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How to hire an information technology specialist lead

Information technology specialist lead hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring information technology specialist leads in the United States:

  • There are currently 177,211 information technology specialist leads in the US, as well as 131,704 job openings.
  • Information technology specialist leads are in the highest demand in Elk Grove, CA, with 2 current job openings.
  • The median cost to hire an information technology specialist lead is $1,633.
  • It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
  • Human Resources use 15% of their expenses on recruitment on average.
  • On average, it takes around 12 weeks for a new information technology specialist lead to become settled and show total productivity levels at work.

How to hire an information technology specialist lead, step by step

To hire an information technology specialist lead, you should create an ideal candidate profile, determine a budget, and post and promote your job. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to hire a information technology specialist lead:

Here's a step-by-step information technology specialist lead hiring guide:

  • Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
  • Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
  • Step 3: Make a budget
  • Step 4: Write an information technology specialist lead job description
  • Step 5: Post your job
  • Step 6: Interview candidates
  • Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new information technology specialist lead
  • Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist
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  1. Identify your hiring needs

    First, determine the employments status of the information technology specialist lead you need to hire. Certain information technology specialist lead roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

    Determine employee vs contractor status
    Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

    Hiring the perfect information technology specialist lead also involves considering the ideal background you'd like them to have. Depending on what industry or field they have experience in, they'll bring different skills to the job. It's also important to consider what levels of seniority and education the job requires and what kind of salary such a candidate would likely demand.

    This list shows salaries for various types of information technology specialist leads.

    Type of Information Technology Specialist LeadDescriptionHourly rate
    Information Technology Specialist LeadComputer support specialists provide help and advice to people and organizations using computer software or equipment. Some, called computer network support specialists, support information technology (IT) employees within their organization... Show more$39-69
    Information EngineerAn information engineer is responsible for monitoring the efficiency of computer systems and network infrastructure, performing configuration to boost the optimal performance of the technology systems. Information engineers assist end-users in resolving network issues, identifying the source of inconsistencies, and create resolution reports for reference to avoid reoccurrence... Show more$37-66
    Information Technology Supervisor, Information TechnologyAn information technology supervisor of information technology is primarily in charge of overseeing a company's IT operations, ensuring efficiency and smooth workflow. It is their duty to spearhead projects, set goals and objectives, coordinate staff, manage budgets and timelines, perform installations and upgrades, and develop strategies to optimize operations... Show more$39-70
  2. Create an ideal candidate profile

    Common skills:
    • Customer Service
    • Technical Support
    • Java
    • SQL Server
    • NIST
    • Database
    • Desktop Support
    • Customer Support
    • Linux
    • DOD
    • PC
    • DHCP
    • DNS
    • Trouble Tickets
    Check all skills
    Responsibilities:
    • Manage and implement OS upgrades and security patches.
    • Manage the continuous development and maintenance of the department's communication and collaboration SharePoint sites.
    • Lead disaster recovery exercises, infrastructure hardware/software decommissioning initiatives and redeployment of legacy application retirements/migrations for Fannie Mae (client).
    • Used object orient JavaScript for client side validations and ajax relate tasks.
    • Install and configure workstations with new user profiles as well as setup all outlook profiles.
    • Provide troubleshooting support for DNS server using the DNS diagnostic utility Nslookup to resolve name resolution issues.
    More information technology specialist lead duties
  3. Make a budget

    Including a salary range in your information technology specialist lead job description is one of the best ways to attract top talent. An information technology specialist lead can vary based on:

    • Location. For example, information technology specialist leads' average salary in oklahoma is 33% less than in connecticut.
    • Seniority. Entry-level information technology specialist leads 43% less than senior-level information technology specialist leads.
    • Certifications. An information technology specialist lead with certifications usually earns a higher salary.
    • Company. Working for an established firm or a new start-up company can make a big difference in an information technology specialist lead's salary.

    Average information technology specialist lead salary

    $109,011yearly

    $52.41 hourly rate

    Entry-level information technology specialist lead salary
    $82,000 yearly salary
    Updated December 24, 2025

    Average information technology specialist lead salary by state

    RankStateAvg. salaryHourly rate
    1California$127,008$61
    2Maryland$115,185$55
    3Massachusetts$113,686$55
    4Pennsylvania$110,268$53
    5Illinois$109,961$53
    6Virginia$108,203$52
    7District of Columbia$108,095$52
    8Florida$107,513$52
    9New York$106,678$51
    10Washington$104,298$50
    11Texas$97,291$47
    12Indiana$95,552$46
    13Minnesota$91,222$44
    14North Carolina$86,151$41
    15Ohio$82,189$40
    16Georgia$79,284$38

