---
title: "Compensation by role, and top responding countries — Work data 2026"
url: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/work/data/compensation
year: 2026
chapter: "work"
question: "Compensation"
section: "Compensation"
licence: "ODbL 1.0 (https://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1-0/)"
---

# Compensation by role, and top responding countries

Asked as: What is your current total annual compensation (salary, bonuses, and perks, before taxes and deductions)? Please enter a whole number in the box below, without any punctuation. If you are paid hourly, please estimate an equivalent yearly salary. If you prefer not to answer, please leave the box empty. (`Compensation`, free text, optional, v2026.1)

## Results

_All respondents: limit bar charts to roles with 100 or more responses; Country-level: limit bar charts to roles with 30 or more responses.  All reflect median salary after being converted to USD._

### All Respondents

n = 12,040

|  | Respondents | Median salary |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Engineering manager | 378 | $133,263 |
| Senior executive (C-suite, VP, etc.) | 176 | $131,498 |
| Cloud infrastructure engineer | 129 | $110,000 |
| Architect, software or solutions | 1,023 | $102,355 |
| Solutions engineer, implementation engineer, or forward-deployed engineer | 144 | $101,710 |
| Software engineer | 105 | $101,218 |
| AI/ML engineer | 194 | $95,337 |
| Founder or entrepreneur | 111 | $94,012 |
| Data scientist | 155 | $90,982 |
| Data engineer | 233 | $90,000 |
| Developer, back-end | 1,922 | $85,296 |
| Developer, embedded applications or devices | 412 | $85,296 |
| DevOps engineer or professional | 307 | $85,096 |
| Developer, mobile | 346 | $84,277 |
| Developer, desktop or enterprise applications | 559 | $80,000 |
| Developer, full-stack | 3,761 | $79,610 |
| Developer, game or graphics | 108 | $77,002 |
| Developer, front-end | 441 | $70,320 |
| Data or business analyst | 119 | $67,161 |
| Academic researcher | 253 | $61,413 |
| System administrator | 122 | $55,230 |
| Other | 106 | $51,000 |

### United States of America

n = 2,885

|  | Respondents | Median salary |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Engineering manager | 118 | $212,500 |
| Senior executive (C-suite, VP, etc.) | 46 | $250,000 |
| Architect, software or solutions | 216 | $186,000 |
| Solutions engineer, implementation engineer, or forward-deployed engineer | 41 | $149,000 |
| Software engineer | 36 | $172,500 |
| AI/ML engineer | 42 | $200,000 |
| Data scientist | 45 | $148,000 |
| Data engineer | 71 | $165,000 |
| Developer, back-end | 361 | $180,000 |
| Developer, embedded applications or devices | 109 | $150,000 |
| DevOps engineer or professional | 54 | $156,500 |
| Developer, mobile | 71 | $178,000 |
| Developer, desktop or enterprise applications | 129 | $135,000 |
| Developer, full-stack | 974 | $140,000 |
| Developer, front-end | 93 | $150,000 |
| Data or business analyst | 36 | $89,000 |
| Academic researcher | 48 | $101,857 |
| Cybersecurity or InfoSec professional | 31 | $178,000 |
| Applied scientist | 30 | $150,312 |

### Germany

n = 1,218

|  | Respondents | Median salary |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Engineering manager | 32 | $131,356 |
| Architect, software or solutions | 115 | $108,042 |
| Developer, back-end | 188 | $87,855 |
| Developer, embedded applications or devices | 61 | $88,708 |
| DevOps engineer or professional | 38 | $85,296 |
| Developer, desktop or enterprise applications | 72 | $72,223 |
| Developer, full-stack | 366 | $77,335 |
| Developer, front-end | 42 | $77,336 |
| Academic researcher | 48 | $72,047 |

### United Kingdom

n = 855

|  | Respondents | Median salary |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Engineering manager | 46 | $136,322 |
| Architect, software or solutions | 64 | $119,698 |
| Developer, back-end | 134 | $114,378 |
| Developer, embedded applications or devices | 32 | $79,798 |
| Developer, desktop or enterprise applications | 44 | $95,758 |
| Developer, full-stack | 269 | $86,448 |

### India

n = 472

|  | Respondents | Median salary |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Architect, software or solutions | 45 | $41,783 |
| Developer, back-end | 71 | $20,891 |
| Developer, full-stack | 135 | $14,624 |

### Canada

n = 539

|  | Respondents | Median salary |
| --- | ---: | ---: |
| Architect, software or solutions | 35 | $106,371 |
| Developer, back-end | 76 | $122,326 |
| Developer, desktop or enterprise applications | 30 | $90,947 |
| Developer, full-stack | 173 | $82,260 |

In context: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/work/data.md