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  1. Home/
  2. Salaries/
  3. Software Engineering

Software Engineering Salaries.

11 roles. 30 cities.

National salary data. Last updated April 2026.

11 roles trackedSan FranciscoSeattleNew YorkAustin
Get your playbook

Highest Paying

$170,000

Site Reliability Engineer

Industry Median

$132,000

DevOps Engineer

Entry Level

$118,000

Frontend Developer

Salary data sourced from SEC filings, H-1B Labor Condition Applications (DOL), Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and aggregated job postings across 50+ platforms. Ranges reflect 25th to 75th percentile for full-time positions. Last updated April 2026.

The software engineering industry includes 11 tracked roles with national median salaries ranging from $118,000 to $170,000. The highest-paying role is Site Reliability Engineer at $170,000 national median. Software engineering is the backbone of the technology economy.

About software engineering salaries

Software engineering is the backbone of the technology economy. From frontend developers building user interfaces to backend engineers designing distributed systems, this industry encompasses the broadest range of technical roles. Compensation scales with specialization depth, system complexity, and the ability to deliver production-quality code at scale.

All software engineering roles by salary

#RoleMedianRange
1Site Reliability Engineer$170,000$130,000 – $220,000
2Full Stack AI Developer$165,000$125,000 – $215,000
3Design Engineer$142,000$108,000 – $185,000
4Mobile Developer$138,000$105,000 – $178,000
5Software Engineer$135,000$105,000 – $175,000
6DevOps Engineer$132,000$100,000 – $170,000
7API Developer$132,000$100,000 – $172,000
8Embedded Systems Engineer$130,000$98,000 – $170,000
9Backend Developer$125,000$95,000 – $165,000
10Full Stack Developer$125,000$95,000 – $165,000
11Frontend Developer$118,000$90,000 – $155,000

Top cities for software engineering

Cities ranked by average median salary across all 11 software engineering roles.

#CityAvg MedianCOL Index
1San Jose, CA$190,5451.38x
2San Francisco, CA$187,1821.35x
3New York, NY$175,0911.28x
4Seattle, WA$174,2731.24x
5Washington DC, DC$170,1821.25x
6Boston, MA$167,0001.22x
7San Diego, CA$161,0911.17x
8Los Angeles, CA$159,8181.18x

Related industries

Artificial IntelligenceCybersecurityFintech & Financial ServicesHealthcareData & AnalyticsProduct ManagementDesign & CreativeExecutive & LeadershipMarketingSalesCloud & InfrastructureLegalHuman ResourcesConsulting & Strategy

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