Ranks
Which industry pays a software engineer the most?
Ranked by Typical total comp vs the field.
One band per industry. Same SWE seat. Typical is the tick.
| # | Industry | Typical | Seats | vs field |
|---|
| 01 | AI labsFrontier labs and AI-native tools. Paper is most of the band. | $506k | 6 | 1.77× |
| 02 | QuantNY and Chicago shops. Cash and bonus. QR is the top of the field. | $438k | 8 | 1.54× |
| 03 | ConsumerStreaming, social, games. Netflix is cash. Snap is paper. | $385k | 7 | 1.35× |
| 04 | FintechPayments, spend, brokerage, tax. | $307k | 5 | 1.08× |
| 05 | Data centerThe hall. Colo OT vs GPU-cloud paper. | $300k | 2 | 1.05× |
| 06 | SiliconNVIDIA vs AMD. Same seat, different paper. | $295k | 2 | 1.03× |
| 07 | MarketplaceRides, stays, delivery. | $293k | 4 | 1.03× |
| 08 | RoboticsHumanoid, AV, warehouse, drones. | $290k | 9 | 1.02× |
| 09 | EVTesla and Rivian. Factory plus FSD/Optimus. | $287k | 2 | 1.01× |
| 10 | Big techPublic mega-caps. Liquid RSUs, published levels. | $280k | 5 | 0.98× |
| 11 | SaaSInfra and app software. AE books plus mid IC. | $274k | 8 | 0.96× |
| 12 | SecurityCloud, identity, resilience. | $267k | 2 | 0.94× |
| 13 | BiotechBoston, SSF, Chicago. Science cash under the labs. | $250k | 10 | 0.88× |
| 14 | CryptoExchanges, stablecoins, rails. Coinbase is the liquid end. | $245k | 6 | 0.86× |
| 15 | Deep techSpace and defense-adjacent. Cash under the labs. | $240k | 6 | 0.84× |
Public composites and work-email ticks. Not a bought ranking. Method.
