The ManfredTech Career Report 2025
Back to the money, folks! Prioritizing profitability vs. growth
The tech market has changed. A lot. Understanding these changes is key to not falling behind.
The current moment can be understood as a correction of the excesses of 2020-2022. The market continues to grow, but at a natural, slower pace.
Even so, the emergence of generative AI has changed the way new companies are created and has also changed the focus of startup funding.
Quick summary: a change in role priorities, stagnant salaries, less focus on growth and more on profitability (which means fewer open positions), and a gradual decline in remote work that is now consolidating after three years of decrease.
Let's look at the data!
Some data we have used for the report
112.600People who are part of the Manfred community
+8.000New people compared to 2024
54%People who have updated their data in the last year
+850Companies we have worked with
X-ray of technical talent in Spain: what the community is like
We have analyzed the data from more than 110,000 people that make up the Manfred and Circular community to understand how technologies and roles are distributed in the Spanish community, what are the predominant technologies and languages, what technologies are the least desired or what soft skills are the most demanded.
💡 Explore the percentage of talent for each role in the Talent Community by Technology chart
Talent pool by tech
Role
Technology
Talent share
Years of experience
1
Python
2
Java
3
NodeJS
4
PHP
5
C#
6
C++
7
Go
8
Ruby
9
Rust
Distribution of community roles
What are the majority roles of the community. An overview of how technical roles are distributed by percentage.
A very clear view of how roles are distributed within the community in Spain.
Disclaimer: percentages do not add up to 100% because, as is common, people often hold more than one role throughout their working life.
75% of the community identifies with the most traditional roles within development: Backend, Frontend, and Full-Stack.
Most used technologies
Top 10 of the languages, technologies and tools most selected by the community and their percentage with respect to the total of all technologies.
It's happened! This has been the year. A major upset! Python has overtaken Java and is now the third most used language. has widened its lead and skyrocketed. We've gone from 20% to 35%. And TypeScript has also climbed several positions compared to last year. In frameworks, and Vue on the rise. And as for libraries/tools, Node.js has taken first place for the first time in all these years, surpassing MySQL and Git.
Most disliked technologies
Top 10 selected languages, technologies and tools that people in the community specifically do not want to work with and their percentage of the total. In Manfred, users can select the technologies they do not want to be contacted for.
There aren't many changes here. Java remains the
desired technology for 1 in 4 developers, as does . The most notable change
JavaScript overtakes C in the "hate" ranking. As for frameworks, Ruby on Rails appears for the first time, dethroning.
and Windows remain the least desired technologies/tools once again.
Predominant languages and technologies according to years of professional experience
Heat map (darker colors have a higher percentage of people and use, and lighter colors have a lower percentage of people and use) of the top 10 most used languages and technologies based on the different ranges of experience.
| <2y | 2-5y | 5-10y | >10y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CSS | 39.1 % | 30.6 % | 17.7 % | 12.7 % |
| HTML | 38.6 % | 30.4 % | 18.0 % | 13.0 % |
| JavaScript | 34.5 % | 32.1 % | 19.5 % | 13.9 % |
| Python | 33.7 % | 32.0 % | 20.5 % | 13.8 % |
| TypeScript | 30.8 % | 37.1 % | 22.3 % | 9.8 % |
| Java | 30.4 % | 30.2 % | 21.2 % | 18.2 % |
| C++ | 28.6 % | 30.7 % | 21.0 % | 19.7 % |
| SQL | 27.2 % | 30.8 % | 22.5 % | 19.6 % |
| C# | 25.9 % | 31.9 % | 23.3 % | 19.0 % |
| PHP | 25.6 % | 28.8 % | 23.4 % | 22.2 % |
| <2y | 2-5y | 5-10y | >10y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Express | 42.5 % | 31.9 % | 17.0 % | 8.6 % |
| Bootstrap | 37.9 % | 29.5 % | 18.4 % | 14.3 % |
| React | 37.7 % | 34.4 % | 18.6 % | 9.3 % |
| Spring Boot | 30.0 % | 32.7 % | 21.2 % | 16.0 % |
| Laravel | 27.5 % | 35.6 % | 23.0 % | 14.0 % |
| Vue | 27.1 % | 36.6 % | 23.3 % | 13.0 % |
| Angular2+ | 25.4 % | 35.8 % | 24.8 % | 14.0 % |
| Spring | 23.5 % | 30.6 % | 24.0 % | 21.9 % |
| .NET | 20.6 % | 31.2 % | 24.6 % | 23.6 % |
| jQuery | 18.0 % | 28.3 % | 26.6 % | 27.1 % |
| <2y | 2-5y | 5-10y | >10y | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| NodeJS | 33.8 % | 34.4 % | 20.1 % | 11.7 % |
| MongoDB | 31.0 % | 32.1 % | 20.5 % | 16.3 % |
| MySQL | 30.0 % | 29.6 % | 20.6 % | 19.8 % |
| Git | 27.3 % | 31.9 % | 22.8 % | 18.0 % |
| PostgreSQL | 26.5 % | 32.3 % | 22.6 % | 18.6 % |
| Linux | 22.8 % | 29.6 % | 23.1 % | 24.4 % |
| SQLServer | 22.4 % | 30.3 % | 22.5 % | 24.7 % |
| Docker | 21.2 % | 33.3 % | 25.1 % | 20.4 % |
| AWS | 19.7 % | 32.4 % | 26.4 % | 21.5 % |
| Jira | 17.9 % | 31.5 % | 27.5 % | 23.2 % |
What happens during your career as you gain experience? You typically learn new technologies and specialize.
