We might be seeing a greater spread of salaries for heads of data
This is part four of a several part series analysing four years of data vacancy data in nonprofits.
Part one gives an overview and explains a bit more about the dataset.
Heads of data
This is a job family that covers roles such as Head of Data or Head of Insights. For simplicity I’m going to refer to “Heads of Data” roles throughout.
How much Heads of data get paid
Heads of data roles had median salaries of £65,933 in 2026. This was up from £56,019 in 2022.
Though the median salary has bounced around a bit I think we can see a general increase over the years.
But what, you ask, is the spread of salaries?
To the dumbbell charts.
If your salary is between the dots then you're in the same range as 50% of Heads of data. If your salary is lower than the lower dot you're in the range where only 25% of Heads of data get paid this little. If your salary is higher than the high dot, you're in the range where only 25% of Heads of data get paid this much.
These roles include London weighting where that is relevant. They are also the FTE rate in cases where the post was advertised on part time hours.
We’ve seeing a big spread of salaries in 2026. This could be an artefact of a smaller dataset. If I were to speculate I might imagine that more organisations are recognising they need a head of data but many organisations can’t justify the typical salary. The upper bound is reasonably steady but we’re seeing expansion at the lower bound.
I’ve drawn one chart for each calendar year.
2026
2025
2024
2023
2022
Heads of data overall
As we might expect there are fewer adverts for Head of data positions than more junior roles. Though looking back I’ve been surprised, ad pleased, to see that actually there are more than I remembered.
There is a real range of salary within this job family. Does this suggest that there is progression within the job family? Are people being recruited to lower salary roles and then moving into higher salary roles?
I can’t tell from this data. Which is frustrating. But I am pleased to see that there are a steady stream of adverts for heads of data in nonprofits. So if you are in a more junior role right now there is something to work towards.
