Side-by-side distribution
Engineering Manager
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 42.2%
- Live roles
- 4,377
Software Engineer
$191,125
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.1%
- Live roles
- 15,329
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Engineering Program Manager II - New Ventures
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager (Japanese and English bilingual)
Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)
Engineering Manager, Research Data Platform
Engineering Manager, Research Productivity
Senior Engineering Manager, Progressive Onboarding and Funnel Optimisation
Senior Engineering Manager
Engineering Manager, Product Engineering
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Growth
Intermediate Backend Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Software Engineer - Solana
Software Engineer - Stellar
Software Engineer - EVM
Software Engineer - Compliance
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 37 |
Databricks
|
$228,138 | 36 |
Brex
|
$254,250 | 29 |
Atwell, LLC
|
$117,500 | 24 |
OpenAI
|
$339,000 | 23 |
|
Anthropic
|
$445,000 | 21 |
Harvey
|
$350,000 | 19 |
DoorDash USA
|
$239,400 | 19 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 300 |
|
OpenAI
|
$309,000 | 112 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 103 |
|
Databricks
|
$214,700 | 98 |
Roblox
|
$269,270 | 84 |
Applied Intuition
|
$180,000 | 83 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 74 |
SpaceX
|
$137,500 | 66 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 1,400 |
| Sydney | $224,060 | 8 |
| New York | $213,000 | 1,153 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 423 |
| Austin | $198,900 | 133 |
| Bangalore | $194,838 | 3 |
| Boston | $186,050 | 230 |
| Los Angeles | $182,500 | 164 |
| Chicago | $178,500 | 141 |
| Atlanta | $175,250 | 56 |
Engineering Manager vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Engineering Manager is $190,000 per year (typically $142,350–$238,511), versus $191,125 for Software Engineer ($152,900–$225,000). 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.