Software engineer salary in Seattle in 2026

Where the number comes from

Each figure comes from the Labor Condition Applications employers file with the US Department of Labor for a worker on an H-1B, H-1B1 or E-3 visa. A filing names the job title, the worksite and the salary the company commits to pay. We count certified, full-time filings with a yearly salary, decided from July 2025 to June 2026, and use the middle of the range where a range is filed. These are the same filings and title rules as the Zelcast Pay Index, where the method is set out in full. Here we keep the filings whose worksite is Seattle. Software engineer leaves out Google and Meta, which file engineers at most levels under that one title (380 such filings in Seattle).

The numbers

• Software engineer. Median $192,000, middle half $165,000 to $220,243, across 405 filings.
• Senior software engineer. Median $212,405, middle half $200,000 to $225,000, across 212 filings.
• Staff software engineer. Median $240,000, middle half $224,750 to $252,750, across 48 filings.
• Machine learning engineer. Median $196,914, middle half $161,944 to $230,000, across 85 filings.

Who files the most

Counting software engineer, senior and staff titles together, the largest filers in Seattle were DoorDash (67, median $199,256), Uber (62, median $211,450), Stripe (57, median $196,000), SoFi (44, median $210,000), Docusign (36, median $212,405) and Airbnb (29, median $230,000).

Amazon and Microsoft file under their own titles

The two largest filers in Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond do not use these titles, so they are not in the figures above. Amazon files its engineers as Software Development Engineer I, II and III. Across Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond, the medians were $129,000 for level I on 1,540 filings, $169,900 for level II on 3,330 and $201,900 for level III on 972. 936 of the 1,540 level I filings carry exactly the same salary, $129,000.

Microsoft files its engineers under Software Engineering, with no level in the title: 3,176 filings across the three cities, 3,159 of them in Redmond, at a median of $180,710, the middle half between $162,000 and $196,354. Without a level, that figure covers engineers at every wage level.

Against the rest of the country

The Seattle median for software engineers was 47% above the national median of $130,330. The national figure mixes in states where the title pays less, such as Texas, the second largest state for it, at a median of $112,950.

What the data can and can’t tell you

These are base salaries only, so they leave out equity, bonuses and benefits. They cover workers on these visas, who are a large share of engineers at many US tech companies but not all of them. A filing states what an employer commits to pay for a role when it files, and it does not record a hire. Pay can change after it.

How to use it

If you’re hiring in Seattle, the figures above are what other employers committed to for the same title in the same city. If you’re weighing an offer, compare it with the line for your title and level, and remember that equity at a startup and stock at a public company can matter more than the gap in base.