What Software Engineers Actually Earn at Each Level in 2026

The BLS published its May 2024 OEWS results in late 2024: the median annual wage for software developers across all levels was $133,080. That number is useful for politicians and reporters. For an engineer deciding whether to push for a promotion or switch jobs, it’s nearly useless. The median hides the fact that an L3 at Google earns around $155K total comp while a staff engineer at the same company earns $457K. Those aren’t different points on a line – they’re different careers.

This post maps software engineer salary by level using two real sources: the BLS OEWS data for the broad market baseline, and the Levels.fyi 2025 End of Year Pay Report (built from over 245,000 compensation data points) for the tech-company tier. I’ll note where these sources diverge and why, and at the end there’s something specific we see from running interview sessions at LastRound AI.

Why the broad market median is so low

The BLS $133,080 figure covers every software developer in the country – consultancies in Des Moines, banks in Charlotte, insurance companies in Hartford. The bottom 10% of the profession earns below $79,850. The top 10% earns above $211,450. That top-10% ceiling is lower than what a mid-level engineer earns at Meta or Google in total comp, which tells you something about how extreme the spread is within tech specifically.

If you’re reading this, you’re probably not at the median. You’re likely at a tech company, a well-funded startup, or actively interviewing into one. So the BLS number anchors you in the broad context, but the Levels.fyi data is what you should actually compare against.

Salary by level: the real numbers

The table below uses Levels.fyi 2025 median total compensation figures for U.S. software engineers, alongside a rough BLS-anchored range for non-FAANG companies. “Total comp” means base + annual bonus + annualized stock (RSUs or options valued at grant).

Sources: BLS OEWS May 2024 (median $133,080, 10th-90th percentile $79,850-$211,450); Levels.fyi End of Year Pay Report 2025 (245,000+ data points, ~47,000 US submissions). “Broad market” column applies the BLS percentile distribution to level, not a direct BLS per-level figure (BLS doesn’t publish by seniority tier).

Entry level: the gap opened up fast

A few years ago, entry-level at a decent tech company and entry-level at a mid-size enterprise were maybe 30% apart in total comp. By 2025, the Levels.fyi data puts tech-company entry-level at $155K median total comp. That’s almost 2x the BLS bottom-10% figure for the whole profession.

The gap is almost entirely stock. A Google L3 gets roughly $130K base and $40K-$60K in annualized RSUs on a standard grant. An L3 at a bank gets $95K base and a 5-10% cash bonus. Same job title, very different world.

One thing worth noting: signing bonuses at large tech companies have gotten smaller since 2022. Several companies that routinely offered $30K-$50K signing packages have cut those to $10K-$15K or eliminated them entirely. The base and stock have mostly held, but don’t count on first-year comp being materially inflated by signing.

Mid-level: where most engineers spend the most time

L4 / SDE II is the biggest band in tech. Most engineers arrive here 2-4 years in and stay for 3-5 years, sometimes longer. The $226K median from Levels.fyi is the tech-company figure; at non-tech companies you’re looking at $100K-$145K base, maybe with a modest bonus, little stock.

The L4-to-L5 move at most FAANG companies – Google, Amazon, Meta – is where things get hard to predict. At Google, the L4-to-L5 rate is notoriously slow. Engineers who join at L4 often wait 3 years for the first promotion attempt, and the first attempt sometimes fails. The bar is real: you need to demonstrate consistent senior-level contributions before being promoted to senior, which is the kind of catch-22 that makes people quit to join another company at L5.

I think external moves at this stage are systematically underrated. Switching from L4 at one company to L5 at another – with a comp bump from $226K median to $312K median – is faster for most engineers than waiting out the internal promo cycle. That’s roughly $86K in additional annual comp while you’re waiting.

Senior: the inflection point that actually matters

Senior is called the “terminal level” at most companies because you can stay there indefinitely without performance concerns. The Levels.fyi 2025 data puts senior-level median at $312K total comp – up 4.2% from $300K in 2024. That’s a meaningful jump over mid-level’s $226K.

