End of Year Pay Report 2023

Although the data is for a limited set of titles, the top paying companies and locations often carry across tech roles. As always, compensation and leveling depend on a variety of factors including interview performance, past experience, competitive offers, etc. The compensation numbers here are for the top paying tech companies and locations - it may not reflect compensation for the rest of the market.

Top Pay by Engineering Level

The Levels.fyi Software Engineer Leveling Standard is a leveling hierarchy we've abstracted from company-specific names to make compensation aggregation easier. Click through the tabs below to view up to 7 top paying companies by level from 2023. View the compensation for all companies here.

Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	L1	New York, NY	L1	$325,000
2	L1 levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	L1	$240,500
3	L1	Amsterdam, NH	L1	$240,000
4	IC1 levels.fyi/2023	San Mateo, CA	IC1	238,120
5	L3	San Francisco, CA	L3	$230,500
6	Software Engineer levels.fyi/2023	Sunnyvale, CA	Software Engineer	$220,500
7	E3	San Francisco, CA	E3	$220,000

Typically 0-2 years of experience. Expand Details...

New-grads or little to no industry experience. Develop and maintain low to moderately complex components working on a team. Typically receives guidance and support from more experienced team members.

Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	L4	San Francisco, CA	L4	$380,000
2	L2 levels.fyi/2023	Amsterdam, NH	L2	$350,000
3	IC3	San Mateo, CA	IC3	$350,000
4	L6 levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	L6	$330,000
5	E4	San Francisco, CA	E4	$330,000
6	IC4 levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	IC4	$322,000
7	L4	Los Gatos, CA	L4	$320,000

Typically 2-5+ years of experience. Expand Details...

Develop and own moderate to complex components. Possibly lead a small team or project. Ability to mentor engineers, provide technical guidance, code reviews, design and deliver on small projects end-to-end. Impact is typically at the immediate team scope. At many companies, this is considered a 'career-level', as in you can spend the rest of your career operating at this level without being pushed out for not being promoted.

Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	L5	San Francisco, CA	L5	$584,250
2	L5 levels.fyi/2023	Los Gatos, CA	L5	$535,000
3	L4	New York, NY	L4	$500,000
4	L6-I levels.fyi/2023	Seattle, WA	L6-I	$492,000
5	IC4	San Mateo, CA	IC4	$490,000
6	IC3 levels.fyi/2023	Bozeman, MT	IC3	$472,500
7	E5	San Francisco, CA	E5	$465,000

Typically 5+ years of experience. Expand Details...

Typically less than 30% of employees in a company are at this level. Expected to lead and own complex technical initiatives. Begin setting the vision and future direction of team. Impact across multiple related teams within an org. Role shifts more towards design rather than implementation depending on size and expectations at company.

Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	L5	San Francisco, CA	L5	$925,000
2	L7-I levels.fyi/2023	Seattle, WA	L7-I	$870,000
3	Senior Staff Software Engineer	Sunnyvale, CA	Senior Staff Software Engineer	$708,100
4	L4 levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	L4	$700,000
5	E6	San Francisco, CA	E6	$690,000
6	IC4 levels.fyi/2023	Bozeman, MT	IC4	$650,000
7	L3	New York, NY	L3	$640,000

Typically 10+ years of experience. Expand Details...

This level is much more coveted than the previous ones. Typically less than 10% of employees in a company are at this level. Impact spans across organizations. Entrusted with business-critical projects and for setting technical vision for an org or multiple orgs. Responsible for reviewing and providing feedback on technical designs across an org. Little to no day-to-day coding. Role depends highly on organizational and company needs and becomes loosely defined. Expected to operate fully autonomously.

Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	E7	Menlo Park, CA	E7	$1,020,000
2	L5 levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	L5	$940,700
3	L7	San Francisco, CA	L7	$870,000
4	Senior Staff Software Engineer levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	Senior Staff Software Engineer	$830,000
5	ICT6	Cupertino, CA	ICT6	$825,000
6	L7 levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	L7	$819,600
7	G11	San Francisco, CA	G11	$810,000

Typically 15+ years of experience. Usually less than 3% of employees in a company are at this level. Smaller companies may not have any individuals at this level. Impact spans across the company and sometimes industry. Expected to operate fully autonomously.

This level is representative of a small percentage of people at a company. Therefore, some companies may not have had enough data points to be listed.

