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The 17 Highest-Paying Non-Technical Jobs in Tech (Salaries Included!)

What are the highest-paying non-technical jobs in tech, and, more importantly, what do they actually pay?

If you’re interested in working in tech it’s useful to know that you don’t have the be an IT or coding expert to get a high-paying job in the industry.

In fact, there are plenty of high-paying management, creative, and business-centric roles available without having to learn all that technical knowledge.

It’s worth noting up front that the average salaries that are in this article are based on a US average, so if you’re working overseas, remotely for a company based elsewhere, or as a freelancer or consultant, this might vary for you.

So, let’s find out what your next high-paying non-technical job in tech might be! I’ve also included courses for each job title since that’s a great way to spruce up your CV and grab an employer’s attention.

I used Coursera’s courses and certifications to land me the job I have now!

1. Business Relationship Manager

Do you consider yourself a people person? That’s key to this lucrative management position. Think about being an account manager at the highest level.

You’ll be responsible for not only ensuring that the customer is happy, but that they’re paying on time, going to any events that you want them to be at, cross-selling any products or services that they might be in need of – there’s a lot of hats to wear. 

Your day might range from meeting with clients, compiling sales and insight reports, checking in with your team’s progress, or meeting with the product team about new developments.

National average salary: $61,368 per year

In order to make your resume/CV more competitive, I definitely recommend earning a few certifications on Coursera.

Check out the best course for this career path below:

2. Public Relations Specialist

If you can spin your way out of a crisis, PR might be the industry for you. Essentially it’s a branch of marketing and communications that deals with the press and the public.

If there are new products or features coming out, it’s your job to make sure the media and everyone know about it.

If something bad happens, it’s up to you to do some damage control. It can be a pretty stressful job, but if you love networking and problem-solving, becoming a PR Specialist is an ideal role.

National average salary: $60,122 per year

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3. Market Research Manager

Every company, especially in the tech industry, is going to want to test its product and work out what people need way before they launch it. That’s where market research comes in.

You’ll be interviewing the target audience, finding out their needs, how they plan on using the product, and what their feedback might be during the later stages of development. 

It’s an interesting role because you need to know what makes people tick and get them to open up about their experiences.

It’s definitely a people-centric role, but you’ll still need the analytical skills to write up your findings in reports for the product management team.

National average salary: $60,442 per year

4. Documentation Manager

Do you consider yourself to be the most organized person in any room you walk into? Can you understand and categorize documents like a pro?

Documentation managers are responsible for the organization and keeping of all the documents in the business. This includes legal documentation, training guides, manuals, and more. 

You’ll work closely with communications and the technical writers as well as training new employees on documentation standards and guidelines.

If your company is trying to get certified, you’ll be integral in evidencing why the business meets the necessary standards and providing the documentation and explanation to back it all up.

National average salary: $71,259 per year

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5. Operations Manager

If you think that you can keep all the plates spinning around the business on a daily basis, check out a role as an operations manager.

Essentially, as an ops manager, you’d make sure that everything is running smoothly.

Whether that’s hiring new team members, liaising with department heads, taking meetings with vendors and resellers, and more. 

On a day-to-day level, this is the role that runs the show and makes sure everyone has what they need to do their job correctly and successfully.

That’s no small feat, especially in an industry as fast-moving as tech!

National average salary: $63,497 per year

6. Social Media Strategist

Do you know what drives people to like, share, and subscribe? Becoming a social media strategist is so much more than creating content and boosting followers.

You’ll be responsible for planning and mapping out campaigns, driving brand direction, and using reporting metrics to measure success and tweak accordingly.

Any given day might be a mix of brainstorming creative campaigns, recruiting influencers or ambassadors, meeting with advertisers, liaising with product managers for new content information, and much, much more.

It’s a big job and only growing with the impact of social media marketing.

National average salary: $60,205 per year

7. Investment Banker

One of the biggest issues with tech companies is funding.

A lot of time, tech companies start off with either an idea that they need to build or someone with the technical capability to build the product but no idea how to run a business or market the problem.

Investment bankers search for the next big thing and help them raise the necessary funds for them to grow and be successful.

Other day-to-day roles that an investment banker might be in charge of are things like takeovers, shareholder relations, legal and finance meetings and documentation, risk analysis, and looking at the markets for any impactful fluctuations.

National average salary: $64,807 per year

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8. Human Resources Manager

Okay, so this is the ultimate people-person role.

Often Human Resources are responsible for hiring, training, solving any employee issues, overseeing well-being strategies, and communicating any employee benefits or events that might impact the working day. 

As an HR Manager, you’ll most likely oversee a sub-section of HR like recruitment, benefits, learning & development, or health & wellbeing.

From here you’ll direct strategy, manage individual team members, and report back to the Head of HR on everything from metrics to budget to retention and beyond. 

National average salary: $70,360 per year

9. Business Development Manager

It’s important to understand that a business development manager differs from a business relationship manager.

