Can a software engineer make $500,000 a year? (2024)

FAQs

Can a software engineer make $500,000 a year? ›

Yes, a software engineer can make $500,000 a year. However, $500,000 a year is far higher than the average salary of a software engineer. Software engineers typically earn a salary that falls within the range of $60,000 per year to $130,000 per year.

As an example, a junior engineer fresh out of college even with an unrelated diploma like physics, math, or industrial engineering can score a $100K compensation in Silicon Valley, while a senior engineer with a successful decade long career will get $500K and upwards.

The median total compensation for a Google employee in 2022 was $279,802. The highest-paid software engineers can make up to $718,000 a year in base salary, although most reported making between $100,000 to $375,000 in base salary. They can also receive bonuses of up to $605,000.

In the USA, software engineers can get 80K to 400K a year, depending on their experience and company type.

The salient point is that a $600k/year salary is uncommon or even rare even at FAANG. There are a lot of engineers who could work at a FAANG or FAANG-like company, but most of them will never see $600k/year in compensation.

Yes, a software engineer can become a millionaire.

While compensation varies based on experience, some software engineers can earn nearly one million annually. The average salary for a software engineer in 2022 was $118,000 per year. The keys to earning huge salaries depend on time and place.

Jeff Bezos

The founder and CEO of the e-commerce platform Amazon has an electrical and computer science engineering degree. Jeff soared to the top of the Forbes billionaire ranks in 2021 with a net worth of $191.2 billion.

Engineering

Mexican entrepreneur Carlos Slim, who is worth around $52 billion, studied Civil Engineering. Larry Page, co-founder and CEO of Google, has a Bachelor's in Computer Engineering and a Master's in Computer Science - and is currently worth $40.7 billion.

Which big tech pays the most? ›

Average Tesla Machine Learning Engineer yearly pay in the United States is approximately $152,620, which meets the national average.

By some estimates, more than 900 employees became instant millionaires when Google went public in August 2004, and that total has likely ballooned along with the stock price. On Friday the stock closed at $600.25, up more than 600 percent from its opening price of $85.

While ZipRecruiter is seeing annual salaries as high as $205,500 and as low as $63,500, the majority of Software Engineer 300K salaries currently range between $120,000 (25th percentile) to $173,000 (75th percentile) with top earners (90th percentile) making $205,000 annually across the United States.

How much does a software engineer make? A. The salary range for a software engineer is $65K-$325K. The average salary for a Software Engineer in US is $136,274.

Software Engineering is a very well paid career field. It's definitely possible to make $200k as a Software Engineer. Salaries are very high, especially in the US, because venture capital puts so much money into startups.

What is the highest paid software engineer job? From our research, it's clear that a cloud computing engineer is the best-paying role on average, with an annual salary of around $153,235. It's then closely followed by a backend engineer which has an average yearly salary of $133,072.

How much does a software engineer make? A. The salary range for a software engineer is $65K-$325K. The average salary for a Software Engineer in US is $136,274.

We've identified 10 cities where the typical salary for a Software Engineer 300K job is above the national average. Topping the list is Foster City, CA, with Santa Clara, CA and Federal Way, WA close behind in the second and third positions.