Despite being savaged by Immigration Minister Peter Dutton for promoting same-sex marriage, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce is the boss most Australian employees would like to work for.

A survey of more than 1000 Australian employees last month ranked a host of international entrepreneurs ahead of local CEOs as their ideal boss with Richard Branson from Virgin Group voted the global CEO most Australians would like to work for.

Overall, the most favoured CEOs among Australians are associated with technology and innovation companies with the late Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg tying for second place.

Alan Joyce CEO of Qantas Airways voted the Australian CEO most people want to work for. Giulia Marchi

Jobs and Zuckerberg were also among the top five CEOs that 50 per cent of 18 to 24 year olds want to work for, while Richard Branson was significantly more popular with those aged over 35.

Mr Joyce - who last month announced that Qantas posted a first-half net profit down 25 per cent to $515 million - has clearly put past industrial action of 2011 behind him, with 21 per cent of those surveyed ranking him as the boss they'd most like to work for, the highest of all Australian CEOs.