Business development managers are more aligned with sales and business relationship managers are more like account managers. 

As a BD manager, you’ll be identifying new markets and avenues for sales to go down. It’s all about finding opportunities that haven’t been considered yet.

This might be a new demographic, a new market, or realizing that a new feature might open up a whole new world of possibilities.

It’s not easy to tap into new markets, but if you can, it’s seriously lucrative.  

National average salary: $71,623 per year

10. Digital Marketing Strategist

As a department, digital marketing encompasses a ton of sub-sections from written content to social media, PPC advertising, videography, and more.

Marketing is anything that gets your company’s name and product out in front of your target audience.

a woman doing digital marketing

This could be other businesses, direct to consumers, or on a governmental or organizational level. As a digital marketing strategist, you’ll be setting the tone in terms of goals, aims, and campaigns for the whole department.

Working alongside the social media strategist, you’ll have to use creativity and analytical thinking to create amazing campaigns, but also track their impact and report back accordingly.

This can involve a lot of trial and error, but when the budget is limited, it can be really tricky!

National average salary: $61,187 per year

This course is an especially cool one because it’s actually taught by Google itself and is one of the top-selling courses on Coursera!

You’ll end the course with an official Professional Certificate from Google!

11. Sales Manager

This role is pretty straightforward as most companies – tech or otherwise – have a sales department.

Sales managers are responsible for sharing out leads and supporting the sales team in collecting and converting customers. 

You might be out in the field with your team, at sales conferences and events, writing reports to track progress, or liaising with the business relationship and product teams to ensure knowledge is up to date across the board.

It’s a lot of report writing and people management, rather than actual sales at this level, but when bigger clients come along, you may still have to pitch and close the deal.

National average salary: $71,960 per year

12. Management Consultant

Consultants are a really interesting group of people. Essentially, you go into businesses, observe and audit processes, and give recommendations and training to help solve management issues.

Normally, management consultants will be ex-corporate heads who have experience working in successful firms and want to share their wisdom with the next generation of businesses.

Management consultants tend to be brought in as contractors or freelancers so it’s not necessarily a steady job, but the day rates are very high.

If you can get a roster of clients on a regular rotation, you can make a lot of money based on your existing experience.

It’s definitely a “who you know” industry and word of mouth travel fast if you’ve made positive or negative improvements to a business!

National average salary: $73,786 per year

13. Business Analyst

Do you have a knack for making things more efficient? Business analysts look through existing processes, protocols, and software and look for more time-saving and cost-effective solutions.

a man looking at a statistical report on an ipad

As the name suggests, it’s a lot of analytical work and you’ll be constantly collating reports, finding tension points for different departments, and trying to find a reasonable solution.

If you love problem-solving, this is going to be right up your street. 

National average salary: $73,868 per year

14. Legal Adviser

With patents, copyrights, creative ownership, freelancers, financial contracts, and more, as a tech firm, like any other business, you’re going to need a legal advisor at some point.

This is the role that keeps you out of trouble and helps prevent you from getting sued.

Even down to the copy that gets posted on the website – that needs to be vetted by legal if you’re making any strong claims.

There are a lot of messes you can get into without legal counsel as a new business, so getting someone in ASAP is a great idea. 

National average salary: $81,946 per year

15. Quality Assurance Manager

So, you’ve set up your product and you’ve rolled it out, but you need to make sure it’s always running smoothly, and the supporting processes are following protocol.

This is where a quality assurance manager comes in. 

They check intermittently on different processes around the business to make sure that everyone is working to the company’s high-quality standards and guidelines.

This ranges from security to customer service to sales scripts and calls.

Making sure that everyone is on message is crucial to a new business who are trying to build a brand as well as convert and retain customers. 

National average salary: $73,228 per year

16. Data Scientist

If you can see patterns in data from a mile away, you might have a future as a data scientist.

Often working alongside business analysts, data scientists unpack and read any specified data and find trends that the management team or department heads can then report back and act upon.

Especially in a new tech business, staying on top of trends, adapting, and fixing any negative trends quickly are going to be crucial.

Data science is an art form as much as an analytical role!

National average salary: $75,189 per year

17. Product Manager

Finally, we have product managers. The job is kind of self-explanatory and you own and are responsible for a product through its entire lifecycle.

From research to briefing to building to testing to marketing and more. That product is your baby and it’s your job to make sure it’s a success.

Along the way, you’ll end up working with pretty much every single department and it’s a lot of wrangling different people, ensuring that they complete tasks to a high standard on a fixed deadline.

It can be super stressful, but when it works, it’s a great feeling!

National average salary: $95,878 per year

Ready to Switch to Your New Career in Tech?

So, there are plenty of high-paying non-technical jobs in tech. Whether you’re more creative, analytical, or management minded, you’re sure to find a role that’s a good fit, with a ton of progression to these high-paying gigs.

Working in tech is sometimes stressful, but it’s also innovative, fun, and exciting, so there’s a lot to love about a non-technical job in the tech industry.

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