Side-by-side distribution
Firmware Engineer
$192,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 55.3%
- Live roles
- 199
Software Engineer
$191,562
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.2%
- Live roles
- 15,578
Highest-paying jobs
Firmware Engineer, Robotics
Networking Operating System Firmware Engineer
ASIC Firmware Engineer, Modeling
Firmware Engineer, RTOS, Consumer Devices
Senior Staff Firmware Engineer
Firmware/ Embedded Systems Engineer
Firmware Engineer, Robotics and Surgery Engineering
Staff Embedded Software Engineer - Camera Firmware
Founding Firmware Engineer
Staff Firmware Engineer
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Software Engineer, ML Networking
Lead Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
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 |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 21 |
Lunar Energy
|
$195,000 | 5 |
SK hynix memory solutions America Inc.
|
$135,000 | 5 |
|
OpenAI
|
$360,750 | 4 |
Neros Technologies
|
$174,750 | 4 |
ALSO
|
$220,000 | 3 |
CoreWeave
|
$212,000 | 3 |
OnLogic
|
$110,000 | 3 |
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 |
Firmware Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $212,000 | 5 |
| San Francisco | $207,500 | 17 |
| Seattle | $183,300 | 3 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | $431,406 | 5 |
| San Francisco | $226,619 | 1,438 |
| New York | $215,000 | 1,239 |
| Seattle | $209,500 | 381 |
| London | $205,105 | 115 |
| Austin | $188,000 | 107 |
| Boston | $187,250 | 190 |
| Los Angeles | $183,150 | 165 |
| Denver | $177,500 | 103 |
| Chicago | $175,000 | 131 |
Firmware Engineer vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Firmware Engineer is $192,750 per year (typically $162,375–$220,500), versus $191,562 for Software Engineer ($150,500–$226,000). That puts Firmware Engineer about 1% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Firmware 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.