Backend Engineer vs Firmware Engineer

Put two roles head to head — any role, in any location or worldwide-remote.

Side A

Side B

Backend Engineer pays about 10% more at the median.

Side-by-side distribution

Backend Engineer Firmware Engineer
$183.2k
$166.3k
$76.3k box = 25th–75th · whiskers = 10th–90th $273.6k

Backend Engineer

$183,150

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -7.3%
$197,500 $183,150
$142.4k 25th
$183.2k Median
$220k 75th
$89.9k
$260k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $6k – $1,000k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
32.5%
Live roles
2,847

Firmware Engineer

$166,250

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -13.2%
$191,500 $166,250
$132.5k 25th
$166.3k Median
$207.3k 75th
$106k
$225.7k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $48k – $445k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
37.6%
Live roles
527

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
Anduril Industries $222,000 21
HP $141,350 6
Lunar Energy $195,000 5
Hewlett Packard Enterprise $141,800 5
SK hynix memory solutions America Inc. $135,000 5
OpenAI $360,750 4
Blue Origin $253,469 4
Micron Technology $205,750 4

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

Firmware Engineer salary by location

Location Median Roles
San Francisco $213,000 18
New York $212,000 5
Seattle $210,230 6
Los Angeles $147,500 4

Backend Engineer vs Firmware Engineer: which pays more?

The median for Backend Engineer is $183,150 per year (typically $142,400–$220,000), versus $166,250 for Firmware Engineer ($132,500–$207,250). That puts Backend Engineer about 10% ahead at the median.

Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Backend Engineer and Firmware Engineer 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.

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