10 tech jobs where employees without a college degree can earn over $100,000

 (CNBC, Nov 14,2017): It may seem like Silicon Valley is full of famous college dropouts , but they are the exception to the rule. Going to college pays off , and to land a job at one of the most coveted tech employers, you’ll need to hit the books . For instance, 36 percent of jobs at Snap Inc. require a master’s degree .

But according to compensation, culture and career monitoring site Comparably, if you can make it into a top-tier tech role without a college degree , you can still make over six figures.

Comparably analyzed over 1,800 salary records from tech workers who have never graduated from college. They found that employees with these 10 jobs make over $100,000 a year, on average:

10. IT manager

Job description: “IT managers implement and maintain a company’s information technology.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $100,177

9. Product manager

Job description: “Workers in product management outline a strategy and roadmap for products that the engineering team will build.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $101,421

8. Director of marketing

Job description: “High-ranking executive that steers the marketing efforts of a company.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $114,987

7. DevOps engineer

Job description: “A challenging job to fill, the DevOps engineer uses a variety of technologies and programs to automate systems and manage software deployments.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $121,262

6. Director of IT

Job description: “High-ranking executive in charge of an organization’s information technology.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $122,532

5. Lead engineer

Job description: “An experienced engineer with management skills, this person leads teams of engineers through the completion of projects.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $132,856

4. Architect

Job description: “Architects define the overarching structure, specs, and guidelines of software programs and systems.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $143,879

3. Sales engineer

Job description: “Combining technological knowledge with sales skills, sales engineers sell complex tech-based products and services to companies.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $148,726

2. Director of sales

Job description: “High-level executives that manage the sales strategy of tech products and services.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $165,579

1. VP of engineering

Job description: “VPs of Engineering predominantly focus primarily on managing engineers and product delivery.”

Average salary for workers without a degree: $178,062

Even though employees without a college degree earned over $100,000 in the roles, Comparably found that not all workers were compensated equally. Comparably’s analysis showed that men earned much more than women in all of these roles except IT manager and VP of engineering. It also illustrated that Caucasian and Asian employees constantly outearned their African American and Latino counterparts.

Location also greatly affected how much workers with these roles were compensated. Comparably found that overall, San Francisco offered tech workers the highest salaries and that director of sales is the highest-earning role in most cities. In fact, tech workers with the title director of sales earned $207,711 on average in San Francisco.

The highest paying role for workers without a college diploma in San Francisco however, was actually VP of engineering. Workers with this title reportedly earn $237,233, if they live in the city by the bay.