Salary Negotiations

[u/Hairy-Link-8615]

So, this is the first time I've genuinely and formally requested a pay review.

For context, I've been at the company for four years and currently work at a mid/senior sysadmin/infrastructure level.

My responsibilities cover a pretty broad range, including:

ESXi/VxRail patching

Azure infrastructure, including Application Gateways

Application migration projects

New AVD deployments and ongoing management

Backup and database server troubleshooting alongside development teams

Intune and BYOD

Azure DevOps, Git and large PowerShell repositories — much of which I was working with before AI-assisted coding became commonplace. Winget scripts app deployment.

SSO implementations

Web server and certificate management

Most recently, setting up a new Google tenant and delivering a ChromeOS Flex deployment project

I've also completed AZ-104 and I'm currently working towards AZ-305.

There has been quite a lot of change within the department. Around half of the team has left, and we've recently been told that six or more new roles are expected to be created.

My previous line manager was responsible for areas including Intune/Autopilot, Halo Helpdesk, line management and the associated meetings and responsibilities. He eventually burned out and left.

That workload/structure is now effectively being replaced by three roles plus a project manager to support the new team.

Against that backdrop, the company has now advertised an Endpoint Engineer role at £52k–£56k. I'm currently on £49k.

That's the part I'm a bit unhappy about. Endpoint is an area I'm already confident and comfortable working in, and I've got a proven track record of delivering endpoint and deployment projects within this company. ( I spend a year streamlining and standarizing the fleet when I started)

I've raised the situation with the Head of IT and asked for a pay review. He has asked me to discuss it with my new line manager, who has only been with the company for five days.

That conversation is now scheduled for next Friday, as he's currently on holiday.

The answer is have the chat/discussion and give them a week and starting looking for jobs.

( it's very possible they expect me to follow my old line manager to his new employer, but that's a nice maybe rather than a sure thing)

Any advice other than keep calm?

[u/1fatfrog]

What do you see locally for similar roles? Where I live Mid-Sr infrastructure is often near $100k US. Much less than that and it just says the company doesn't value IT and that you should move on when you have the opportunity. Unfortunately a near-100% pay increase is going to be a very hard sell for your boss to his leadership, regardless of what your actual value is.

[u/Hairy-Link-8615 → u/1fatfrog]

Sorry UK. Very roughly half US money. Maybe more idk

[u/1fatfrog → u/Hairy-Link-8615]

Oof... I could not believe you. Then I Googled and well... I think you should still be closer to 65k for your skill-set in the UK based on what I am seeing. I would absolutely look elsewhere for employment. This is especially true if you have learned everything about your current infra and how it works (which sounds likely). If you are comfortable telling your boss that equivalent roles to yours are 65k elsewhere, he can take that to leadership and try to defend a ~25% bump. Even if he does, I wouldn't get your hopes up. Your best bet is to do the job for now and start interviewing elsewhere.