Interesting facts this year: TypeScript is climbing significantly. It's in fifth place with a 5% increase in people with less than two years of experience. However, PHP has fallen to last place. There are more junior TypeScript developers and fewer junior PHP developers.
Vue surpasses Angular in the number of junior and mid-level developers. And Node.js has taken first place, also with a higher percentage of people at the early levels.
Soft skills commonly found within the Tech Community vs. Soft skills companies are looking for
Comparison of soft skills within the tech community vs. soft skills companies are looking for.
There is still a brutal difference between the soft skills that companies ask for and what candidates excel in.
Proactivity, teamwork, self-management, attention to detail or verbal and written communication are the areas of greatest difference.
If you have to train, read or improve your CV, let it be in these soft skills.
What do professionals want? Salary and job perks
The technology job market has changed quite a bit in recent years. What do the candidates prefer? Remote or hybrid? And the companies? We represent the average salary by role and different years of experience. And the impact that English has on salary.
💡 English has an impact on salary of around €10K or more for the same position.
Work location preference
Comparison of the three work set-ups that candidates registered with Manfred can choose from. Hybrid refers to the set-up that is partially remote. We have improved the location graph by adding a comparison of the location that candidates prefer (it does not have to be just one) and the location that companies offer in their job offers.
- Remote work
- Hybrid work
- On site
Less than 10% prefer a fully in-person model. Ahem...
Almost 70% opt for 100% remote work.
If you're thinking about which model to choose for your engineering team, it will be easier to hire if you choose full remote 🤷.
Average salary by role
Heat map linking the main job roles with their percentage distribution based on salary.
| €20-30K | €31-40K | €41-50K | €51-60K | €61-80K | >80K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Developer | 67.5 % | 14.6 % | 7.6 % | 4.2 % | 3.8 % | 2.4 % |
| Data Analyst & BI | 67.7 % | 18.7 % | 6.8 % | 3.0 % | 1.7 % | 2.2 % |
| Data Engineer | 50.1 % | 22.6 % | 11.8 % | 7.0 % | 6.2 % | 2.4 % |
| Data Scientist | 51.3 % | 23.9 % | 12.0 % | 5.8 % | 4.5 % | 2.5 % |
| DevOps & Infrastructure & SRE | 46.9 % | 19.1 % | 12.8 % | 8.0 % | 8.8 % | 4.3 % |
| Engineering Management | 28.1 % | 16.9 % | 20.0 % | 16.1 % | 9.4 % | 9.4 % |
| Frontend Developer | 71.6 % | 12.4 % | 6.4 % | 4.2 % | 3.3 % | 2.1 % |
| Full-Stack Developer | 68.7 % | 13.3 % | 7.0 % | 4.7 % | 3.9 % | 2.5 % |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 63.4 % | 23.1 % | 5.9 % | 3.3 % | 1.2 % | 3.1 % |
| Mobile Developer | 65.1 % | 14.8 % | 9.2 % | 4.6 % | 4.1 % | 2.3 % |
| Product Design (UI/UX) | 76.1 % | 13.6 % | 5.2 % | 2.0 % | 1.2 % | 1.9 % |
| Product Manager | 43.7 % | 30.4 % | 11.1 % | 6.7 % | 5.2 % | 3.0 % |
| Project Manager & Delivery Manager | 50.1 % | 19.9 % | 12.5 % | 9.0 % | 6.4 % | 2.1 % |
| QA & Testing | 60.9 % | 17.9 % | 10.8 % | 5.7 % | 2.6 % | 2.0 % |
