 |
| ML/AI/Data Modelling | 5027 – 8555 | 4500 – 7700 | 6960 – 14710 | 7000 – 15000 |
| ERP-CRM Development** | 4273 – 7955 | 4000 – 7000 | 6350 – 9940 | 6000 – 10500 |
| Infrastructure*** | 4625 – 7372 | 4500 – 6200 | 7043 – 11098 | 7000 – 11000 |
| DevOps | 4874 – 8371 | 6000 – 10000 | 6964 – 11681 | 7000 – 12000 |
| IT Security/ Cybersecurity | 4400 – 7100 | 3900 – 7450 | 6875 – 8150 | 8000 – 9000 |
| Database Engineer | 5000 – 7550 | 4500 – 6200 | 7550 – 10719 | 8500 – 11500 |
| Technical Support | 3567 – 4933 | 3200 – 4100 | **** | **** |
*There is insufficient data for Senior Manual QA positions, so we do not publish a specific value.
**ERP-CRM Development includes Salesforce and SAP categories.
***Infrastructure includes Cybersecurity, Database Engineer, DevOps, SysAdmin and other relevant listings.
****For the first time we publish data for one of the newest categories on the H512.com Job Board, so there is not enough information about senior positions yet.
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Eligible upper and lower limits
Traditionally we show the minimum and maximum net salary values on our platform. They vary again, reaching up to 22 thousand BGN for DevOps and Infrastructure (to this category, in addition to DevOps, belong Cybersecurity, Database Engineer and SysAdmin).
In several places – for .NET, Backend Development, Manual QA and QA, it is also noticeable as a value of 725 BGN, which corresponds to the net minimum wage at the moment. For the same categories last year, the lowest possible amounts announced in H512.com were in the range of 800-1200 BGN.
However, it should be noted that salaries in this range are the exception rather than regular practice in the industry.
On the other hand, at the 4-digit maximums are the amounts only for cyber security specialists, as well as those for those involved in Quality Assurance.
Maximum and minimum salary values in 2024.
| Category in H512.com | Minimum value (net/lv) | Maximum value (net/lv.) |
| Backend Development | 725 | 20000 |
| Java | 2000 | 16000 |
| .NET | 725 | 15000 |
| C/C/Embedded | 3000 | 14000 |
| PHP | 2000 | 10000 |
| Python | 3000 | 20000 |
| Node.js | 2400 | 15000 |
| Frontend Development | 1200 | 15000 |
| JavaScript | 1200 | 15000 |
| Angular | 2400 | 14000 |
| React | 1300 | 15000 |
| Fullstack Development | 2000 | 14000 |
| Mobile Development | 3000 | 12000 |
| iOS | 3000 | 12000 |
| Android | 3000 | 12000 |
| Quality Assurance | 725 | 9900 |
| Manual QA | 725 | 7000 |
| Automation QA | 1200 | 9900 |
| Data Science | 2500 | 20000 |
| ML/AI/Data Modelling | 2500 | 20000 |
| ERP-CRM Development | 1000 | 20000 |
| Infrastructure | 2500 | 22000 |
| DevOps | 2800 | 22000 |
| IT Security/ Cybersecurity | 2800 | 9000 |
| Database Engineer | 4000 | 17600 |
| Technical Support | 1550 | 11000 |
How much do people with little or no initial experience get?
At H512.com we have a special category for people at junior/intern level. Some of the companies also announce what salaries they offer, and here – precisely because of the lack of more experience, the levels are noticeably lower than those for mid and senior positions.
Salaries for professionals without initial experience
| Category in H512.com | Arithmetic mean (net/lv) | Median (net/lv) |
| Junior/Intern (with little or no previous IT experience) | 1950 – 3075 | 2050 – 2500 |
What is the situation compared to 2023?
In a nutshell – there is a decline. In three words – there are also increases. For some positions, salaries are lower or remain at the same levels. This does not exclude the fact that there are also categories that have become better paid.
For example, if last year senior specialists involved in Backend Development received 6400-9000 BGN (median), now the amount is 6000-9500 BGN (median). On the other hand, there is no change in the median for Frontend Development for people with 5+ years of experience, but salaries have become higher for Senior Fullstack Development.
Increases in the order of several hundred BGN are also seen for people with little or no IT experience.
Comparison of values for mid and senior specialists for 2023 and 2024.
| Category in H512.com | Mid level (2-5 years of experience) | Mid level (2-5 years experience) | Senior level (5 years experience) | Senior level (5 years experience) |
| Median (net/£) in 2023 | Median (net/€) in 2024 | Median (net/€) in 2023 | Median (net/€) in 2024 | |
| Backend Development | 5000 – 7100 | 4000 – 7000 | 6400 – 9000 | 6000 – 9500 |
| Frontend Development | 4500 – 8000 | 4000 – 7200 | 5500 – 8000 | 5500 – 8000 |
| Fullstack Development | 4000 – 6500 | 4000 – 8000 | 5250 – 8000 | 5750 – 8750 |
| Mobile Development | 5000 – 10000 | 5500 – 10000 | 7000 – 10000 | 6500 – 10000 |
| Quality Assurance | 4000 – 7000 | 3750 – 5500 | 5000 – 7000 | 4000 – 7000 |
| DevOps | 6000 – 9000 | 6000 – 10000 | 7000 – 13000 | 7000 – 12000 |
See the full IT industry salary data in 2023 by clicking here.
We also asked IT professionals themselves about salaries
In a survey by H512.com’s Job Board, we asked the question, “What net monthly salary do you earn in the IT sector?”.
From the more than 3454 responses* we can summarize that the majority of respondents – nearly 35% – said they fall in the range of 2501-5000 BGN, followed by those receiving between 5001 and 8000 BGN.
At the same time, 23% or about 1/5 of the specialists are paid more than BGN 8000. On the other hand, 4 per cent receive less than 1500 BGN.
*The poll results were updated again on 5 November to reflect the responses of all those who voted.
What in the data strikes you? Is anything missing? How do you think we can improve our IT industry salary survey? Let us know all about it at gabriela@dev.bg.
