Is Your Planned Software Engineer Salary Competitive?

If you have any doubt whether software is central to the human experience, check out this stat: There were 27.5 billion Google Play app downloads in the fourth quarter of 2022 alone. Software’s ubiquity in daily life may only be eclipsed by its dominance in the business realm, which is why it’s essential to nail your software engineer salary when looking for top talent. Here are some things you should keep in mind and how to set the kind of salary that attracts the right talent.

What Does a Software Engineer Do?

As you hire a software engineer, keep in mind they could be responsible for all of the following:

• Designing software, which involves determining what to build based on a company’s needs, as well as the best architecture and UX features to implement.
• Coding software, which includes writing and compiling code compliant with the target operating system, such as Windows, MacOS, Linux, IOS, or Android.
• Testing solutions, which generally begins with an internal alpha test followed by a public-facing beta test. (The testing lifecycle might involve focus groups and surveys for customers helping with beta testing.)
• Maintaining and updating software implementations as needed.
• Working with others across the organization to ensure a cohesive, comprehensive product.

As you can see, a software engineer does more than simply code. Their role includes both programming and the higher-level- and post-release-related tasks that make software succeed.

How to Make Sure You Offer a Competitive Software Engineer Salary

With the above responsibilities in mind, you can begin choosing a competitive salary, which starts with research. Here’s what you should do, step-by-step, to make sure your salary figures entice the best software engineers.

1. Research Your Local Market

It’s important to research pay levels in your local area because “the right pay” is relative. For example, if your company operates in an area with a fairly low cost of living, you may not have to pay a software engineer the same kind of money in in San Francisco, New York City, London, or Boston.

To illustrate, the average software engineer’s salary in San Francisco is around $130,000. But in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it’s closer to $109,000. Pay can change with remote work, too, but with many recent jobs requiring at least some in-office time, it’s smart to know how much fellow software engineers are being paid in your area.

2. What Are Their Responsibilities?

There’s no hard and fast rule that you have to stick to the list above when deciding what your new software engineer will do. If they do more or less, you may be able to adjust the pay accordingly. For example, let’s say you have a testing team in your software development department. The team handles all test design and implementation, as well as communicating feedback to the necessary stakeholders.

If that’s the case, you may be able to adjust the pay of the software engineer accordingly.  On the other hand, suppose your software engineer will need to go into the field and physically visit clients to see how they’re using completed products and help them work through challenges. In that case, you may have to bump your salary up a bit to stay competitive.

3. Get Creative with Bonuses and/or Benefits

Bonuses and benefits open up a wealth of possibilities when it comes to deciding what to pay your software engineers because everyone wants something a little different, and you may be able to save on salary by using bonuses instead.

For example, suppose you’re hiring a software engineer who absolutely needs healthcare and dental coverage and a full month of time off in their first year. You may be able to offer a handsome benefits package that features these perks and save a few thousand on their salary.

Bonuses are another powerful salary-adjusting tool because you can use them to motivate talented engineers to perform at their best. At the same time, you can reduce the likelihood of over-paying an underperforming engineer.

For instance, you can provide a set base pay and then set project development milestones that come with paid rewards. Theoretically, if this works for the business, the pay structure could look like this:

• Base pay: $70,000
• Reward for each project that makes it through alpha, beta, and initial UX testing: $15,000

In this case, the software engineer salary could easily climb into six figures for the applicant. Simultaneously, you “get what you pay for” because you’re not paying more until your employees’ performance has justified it.

Are You Ready to Hire A Software Engineer?

Software engineers are one of the top IT positions on the job market. We know—we’re the second-largest IT staffing firm in America. If you’re looking to hire a software engineer, we can help. To learn more about how to source top-notch talent, connect with Insight Global today.