Across 1,929 live US postings for software engineers with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $184,500–$270,000 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.
Measured September 2026 · n=1,929 US postings with salary
Software engineer salary: $184,500–$270,000 a year, measured from live postings.
Every number below comes from 3,864 tracked live postings whose title matches "software engineer". No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.
- The median software engineer posting offers $184,500–$270,000 a year (n=1,929).
- 37.8% of the 3,864 live postings matching "software engineer" are remote.
- Level 4 software engineers (building AI systems) list $190,000–$300,000, vs $184,000–$260,000 at Level 1.
Median salary by seniority (USD / year)
Seniority as tagged on the posting. Both salary bounds required.
| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
|---|---|---|
| Intern | 7 | $110,000–$132,000 |
| Junior | 22 | $124,500–$160,000 |
| Mid-level | 255 | $161,000–$230,000 |
| Senior | 1,054 | $184,000–$260,000 |
| Lead | 416 | $220,000–$298,700 |
Remote vs on-site (USD / year)
| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
|---|---|---|
| Remote | 739 | $189,000–$270,000 |
| On-site / hybrid | 1,190 | $184,000–$270,000 |
Companies hiring software engineers
Method
US-dollar postings whose title contains "software engineer", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 1,929 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 Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.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.
Source: O*NET OnLine (U.S. Dept. of Labor) — Software Developers (SOC 15-1252.00).
How many software engineers jobs are remote?
37.8% of the 1,929 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.
Does the AI level of the job change the pay?
In this sample, 708 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 2,316 are Level 1 (AI is not the work). See the AI level breakdown below for the median in each band. Measured September 2026.