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Software Engineer Salary and Equity in 2026
How much do Software Engineers expect to make at US-based startups? The average expected salary for Software Engineers in a startup is 139k per year, with a range from 65k to 224k. The salary range for Software Engineers varies depending on factors such as location, industry, experience, skills, and startup stage.
139.3k
Average Salary
3 years
Average years of experience
Salary
The average Software Engineer salary is $139,333, which is 23.5% higher than the average startup salary of $112,833. Software Engineer salaries are based on exclusive Wellfound data. All data is updated on a weekly basis. Factors that may influence salary include: location, years of experience, title, size of company, skill-set, and industry.
Top of market
$202,875/yr
Range $175k - $224k
Average
$139,333/yr
Range $110k - $160k
Below Average
$91,708/yr
Range $65k - $113k
Top Locations
The highest average salary a Software Engineer can get in Austin, that is $175,000. This pay is 25.6% higher than the average Software Engineer salary in startups, which is $139,333. Salaries will vary based on your location. The top-paying markets in the US, on average, are currently: Austin (avg $175,000 per year), Seattle (avg $162,000 per year), San Francisco Bay Area (avg $157,000 per year). Remote jobs often pay based on the location you reside in.
Austin
$175k
Seattle
$162k
Santa Monica
$145k
Boston
$142k
Denver
$140k
Cambridge
View SalariesNew York
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View SalariesMelbourne
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View SalariesSydney
View SalariesIndustries
The highest average salary a Software Engineer can get in Social Bookmarking, that is $260,500. This pay is 8.1% higher than the average Software Engineer salary, which is $240,950. The highest-paying industries in 2023 are: Social Bookmarking (avg $260,500 per year), Curated Web (avg $260,500 per year), Portals (avg $256,000 per year).
Tech Stack
The highest average salary a Software Engineer can get with Airflow, that is $260,000. This pay is 86.6% higher than the average Software Engineer salary in startups, which is $139,333. Salary range for specific skills will vary based on the supply and demand in the current market.
Top Tech Stacks
The top-paying Software Engineer skills of 2026 are:
1. Airflow
$260k
2. Gradle
$197.5k
3. Spark
$197.5k
4. Celery
$175k
5. D3.js
$175k
6. Swift
$170k
7. Amazon SQS
$170k
8. C
$162k
9. Rust
$160k
10. Clojure
$160k
Years of experience
Below Average
Average
Top of Market
The highest average salary a Software Engineer can get with 10+ years of experience, that is $112,000. This pay is 19.6% lower than the average Software Engineer salary, which is $139,333. The salary range varies with years of experience and depends on other factors such as skill set, size of company, and industry.
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