| Scrum Master & Agile Coach | 62.9 % | 22.7 % | 6.2 % | 6.2 % | 1.0 % | 1.0 % |
| Software Architect | 41.5 % | 21.1 % | 14.8 % | 10.4 % | 7.0 % | 5.3 % |
| SysAdmin | 81.0 % | 13.0 % | 2.5 % | 0.7 % | 1.8 % | 1.1 % |
| Tech Lead | 33.3 % | 22.6 % | 10.7 % | 19.1 % | 7.1 % | 7.1 % |
| €20-30K | €31-40K | €41-50K | €51-60K | €61-80K | >80K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Developer | 29.7 % | 27.1 % | 19.0 % | 10.1 % | 8.6 % | 5.5 % |
| Data Analyst & BI | 30.2 % | 27.5 % | 23.1 % | 9.9 % | 6.2 % | 3.2 % |
| Data Engineer | 17.7 % | 25.1 % | 24.7 % | 15.0 % | 11.4 % | 6.1 % |
| Data Scientist | 18.6 % | 25.3 % | 23.9 % | 14.7 % | 11.2 % | 6.3 % |
| DevOps & Infrastructure & SRE | 17.2 % | 19.7 % | 24.7 % | 17.2 % | 13.8 % | 7.6 % |
| Engineering Management | 13.6 % | 9.7 % | 16.3 % | 17.1 % | 23.9 % | 19.4 % |
| Frontend Developer | 35.6 % | 27.4 % | 16.8 % | 8.1 % | 7.2 % | 4.9 % |
| Full-Stack Developer | 31.3 % | 28.0 % | 18.7 % | 8.9 % | 8.3 % | 4.9 % |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 14.6 % | 26.5 % | 28.6 % | 17.7 % | 9.2 % | 3.5 % |
| Mobile Developer | 28.5 % | 22.9 % | 19.1 % | 10.3 % | 11.1 % | 8.1 % |
| Product Design (UI/UX) | 43.0 % | 32.8 % | 14.7 % | 4.8 % | 2.9 % | 1.9 % |
| Product Manager | 11.2 % | 27.2 % | 32.6 % | 16.8 % | 9.7 % | 2.5 % |
| Project Manager & Delivery Manager | 27.6 % | 21.0 % | 22.3 % | 14.0 % | 10.1 % | 5.0 % |
| QA & Testing | 32.4 % | 26.5 % | 19.2 % | 10.8 % | 6.9 % | 4.2 % |
| Scrum Master & Agile Coach | 20.2 % | 36.2 % | 25.0 % | 11.7 % | 4.3 % | 2.7 % |
| Software Architect | 14.2 % | 13.7 % | 20.2 % | 16.6 % | 19.4 % | 15.8 % |
| SysAdmin | 36.5 % | 36.5 % | 16.2 % | 7.2 % | 2.8 % | 0.8 % |
| Tech Lead | 7.8 % | 23.7 % | 28.2 % | 20.4 % | 14.4 % | 5.6 % |
| €20-30K | €31-40K | €41-50K | €51-60K | €61-80K | >80K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Developer | 9.9 % | 18.5 % | 26.7 % | 18.3 % | 16.5 % | 10.0 % |
| Data Analyst & BI | 14.2 % | 20.0 % | 25.0 % | 20.0 % | 14.3 % | 6.5 % |
| Data Engineer | 8.1 % | 9.1 % | 21.4 % | 26.4 % | 22.7 % | 12.3 % |
| Data Scientist | 10.2 % | 12.3 % | 21.2 % | 22.3 % | 22.7 % | 11.1 % |
| DevOps & Infrastructure & SRE | 5.9 % | 10.3 % | 20.8 % | 20.6 % | 25.8 % | 16.6 % |
| Engineering Management | 7.7 % | 5.1 % | 11.4 % | 15.9 % | 29.2 % | 30.6 % |
| Frontend Developer | 12.7 % | 20.4 % | 27.0 % | 18.1 % | 14.2 % | 7.6 % |
| Full-Stack Developer | 10.8 % | 19.4 % | 27.3 % | 17.7 % | 15.6 % | 9.2 % |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 5.1 % | 9.6 % | 20.7 % | 23.6 % | 27.4 % | 13.7 % |
| Mobile Developer | 11.9 % | 15.1 % | 22.4 % | 20.8 % | 18.4 % | 11.4 % |
| Product Design (UI/UX) | 18.4 % | 30.4 % | 25.8 % | 11.0 % | 9.9 % | 4.5 % |
| Product Manager | 3.8 % | 12.0 % | 31.9 % | 22.0 % | 21.8 % | 8.5 % |
| Project Manager & Delivery Manager | 9.4 % | 14.7 % | 26.4 % | 18.9 % | 20.4 % | 10.1 % |
| QA & Testing | 16.3 % | 16.9 % | 23.6 % | 20.5 % | 15.8 % | 7.0 % |
| Scrum Master & Agile Coach | 7.0 % | 19.4 % | 36.3 % | 23.4 % | 10.6 % | 3.3 % |
| Software Architect | 7.2 % | 4.9 % | 14.9 % | 20.0 % | 28.4 % | 24.5 % |
| SysAdmin | 19.0 % | 31.1 % | 24.6 % | 10.6 % | 10.0 % | 4.7 % |
| Tech Lead | 2.1 % | 7.6 % | 21.8 % | 25.4 % | 30.3 % | 12.8 % |
