Texas has four distinct IT markets that behave differently from each other. Treating “Texas IT” as a single job market leads to the wrong preparation and the wrong job search strategy. Here’s the city-by-city breakdown worth knowing before you decide where to focus.

Austin: the tech sector city

Austin is where you go if your target is tech companies and startups. Dell, Apple’s second-largest campus, Meta, Google, Amazon — plus a startup ecosystem that generates consistent demand for both developers and the IT infrastructure people who keep their environments running. The unemployment rate for tech workers in Austin is near 2%, which sounds good until you realize it also means the competition for any specific role is fierce.

What Austin employers want: AWS certifications are more common here than Azure, because startup-adjacent companies build on AWS. CompTIA A+ remains the baseline for IT support. The city leans toward engineers and cloud-focused roles more than traditional sysadmin work.

Salary ranges: IT support specialist $48,000–$65,000. Network administrator $65,000–$88,000. Cybersecurity analyst $85,000–$120,000. Cloud engineer $95,000–$135,000.

Dallas-Fort Worth: the enterprise city

DFW is the largest tech job market in Texas by volume and the most diverse by industry. AT&T, American Airlines, Lockheed Martin, JPMorgan Chase back-office, and hundreds of mid-sized companies all have significant IT operations here. It’s a corporate IT city — stable, structured, with defined career paths.

What DFW employers want: Microsoft certifications carry more weight here than in Austin because the enterprise Microsoft stack (Azure, Office 365, Teams, SQL Server) dominates. CompTIA A+ and Security+ are still the baseline. CCNA appears more often in DFW networking job postings than anywhere else in Texas due to legacy telecom infrastructure.

Salary ranges: IT support $45,000–$65,000. Network administrator $68,000–$98,000. Cybersecurity analyst $78,000–$115,000. Azure administrator $85,000–$120,000.

Houston: the operational technology city

Houston’s IT demand is shaped by energy and healthcare in ways that don’t apply to any other Texas city. OT/ICS security — protecting industrial control systems in refineries, pipelines, and power infrastructure — is a Houston-specific specialization that pays a premium because genuine OT security knowledge is genuinely scarce. The Texas Medical Center drives equally strong healthcare IT demand.

Houston pays a premium for specialized knowledge. A cybersecurity analyst with OT exposure earns $30,000–$40,000 more in Houston than a generalist analyst with the same years of experience. The specialization investment returns faster here than in any other Texas city.

Salary ranges: IT support $42,000–$60,000. Cybersecurity analyst $78,000–$115,000. OT/ICS security specialist $95,000–$140,000. Healthcare IT $60,000–$90,000.

San Antonio: the government and defense city

San Antonio has the highest concentration of DoD and government contractor IT work in Texas. JBSA, NSA Texas, and the defense contractor ecosystem around Port San Antonio make Security+ nearly mandatory for most IT roles here. The trade-off for the required certifications is job stability and benefits that private sector employers rarely match.

Salary ranges: IT support $40,000–$58,000. Cybersecurity specialist (DoD) $72,000–$108,000. Government IT contractor $80,000–$130,000.

The through-line

CompTIA A+ is the common entry credential across all four cities. Security+ is the credential that most expands your options — from San Antonio’s government IT to Houston’s growing security market to DFW’s compliance-heavy financial sector. Both are available at zero cost for eligible Texas residents through the Infotech Academy Pre-Apprenticeship Program.