# Backend engineer salary: $170,247–$235,000 a year

Every number below comes from 363 tracked live postings whose title matches "backend engineer". No surveys, no self-reports. Listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured November 2026 · n=93 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median backend engineer posting offers $170,247–$235,000 a year (n=93).
- 55.9% of the 363 live postings matching "backend engineer" are remote.
- Builds AI (AI Level 4) backend engineers list $155,000–$220,000, vs $180,000–$235,000 at Little AI (AI Level 1).

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intern | 0 | not enough data |
| Junior | 0 | not enough data |
| Mid-level | 10 | $165,000–$205,000 |
| Senior | 65 | $172,000–$235,000 |
| Lead | 14 | $203,500–$268,850 |

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

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 72 | $170,124–$235,000 |
| On-site / hybrid | 21 | $180,000–$220,000 |

## Companies hiring backend engineers

- [GitLab](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/gitlab) (26)
- [SumUp](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/sumup) (18)
- [Horizon3 AI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/horizon3-ai) (15)
- [Trading 212](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/trading-212) (14)
- [Grafana Labs](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/grafana-labs) (12)
- [Stripe](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/stripe) (12)
- [ClickHouse](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/clickhouse) (9)
- [ING](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/ing) (9)

## Method

US-dollar postings whose title contains "backend engineer", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 93 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 Do not cite as a national average.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 November 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 93 live US postings for backend engineers with a listed USD salary, measured November 2026, the median offer is $170,247–$235,000 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

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

55.9% of the 93 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured November 2026.

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

In this sample, 26 postings build AI and 263 involve little AI. See the level breakdown below for the median at each level. Measured November 2026.

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

## Cite this page

Level. https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/role/backend-engineer. Measured November 2026.

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