Side-by-side distribution
Engineering Manager
$170,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 37%
- Live roles
- 9,873
Software Engineer
$171,850
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 33.7%
- Live roles
- 32,919
Highest-paying jobs
Engineering Manager, Research Data Platform
Engineering Manager, Research Productivity
Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager
Engineering Manager, Inference Infrastructure
Engineering Manager, Hardware Platform Security
Senior Engineering Manager
Engineering Manager, MLE
Program Capture Business Development Manager
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Senior Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer (Database Reliability)
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Software Engineer, Research Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Northrop Grumman
|
$189,400 | 177 |
Databricks
|
$223,975 | 38 |
Cushman & Wakefield
|
$138,750 | 38 |
Anduril Industries
|
$171,500 | 34 |
Accenture
|
$205,350 | 31 |
|
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
|
$212,875 | 26 |
PwC
|
$182,500 | 25 |
|
OpenAI
|
$383,000 | 24 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 333 |
|
Northrop Grumman
|
$131,950 | 272 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 176 |
SpaceX
|
$145,000 | 173 |
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$142,400 | 168 |
|
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 154 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 144 |
Blue Origin
|
$197,582 | 140 |
Engineering Manager salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $239,200 | 416 |
| Seattle | $202,700 | 171 |
| New York | $202,000 | 492 |
| Los Angeles | $191,750 | 106 |
| London | $187,625 | 67 |
| Boston | $185,288 | 132 |
| Austin | $185,000 | 122 |
| Denver | $180,350 | 107 |
| Atlanta | $180,350 | 89 |
| Chicago | $168,025 | 188 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $226,350 | 1,581 |
| Sydney | $212,347 | 4 |
| New York | $211,500 | 1,401 |
| Seattle | $202,500 | 679 |
| Los Angeles | $196,000 | 240 |
| Austin | $187,000 | 206 |
| Boston | $185,000 | 286 |
| London | $180,680 | 132 |
| Denver | $180,316 | 217 |
| Atlanta | $168,000 | 121 |
Engineering Manager vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Engineering Manager is $170,000 per year (typically $132,500–$211,513), versus $171,850 for Software Engineer ($133,404–$215,000). That puts Software Engineer about 1% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Engineering Manager 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.