Salaries and Careers in Software Engineering

Jumping into a new career is exciting, but let’s get honest. In 2020, it pays to be informed about salary... compensation...dinero. If you’re interested in software engineering, but aren’t sure where the biggest paydays come from, we’ve got you.

According to Glassdoor, average salaries for software engineers range from entry level positions at $63,000 to professionals with 7+ year experience making as much as $134,000. That’s a pretty wide range, but the good news is, the average base salary sits at around $92,000, making coding a profession that is both intellectually stimulating and very financially rewarding. If that kind of windfall sounds promising, you’ll want to check out four very different software engineering roles and their salaries to get you even more ready to code.

Create products for an agency

Marketing and advertising agencies move fast and are scrappy when it comes to getting business done––making them great places to build your career muscles. Companies like Grey Global Advertising, 160over90, and McCann New York have agency services including integrated digital creative marketing and working with various brands. This industry looks for front end developers skilled in PHP and professionals who can build high-functioning, and beautiful, websites and user experiences for their clients. You could expect an average salary of $77,000 at an agency.

Write code for a nonprofit social impact organization

Organizations like Teach for America, Planned Parenthood, and the Red Cross require senior software engineers since technology is a huge part of providing services for those in need. At these organizations, you could be at the helm of building dynamic, stable applications that maximize the positive impact teachers have on student education nationwide. Or you could be building digital products that make the family planning process more efficient, or creating web experiences that allow for easy data retrieval and communication during world crises. In other words, saving the world. Roles in this industry may utilize programming languages like Java, SQL, and relevant open source frameworks. You could earn about $105,000 as a senior software engineer at a nonprofit.

Build software for healthcare

Want to build code that could help keep millions of people happy and (healthy)? Healthcare could be the industry for you. Children's Hospital Los Angeles looks for senior software engineers to build custom full stack pages to support the needs of patients and doctors. Your work would have a direct impact on how care is administered and digitally tracked including medical orders, medications, clinical events, scheduling, surgery and more. If you worked at One Medical or CooperSurgical, your code could help keep millions of people healthy by ensuring proper digital health records or creating software for live-saving medical equipment. Average software engineer salaries in healthcare sit at around $120,000.

Work at a huge tech giant

A software engineer at Facebook, Google, or Amazon earns at the higher end of the salary scale. Average mid-level engineers at these social media, tech, and shipping giants make around $146,000. You could find yourself on Facebook’s AR/VR Discovery and Distribution team, immersed in the full stack of Oculus properties, including designing the front end and building the back end frameworks to help more users experience virtual reality. At Amazon, you could be on the team building out the software architect for the new Amazon cashier-less stores. It’s no shock that salaries at the most well-known tech companies are on the high side. Roles at companies like these are tough to get, but not impossible. See how one of our students landed a software engineer role at Twitter.

With so many fields to choose from, there's a software engineering career that's perfect for you. If you want to learn more about how Thinkful can help you get there, see how we work.

All salary information from Glassdoor.com. Artwork by Rachel Knobloch.