Technology
What you can do with Software Engineering
Focus on building reliable software at scale, from design through testing and deployment.
- Careers
- 4
- Early career
- $87,000
- Mid-career
- $120,000
- Growing fast
- 3 of 4
How these numbers work: A major does not have its own salary. Early and mid-career pay is what people who hold this degree earn at the start of their careers and midway through them. Career pay comes from the 4 careers a Software Engineering degree commonly leads to, and counts everyone in those jobs, including people who have been doing them for thirty years. The two answer different questions, which is why they do not match.
The New York Fed does not report Software Engineering on its own. Its early and mid-career figures here are for Computer Science, the broader group it places this major in.
3 of 4 careers this degree leads to are projected to grow faster than average from 2024 to 2034. Of those, DevOps Engineer has the most openings, about 115,200 a year.
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4 careers this degree leads to
DevOps Engineer
$135,980Bridge software development and IT operations by designing CI/CD pipelines, automating infrastructure, and improving deployment velocity.
- Middle half of workers
- $105,210 to $171,980
- Growth
- Much faster than average
- Openings a year
- 115,200
Work-life65Remote88Satisfaction78- CI/CD Pipelines
- Containerization
- Infrastructure as Code
- Scripting
Software Developer
$135,980Design, develop, and test software applications and systems.
- Middle half of workers
- $105,210 to $171,980
- Growth
- Much faster than average
- Openings a year
- 115,200
Work-life72Remote88Satisfaction78- Programming
- Software Development
- Problem Solving
- Systems Analysis
Site Reliability Engineer
$116,580Ensure the reliability, availability, and performance of large-scale production systems through software engineering and infrastructure automation.
- Middle half of workers
- $79,370 to $157,500
- Growth
- Much faster than average
- Openings a year
- 31,300
Work-life60Remote90Satisfaction77- Linux Systems
- Cloud Infrastructure
- Automation
- Monitoring and Observability
Computer Programmer
$100,390Write, modify, and test the code that makes applications run, turning specifications into working software.
- Middle half of workers
- $75,850 to $130,680
- Growth
- Declining
- Openings a year
- 5,500
Work-life61Remote61- Programming
- Debugging
- Testing
- Reading Comprehension
Related majors
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Where these pay figures come from
Early and mid-career pay is the median annual wage of full-time workers who hold a bachelor's degree in that major, ages 22 to 27 and ages 35 to 45, from 2024 data. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey (IPUMS). Published as Outcomes by Major by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Career pay is the annual wage of everyone working in that occupation, not only recent graduates, so it includes people who have done the job for decades. The middle half is the 25th to the 75th percentile. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and O*NET OnLine (median and percentile annual wages May 2025; employment projections 2024-2034).
All figures are national. What you earn depends on where you work, who you work for, and how far you take the degree.