Software engineer salary

For postings that ask for 5 to 10 years of experience, the median posted pay for a remote software engineer is $185,000, which is 36% above the US median of $135,980 for software developers (BLS, May 2025).

Source US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. The BLS figure covers every work arrangement and experience level, so it is a rough yardstick and not a like-for-like match.

How pay is spread across postings

Each outline is one experience band. Taller means more postings at that pay. Dashed lines mark each band median.

Half of 5 to 10 year postings pay between $153,000 and $210,000, with a median of $185,000. The medians are $150,000 for 2 to 5 years, $185,000 for 5 to 10 years and $217,000 for 10+ years.

What each step up the ladder pays

Each bar runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile within one experience band, so it holds the middle half of postings. The dot is the median. A step needs 30 postings in a band before we draw it.

Among 5 to 10 year postings, the median moves from $152,000 for Software engineer to $215,000 for Engineering manager, a difference of $63,000.

How pay changes with job title

Each outline is one step of the ladder, and each posting counts once, in the highest step its title matches. A step needs 30 postings in the view to be drawn. Dashed lines mark medians.

For postings asking for 5 or more years, the median is $155,000 for Software engineer and $217,000 for Engineering manager. Postings asking for 2 to 5 years are shown in the charts above.

This view combines the 5 to 10 and 10+ bands, which come from the same continuous pulls. The 2 to 5 band is never combined with them.

Where this role leads

Two kinds of next move. Steps up the ladder compare the same experience band at both ends. Nearby roles compare whole role families.

Worth noting, Engineering manager pays $7,082 less than Principal software engineer at 5 or more years. Titles overlap across employers, so the ladder is not a strict order of pay.

These roles list similar skills, so they are common moves. Each figure is the other role median minus this one, in the same experience band, and each role mixes every step of its ladder. It is not the raise a move would bring.

Individual contributors and people managers

Median posted pay within each experience band. A people manager role has a management title or states direct reports or leading a team. Project, program and product manager titles count as individual contributor work unless the posting says it leads people.

Among 5 to 10 year postings, people manager roles have a median of $216,000 and individual contributor roles $180,000, a gap of $37,000 in favor of managers.

The skill groups this role asks for

Skills that tend to be listed together are grouped. The bar shows the share of this role's postings that list at least two skills from a group. Postings with no skills listed are left out.

Engineering leadership and architecture appears in 54% of the 646 postings that list skills, followed by cloud infrastructure at 53%.

Pay comparisons show association and not cause. Postings that ask for a skill group may differ in employer, industry or the work itself, and listing a skill does not guarantee the raise. A comparison appears only for 5 to 10 years of experience, within one ladder step, with at least 30 postings with and without the group.

Top hiring employers

• Databricks7
• Atlassian7
• CVS Health6
• Zocdoc6
• Netflix5
• LaunchDarkly5
• NVIDIA5
• Horizon35

How wide posted pay ranges are

Median gap between the top and bottom of the range, within each experience band. Postings with a single figure are left out.

A typical 5 to 10 year posting's range spans $47,000 from bottom to top, so the top is about 1.31 times the bottom.