Salary
Backend engineer salary
Backend engineer salary data across 30 cities, broken down by seniority and percentile. Senior figures are total compensation where regionally appropriate.
Highest median senior pay
Top paying city
Median (senior, total comp) in San Francisco, in USD
By city
Senior pay across cities
Median 50th percentile for senior-level positions, shown in USD for a like-for-like comparison (switch currency above). Cost-of-living index relative to NYC equals 100.
| City | Country | Median (senior) | COL index | Comp basis | Sample | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | US | $291,000 | 112 | Total comp | 850 | View |
| New York | US | $264,000 | 100 | Total comp | 620 | View |
| Seattle | US | $256,000 | 91 | Total comp | 620 | View |
| Denver | US | $238,000 | 74 | Total comp | 480 | View |
| Atlanta | US | $233,000 | 72 | Total comp | 480 | View |
| Tel Aviv | IL | $206,010 | 96 | Total comp | 240 | View |
| Zurich | CH | $186,480 | 122 | Base | 160 | View |
| Singapore | SG | $171,680 | 96 | Total comp | 220 | View |
| London | GB | $163,830 | 84 | Total comp | 620 | View |
| Sydney | AU | $145,200 | 86 | Total comp | 220 | View |
| Edinburgh | GB | $137,160 | 70 | Total comp | 280 | View |
| Vancouver | CA | $113,880 | 76 | Base | 200 | View |
| Dublin | IE | $108,000 | 80 | Base | 220 | View |
| Toronto | CA | $107,310 | 74 | Base | 220 | View |
| Copenhagen | DK | $105,705 | 88 | Base | 170 | View |
| Oslo | NO | $101,752 | 86 | Base | 170 | View |
| Amsterdam | NL | $98,280 | 78 | Base | 220 | View |
| Munich | DE | $98,280 | 74 | Base | 200 | View |
| Paris | FR | $93,960 | 81 | Base | 200 | View |
| Stockholm | SE | $90,052 | 72 | Base | 200 | View |
| Helsinki | FI | $89,640 | 76 | Base | 170 | View |
| Berlin | DE | $88,560 | 70 | Base | 220 | View |
| Tokyo | JP | $88,105 | 79 | Base | 220 | View |
| Dubai | AE | $82,350 | 68 | Base | 180 | View |
| Madrid | ES | $70,200 | 56 | Base | 180 | View |
| Warsaw | PL | $66,500 | 47 | Base | 180 | View |
| Lisbon | PT | $62,640 | 53 | Base | 180 | View |
| Mexico City | MX | $43,094 | 43 | Base | 180 | View |
| Bangalore | IN | $43,068 | 28 | Base | 220 | View |
| Sao Paulo | BR | $39,240 | 41 | Base | 180 | View |
Source: US BLS OES May 2024 (SOC 15-1252) + Levels.fyi 2025 (2025)
What the range tells you
Across the 30 cities tracked for backend engineer roles, the highest senior median sits in San Francisco ($291,000) and the lowest in Sao Paulo ($39,240). All figures are converted to USD at the rates noted in the methodology, so they are directly comparable; switch the display currency above to read them another way.
In USD terms the senior median spans about 642% from the lowest to the highest market, from $39,240 in Sao Paulo to $291,000 in San Francisco. Local tech-employer density and cost of living both feed that gap.
Two structural factors drive most of the variation: the local tech-pay level, which reflects how much the pool of employers in a city pays for the skill set, and whether senior figures are reported as total compensation. Markets where senior pay folds in bonus and equity show higher nominal medians than markets reported on base salary alone.
How pay grows with seniority
Median steps between tiers, shown for San Francisco as a single-currency example. The same documented multipliers (junior 0.65x, mid 1.00x, senior 1.45x, staff 2.05x) apply in every city, so the shape of the ladder is consistent even where the absolute numbers differ.
- Moving from mid to senior, the median rises roughly 95% in San Francisco.
- Moving from senior to staff, the median rises roughly 83% in San Francisco.
- Across the full ladder, the highest tier median is about 5.5x the entry tier for backend engineer roles here, before negotiation and individual level calibration.
See the full backend engineer pay-by-level breakdown (L3-L7, IC vs manager)
Methodology and sources
Each city median for backend engineer roles starts from an occupation-specific mid-level anchor, scales by the documented seniority multipliers, and is then adjusted to the local tech-pay level. Percentiles (10th, 25th, 75th, 90th) are fitted from the median using the dispersion the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports for software occupations. Cost-of-living indices blend Numbeo 2025 and Mercer 2025. Senior and staff tiers are reported as total compensation in markets where verified equity and bonus data exist. Cross-city figures are shown in USD by default, converted from each market's local currency at approximate mid-market rates as of 2025-06; the currency switcher re-displays them without changing the underlying data.
Primary sources: US BLS OES May 2024 (SOC 15-1252) + Levels.fyi 2025 (2025), with US figures from the BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, UK figures from the ONS Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings, and verified-offer aggregates from Levels.fyi.
Reference data only. Reported medians describe a market; individual pay varies by employer, level calibration, and negotiation. Nothing here is financial advice.
Compare with related roles
Salary data for adjacent roles, broken down the same way by city and seniority.