Salary conversations feel different in 2026. Not because tech compensation has collapsed, but because the market has become more selective and more disciplined about how pay is allocated.
Engineers and product professionals are still moving. Companies are still hiring. However, pay rises are no longer driven by momentum alone. They are being shaped by skill depth, commercial impact and clearer internal frameworks. If you are planning to negotiate a pay rise this year, preparation matters more than ever.
It is natural to anchor a negotiation to how you feel. Underpaid. Overstretched. Behind peers. Those feelings might be valid, but they are rarely persuasive on their own.
Employers are working from data. Internal salary bands, current hiring benchmarks and tighter budget controls are influencing decisions. If your request is not grounded in the same reality, the conversation can stall quickly.
Before asking for a pay rise, you need clarity on what your role is actually worth in today’s market, how your specific skill set compares to current demand and where compensation is tightening versus where it is holding up.
Our latest Orbis Salary Guide shows that engineers with depth in areas such as platform engineering, cloud infrastructure, AI integration and security continue to command strong packages. In contrast, more generalist roles and inflated mid-level expectations are where pressure tends to sit. Understanding which side of that line you fall on shapes the tone of your discussion.
During the hiring surge, progression often followed title changes. Move from Engineer to Senior, from Senior to Lead and compensation often moved with it. That momentum has slowed.
In 2026, employers are less interested in the label and more interested in measurable impact. If you want to strengthen your case, focus on outcomes. Have you reduced infrastructure spend, improved deployment velocity or strengthened system resilience? Have you delivered a feature that directly influenced revenue or retention?
Stating that you have led projects is not enough. Demonstrating the commercial or operational result of that leadership is what shifts the conversation.
There is a difference between deserving a pay rise and securing one. Budget cycles, performance reviews and delivery milestones all influence leverage.
If your skills are critical to an upcoming product launch, migration or regulatory change, that context strengthens your position. If you wait until after the pressure point has passed, the conversation can feel less urgent to the business.
Geography also continues to shape outcomes. US compensation remains materially higher than UK equivalents across many engineering verticals and equity structures vary widely. In some cases, negotiating total package composition rather than base salary alone can create movement. Knowing where your market sits geographically and commercially helps you frame your request realistically.
Across both UK and US hiring conversations, we continue to see expectation gaps of 10 to 20 percent in certain roles. This is not necessarily because candidates are unrealistic. It is often because perception has not fully caught up with a more selective market.
Candidates may anchor to peak-hiring-period offers or online averages. Employers may anchor to updated internal bands. When both sides are working from different assumptions about what roles are worth today, friction follows.
Negotiation works best when you acknowledge that reality. Framing your discussion around current benchmarks and the impact you are delivering is far more effective than referencing anecdotal offers.
Some professionals still use external offers to force movement. It can work, but it carries risk. Counter-offers can strain trust and some organisations will simply hold firm.
A more sustainable approach is positioning yourself internally before negotiation becomes urgent. Taking on work tied to commercial outcomes, building visibility with leadership and expanding into adjacent high-demand skills all strengthen your case. When the discussion feels like a continuation of visible contribution rather than a sudden demand, it tends to land more constructively.
There are cases where no amount of performance will accelerate compensation. Some organisations have rigid salary bands or progression frameworks that move slowly by design. That is not personal, it is structural.
This is where benchmarking becomes useful. Not to threaten, but to assess whether your current environment can realistically support your next step. Engineers and product professionals who understand their market position tend to make clearer decisions, whether that is negotiating internally or exploring new opportunities.
Negotiating a pay rise in 2026 is less about pushing harder and more about aligning smarter. It requires clarity on your value, clarity on current market benchmarks and clarity on the organisation’s constraints.
If you are considering a pay discussion this year, grounding it in current data is essential. You can explore detailed salary benchmarks in our latest Orbis Salary Guide.
If you would prefer to sense-check your position before starting that conversation, get in touch and we can talk through what we are seeing across the market and where your skills sit within it.