| €20-30K | €31-40K | €41-50K | €51-60K | €61-80K | >80K | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Developer | 5.5 % | 13.3 % | 25.9 % | 22.8 % | 21.5 % | 11.0 % |
| Data Analyst & BI | 8.2 % | 15.3 % | 25.8 % | 19.9 % | 22.9 % | 8.0 % |
| Data Engineer | 5.4 % | 9.0 % | 18.0 % | 18.3 % | 30.8 % | 18.5 % |
| Data Scientist | 7.1 % | 10.0 % | 22.4 % | 18.3 % | 24.8 % | 17.4 % |
| DevOps & Infrastructure & SRE | 3.8 % | 7.7 % | 19.1 % | 20.9 % | 29.5 % | 19.0 % |
| Engineering Management | 1.6 % | 3.2 % | 9.2 % | 17.2 % | 34.2 % | 34.6 % |
| Frontend Developer | 8.1 % | 15.8 % | 27.3 % | 21.0 % | 17.9 % | 9.9 % |
| Full-Stack Developer | 6.0 % | 13.7 % | 27.1 % | 22.3 % | 20.0 % | 10.9 % |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 5.3 % | 6.9 % | 14.3 % | 21.7 % | 30.2 % | 21.7 % |
| Mobile Developer | 3.1 % | 12.5 % | 24.2 % | 23.2 % | 22.3 % | 14.8 % |
| Product Design (UI/UX) | 14.9 % | 26.8 % | 28.4 % | 15.2 % | 10.3 % | 4.4 % |
| Product Manager | 2.5 % | 5.6 % | 18.8 % | 21.5 % | 35.0 % | 16.5 % |
| Project Manager & Delivery Manager | 2.9 % | 6.9 % | 22.4 % | 24.6 % | 32.3 % | 10.9 % |
| QA & Testing | 8.3 % | 15.9 % | 29.7 % | 19.6 % | 19.3 % | 7.3 % |
| Scrum Master & Agile Coach | 4.4 % | 7.7 % | 28.3 % | 25.9 % | 25.9 % | 7.7 % |
| Software Architect | 2.2 % | 3.4 % | 15.0 % | 22.5 % | 33.1 % | 23.8 % |
| SysAdmin | 10.9 % | 26.1 % | 26.3 % | 16.7 % | 14.5 % | 5.6 % |
| Tech Lead | 1.2 % | 3.8 % | 15.7 % | 24.4 % | 32.9 % | 22.0 % |
The Engineering Manager and Software Architect roles remain the highest paid.
Product Design and SysAdmin are the lowest paid.
One of the most noteworthy and curious, yet also symptomatic, things is that practically no junior role with less than two years of experience earns more than €30,000. Last year, there were as many as six roles in the €30,000-€40,000 range. Starting salaries are no longer as lucrative as they once were.
Proficiency in English and its impact on salary
English is the language par excellence in our environment for the communication of many companies. But... How important is it to know languages (precisely English) and how does it influence your salary? Well, here we tell you. Basic levels of English correspond to A2 standard, Intermediate to B1, Fluent to B2-C1 and native to C2.
This chart is priceless. How does knowing English impact your salary? Someone with over 10 years of experience who doesn't speak English can earn an average of €32,000 less than someone who is fluent in the language of Shakespeare. Tip: Start learning English. Now!
What are companies looking for and offering?
What is the other part of the market like? The companies that hire. We are going to review the salaries offered, the most in-demand roles, the most offered perks and the locations of the offers.
The Locations Offered graph is very revealing. Third consecutive year of decline of the remote and rise of the hybrid.
Salary offered by employers vs. Salary wanted by candidates
What is the other part of the market like? The companies that hire. We are going to review the salaries offered, the most in-demand roles, the most offered perks and the locations of the offers. Comparison between the salary offered by companies and the salary expected by candidates according to job roles.
