Side-by-side distribution
Backend Engineer
$183,150
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 32.5%
- Live roles
- 2,847
Engineering Manager
$168,950
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 36%
- Live roles
- 9,976
Highest-paying jobs
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Software Engineer, Backend
Senior Backend Engineer, Trust & Safety
Backend Engineer, Markets
Senior Backend Engineer, Markets
Senior Backend Engineer, Perpetuals
Senior Backend Engineer, Payments
Senior Backend Engineer, Exchange Infrastructure
Senior Staff Software Engineer, API
Staff+ Software Engineer, Backend
Highest-paying jobs
Engineering Manager, Research Data Platform
Engineering Manager, Research Productivity
Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager
Junior Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager
Engineering Manager, Inference Infrastructure
Engineering Manager, Hardware Platform Security
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Affirm
|
$183,000 | 33 |
Air Apps
|
$67,479 | 33 |
Grafana Labs
|
$137,917 | 26 |
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 14 |
Databricks
|
$195,500 | 13 |
Verkada
|
$220,000 | 12 |
GitLab
|
$187,200 | 10 |
Satispay
|
$57,178 | 10 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Northrop Grumman
|
$183,100 | 164 |
|
Databricks
|
$225,625 | 35 |
Cushman & Wakefield
|
$143,375 | 30 |
Brex
|
$225,000 | 25 |
|
Anthropic
|
$445,000 | 23 |
Accenture
|
$217,450 | 23 |
PwC
|
$182,500 | 21 |
Atwell, LLC
|
$117,500 | 21 |
Backend Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $215,000 | 174 |
| Seattle | $210,000 | 55 |
| New York | $205,000 | 173 |
| Los Angeles | $198,500 | 17 |
| Boston | $191,500 | 14 |
| Austin | $171,450 | 15 |
| Chicago | $160,125 | 8 |
| Singapore | $156,000 | 5 |
| Denver | $150,000 | 10 |
| Atlanta | $138,919 | 4 |
Engineering Manager salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | $385,944 | 6 |
| San Francisco | $238,500 | 415 |
| Seattle | $205,800 | 172 |
| New York | $198,000 | 522 |
| Austin | $194,100 | 110 |
| London | $190,145 | 74 |
| Boston | $182,500 | 132 |
| Los Angeles | $180,891 | 119 |
| Denver | $171,989 | 103 |
| Atlanta | $168,025 | 94 |
Backend Engineer vs Engineering Manager: which pays more?
The median for Backend Engineer is $183,150 per year (typically $142,400–$220,000), versus $168,950 for Engineering Manager ($132,750–$210,194). That puts Backend Engineer about 8% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Backend Engineer and Engineering Manager are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.