Software Engineering Salaries.

25 roles. 81 cities.

National salary data. Last updated April 2026.

The salary figures on this page are computed estimates, not observed wages. Each one is a national role baseline scaled by a Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity cost-of-living multiplier (2025 index) and rounded to the nearest $1,000. No published wage percentile is consulted and no wage survey response enters the calculation, so an Orbyt estimate must not be cited as a Bureau of Labor Statistics figure or as measured pay. The published wage data Orbyt holds is Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and Department of Labor H-1B Labor Condition Application filings, which record a filed minimum visa base wage rather than market pay. Where BLS publishes a wage for the occupation a role maps to, it is shown on that role's page as a separate benchmark, labelled with its occupation code, metro area and the number of employed workers it covers. Last updated August 2026.

The software engineering industry includes 25 tracked roles with national median salaries ranging from $45,000 to $171,000. The highest-paying role is Site Reliability Manager at $171,000 national median. Software engineering is the backbone of the technology economy.

About software engineering salaries

Software engineering is the backbone of the technology economy. From frontend developers building user interfaces to backend engineers designing distributed systems, this industry encompasses the broadest range of technical roles. Compensation scales with specialization depth, system complexity, and the ability to deliver production-quality code at scale.

All software engineering roles by salary

Top cities for software engineering

Cities ranked by average median salary across all 25 software engineering roles.

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