    Average information technology specialist lead salary by company

    RankCompanyAverage salaryHourly rateJob openings
    1National Railroad Passenger Corporation$117,103$56.30
    2Ecolab$114,479$55.0415
    3Salesforce$112,381$54.038
    4Ukpeagvik IOoOupiat Corporation$111,118$53.4215
    5Tech-Synergy$106,881$51.39
    6Administrative Office Of The Courts Of Ga$106,865$51.38
    7Quest Diagnostics$106,235$51.076
    8All Native Systems LLC$106,123$51.022
    9Saturn Consortium$105,383$50.66
    10DirectViz Solutions$102,980$49.518
    11Bering Straits$99,887$48.022
    12IBM$93,029$44.73177
    13Defense Finance and Accounting Service$86,832$41.75
    14Logistics Management Institute$86,199$41.4420
    15United States Courts$84,942$40.8423
    16Deloitte$84,761$40.751,045
    17Virginia's Community Colleges$77,278$37.1510
    18State University of New York College at Cortland$72,038$34.631
    19University at Buffalo$66,302$31.882
  4. Writing an information technology specialist lead job description

    An information technology specialist lead job description should include a summary of the role, required skills, and a list of responsibilities. It's also good to include a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager. To help get you started, here's an example of an information technology specialist lead job description:

    Information technology specialist lead job description example



    HIGHLIGHTS
    Location: Remote
    Position Type: Direct Hire
    Hourly / Salary: BOE
    Residency Status: US Citizen or Green Card Holder ONLY
    Our client is looking for a Lead Information Technology Specialist to join their team!

    Job Description
    Overview:

    Responsibilities and Duties:

    We are recruiting for a Lead IT Specialist (Technical Solutions), with at least five (5) years of experience for employment with a federal client . The Lead IT Specialist is responsible for planning, developing, and maintaining IT strategic plans; assessing technical and data policy needs and developing policy to govern IT activities. The Team Lead is responsible for planning, directing, and coordinating strategic activities of IT projects, technical policy and standards development, resource management, architecture and infrastructure planning and management, auditing, and information security. This individual communicates to the team the assignment, project, problem to be solved, actionable events, milestones, and program issues under review, and deadlines and time frames for completion. Additionally, the Lead IT Specialist researches, learns, and applies a wide range of qualitative and quantitative methods to identify, assess, analyze, and improve team effectiveness, efficiency and work products.

    Major Responsibilities include:
    • Assigns, reviews, accepts, amends, or rejects the work of team members.
    • Establishes priorities and prepares schedules for completion of work. In coordination with leadership, assigns work to team members based on priorities, selective consideration of the difficulty and requirements for assignments and the capabilities of team members.
    • Approves emergency leave for up to three days; eight hours or less for medical appointments; and other types of leave as delegated by management.
    • Provides input on the performance of team members, which is used to assist the supervisor(s) in the preparation of formal performance appraisals.
    • Intercedes with the supervisor on behalf of the team to inform the supervisor of performance management issues; makes recommendations on work assignments, reassignments, promotions, tour of duty changes, peer reviews and performance appraisals.
    • May serve as a signatory authority, on behalf of the supervisor, for various regulatory submissions and documents. Represent the team in dealings with the supervisor or manager for the purpose of obtaining resources, and securing needed information or decisions from the supervisor on major work problems that arise; reports to the supervisor on team and individual work accomplishments, problems, progress in mastering tasks and work processes, and individual and team training needs.
    • Represents the team consensus, and conveys the team’ s findings and recommendations in meetings. represents the team when working with other team leaders, program officials, the public and other customers on issues related to, or have an impact on the team’ s objectives.
    • Reports to the team on progress in meeting established milestones and deadlines for completion of assignments, projects and tasks; ensures that all team members are aware of, and participate in planning for achievement of team goals and objectives.
    • Ensures work products meet expectations regarding technical content and that recommendations are consistent with existing policies, and provides feedback to review staff on these issues when needed. Provides advice, counsel, and instruction to the team on both work and technical matters.
    • Estimates and reports to the team on progress in meeting established milestones and deadlines for completion of assignments, projects and tasks.
    • The incumbent ensures that team members are aware of, and participates in planning for achievement of team goals and objectives.
    • Assists management in developing and maintaining the Center' s IT strategic plan, and in formulating the enterprise IT goals and objectives.
    • Develops policies, procedures and strategies to ensure optimization and integration of the installation, configuration and maintenance of the operating environment.
    • Draws upon advanced system techniques to devise new ways of accomplishing work functions and to integrate functions with little or nothing in common except basic information used. Looks for and points out the need for major changes in organizational structure and staffing patterns based on system design and computer logic requirements.
    • Plans, develops, and maintains strategic plans; assesses policy needs and develops policy to govern activities; and provides policy guidance and support to management, staff, and customers.
    • Defines current and future business environments.
    • Prepares budgets; manages metrics to measure and evaluate systems performance and total cost of ownership.
    • Develops management program plans, policies, and standards. Provide input to the IT capital planning process. Develop, implement, and interpret metrics for the evaluation of organizational effectiveness and efficacy.
    • Makes recommendations, and as appropriate, formulates and develops policies, plans, and procedures relating to information management systems. Advises management on changes in policy, legislation and regulations that impact the TDS program areas and recommended responses.
    • Prepares the budget, and IT/IM (information management) budget request and justification as part of agency budget formation. Provides input in drafting position papers on IT issues such as policy implications of initiatives.
    • Provides guidance and advice under broad program areas including Strategic planning and execution, particularly as it relates to business process planning and improvement; Business process and organizational improvement opportunities; information Management (IM) and Information Technology (IT) strategic planning and execution; and Enterprise Architecture.

