Median salary
$207,500
per year · annualized USD
Typical range
$175k – $254k
25th–75th percentile
Disclosing pay
82.8%
2,848 of 3,441 roles
Live roles
3,441
open right now
Salary trend
median · annualized USDSalary distribution
annualized USD · disclosed rolesHighest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Software Engineer, Research Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning
Software Engineer, Inference - Multi Modal
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 192 |
|
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 136 |
Northrop Grumman
|
$142,500 | 88 |
|
Anthropic
|
$402,500 | 84 |
Databricks
|
$222,325 | 73 |
Nuro
|
$229,000 | 55 |
General Motors
|
$211,200 | 47 |
Brex
|
$216,000 | 37 |
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How much do Software Engineer roles in California pay?
The median salary for Software Engineer roles in California is $207,500 per year. Most pay falls between $175,000 (25th percentile) and $254,040 (75th percentile), with the broader 10th–90th percentile band running from $142,500 to $312,500.
These figures are computed live from 3,441 active Software Engineer roles in California on JobsRadar, of which 2,848 (82.8%) publish a salary range. Pay is normalized to annualized USD so roles can be compared on equal terms; the highest-paying roles listed above show their original posted currency. Numbers refresh every few hours as new roles are posted and older ones close.
Employers currently hiring well-paid Software Engineer roles in California include Syntiant, Anthropic, Roku and OpenAI.
Salary transparency varies by employer and region, so the disclosing share above reflects only roles that publish pay — not every open position. Use it as a directional benchmark rather than an exact offer.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the average Software Engineer salary in California?
- The median is $207,500 per year, with most pay between $175,000 and $254,040 (25th–75th percentile), based on 2,848 live listings that disclose pay on JobsRadar.
- What is the Software Engineer salary range in California?
- Pay ranges from about $142,500 to $312,500 per year (10th–90th percentile) around a median of $207,500. Figures are annualized USD from live listings, refreshed every few hours.