Side-by-side distribution
Security Engineer
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 47.5%
- Live roles
- 1,984
Software Engineer
$191,125
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.1%
- Live roles
- 15,329
Highest-paying jobs
Cyber Security Engineer (5462)
Security Engineer
Senior AI Security Engineer II
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Lead Security Engineer
Principal Software Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Offensive Security Engineer, Agent Products
Staff+ Application Security Engineer
Staff+ Application Security Engineer - M&A
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Growth
Intermediate Backend Software Engineer
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Staff 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 |
|---|---|---|
Aurora Innovation
|
$222,000 | 28 |
Anduril Industries
|
$202,000 | 20 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$151,800 | 18 |
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 16 |
Mozilla
|
$86,043 | 16 |
Palantir
|
$170,000 | 14 |
|
OpenAI
|
$339,000 | 13 |
|
Anthropic
|
$362,500 | 12 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 298 |
|
OpenAI
|
$309,000 | 112 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 103 |
Databricks
|
$214,700 | 98 |
Roblox
|
$269,270 | 83 |
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 | 1,401 |
| Sydney | $224,060 | 8 |
| New York | $213,300 | 1,160 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 419 |
| Austin | $197,000 | 137 |
| Boston | $186,050 | 227 |
| Los Angeles | $182,500 | 164 |
| Bangalore | $181,219 | 4 |
| Chicago | $179,250 | 138 |
| Atlanta | $172,750 | 57 |
Security Engineer vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Security Engineer is $190,000 per year (typically $153,138–$233,100), 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 Security 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.