But senior is also where the range widens most dramatically. A senior at a Series B startup might earn $170K base with thin or no stock. A senior at Meta (E5) or Google (L5) can clear $400K-$550K in total comp in a good performance year. Same level, same job title on a resume, wildly different compensation.

The behavior shift at senior level that companies actually care about: you stop getting credit for completing tasks and start being evaluated on whether you identified the right tasks in the first place. Engineers who are technically excellent but need someone to define their work get stuck here permanently.

Staff and above: the stock-heavy tier

Staff engineers (L6 / E6) saw the strongest comp growth in the Levels.fyi 2025 data: up 7.52% year-over-year to a median of $457K. That’s a real number, and it’s worth understanding why.

At L6, the majority of total comp is stock. Base salary caps out around $250K-$300K at most FAANG companies – HR policy, not market pressure. Everything above that is RSUs, and RSU grants at L6 often reset or refresh at above-market rates during strong performance cycles. When stock prices go up and performance ratings are high, a staff engineer’s total comp can swing by $100K-$200K year to year.

Principal (L7 / E7) actually showed a slight decline in the 2025 data, down 6.58% to a $551K median. This is probably compositional – more principal-level hiring at companies with lower overall comp scales – but it’s a reminder that level isn’t a guarantee of year-over-year comp increases. The market for staff+ engineers is real but smaller, and individual company decisions dominate what happens to your specific number.

What we see in interview sessions at LastRound AI

Across thousands of interview sessions on our platform, one pattern shows up consistently in the comp discussion phase: candidates systematically anchor their salary expectations to their current base, not their total compensation package, and not current market rates. An engineer earning $180K base with $120K in RSUs who is interviewing for a role at a company that pays $200K base and $80K in stock will often call the new offer “a raise” – even though it’s actually a $20K pay cut in total comp.

This matters because recruiters know which side of that asymmetry you’re on. When you walk into a leveling conversation knowing your TC number (not just base), knowing what the market pays at your target level, and being able to speak to both fluently, the conversation goes differently. The engineers who do this well aren’t aggressive about it – they’re just precise. That’s a harder skill to practice than most people expect.

If you’re preparing for that conversation, our AI interview copilot includes a comp discussion practice module specifically for the leveling and offer negotiation phase.

Three things that move your number within a level

Given that you’re already at a particular level, what actually affects where you land in the comp range?

Specialization. AI/ML engineers have been commanding meaningful premiums since 2023 and the premium hasn’t collapsed the way some predicted. Infrastructure and platform engineers at growth-stage companies often earn more than product engineers at the same level – the work is less visible but harder to hire for.

Location, still. Remote-first companies have moved toward national pay scales, but they haven’t converged. San Francisco and Seattle roles still pay 15-25% above the national median for the same level. If you’re remote and being paid on a “Denver rate” for a role that was originally posted as San Francisco, you may be leaving real money on the table at your next negotiation.

The offer, not the range. Companies have published compensation bands more often since various pay transparency laws came into effect in Colorado, New York, and California. But the published range is not your offer. At most large companies, the range for a senior engineer spans $100K+ in total comp. Your starting point within that range is determined almost entirely by what you say during the offer conversation, not by where your experience puts you objectively.

Related reading

• FAANG salary comparison 2026: Google vs Meta vs Amazon vs Microsoft – if you want a company-by-company breakdown at each level
• Highest-paying tech companies in 2026 – which companies outside FAANG are paying above-market right now
• How to negotiate a software engineer offer – the specific script for the comp conversation

Comp data changes. The BLS publishes OEWS results annually (May cycle); Levels.fyi runs their end-of-year report each December. If you’re reading this well into 2026, check both sources directly – the figures above reflect May 2024 (BLS) and year-end 2025 (Levels.fyi).