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Kafka Developer Salary and Equity in 2026
How much can a Kafka developer expect to make at US-based startups? The average estimated salary for Kafka developers is 124k per year, with a range from 63k to 238k. The salary range for Kafka developers varies depending on factors such as location, industry, experience, and startup stage.
123.9k
Average Salary
4 years
Average years of experience
Salary
The average salary for a Kafka developer is$123,917, which is 9.8% higher than the average startup salary of$112,833. Kafka developer 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, and industry.
Top of market
$204,375/yr
Range $175k - $238k
Average
$123,917/yr
Range $100k - $150k
Below Average
$79,167/yr
Range $63k - $110k
Top Locations
The highest average salary a Kafka developer can get in Austin, that is $186,500. This pay is 50.5% higher than the average Kafka salary in startups, which is $123,917. Salaries will vary based on your location. The top-paying markets in the US, on average, are currently: Austin (avg $186,500 per year), Los Angeles (avg $170,000 per year), San Francisco Bay Area (avg $170,000 per year). Remote jobs often pay based on the location you reside in.
Austin
$186.5k
Los Angeles
$170k
Boston
$150k
Seattle
$145k
Remote
$125k
Toronto
View SalariesNew York
View SalariesLondon
View SalariesIndustries
The highest average salary a Kafka developer can get in Health Care Information Technology, that is $205,000. This pay is 17.1% higher than the average Kafka salary, which is $175,000. The highest-paying industries in 2023 are: Health Care Information Technology (avg $205,000 per year), Mobile Commerce (avg $200,000 per year), Enterprise Security (avg $175,000 per year).
Tech Stack
Top Tech Stacks
The top-paying developer skills of 2026 are:
1. Celery
$202k
2. Clojure
$195k
3. OpenCV
$192k
4. Clojurescript
$187.5k
5. Symfony
$175k
6. Scipy
$175k
7. Heroku
$165k
8. Dart
$160k
9. Amazon ECS
$155k
10. DynamoDB
$150k
Years of experience
Below Average
Average
Top of Market
The highest average salary a Kafka developer can get with 10+ years of experience, that is $170,000. This pay is 50.7% higher than the average salary in startups, which is $112,833. 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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