SoCal Engineering Salary Survey
I’ve been playing a recruiter lately so I thought that I should get up to speed on the current salary market. In my super scientific test, I came up with some initial figures and ran them by several of my peers at various companies in SoCal for feedback. Obviously these are a starting point as each offer is different and has many attributes besides salary. Start-ups will tend to offer lower salaries but make up for it with a larger equity stake, larger companies will have bonuses, ESPPs and other items. I would love your feedback on these figures!
| Role | Salary | Description |
| Jr. Developer | $65K | Task oriented developer with no design skills; needs a sr. developer for direction. |
| QA Tester | $70K | Black-box application tester. |
| Developer | $80K | Basic heads-down developer that can design small components; needs a manager for direction. |
| Web Developer | $80K | Basic heads-down web developer; needs a sr. web developer for direction. |
| Sr. QA Tester | $90K | Great tester, writes test plans/cases and can lead small teams. |
| Sr. Developer | $100K | Can self design and implement components; has some leadership skills. |
| Sr. Web Developer | $110K | Top quality web developer; master of CSS and JavaScript. |
| Tech Lead | $120K | A sr. level engineering with good leadership skills and some management skills. |
| Architect | $130K | Can design applications and can lead a medium sized team. |
| Enterprise Architect | $140K | Can design whole systems, can lead large teams and can manage small teams. |
| Engineering Manager | $150K | Can manage a team of developers or testers; good project management skills. |
Note, I removed the VP of Engineering role because it really varies so much across different companies and exec compensation is a whole other beast.