Side-by-side distribution
Software Engineer
$191,498
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44%
- Live roles
- 15,363
Tech Lead
$185,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 2,598
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 - EVM
Software Engineer - Stellar
Software Engineer - Compliance
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Business Development Lead - Retail Tech & Software Services
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Customer Engineering Lead
Technical Lead, Safety Research
Data Engineering Lead
Lead Security Engineer
Staff Engineer, Emulation Technical Lead
RISC-V AI / HPC & Agentic Software Engineering Lead
Technical Lead Manager, Data Engineering, Trust & Safety
Lead Machine Learning Inference Engineer, Advertising
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 296 |
|
OpenAI
|
$309,000 | 112 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 103 |
Databricks
|
$214,700 | 98 |
Applied Intuition
|
$176,750 | 84 |
Roblox
|
$269,270 | 82 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 74 |
SpaceX
|
$137,500 | 65 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$170,000 | 33 |
STR
|
$198,250 | 26 |
Motional
|
$237,500 | 21 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$197,750 | 21 |
Fluidstack
|
$275,000 | 19 |
Scout Motors
|
$176,250 | 17 |
|
OpenAI
|
$338,750 | 14 |
Relativity Space
|
$165,000 | 13 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 1,399 |
| Sydney | $224,060 | 8 |
| New York | $215,000 | 1,163 |
| Seattle | $212,000 | 418 |
| Austin | $199,450 | 134 |
| Boston | $186,050 | 230 |
| Los Angeles | $183,150 | 165 |
| Bangalore | $181,219 | 4 |
| Chicago | $180,000 | 137 |
| London | $175,072 | 113 |
Tech Lead salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $266,500 | 24 |
| San Francisco | $237,500 | 140 |
| Seattle | $234,225 | 34 |
| New York | $222,000 | 100 |
| Boston | $215,750 | 52 |
| Denver | $183,500 | 15 |
| Atlanta | $183,188 | 14 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 20 |
| Toronto | $167,673 | 26 |
| Chicago | $166,000 | 29 |
Software Engineer vs Tech Lead: which pays more?
The median for Software Engineer is $191,498 per year (typically $152,500–$225,000), versus $185,000 for Tech Lead ($152,625–$222,675). That puts Software Engineer about 4% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Software Engineer and Tech Lead 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.