What do you think is the actual income ceiling for software engineering, broadly? I'm genuinely curious and don't even know what's possible

likeuplifting
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Yes ceiling is very high, but that ceiling applies to a relatively small amount of companies out of the broad market

likesmart

It's very surprising that other people don't seem to understand this.

@ OP - The ceiling compensation for SWE is probably over $1 million since higher levels will award more stock and bonuses. The average/median ceiling for SWEs will differ based on FAANG/tech company and COL.

For FAANG/tech company and VHCOL/HCOL, I would presume your average SWE is making like $200k-400k compensation per year with the ceiling being $1+ million if you become Staff or Principal SWE.

For non-FAANG and MCOL/LCOL, I would presume your average person is making anywhere in the $100k range or less with the realistic ceiling probably being $200k-$300k (need to find company that gives you high salary + RSUs and/or large bonuses and/or remote company that doesn't correlate pay with location).

For companies without any equity/stock/etc, I’d say about 250k just base salary alone. This guess is based off of all the bands I’ve seen from working at places like Lockheed Martin and Leidos. 250k is pretty common for a Senior Staff level SWE but that usually requires like 20-25 YOE in defense.

For places with strong TC packages that aren’t on FAANG level, 250k-400k with the upper end being very rare and reserved for either niche skills or the highly selective distinguished engineer positions. I believe 400k is what my boss was making at Booz Allen (he was at their Principal/Distinguished Engineer level). but he was making this in Huntsville, AL so I wonder what the ceiling is in HCOL.

For FAANG level, around 500k-700k.

We see these mega seven figure ones from time to time but since those are exceptionally rare I feel like we should treat those numbers as outliers.

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And yes, I'd agree, being a skilled software engineer in the tech industry is a pretty solid gig! I'd still make more at an HFT/quant, but I feel a lot better about what I work on than I would at a place like that.

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People on levels, glassdoor, elsewhere, report pretty damn high income at top companies like MAANG & top tech, PE, IB, VC, Quant, etc.

Jr devs are reporting up to $200k after stock & bonus. 3-10 yrs reporting over $400k sometimes. Late career, niche engineers, distinguished engineers reporting over $1000k after all comp.

You're limited by corporate compensation policies.

To make significantly over $1000k, you need to build your own thing.

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10YoE and 500k TC and not even at FAANG, these numbers check out to me.

More interesting, I think, would be a weighted average by general location and experience level. The data geek in me wants it queryable by country, location in country, experience, skills, gender, additional degrees/certifications, etc. to enable us to slice and dice the data every which way we may want.

like

I think the Stack Overflow Developer's Survey is the closest you're going to get with that

Places like google or Facebook, it’s possible to clear 7 figures. A normal ceiling for software engineer is 200-250k

I've found salary is like number of sex partners for a dude. Whatever they tell you, remove 30% for the real number

Not denying you can make that much in big tech, just skeptical when people on the internet anonymously talk about their salaries

likefunny

This might be generalized to Silicon Valley in the USA.

A senior, excellent software developer should earn no less than $200,000.


In contrast, total compensation in Silicon Valley consists of salary + bonuses (such as stock-related or performance-related incentives).

As a result, the percentage of salary and incentives may vary by organization, sector, and individual.

For an excellent senior individual contributor SW engineer with 10–20 years of experience and no management responsibilities, I would anticipate receiving a total salary of $150–$250K annually.

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