# Software Engineering salary: $151,000–$215,300 a year

Every number below comes from 39,997 tracked live software engineering postings. No surveys, no self-reports. Listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured November 2026 · n=14,842 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median software engineering posting offers $151,000–$215,300 a year (n=14,842, USD).
- 18.2% of the 39,997 live software engineering postings are remote.
- The middle half of postings (25th–75th percentile) top out between $177,600–$263,000 a year. The median alone hides how wide that spread is.
- Builds AI (AI Level 4) software engineering roles list $183,050–$270,000, vs $143,700–$200,000 at Little AI (AI Level 1).

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intern | 89 | $109,395–$110,000 |
| Junior | 437 | $100,000–$145,000 |
| Mid-level | 3,999 | $129,200–$184,000 |
| Senior | 7,521 | $163,800–$227,400 |
| Lead | 1,969 | $192,000–$269,950 |

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

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 2,628 | $180,000–$250,100 |
| On-site / hybrid | 12,214 | $146,000–$205,650 |

## Building AI vs working around it

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Builds AI (AI Level 4) | 1,764 | $183,050–$270,000 |
| Little AI (AI Level 1) | 10,830 | $143,700–$200,000 |

## Companies hiring software engineering roles

- [Amazon](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/amazon) (5295)
- [NVIDIA](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/nvidia) (1889)
- [Anduril Industries](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/anduril-industries) (1526)
- [SpaceX](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/spacex) (1358)
- [Cisco](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/cisco) (751)
- [Airbus](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/airbus) (732)
- [Hewlett Packard Enterprise](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/hewlett-packard-enterprise) (705)
- [Capital One](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/capital-one) (620)

## Method

US-dollar postings with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 14,842 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: software engineering postings at tech companies tracked by Level (39,997 live postings in this category on the measured date). Not the whole labor market. Do not cite as a national average.

All amounts are USD per year. Every median and quartile above excludes hourly-rate postings (a listed maximum under $1,000, almost always an hourly rate, not a salary) and mid-range postings that are neither clearly hourly nor clearly annual (maximum between $1,000 and $10,000). Mixing either into an annual median would understate the real number. The middle 50% of postings top out between $177,600–$263,000 (25th–75th percentile).

Refreshed automatically; this edition is measured November 2026. Small-n slices move a lot. Read the n column first.

## Software Engineering salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median software engineering salary?**

Across 14,842 live US postings for software engineering roles with a listed USD salary, measured November 2026, the median offer is $151,000–$215,300 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

**How many software engineering roles jobs are remote?**

18.2% of the 14,842 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured November 2026.

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

In this sample, 3,618 postings build AI and 30,536 involve little AI. See the level breakdown below for the median at each level. Measured November 2026.

Source: https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/software-engineering

## Cite this page

Level. https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/software-engineering. Measured November 2026.

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