    Qualifications and Skills:
    • MUST be a United States citizen
    • Bachelor’ s Degree in Computer Science or Information Systems (preferred), but may be replaced by additional experience
    • Project Management experience (preferred)
    • Supervisory or team lead experience (preferred)
    • Solid communication and presentation skills, to support both technical and non-technical audiences
    • Must be able to obtain or retain a Public Trust clearance. The investigation will involve a credit, fingerprint, and law enforcement agency check
    • Expertise in developing Microservices to build more physically separated modular applications.
    • Experience in developing dynamic web applications using HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery.
    • Expertise in developing applications in Amazon Web Services.
    • Experience in setting up AWS Cloudfront and exposed the S3 data as API Endpoints.
    • Expertise in cloud application development in Pega, Appian or Salesforce.

    " We are GTN – The Go To Network "
  5. Post your job

    To find information technology specialist leads for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:

    • Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
    • Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any information technology specialist leads they would recommend.
    • Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level information technology specialist leads with the right educational background.
    • Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.
    Post your job online:
    • Post your information technology specialist lead job on Zippia to find and attract quality information technology specialist lead candidates.
    • Use niche websites such as dice, engineering.com, stack overflow, it job pro.
    • Post a job on free websites.
  6. Interview candidates

    Your first interview with information technology specialist lead candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.

    It's also good to ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match your ideal candidate profile. If you think a candidate is good enough for the next step, you can move on to the technical interview.

    If your interviews with information technology specialist lead applicants aren't enough to make a decision, you should also consider including a test project. These are often the best, most straightforward, and least bias-prone ways of determining who will likely succeed in the role. If you don't know how to design an appropriate test, you can ask someone else on the team to create it or take a look at these websites to get a few ideas:

    • TestDome
    • CodeSignal
    • Testlify
    • BarRaiser
    • Coderbyte

    The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.

  7. Send a job offer and onboard your new information technology specialist lead

    Once you've decided on a perfect information technology specialist lead candidate, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, it should include benefits and perks available to the employee. Qualified candidates may be considered for other positions, so make sure your offer is competitive. Candidates may wish to negotiate. Once you've settled on the details, formalize your agreement with a contract.

    You should also follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that you've filled the position.

    To prepare for the new information technology specialist lead first day, you should share an onboarding schedule with them that covers their first period on the job. You should also quickly complete any necessary paperwork, such as employee action forms and onboarding documents like I-9, benefits enrollment, and federal and state tax forms. Finally, Human Resources must ensure a new employee file is created for internal record keeping.

  8. Go through the hiring process checklist

    • Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
    • Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
    • Define job responsibilities and requirements
    • Establish budget and timeline
    • Determine hiring decision makers for the role
    • Write job description
    • Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
    • Promote the job internally
    • Process applications through applicant tracking system
    • Review resumes and cover letters
    • Shortlist candidates for screening
    • Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
    • Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
    • Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
    • Conduct background checks on top candidates
    • Check references of top candidates
    • Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
    • Extend offer to top candidate(s)
    • Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
    • Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
    • Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
    • Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
    Sign up to download full list

How much does it cost to hire an information technology specialist lead?

There are different types of costs for hiring information technology specialist leads. One-time cost per hire for the recruitment process. Ongoing costs include employee salary, training, onboarding, benefits, insurance, and equipment. It is essential to consider all of these costs when evaluating hiring a new information technology specialist lead employee.

Information technology specialist leads earn a median yearly salary is $109,011 a year in the US. However, if you're looking to find information technology specialist leads for hire on a contract or per-project basis, hourly rates typically range between $39 and $69.

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