The median compensation for San Francisco software engineers hit $249,000 in 2023, making it the highest-paying tech city, according to data compiled from more than 200,000 employees by compensation data website Levels.fyi.
Seattle ranked second at $225,000, followed by New York City at $185,000, San Diego at $175,000, and Portland, Oregon, at $169,000.
Zurich topped the international list at $180,837; followed by Tel Aviv, Israel, at $137,916; and Lausanne, Switzerland, at $127,260, when compensations were adjusted to U.S. dollars.
San Francisco’s median salary in 2023 was up 6 percent from the year earlier and a 4 percent increase over 2021, according to Business Insider.
San Francisco’s top three highest-paying companies for entry-level engineers were Figma at $240,500, Databricks at $230,500, and Plaid at $220,000.
Databricks, a data analytics platform, is the highest-paying company in the country for software engineers at $380,000 and for senior engineers at $584,250.
Meanwhile, OpenAI is the top-paying company for staff engineers at $925,000.
Additionally, five of the top seven highest-paying companies for principal engineers are headquartered in San Francisco—Stripe at $940,700, Pinterest at $870,000, Uber at $830,000, Cruise at $819,600, and Airbnb at $810,000—with the other two still in the Bay Area—Facebook at $1,020,000 and Apple at $825,000.
Christian Lambert, a system engineer and consultant in the Bay Area, told The Epoch Times in an email that to land a good job in the industry as an average software engineer, it takes four years of schooling. Some of the degrees you can use are a bachelor’s degree in computer science, another computer science degree, and a computer engineering degree.
He added that getting internship experience matters.
For working on hardware, an electrical engineering degree is needed. For upper management, a master’s degree in business administration is required, he said.
He said that working your way up can be a gradual process and could entail getting additional industry certifications such as the Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert certification and the Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer certification.
He added that getting a master’s degree also helps with advancement, along with fitting in with companies’ cultures.
He said that while some people can work full-time remotely, and others split their time between remote and office, the ones in the office have more visibility and an easier path to promotions.
He said that how many hours a week one puts in differs from company to company. Startups have much longer hours, while larger tech companies have more of a regular work week. He said the number of hours worked a week are sometimes based on project and demand, which can sometimes be intensive and sometimes are more relaxed.
“At the highest level, it depends on supply and demand; education and degrees matter little in high-tech abilities and the needs of corporations are driving the bargain for pay,” George Haber, who has a quarter-century of professional experience ranging from engineering to entrepreneurship in the tech industry, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“I know people without any formal education who are making millions because they are the best hackers in their field.”
Levels.fyi has a process for verifying user-submitted salary data that requires a proof document, such as an offer letter or pay statement.
Its co-founder, Zaheer Mohiuddin, said the exorbitant salaries on the firm’s site may not be reflected in smaller companies with fewer employees, according to biz.crast.net.
Another co-founder, Zuhyaeer Musa, in a statement reported by Business Insider, said companies’ selective hiring following mass layoffs “skewed to senior level candidates” who earn more.
He added that tech leaders and executives are falling out of favor with employees working from home.
“There has generally been a lot of RTO (return to office) programs bringing people back to the Bay Area,” Mr. Musa said.
San Francisco saw the highest population growth across California, at 0.58 percent, and had an increase of 4,882 net new migrants from July 2022 to July 2023, according to data from The San Francisco Standard.
Additionally, the artificial intelligence (AI) field in San Francisco, headlined by large tech legacy companies and startups, has solidified the city as a tech capital and attracts lots of software developers.
Competition for AI talent is at an all-time high. Netflix recently offered up to $900,000 for an AI-focused product manager role, and Crossover closed applications for ChatGPT-involved roles of senior director and chief production officer at $800,000 each, according to Business Insider.
Open AI, the creator of ChatGPT, headquartered in San Francisco, pays employees starting at $300,000, with typical equity packages worth $2 million over four years, Business Insider reported.
Mr. Lambert said that AI is the next big thing and will be the most important for the next three to five years. He said jobs will be shifting toward AI-skilled workers working on AI programming and building AI clusters.
He said that AI won’t necessarily create more or fewer jobs but will create a shifting of jobs in the industry. He said, for example, a driverless car does not need a driver but will need other staff to monitor and maintain.
He said that one of the reasons for all the layoffs in the tech industry during the end of 2023 and early 2024 is a big shift toward AI. Companies are reprioritizing their resources to AI-based projects, he said.
