# Backend engineer salary: $170,350–$235,200 a year

Every number below comes from 253 tracked live postings whose title matches "backend engineer". No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured September 2026 · n=65 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median backend engineer posting offers $170,350–$235,200 a year (n=65).
- 56.9% of the 253 live postings matching "backend engineer" are remote.
- Level 4 backend engineers (building AI systems) list $152,800–$235,200, vs $172,668–$237,500 at Level 1.

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Junior | 0 | not enough data |
| Mid-level | 8 | $150,000–$220,000 |
| Senior | 39 | $168,000–$235,200 |
| Lead | 17 | $180,000–$260,000 |

## Remote vs on-site (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 51 | $168,000–$235,200 |
| On-site / hybrid | 14 | $180,000–$231,950 |

## Companies hiring backend engineers

- [GitLab](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/gitlab) (38)
- [Grafana Labs](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/grafana-labs) (23)
- [SumUp](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/sumup) (17)
- [N26](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/n26) (14)
- [Stripe](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/stripe) (13)
- [ClickHouse](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/clickhouse) (8)
- [Airwallex](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/airwallex) (6)
- [LaunchDarkly](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/launchdarkly) (6)

## Method

US-dollar postings whose title contains "backend engineer", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 65 such postings clear the 50-posting floor Level requires before publishing a dedicated salary page — below that, the median moves too much between ingestion cycles to be a citable number.

Sample: postings at tech companies tracked by Level. Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.

Refreshed automatically; this edition is measured September 2026. Small-n slices move a lot — read the n column first.

## Backend engineer salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median backend engineer salary?**

Across 65 live US postings for backend engineers with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $170,350–$235,200 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

**How many backend engineers jobs are remote?**

56.9% of the 65 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.

**Does the AI level of the job change the pay?**

In this sample, 24 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 181 are Level 1 (AI is not the work). See the AI level breakdown below for the median in each band. Measured September 2026.

Source: https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/role/backend-engineer