These US companies offered the highest pay for software engineers in 2019
As modern businesses now rely on technological advancement in areas including customer relationships management, mobile services, supply chains, and more, those skilled in information technology are in demand.
Software engineers can provide expertise in many roles. Computer science graduates may find a place in managing customer-facing web domains, creating mobile apps, the development of system architecture, product integration, audits, and a host of other tasks in IT teams.
Featured
According to Levels.fyi, in 2019, software engineers at some of the world's most well-known companies can expect high levels of pay as employees.
Based on crowdsourced, anonymized information, the organization has now published a list of the highest-paying businesses last year which includes brands such as Facebook, Oracle, Lyft, and Amazon.
See also: Americans trust Google more than Apple to keep their data safe
Salaries, naturally, are based on experience levels but for software engineers, even entry-level roles can come with lucrative pay packets.
Levels.fyi's research says that in entry roles with up to two years of experience, the highest salaries are offered by Lyft, Stripe, Airbnb, LinkedIn, and Oracle. Potential pay ranges from $175,000 to $234,000, with ridesharing service Lyft offering the most.
Software engineers with roughly two to five years of experience can earn the most at Airbnb with an estimated salary of up to $334,000. Airbnb is followed by LinkedIn at $300,000, Lyft at $295,000, Stripe with $291,000, and Snap at $287,000.
Senior engineers with over five years of experience can earn up to $505,000 if they are hired by Pinterest. Stripe offers its skilled staff up to $443,000, whereas Airbnb may pay up to $434,000. Following these companies, Netflix offers up to $430,000, and LinkedIn pays up to $423,000.
CNET: CNET Innovation Awards celebrate four products that gave us 2019 breakthroughs
Staff engineers, generally those with over 10 years of experience and making up less than 10 percent of a workforce, are expected to manage mission-critical projects -- and are paid well for their contribution.
Snap currently offers the best salary for these highly-skilled professionals with a pay packet of up to $600,000. Lyft comes in second with salaries of $550,000, whereas Airbnb offers $20,000 less. Facebook offers up to $520,000, and Amazon may pay up to $500,000.
Making up less than three percent of the workforce are deemed principal engineers, those that are in charge of teams, major projects, and individuals that may represent an enterprise firm's entire engineering brigade.
TechRepublic: Top 5 most influential business platforms of the decade
Facebook will pay roughly $950,000 for these employees, whereas Google offers up to an estimated $710,000. Pinterest comes in third when it comes to the top salaries at $575,000, and Dropbox offers $568,000. Wrapping up the list is Salesforce with a salary of up to $533,000.
While these figures are based on crowdsourced data and therefore may not be completely accurate, they do show how sought-after software engineers and skilled IT professionals are by today's enterprise companies.
It is also worth noting, however, that high salaries may reflect the soaring cost of living in some of the areas in which companies are based. California is now a hotbed of technology giants and startups with median income rising by roughly 17 percent since 2011 -- but due to the high cost of living, it also has a poverty rate of approximately 18.1 percent.
Previous and related coverage
- The decline of social media in the 2010s: A status report
- WeTransfer: A profile of a modern company with a useful media service
- Decade in tech: The greatest innovations and the biggest flops
Have a tip? Get in touch securely via WhatsApp | Signal at +447713 025 499, or over at Keybase: charlie0