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The 18 highest paying developer roles in 2021

Some developer jobs command higher salaries than others. Aiming high? See
what you can expect to earn in these software developer roles.

By Scott Carey
UK Group Editor, InfoWorld
NOV 2, 2021 3:00 AM PDT

The pandemic has sped up efforts to offer more digital services for employees and
customers, while also pushing forward cloud strategies, driving up demand for
software developers across all industry sectors.

At the same time, “we’re in the middle of the Great Resignation where employees are
quitting their jobs at record-setting rates,” wrote Josh Brenner, CEO of tech
recruitment specialist Hired, in a recent report. “During the COVID-19 pandemic,
many entered a period of reflection, reevaluating their career paths with newfound
perspective. Some people vowed never to work from an office again, while others
sought out better benefits and work-life balance. This has led to high employee
turnover and a spike in demand for top tech talent.”

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These trends are reflected in the average salary of those defined as software
developers on Hired’s platform, with salaries across the US steadily rising since 2019,
from $146,000 to $152,000 in 2020 and now $153,000 in 2021.

Here are the highest-paying software developer roles in the US according to Robert
Half’s 2022 Salary Guide, which is based on research conducted during the summer of
2021. These figures represent the national average salary range for the 50th and 75th
percentile of applicants.

Cloud and software architects

The highest paying non-C-suite role in 2021 is the cloud architect. Organizations are
looking for talented engineers to guide their digital transformation efforts.

Cloud/network architect: $153,750-$180,500

Applications architect: $150,500-$180,250

Software developers and engineers

Software developer job titles have proliferated in recent years, and there is a clear
need for mobile and applications developers, who get paid on average far better than
their colleagues still working on mainframes.

Software and applications manager: $142,500-$166,250

Mobile applications developer: $137,250-$163,750

Senior software engineer: $135,250-$162,250

Software engineer: $124,500-$147,250

Software developer: $122,250-$142,750

Developer/programmer analyst: $112,500-$133,750

Mainframe programmer: $70,250-$87,500

Web developers
Developers responsible solely for web applications get paid on a slightly different
scale than standard software developer job titles.

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Senior web developer: $128,750-$151,000

Web developer: $111,000-$131,500

Front-end developer: $93,250-$107,750

Devops engineers
The rise of the site reliability engineer (SRE) has seen average salaries for that role
spike, with candidates able to display these skills earning more on average than their
colleagues in the devops function. The line between these functions is a gray one, but
there is some demonstrable extra incentive for anyone that can subtly pivot from
devops to SRE.

Site reliability engineer: $126,750-$154,250

Devops engineer: $125,750-$149,000

QA and testing
Testing and quality assurance functions remain among the lowest-paid developer
roles, according to Robert Half. These people are responsible for ensuring code
releases are stable and free of bugs.

Testing/QA manager: $106,500-$124,000

QA engineer, automated: $92,500-$108,750

QA engineer, manual: $78,500-$89,500

QA analyst/associate: $81,250-$96,750

Scott Carey is the Group Editor for IDG UK enterprise titles, writing primarily for InfoWorld.

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