Around 26% of the UK tech sector is made up of women. It’s no secret that the tech industry has a significant gender gap. However, when it comes to the UK tech hubs going above and beyond to bring about real change and increase the representation of women in tech, London is leading the way.
Host to many of the biggest events in the Women in Tech annual calendar such as Women of Silicon Roundabout, the Women in Tech Festival, the Women in Tech Employer Awards, and WeAreTechWomen conferences to name but a few. London is home to around 200,000 tech companies and counting and has the highest number of start-ups valued at over $1bn. The city is full of optimism and possibility for women looking to start or change to a career in tech.
What opportunities are there for women in tech in London?
As well as hundreds of women in tech events and conferences throughout the year, London is also home to many important communities and organisations campaigning for gender equality in tech, providing education for women, and space for them to gain the confidence and skills to pursue a career in technology.
Here is a list of some London based groups and organisations for women in tech to get involved with:
- Girls in Tech
- Tech London Advocates
- Black Women in Tech
- Women Who Code London
- London UK Women in Tech Group
- London Women in Machine Learning and Data Science
- FinTech Women
Types of roles available to women in tech in London
There’s a variety of opportunities for women in tech in London across multiple tech sectors such as FinTech, Travel Tech, e-commerce, Digital Media, Gaming, Cybersecurity and more. The scope for finding a role in tech in London is huge because of how many companies are headquartered in the capital. The scope of tech skills employers are looking for is also massive, opportunities range from Project Management, Analytics and Product Development to Software Engineering, Data Science and AI.
The demand for tech workers in London is high and expected to grow higher still as London becomes more and more established as the UK’s tech hub. For women looking to start or change to a career in tech this is good news because employers will need to focus on diversifying and expanding the tech talent pool to keep up with the growing demand for new and upcoming tech skills. According to recent research, London tech giants have committed to creating 1 million tech jobs by 2023. As opportunities in the city grow, women must be encouraged and empowered to apply for jobs and boost the industry with their valuable skills and qualifications.
We interviewed some of the women in different tech roles at a handful of London based companies to demonstrate the variety of jobs available for women in tech in the capital, but also to find out more about the different pathways that led these women to their roles in tech:
Form3 – Stephanie Mitchell, Senior Project Manager
Form3 – Sophie Condie, Operations Lead
Form3 – Kristina Rocha Mello, Customer Success Manager
Form3 – Pauline Decuypere, Business Analyst
Trainline – Abbie Dorling, Senior Business Analyst
Trainline – Susan Graham, Web Engineer
Trainline – Sara Estrela, Development Team Lead
Trainline – Natalie Akam, Developer
Equinix – Stephanie Malka, Director of NOC Service Engineering, EMEA
Equinix – Madaline Stone, Facilities Engineer Apprentice
London based companies looking to hire women in tech
There are hundreds of thousands of tech companies in London and many big global tech giants such as Microsoft, Google and Coca-Cola have chosen the capital for their UK Headquarters. Hiring more women in tech and narrowing the gender gap is becoming top of the agenda for a growing list of London based tech companies passionate about the future of the industry and the necessity for diversity and inclusion being placed firmly at the core of Technology.
Click on the links below of these London based tech companies looking to hire women in tech to find out what steps they are taking to make the industry more diverse and inclusive.
Finding the latest tech jobs in London
Many London based tech companies looking to hire more women in tech are opting for niche job boards to make sure their search is targeted at attracting female tech talent. The Women in Tech Job Board is used by hundreds of big tech brands to advertise their latest tech roles to women at all stages in their tech careers looking for their next role. The job board has been designed with a smooth user journey in mind with features such as a location filter, the function to set up easy and relevant job alerts, as well as an employers page to make it easy to filter through opportunities at the different companies women may be most interested in working for.
Salaries for tech workers in London
Salaries for tech workers in London are varied depending on sectors, experience and even how big the company is, salaries at start-ups may be slightly less than massive corporations for example. Recent salary data from IT job board Technojobs revealed that the average salary for Data Engineers in the capital is around the £60,000 mark and similarly DevOps Engineers around £67,500 and Front-End Engineers £50,000.
The top salary software developers in London can expect has increased by 13% in 2019, to £74,000. Which was the largest increase for any tech capital in the world. Suggesting that women working in tech in London can expect a good salary in line with their skills and talent, however, there is still work to be done to narrow the gender pay gap impacting women in the capital, especially for senior level tech roles. A recent study looking into the gender gap in tech in London revealed that for top-level positions women were earning 12% less than men in the same or similar roles.
How are London companies tackling the gender gap in tech?
Despite the growth in tech companies and subsequent career opportunities, London still has a gender pay gap problem.
Recent statistics revealed that women in London earn 30.4% less than their male counterparts. However, one of the positives to focus on is that while there may be more challenges breaking into tech as a woman, that isn’t preventing women from pursuing tech careers. In the Women in Tech Survey 2019 it was clear that the gender gap in tech isn’t a result of a lack of women wanting to work in the sector. Factors such as unconscious bias, lack of equal opportunity and the gender pay gap that is sustaining the gender gap in the sector.
Vodafone’s CEO has stated that the company’s ambition is to be considered the world’s best employer for women by 2025. The company have put initiatives in place that will collectively work to narrow the gender gap in the long run and boost gender equality. The initiatives are carried out through global programmes – family, flexible working, career, networks, youth, unconscious bias and women in management. Vodafone’s impressive maternity leave policy offers women 16 weeks on full pay, as well as working 30 hours a week on full pay on their return to work. Focusing on increasing female leadership, increasing opportunities for girls to learn to code, making it easier for mums to return to work after a career break, and debiasing the recruitment process are some examples of the practical steps Vodafone are taking to achieve gender parity in the sector.
Another London based company making headway in tackling the gender gap is Accenture. Similar to Vodafone, Accenture has set itself a bold goal to achieve a 50/50 workforce by 2025. Accenture is inclusive of working mothers and makes it realistic for working mothers to also thrive in their career with the help of their full maternity pay programme and flexible working options such as job sharing and the adoption of flexi-time.
If you’re looking for your first or next tech role in London, click here to find all the latest jobs in the capital.
