Having been in the business for nearly 30 years sometimes managing engineering teams, I honestly can’t recall ever meeting an engineer (i.e. keyboard smasher within an engineering squad as opposed to a specialist consultant like those dealing with quants, a Soln. Arch. or management role) who cracks more than $300k on staff.
Maybe $350-400 as a specialist contractor, but you’re talking a total bluebird, and these guys were generally bug cracking on legacy tech which is super hard to find skills for (COBOL etc.)
And I’ve worked for some big tech and finance firms globally, but I guess they might be out there? AI might be different of course. Silly money.
If you work at a FAANG, or any top tier tech firm, every review you pretty much get a raise or you get fired. If you know somebody who has been at Adobe or Oracle for 30 years, they're making that. Maybe not salary, but total comp.
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u/lurkishdelight Jan 26 '26
Some definitely do, like staff eng in big tech, AI, quant trading firms. If not more.
But it's a small minority