Across 4,567 live US postings for software engineering roles with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $182,400–$261,000 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.
Measured September 2026 · n=4,567 US postings with salary
Software Engineering salary: $182,400–$261,000 a year, measured from live postings.
Every number below comes from 10,818 tracked live software engineering postings. No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.
- The median software engineering posting offers $182,400–$261,000 a year (n=4,567, USD).
- 39.3% of the 10,818 live software engineering postings are remote.
- The middle half of postings (25th–75th percentile) top out between $223,900–$311,400 a year — the median alone hides how wide that spread is.
- Level 4 software engineering roles (building AI systems) list $190,500–$290,000, vs $175,875–$253,644 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 | 12 | $109,000–$136,000 |
| Junior | 54 | $123,000–$161,000 |
| Mid-level | 629 | $151,000–$220,000 |
| Senior | 2,501 | $180,000–$258,750 |
| Lead | 892 | $217,000–$293,530 |
Remote vs on-site (USD / year)
| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
|---|---|---|
| Remote | 1,688 | $185,000–$260,100 |
| On-site / hybrid | 2,879 | $181,220–$262,000 |
Building AI vs working around it
| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
|---|---|---|
| Level 4 — Build AI systems | 831 | $190,500–$290,000 |
| Level 1 — Work around AI | 2,519 | $175,875–$253,644 |
Companies hiring software engineering roles
Method
US-dollar postings with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 4,567 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 (10,818 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 Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.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 below 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 $223,900–$311,400 (25th–75th percentile).
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 engineering roles jobs are remote?
39.3% of the 4,567 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.
Does the AI level of the job change the pay?
In this sample, 1,584 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 6,630 are Level 1 (AI is not the work). See the AI level breakdown below for the median in each band. Measured September 2026.