Software Engineer Salary from Starting to Principle Level

Software Engineer Salary is rewarding and considered as a very lucrative career in the Industry, Where Senior Software engineer works on the technical aspect together with network and system engineers.

United States of Labor Statistics (USLS) is the organization that keeps a track record of salaries and job-related statistics. According to USLS, software engineers and software developers have a median annual salary of about $115000+.

Factors on which Software Engineer Salary depends

The salary structure depends on many factors like

  • Company in which a person is working.
  • Job location.
  • Level of experience

Software Developer Salary having 10 Years of Experience

Even after 10 years, the salary structure depends on many factors like location, company policies, etc. But if we talk about the average salary of a software engineer after 10 years of work experience in the US, it stands at about $117,000+ per year.

Software Engineer Salary
Software Engineer Salary

There is a lot of difference between the lowest and the highest salary. The lowest salary stands at $80,000 per year, and the highest stands up to $250,000+ per year. The most important factor in the determination of the salary structure is the level of leadership and responsibility a person handles.

  • Junior and associate software engineer – $65,000+
  • Senior lead and principal software engineer – $130,000+

Software Engineers Salary in different States of America

In different states of America, the salary structure varies as follows

Location Avg Salary
California$128,650
Colorado$107,410
Florida$92,850
Georgia$98,470
Illinois$107,010
Maryland$107,940
Massachusetts$121,650
New York$117,140
Pennsylvania$99,710
Texas$107,860
Virginia$107,940

What is the Tier Structure of Software Engineer

For every company, it is different. But let me tell you the general outline –

  • Software Engineer (Entry level)
  • Senior Engineer (Early career)
  • Staff Engineer (Mid-career)
  • Principal Engineer (Experienced)
  • Distinguished Engineer/Fellow (Late – career)

How Can You Uplevel as a Software Engineer

Get an in-depth understanding of the best software development practices. Manage junior-level SWEs. Develop exceptional coding abilities. Develop ability to write complex programs. Take advanced or master’s degree in computer science or language specific course.

Average Software Engineer Salary

Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Google, Cisco, Microsoft, etc. are some of the highest paying companies. The average median salary offered by these companies are as follows

Company Avg Salary
Apple $178,000+ to $719,000+
Google $121,590+
Netflix $93,530+ to $738,544+
Amazon $164,000+ to $642,000+
Cisco Systems Inc $109,722+
Facebook$122,803+

What are the Traits of a Good Software Engineer

He/She understands the systematic methodologies. Expert in technical matters, have exceptional programming skills, strong communication skills (verbal as well as interpersonal), and is always motivated and committed.

What is the Expected Growth in Software Engineer Industry

By 2029, about 316,000+ software development jobs are expected, which strikes a growth of about 11%.

Here we discuss about the salaries of Software engineers at different companies in United States. Also describe the different job roles and their average salaries based on their job experience.

But keep in mind that we only discussing about the approximate Base Salary of that job role.

Google Software Engineer Salary

Software engineers at google will be paid very good salaries as it is one of the top MNC across the world. If you want to know the salary of software engineer, it may varies based on Job location, Job role and Experience too. Google at US offers wide range of Software engineer job roles depending on their job experience. Some of the job roles are :

Placement Level Job Experience Avg Base Salary
Junior Software Engineer (Level 3)1 Year$132k
Software Engineer III (Level 4)2 to 4 years$158k
Senior Software engineer (Level 5)6 to 10 years$188k
Staff Software engineer (Level 6)above 10 years$232k

There are some more job roles present at google and if we want to final the average base salary among all the posts at google is $142K .

Amazon Software Engineer Salary

As we discussed for Google, Amazon also follows same pattern in job roles and salary payments for their Software Engineers.

Amazon provides various job roles like SDE I, SDE II, SDE III, Principle SDE, Senior principle SDE and Distinguished engineer. Now we discuss the salaries providing to software engineers by Amazon.

