By Tracy Phillips | CodeSubmit TeamSoftware Engineer Salary by Country
Compare software engineer salary figures in USD across 27 countries, with breakdowns by region, experience level, city, and programming language.
Salaries by Region and Experience
Filter the 27 countries by region, USD pay tier, and experience level, then open any country card to inspect city and language breakdowns and its modeled 2020 to 2026 curve.
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(27 of 27)
United States
#1 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Switzerland
#2 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Israel
#3 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Denmark
#4 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Canada
#5 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Norway
#6 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Australia
#7 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
United Kingdom
#8 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Germany
#9 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Sweden
#10 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Ireland
#11 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Finland
#12 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Netherlands
#13 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
France
#14 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
New Zealand
#15 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Singapore
#16 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Argentina
#17 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Japan
#18 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
China
#19 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Russia
#20 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Poland
#21 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Ukraine
#22 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
South Africa
#23 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Brazil
#24 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Philippines
#25 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
India
#26 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Nigeria
#27 Dataset Rank
Top Cities
Top Languages
Regional Salary Comparisons
Compare average USD figures across regions in this 27-country table before drilling into individual country cards.
North America
The United States tops this 27-country table at a $110,140 average, with California state figures reaching $146,770. Canada ranks fifth in the table, with USD figures sitting below the top US state and metro entries.
Europe
Switzerland records the highest European average in this table at $97,518, followed by Denmark and Norway. Pay gaps remain wide between Western and Eastern European entries, so compare local taxes and living costs alongside the reported USD figures.
Asia & Others
Entries in Asia, South America, and Africa span a wide USD range, from Singapore at rank 16 and Japan's $36k average down to India's $7.7k. Open individual country cards to compare city and seniority figures within each market.
Salaries by Language and Role
The cards below list selected USD reference figures for eight stacks and four country examples. Language coverage varies by country and omits seniority, so check your target country's card directly.
Selected Language Reference Figures
Go, Ruby, iOS, and Python
Android, SQL, Java, and JavaScript
Selected Country Language Examples
Top-Paying Cities in This Table
Top City Entries by Average Pay
Comparing City Figures
San Jose posts the highest city figure in this table at $167,420, followed by San Francisco and Seattle, with Zurich and Tel Aviv leading the non-US entries shown here.
These city figures are reported in USD without adjusting for local purchasing power or specifying whether bonuses and equity are included. Compare housing, local taxes, and living costs alongside any offer's exact pay breakdown.
Outside the United States, major metro entries such as Zurich, Tel Aviv, Copenhagen, and London sit well above their respective national averages in this table.
Within lower-tier USD markets, pay still varies by metro hub: in India, Bangalore ($10,489) and New Delhi outpace Mumbai ($7,454) and the national figure in this dataset.
Salary by Developer Role
The US job-title figures below come from broad US Bureau of Labor Statistics occupational groupings rather than company-level engineering tracks.
US Salary by Job Title
Comparing Role Scope in Offers
Junior-to-Senior Pay Spreads
Comparing junior and senior figures shows how steeply pay scales with experience in each country entry, though some gaps reflect mixed underlying survey sources.
Selected Junior-to-Senior Spreads
Israel +64% Switzerland +42% United Kingdom +101%Using Seniority Bands in Offers
Comparing seniority bands
In countries where junior and average figures sit close together, such as Germany or Denmark in this table, ask employers how they separate mid-level and senior compensation bands.
Cross-border remote bands
Some distributed employers benchmark pay to a hub city, while many localize offers to your country of residence and tax status. Confirm the location policy early in the hiring process.
Entry-Level Pay and Hiring Expectations
Compare the entry-level figures in this table with each country's average and senior numbers, and prepare concrete code and debugging examples for technical screens.
Reading Junior Figures in This Table
Across the 27 countries, entry-level pay ranges from $89,643 in Switzerland, $69,851 in Israel, and $69,354 in the United States down to $5,256 in the Philippines. In several countries, junior pay sits close to the reported national average, while in the United Kingdom ($38,664 junior vs. $77,603 senior) and Japan ($26,553 vs. $53,773) starting pay is roughly half the senior figure.
Preparing for Entry-Level Technical Screens
Reviewing AI-generated code
If you use coding assistants while practicing, rehearse reading unfamiliar diffs line by line, spotting edge-case bugs, and writing tests that verify the fix.
Debugging and system fundamentals
Practice tracing failing requests or broken state step by step so you can explain data flow, isolate root causes, and talk through trade-offs in your own code.
Evidence of end-to-end ownership
Bring a small project or feature you built end to end, with working tests, a clean commit history, and a clear walkthrough of the decisions you made.
Evaluating International and Remote Offers
Mid-to-High Tier Relocation Hubs
Canada and Australia sit in this table's high pay tier, while Sweden and New Zealand sit in the medium tier. Because this snapshot does not track live job openings or hiring velocity, weigh visa rules, local tax rates, and housing costs alongside the reported USD figures when evaluating offers in these markets.
Cross-Border Hiring and Pay Bands
When evaluating a cross-border or remote offer, ask whether pay is benchmarked to your country of residence, a regional tier, or the company's headquarters market. Confirm whether you would be hired through a local legal entity, an employer of record, or an independent contractor agreement, and which currency and benefits apply.
Modeled 2020–2026 Salary Curves
The 2020–2026 charts on each country card are modeled illustrations anchored to that country's average figure, not observed annual survey history. Countries in the same market group share an assumed curve shape.
Use the cards to compare country, city, and seniority figures. Selecting Junior or Senior changes the card amount, while the curve stays anchored to the country average and cannot compare local annual pay shifts.
The modeled curves apply a single percentage weight to each country's average figure and do not track venture funding cycles or separate base pay, equity grants, and bonuses. When comparing an offer against this table, ask for the exact split between base salary, bonus target, and equity.
Each country card displays one average, one junior, and one senior USD figure alongside city and language entries, without sample sizes, survey dates, or employer-type breakdowns. Use the city and seniority numbers on the card to narrow your comparison rather than relying on the national average alone.
Illustrative US policy-rate path, 2020 to 2026
Illustrative rate path (not live FRED data)This chart plots a seven-point illustrative rate path (including an assumed 3.25% value for 2026 rather than an observed year-end rate) to show the general shift from near-zero rates in 2020 and 2021 to higher rates in 2022 and 2023. It is not a live download of the FRED FEDFUNDS series or a test of salary causation.
Placing the illustrative US policy-rate chart beside the modeled country curves provides general macroeconomic context for 2020 through 2026, not evidence that US interest rates or external layoff trackers determined software engineer pay in any of the 27 countries. Neither chart measures current local hiring demand or company-specific pay bands.
Use the country and city figures on this page as a starting point to see how markets rank relative to one another in USD. Before you name a number in an interview, cross-check current local postings, ask whether the role's band is localized or hub-indexed, and compare total compensation (base, bonus, equity, and benefits) in the currency you will spend.
- Federal Reserve Board H.15 / FRED (FEDFUNDS). Official US effective federal funds rate series for macro context: fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FEDFUNDS
- Crunchbase News. The State of Global Venture, 2021 recap: news.crunchbase.com
- McKinsey (2020). Survey on pandemic-era digital adoption and technology project timelines: mckinsey.com
- Layoffs.fyi. Public tracker of reported 2022 and 2023 technology-sector layoffs: layoffs.fyi
Practice your next interview
Prepare for the technical screen
Once you know which roles and markets fit your target pay band, rehearse the technical screen with role-specific prompts, code snippets, and written feedback.
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