How many levels do IT support ladders have?
Data collected on
We read 11 IT support ladders that public employers and one company publish for their own staff and counted their levels. The median is 3 levels for IT support specialists who do not manage people, and 3 is the most common count. Every source is linked below, and the data is free to download.
Key findings
- Ladders run from 2 to 6 levels. The median is 3, and 4 of the 11 ladders use exactly 3.
- 3 of the 9 ladders that use job titles have a Senior level. Its median position is step 2 from the bottom.
- 9 ladders publish a separate track for managers. The 8 that say where it starts put it between step 2 and step 6, and the median is between steps 3 and 4.
How many levels IT support ladders have
Each bar is the number of ladders with that many levels for IT support specialists who do not manage people.
- 2 levels3 ladders
- 3 levels4 ladders
- 4 levels2 ladders
- 5 levels1 ladder
- 6 levels1 ladder
Which titles the ladders use
The bars cover the 9 ladders whose levels are job titles. The other 2 use grades or scope names instead of job titles, such as “Entry” or “IT-02”. One ladder can use several of these words.
- Senior3 of 9
- Intermediate2 of 9
- Specialist4 of 9
- Analyst4 of 9
- Technician3 of 9
Senior counts a level titled Senior or Sr., not Senior Staff or Senior Principal; the other words count as whole words in any letter case.
Where the manager track starts
This chart shows the step, counted from the bottom of each ladder, where the first people-manager role sits. It covers the 8 ladders that say where it starts. Of the rest, 1 has a manager track but does not say where it starts and 2 do not say whether they have one.
- Step 21 ladder
- Step 33 ladders
- Step 42 ladders
- Step 51 ladder
- Step 61 ladder
Download the data
One row per ladder: its name, who publishes it, the source link, the number of levels, the level names, the manager track and the step it starts at.
Download the CSVAll 11 ladders
| Ladder | Levels | Level names | Manager track |
|---|---|---|---|
| Commonwealth of VirginiaPublic employer | 4 |
| Separate, from step 3 (level with Information Technology Specialist III) |
| GitLab | 2 |
| Not stated |
| NHS EmployersPublic employer | 6 |
| Separate, from step 5 (level with IM&T Analyst Advanced / Technical Engineer Specialist) |
| Penn State UniversityPublic employer | 3 |
| Separate, above the top level (step 4) |
| State of CaliforniaPublic employer | 5 |
| Separate, above the top level (step 6) |
| State of MichiganPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy) | 3 |
| Not stated |
| State of WashingtonPublic employer | 3 |
| Separate; start not stated |
| Treasury Board of Canada SecretariatPublic employer(read from the Internet Archive copy) | 4 |
| Separate, from step 3 (level with IT-03) |
| UC San DiegoPublic employer | 2 |
| Separate, from step 2 (level with Business/Tech Support Analyst 3) |
| UK Government Digital and Data ProfessionPublic employer | 2 |
| Separate, above the top level (step 3) |
| University of Wisconsin–MadisonPublic employer | 3 |
| Separate, above the top level (step 4) |
How we did it
We read 11 IT support ladders that their publishers use for their own staff: 1 from a company and 10 from public employers, on their own sites or in documents they publish. We kept only those whose levels we could read as text. We left out templates written by individuals, professional bodies’ standards and ladders only for network, security or software engineering teams.
Levels are the steps an IT support specialist can climb without managing people, lowest first. Interns and trainees are left out. When a ladder splits one title into numbered steps, each with its own expectations (like “User Support Specialist I” and “II”), each step counts. Pay bands inside one level do not. A level above both tracks that the ladder does not open to individual contributors is not counted.
The manager track starts where the ladder puts its first people-manager role: the same band or level number, the same row of its table, or the step where it says the tracks split. When that role sits above the top level, it counts as the next step up. When a ladder has a manager track but does not place it, we do not guess.
Title shares only count ladders whose levels are job titles. A level counts as Senior when its title says Senior or Sr., but not Senior Staff or Senior Principal. Intermediate, Specialist, Analyst and Technician count wherever the whole word appears in a title, in any letter case, so “Service desk analyst” counts as Analyst.
This is a sample of the ladders people chose to publish, mostly from governments and public universities, and some are several years old. It shows what public ladders look like, not what every employer does. Where a live page was gone or blocked automated reading, we read the Internet Archive copy, and the table says so.
We store only public facts: how many levels a ladder has, what the levels are called and where the manager track starts. Each ladder belongs to its publisher, so follow the links for the full text. None of them has reviewed or endorsed this study, and Competrace is not affiliated with them.
Spotted a mistake, or a public ladder we missed? Email support@competrace.com with the link, and we will update the data.
See levels with their skills
The study counts levels. To see what each level needs, browse our IT support career path with the skills each level expects, or read what a career ladder is.
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