This chart is juicy, so grab some bread for dipping.
What companies offer and what candidates are asking for have become more balanced in some roles. For example, Engineering Management, Scrum Master, or Project Manager.
But the most amazing thing is that in many roles, what companies offer is above candidates' expectations for the first time in years.
The biggest differences are in the ML Engineer and Data Scientist roles, which pay much better than expected. There are few people in these fields, and AI has driven demand up again.
Most in-demand roles
At times when companies go into “maintenance mode” or prioritize profit, there are always areas of technology teams that tend to suffer. Also, advances make some positions more in demand than others. We have created a history of the most in-demand roles over the last 3 years.
This chart is also very revealing of what's happening in the market. There are some very noteworthy changes:
Frontend falls to fourth place while Full-stack rises to second.
Data Scientist and Data Engineer are rising rapidly compared to previous years.
Note the rise in architecture roles. And the drop of Mobile Developers, Product Design, and QAs to last place.
The market is changing the way teams are created and maintained.
Most commonly-found job perks
Free fruit, pizza and coffee in the office are long gone (although we still see them in some offers). But the benefits offered by companies are not always the same. We have created a ranking and we have measured it against previous years.
The trend in the most frequently offered benefits doesn't give us much information.
, we do see a decrease in some interesting items such as Conference Budget, Extra Vacation Days, and Discounts on company products, while Flexible Compensation is on the rise. Next year,
will begin measuring the benefits offered in job postings to see if they increase or decrease over time.
Work set-ups on offer
What locations are being offered in job postings? The trend is clear. Remote work is falling to historic lows, while hybrid work is rising in a correlated fashion.
It's important to understand that these percentages are based on Manfred's job postings. The percentage of remote work in the overall market is around 30-35%.
The gender gap
The bad news is that the gender gap still exists. And we will continue to make it visible until it ceases to exist. We have identified female representation in the sector and the average salary by gender and experience.
There has been an increase in female representation this year (+16%) but the wage gap has not decreased.
Total female representation by roles
We have drawn what roles the femenine representation is divided to clearly show what technical positions women occupy.
There has been an increase in female representation this year. A 16% increase compared to last year (approximately 3,000 people) has boosted the amount of female talent in technical roles.
Total female representation by roles vs male
And furthermore, we have compared it with male representation in most technical roles.
This graph complements the one above. What is the percentage and difference between the main roles between women and men? In the best of cases, the percentage of women in a role is a little less than 10% such as in Backend or Frontend. While in others, it is diluted even more.
Female representation vs. male
Comparison between male and female representation according to the different roles.
In terms of percentages by role, there is no role with any degree of parity. Only in UX/UI design do the percentages come close. Technical leadership and infrastructure roles have the fewest women, while Product, Testing, and Data roles have the most.
Salary aspirations by gender and role
Do men earn more than women? On average, the answer is yes. And here you have the data. In virtually all roles, women are paid less than men.
This represents a systemic gap. A noticeable difference exists in all roles, but it is most evident in technical leadership roles.
The most equalized roles are those of Mobile, QA, Data Analyst, and Product Designer.
Salary calculator + Average salary by gender and experience
Get an accurate picture of the gender pay gap with this calculator. Choose a role and an experience range and our calculator will return the average salary for men and women.
Calculator
Average salary by gender and level of experience
Across all levels of professional experience, there is a gender pay gap. Having said that, it is not as obvious in more junior profiles, where the gap is less than €1K, while in professional profiles with over 10 years of experience, the gap can exceed €10K in some cases.
Methodology
This report is based on the Manfred database, which contained 112,660 professional profiles as of November 10, 2025.
Years of experience
During the last year, our Community has been enriched with many new people who have tipped the balance. This explains the number of people who have been trained and are finding it difficult to find their first job opportunity. Although we continue to have a large percentage of seniors (>32%) with experience between 5 and 10 years.
Type of role
Almost 50 professional roles were included in the analysis, which can all be found in Manfred’s taxonomy.
To the right, you can see the 10 roles with the greatest levels of representation.
Gender
In order to understand the impact of gender on working conditions, which we believe can help bring awareness to the issue, we have used an API that extracts the gender based on the person's name. According to this API, 77% of the study is represented by men, while 13% are women. The remaining 8% could not be extracted.
Because we don't ask about gender in our registration form. The alternative to using an API would be to conduct an anonymous survey among our users or to ask about gender in the onboarding and store it in a separate database without relating it to the users. Both alternatives would have prevented us from shedding light on the issue of the gender pay gap, due to lack of data and lack of technical resources to carry it out.
- Female
- Men
- Not defined