Although demand for corporate IT department staff has been declining for several years, the pace of that trend slowed markedly in 2025. At the same time, growing technological and market challenges are reinforcing the importance of IT skills within companies—especially in areas that support operational efficiency, security and process quality. As a result, competency requirements for specialists are rising, and the strongest demand is now for roles linked to cybersecurity, data analytics and process automation, according to Grafton Recruitment’s report “Salaries and Trends in Enterprises 2025.”
Demand for specialists in in-house IT support functions has clearly fallen in recent years. Grafton Recruitment data shows that in the third quarter of 2025, the demand index in this area stood at 0.54—a result half the market benchmark for all roles (1.01) and three times lower than at the beginning of 2022, when companies were rapidly expanding IT teams.
In recent months, however, the downward trend has visibly eased. While companies are not recruiting intensively, employment is no longer declining as sharply as it did a year earlier. Organizations are maintaining a new approach to building IT teams—focusing on hiring specialists with mission-critical skills and systematically developing the capabilities of existing staff.
“The slowdown in the downward trend may indicate upcoming stabilization in demand for specialists in IT departments,” explains Julia Łamacz, IT Recruitment Project Manager at Grafton Recruitment. “At the same time, a shift in how companies acquire and develop technical teams is becoming increasingly clear. Recruitment processes are now more selective and focused on specializations and skills that truly support technological transformation.”
Demand in Other Functions Remains Higher
While recruitment in IT support is weakening, demand in many other corporate functions remains above the average for all roles. The highest demand index was recorded in logistics (1.09), sales (1.05) and customer service (1.01). Slightly lower—but still moderate—demand persists in areas such as marketing (0.82), administration and procurement (0.75) and finance (0.73), while it is significantly lower in specializations such as tax (0.57) and audit (0.47). A similar pattern is visible in HR (0.63) and PR (0.54).
“The data clearly shows that over the past year companies focused on operational activities and on functions directly linked to sales and customer service, which translated into the scale of recruitment,” says Joanna Ciężkowska, Senior Brand Manager at Grafton Recruitment. “In other departments—even those as important as finance or marketing—hiring dynamics were weaker. This reflects not only efficiency pressure and cost optimization, but also the nature of specific functions, automation of processes and tasks in those areas, and the scale of earlier recruitment.”
Skills That Make the Difference
Within IT support functions, the most sought-after competencies today are related to cybersecurity, ERP systems, process automation and Business Intelligence. These areas are now the foundation of efficient and secure operations, especially as technology environments become more complex.
At the same time, demand is rising for professionals who combine technical expertise with analytical skills and the ability to implement modern tools that automate business processes. Alongside hard technical capabilities, soft skills that enable effective cooperation with the business side are also gaining importance. Increasingly, they influence hiring decisions—especially in conditions of strong competition for candidates.
“We are seeing a clear increase in demand for specialists in areas that directly support digital transformation—particularly where technology must be combined with security, analytics and scalable processes,” adds Julia Łamacz. “Candidates with these competencies are among the most sought-after in the market today.”
Salaries in Corporate IT Support Functions
In 2025, salary levels in corporate IT departments remained relatively stable compared with the previous year, with pay ranges varying by location, seniority and the expected degree of technical specialization. The highest salaries were traditionally offered in Warsaw, which concentrates the largest number of IT centers and global support structures.
In the capital, service desk specialists could expect PLN 7,000–9,500 gross in 2025, while in Kraków, Wrocław or Poznań the lower end of the range was PLN 5,800–6,000. Differences were even more pronounced in specialized roles: third-line support professionals in Warsaw earned PLN 17,000–23,000, compared with PLN 10,000–16,000 in Kraków and Wrocław. Meanwhile, technical support managers in Warsaw received PLN 22,000–30,000, versus PLN 16,000–21,000 in Katowice.
Pay ranges were broader still for expert roles. Cybersecurity consultants in Warsaw could expect offers of PLN 26,000–32,000, while in Kraków and Poznań salaries reached up to PLN 28,000. The highest rates applied to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) role: in Warsaw, ranges were PLN 33,000–54,000, while in other locations the upper end rarely exceeded PLN 40,000. Regional differences reflect not only living costs and local labor-market competitiveness, but also the scale of technology operations.
How Salaries Increased in 2025
An analysis of average pay growth in corporate IT support functions shows a clear variation in the pace of salary changes. The largest increases were recorded in managerial and strategic roles: technical support managers saw rises of +15.5%, while cybersecurity consultants and CTOs recorded increases of +14.3% and +12.5%, respectively. Strong growth also applied to SAP consultants (+8.1%) and second-line (+9.3%) and third-line support specialists (+11.4%). The smallest raises—between +3.4% and +5.4%—were seen in roles where candidate availability is higher, including network engineers, systems administrators and service desk specialists.
“Salary growth in IT departments in 2025 reflected the rising value of specialized skills and the limited availability of certain competencies in the market,” Łamacz adds. “The biggest increases applied to roles linked to security, advanced technical support and IT team management, but the sector as a whole remains among the most attractive in terms of pay levels.”
About the Report
Grafton Recruitment’s “Salaries and Trends in Enterprises” report was prepared using job-posting data and a quantitative survey conducted among employees. The analysis covered 4,975,256 job advertisements from a popular recruitment portal in Poland. From this dataset, 1,414,836 private-sector offers were identified. After a deduplication process to remove repeated records, the final number of unique advertisements was 637,793. The study included positions covered by Grafton Recruitment’s salary grids.