Placement LevelJob ExperienceAvg. Base SalaryStocks per yearBonus per year Total Avg
SDE I Level 4fresher$137k$22k$11k$169k
SDE II (Level 5)3 to 6 years$173k$63k$7k$243k
SDE III(Level 6)7 to 10 years$205k$146k$4k$355k
Principle SDE (Level 7)Above 10 years$248k$257k0$505k
Senior Principle SDE (Level 8)above 10 years$293k$708k$47k$1.05M

Apple Software Engineer Salary

Apple famous for it best quality and premium products launching in the market. It also offers the best and highest package for their engineers as they respect their engineers and trust them to be top as they follows Product – first tradition.

As we know that salary depends on the role of the software engineer. Their Software engineers are ranging from level 1 to level 6 named ICT software engineers. So let’s check the average salary according to their level :

Job LevelAvg. Base SalaryStocks per yearBonus per yearTotal Avg.
ICT 2 (Entry level Software Engineer)$125k$25k$18k$168
ICT 3 (Intermediate level Software Engineer)$143k$65k$16k$216k
ICT 4 (Senior level Software Engineer)$156k$143k$15k$314k
ICT 5 (Staff Engineer)$164k$358k$47k$569k
ICT 6 (Principle Engineer)$157k$583k$0k$740k

Microsoft Software Engineer Salary

Microsoft is one of the largest tech companies provides best salaries for the software engineers across the world. The salary range for software engineers depends on the job role and experience and also on the location.

So let’s check different job roles available at the Microsoft and their salaries respectively :

Job LevelAvg. Base SalaryStocks Per YearBonus per YearTotal avg. salary
SDE 59(Entry Level)$116k$22k$11k$148k
SDE 60$134k$23k$7k$164k
SDE II 61$143k$26k$10k$179k
SDE II 62$158k$32k$10k$200k
Senior SDE$175k$35k$17k$227k
SDE 64$192k$53k$23k$268k
Principle SDE 65$216k$56k$24k$296k

Facebook Software Engineer Salary

Facebook is also the one of the best MNC’s in the world that offers best jobs and best packages. It mainly focus on software development and Web development experts to hire for their company.

So let’s check the different levels of software engineer job roles and their salaries respectively.

LevelAvg. Base SalaryStocks per yearBonus per yearTotal
E3 (Entry level)$123k$42k$21k$185k
E4$163K$81K$22K$267K
E5$197K$155K$34K$387K
E6$231K$295K$49K$574K
E7$273K$573K$74K$920K
E8$316K$1.21M$86K$1.61M

Software Developer Salary in United States

Every year the average salary of software engineers is increasing gradually as we are observing a heavy growth in IT and software developing companies.

As we are discussing about average salaries in United States, it mainly depends on the job roles and location.

Mainly there are some roles in software engineers and those are Entry Level Software engineer, Intermediate level, Senior level and Principal Software Engineer.

Software Engineer Starting Salary

Entry level software engineers are those who are starting their career and have zero experience in industrial field. Mainly they are who are freshers or doing interns in that particular field. So let’s check the Average Base salary :

  • $65k to $85k

Software Engineering Salary at Intermediate Level

Intermediate level Software engineers must have 1 to 2 years experience in that field of work and their salaries differ from one company to other, where the average Base Salary of Intermediate-level Software engineer is

  • $86k to $110k

Senior Software Engineer Salary

After entry level and mid level software engineers, the higher post is of Senior Software engineer that who have experience of more than 3 years and capable of solving complex problems and have to perform some leadership qualities, and the average Base Salary of Senior level Software engineer is

  • $112k to $123K
  • Additional of upto $30k will be provided (Stocks and Bonus)

Salary of Principal Software Engineer

Principal software engineer also staff manager is almost capable to lead a team. The post acts as an interface between Team leaders and Manager of that company, and the average base salary of Principal Software engineer in USA is

  • $151K to $168k
  • Additional of upto $60k will be provided (Stocks and Bonus)

Software Engineer Salary NYC

New York City is one of the best-developed city in America and contains a huge number of IT and tech companies providing lot of job offers for entry-level software engineers and also for senior-level software engineers.

So let’s check the average base salary of software engineers who are currently working in New York City (NYC) :

  • Average base salary of Entry level Software engineers in NYC: $114K
  • Average base salary of Mid level Software engineers in NYC: $147K
  • Average base salary of Senior level Software engineers in NYC: $180K

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