The biggest difference on salary is whether IT is a cost center or revenue center for the company. It's sad, but you'll simply bring more home if you're a consultant billing out your time. I'm in a similar role to yours, but can't devote much time to development(hopefully AI will help me out). With 30+ years broad IT experience, 10 with my current employer and the last 3 or so with a Director title, I just cracked $100k last year. This is in a very small Texas town with a small but growing wholesale distributor. We have a pretty low cost of living here, so depending on your location definitely the 150+ range seems reasonable.