Side-by-side distribution
Backend Engineer
$187,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.4%
- Live roles
- 2,364
Software Engineer
$191,562
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.2%
- Live roles
- 15,578
Highest-paying jobs
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Software Engineer, Backend
Senior Backend Engineer, Markets
Senior Backend Engineer, Perpetuals
Senior Backend Engineer, Trust & Safety
Senior Backend Engineer, Exchange Infrastructure
Backend Engineer, Markets
Senior Backend Engineer, Payments
Staff+ Software Engineer, Backend
Senior Staff Software Engineer, API
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Software Engineer, ML Networking
Senior Software Engineer
Lead Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Affirm
|
$158,000 | 33 |
Air Apps
|
$67,479 | 33 |
Grafana Labs
|
$137,917 | 26 |
OpenAI
|
$339,000 | 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
|
$221,000 | 292 |
|
OpenAI
|
$350,000 | 140 |
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 123 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 102 |
Elastic
|
$109,437 | 100 |
Roblox
|
$267,950 | 99 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 98 |
|
Databricks
|
$214,700 | 95 |
Backend Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $215,000 | 161 |
| Seattle | $214,700 | 49 |
| New York | $205,129 | 166 |
| Los Angeles | $198,500 | 13 |
| Boston | $195,750 | 12 |
| Denver | $193,171 | 6 |
| Austin | $185,000 | 5 |
| Chicago | $165,000 | 3 |
| Singapore | $156,000 | 5 |
| Toronto | $144,279 | 29 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | $431,406 | 5 |
| San Francisco | $226,888 | 1,437 |
| New York | $215,000 | 1,240 |
| Seattle | $209,500 | 382 |
| London | $205,105 | 115 |
| Austin | $188,000 | 107 |
| Boston | $187,250 | 190 |
| Los Angeles | $183,150 | 165 |
| Denver | $177,500 | 104 |
| Chicago | $175,000 | 131 |
Backend Engineer vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Backend Engineer is $187,500 per year (typically $146,042–$225,000), versus $191,562 for Software Engineer ($150,500–$226,000). That puts Software Engineer about 2% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Backend Engineer and Software 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.