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Kafka Developer Salary in San Diego 2026
How much does a Kafka developer expect to make at San Diego-based startups? The average expected salary for Kafka developers in San Diego-based startups is 160k per year, with a range from 127k to 220k. These amounts were gathered from Wellfound self-reported data and represent the median salary range. The salary range for Kafka developers in San Diego startups varies depending on factors such as industry, experience, and startup stage.
159.7k
Average Salary
5 years
Average years of experience
Salary
The average salary for a Kafka developer in San Diego is$159,700, which is 40.0% higher than the average San Diego startup salary of $114,042. Kafka developer salaries in San Diego are based on exclusive Wellfound data. All data is updated on a weekly basis. Factors that may influence salary include: years of experience, title, size of company, skill-set, and industry.
Top of market
$207,500/yr
Range $200k - $220k
Average
$159,700/yr
Range $144k - $179k
Below Average
$137,000/yr
Range $127k - $148k
Industries
The highest average salary a Kafka developer in San Diego can get in Biotechnology, that is $185,000. This pay is 12.1% higher than the average Kafka developer salary, which is $165,000. The highest-paying industries in 2023 are: Biotechnology (avg $185,000 per year), Manufacturing (avg $179,000 per year), Healthcare (avg $176,500 per year).
Tech Stack
Top Tech Stacks
The top-paying developer skills of 2026 are:
1. SwiftUI
$236.5k
2. Xcode
$236.5k
3. Scipy
$215k
4. OpenCV
$215k
5. openAI
$212.5k
6. Objective-C
$200k
7. Ruby on Rails
$197.5k
8. Ruby
$197.5k
9. Numpy
$195k
10. MongoDB
$177.5k
Years of experience
Below Average
Average
Top of Market
The highest average salary Kafka developer in San Diego can get with 10+ years of experience, that is $185,000. This pay is 62.2% higher than the average salary in San Diego startups, which is $114,042. The salary range varies with years of experience and depends on other factors such as skill set, size of company, and industry.
Popular roles in San Diego
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