Other Titles

We've developed a leveling standard for all IC and management roles part way through this year. Since we didn't have the leveling framework set from the beginning of this year, we show the top 5 highest compensating companies by using the median value at the company within the following job families irrespective of level. Note that these are the absolute highest medians, and may not reflect the entire market.

Software Engineering Manager

View More on the Live Leaderboard

Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	L7	San Francisco, CA	L7	$900,000
2	Manager levels.fyi/2023	Los Gatos, CA	Manager	$785,000
3	L7	Palo Alto, CA	L7	$750,000
4	M4 levels.fyi/2023	Bozeman, MT	M4	$683,000
5	M4	San Francisco, CA	M4	$670,000

Product Manager

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Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	IC7	Remote-first	IC7	$830,000
2	Director levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	Director	$659,500
3	Senior Director	San Jose, CA	Senior Director	$590,000
4	Senior Product Manager levels.fyi/2023	Los Gatos, CA	Senior Product Manager	$550,000
5	L3	San Francisco, CA	L3	$491,000

Product Designer

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Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	L3	San Francisco, CA	L3	$367,000
2	IC6 levels.fyi/2023	Remote-first	IC6	$350,000
3	E5	San Francisco, CA	E5	$305,000
4	ICT4 levels.fyi/2023	Cupertino, CA	ICT4	$301,000
5	IC3	San Francisco, CA	IC3	$298,850

Hardware Engineer

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Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	ICB4	San Jose, CA	ICB4	$416,250
2	IC5 levels.fyi/2023	Menlo Park, CA	IC5	$359,186
3	L5	Mountain View, CA	L5	$358,000
4	L5 levels.fyi/2023	Mountain View, CA	L5	$335,000
5	L5	San Francisco, CA	L5	$334,000

Data Scientist

View More on the Live Leaderboard

Rank	Company & Level Name	Headquarters	Level Name	Total Compensation
1	L5	Los Gatos, CA	L5	$500,000
1	L4 levels.fyi/2023	New York, NY	L4	$500,000
1	L5	Boston, MA	L5	$500,000
2	L5 levels.fyi/2023	San Francisco, CA	L5	$446,500
3	IC4	San Mateo, CA	IC4	$440,000

Top Pay in the US, Europe, and the World

We crunched the numbers across the United States, Europe, and Internationally for software engineering compensation. We found the following cities to have the highest total median pay (including stocks and bonuses). Our other more specific international reports are coming soon. Sign up to get notified below.

Top US Metros

Rank	Location	Median Pay
1	San Francisco Bay Area	$249,000
2	Greater Seattle Area levels.fyi/2023	$225,000
3	New York City Area	$185,000
4	Greater San Diego Area levels.fyi/2023	$175,000
5	Greater Portland Area	$169,000
6	Greater Los Angeles Area levels.fyi/2023	$168,400
7	Greater Austin Area	$167,000
8	Greater Boston Area levels.fyi/2023	$160,000
9	Greater Denver And Boulder Area	$154,000
10	Northern Virginia Washington DC	$148,600

Top European Cities

Rank	Location	Median Pay (USD)
1	Zurich, Switzerland	$180,837
2	Lausanne, Switzerland levels.fyi/2023	$127,260
3	London, United Kingdom	$117,101
4	Geneva, Switzerland levels.fyi/2023	$113,652
5	Dublin, Ireland	$111,996
6	Luxembourg levels.fyi/2023	$106,945
7	Amsterdam, Netherlands	$102,009
8	Copenhagen, Denmark levels.fyi/2023	$96,909
9	Cambridge, United Kingdom	$94,362
10	Berlin, Germany	$91,265

Top International Cities

Rank	Location	Median Pay (USD)
1	Tel Aviv, Israel	$137,916
2	Vancouver, Canada levels.fyi/2023	$115,656
3	Sydney, Australia	$110,237
4	Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates levels.fyi/2023	$99,000
5	Singapore	$90,410
6	Beijing, China levels.fyi/2023	$90,000
7	Auckland, New Zealand	$81,332
8	Seoul, South Korea levels.fyi/2023	$75,000
9	Hsin-chu, Taiwan	$69,021
10	Hong Kong	$63,250

Note that this list only includes the single highest paying city from each country. Other cities within a country may have high pay that isn't shown on this list.