Current SWE pay benchmarks
Recent job‑posting analyses show strong variance by role: ML/AI engineers are being hired in the U.S. for roughly $160K–$280K, while top firms list senior base ranges around $180K–$350K. Remote frontend and junior web roles show lower but still substantial ranges, with many remote listings clustered between roughly $80K and $160K depending on seniority and stack. ( )
Software engineering pay in the United States now splits sharply by specialty: machine learning roles and top senior jobs are clustering far above junior and frontend work. (levels.fyi) Levels.fyi’s senior software engineer page, updated April 10, 2026, shows a United States range of $175,000 at the 25th percentile and $353,000 at the 75th percentile, with median total compensation at $248,000. Its company leaderboard on that page lists xAI at $620,000, Anthropic at $570,000, and OpenAI at $555,000 for top-paying software engineering compensation. (levels.fyi) Job postings show the same spread in base pay. Together AI lists a United States base range of $160,000 to $220,000 for a machine learning engineer role, while XPENG lists $148,909 to $252,000 for a machine learning engineer focused on large language models, artificial intelligence, and robotics. (job-boards.greenhouse.io, job-boards.greenhouse.io) Remote frontend work lands lower on average, but not low. Wellfound says the average expected salary for a remote frontend engineer at a United States startup is $111,242 in 2026, with a top-of-market band of $118,000 to $200,000. (wellfound.com) Across all startup frontend roles, Wellfound puts the 2026 average at $121,292, with an average band of $87,000 to $145,000 and a top-of-market band of $165,000 to $225,000. It also says remote is one of the highest-paying markets on its platform at an average of $160,000, behind New York at $175,000. (wellfound.com, wellfound.com) Live listings show how wide the posting market has become. On Wellfound’s remote frontend jobs page on April 14, 2026, listed salaries ranged from $71,000 to $89,000 for one frontend engineer opening, $90,000 to $110,000 for another, $140,000 to $170,000 for a mid-career role, and $190,000 to $215,000 for a senior frontend engineer. (wellfound.com) That spread reflects how employers are paying for scarcity. Levels.fyi’s United States senior software engineer page lists machine learning engineer as the top-paying title on that page at $262,000, above security software engineer at $240,000 and product engineer at $210,000. (levels.fyi) The market is also separating base pay from total compensation more aggressively at the top end. The senior software engineer ranges on Levels.fyi include stock and bonus, while many public job postings disclose only base salary and then add equity, bonus, and benefits on top. (levels.fyi, job-boards.greenhouse.io) For candidates, that means a $180,000 posting and a $180,000 reported package are not the same number. The first is often salary before extras, and the second may already include stock and cash bonus, which is why headline pay figures can look inconsistent across job boards, salary trackers, and company disclosures. (levels.fyi, wellfound.com, job-boards.greenhouse.io) The short version in April 2026 is that software engineering still pays well, but “software engineer salary” is no longer a single market. Machine learning, frontier-model infrastructure, and senior platform roles sit in one tier; junior web and standard frontend hiring sit in another. (levels.fyi, wellfound.com)
