How Much FAANG Pays Software Engineers in 2022 - YouTube

Software engineering is one of the highest paid professions right now, and compensation

continues to increase.

And at the very top of this pyramid we have what people call the “FAANG” companies,

which stands for Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Google.

These big tech firms are regarded as the most prestigious and highest paying companies on

the planet.

But how much do they actually pay?

Today we’re going to take a look at how much each level of software engineer makes

at all 5 of these companies.

We’ll be using real-life data from levels.fyi, a website where people submit their actual

offer letters they’ve received.

The website gives an average compensation for each level of each role, and breaks down

pay structure into salary, stock, and bonus, which is how most tech companies pay their

employees.

We’ll be using US dollars as a currency, but you can easily convert that online.

We’ll get right into it, but just a quick note before we do.

These salaries and other monetary figures can be considered ridiculously high and should

not be considered a measure of worth or anything else.

This video is just meant to provide some transparency as to how much the most valuable companies

in the world pay.

There are literally hundreds of other amazing companies out there that pay awesomely, it’s

just that this video focuses on the FAANG classification.

With that said, let’s get into the first of these big tech companies:

Facebook has been one of the hottest places for software engineers to work in the past

few years, and with their rebrand to Meta and transition over to metaverse work, there’s

a good chance they’ll continue to be a dominant force for years to come.

As of June 2022, Facebook is the 8th most valuable company in the world, and their compensations

definitely reflect this.

Facebook’s entry-level for software engineers is the E3 level.

These software engineers are paid around $184,000 in total, with $122,000 coming in as salary,

$42,000 as stock, and $20,000 as bonus.

The next level up is E4.

The total compensation at this level is $268,000 on average, with $163,000 in salary, $83,000

in stock, and $22,000 in bonus.

The next promotion up is the E5 level.

Total compensation at this level comes in at around $388,000, broken down into a $197,000

salary, $156,000 in stock, and $35,000 in stock.

Moving into the E6 level, which is around 10-15 years in to a software engineer’s

career, the total compensation reaches around $578,000, with $230,000 coming in as salary,

$298,000 coming in as stock, and $50,000 coming in as bonus.

There are three more levels, those being E7, E8, and E9.

Only a select few software engineers ever reach this stage, and at this point, pay really

starts to vary, so we’ll provide a general overview.

At E7 the average is $929,000, at E8 the average is $1.6 million, and there is only one data

point for E9 which comes in at a ridiculous $4.5 million.

The thing to note with this is that base salaries don’t really increase from here; they all

level at around $300,000, even the $4.5 million compensation.

As is the case for the rest on this list as well, the massive increases in compensation

come in the form of ownership in the company, which is stock.

Even though the average software engineer at Facebook will stay around E5 or E6, that’s

still life-changing money.

As we look at the other FAANG companies you’ll see a similar trend, with most engineers averaging

somewhere in the middle roles, and the higher-end roles having a lack of data.

Of all 5 companies mentioned today, Apple is probably the most mysterious.

While employee’s of the other 4 very frequently share information on culture, workplace, etc.

Apple seems to have maintained a certain level of privacy.

However, being such a large firm, there are of course still quite a lot of people who

have shared information, which is how we’re able to take a look at their compensation

structures.

Starting off with Apple’s Junior Software Engineer, ICT2, the total compensation comes

in at around $167,000. $125,000 of this is salary, $26,000 is stock, and $16,000 is bonus.

Apple’s Software Engineering role, ICT3, pays a total of $219,000, which is $147,000

salary, $54,000 stock, and $18,000 bonus.

Apple’s next role up is their Senior Software Engineer, ICT4, which pays a total of $316,000,

broken up into $185,000 salary, $106,000 stock, and $25,000 bonus.

The two levels, ICT5 and ICT6, are still considered Senior Software Engineers, but with added

responsibility and compensation.

ICT5 totals at around $448,000, comprised of $216,000 salary, $193,000 stock, and $39,000

bonus.

ICT6 totals at around $738,000, which is $269,000 in salary, $409,000 in stock, and $60,000

in bonus.

Apple does still have 3 extra levels above this, which are Distinguished Engineer, Senior

Distinguished Engineer, and Engineering Fellow.

However, there is no data available for these points, so I think it’s a safe assumption

to say they’re likely very high.

Amazon has been one of the hottest companies in the past few years, especially with COVID-19

increasing the frequency of online ordering and e-commerce.

Amazon software engineer’s first level is their L4, which is their Software Development

Engineer 1.

The total compensation for this role comes in at around $167,000, broken up into $127,000

salary, $21,000 stock, and $19,000 bonus.

The next level for Amazon engineers is L5, which is Software Development Engineer 2.

Total compensation comes in at $234,000, made up of $155,000 salary, $64,000 stock, and

$15,000 bonus.

Amazon’s next engineering role is their L6, AKA Software Development Engineer 3.

Total compensation rises to $340,000 at this level, with $171,000 being salary, $156,000

being stock, and $13,000 in bonus.

Amazon’s L7 role is Senior Software Development Engineer, and is the last Amazon role with

a large quantity of data points.

Total compensation is just short of $600,000, which is broken up into $183,000 salary, $385,000

stock, and $30,000 in bonus.

Like with the other FAANG companies, Amazon’s higher level roles past L7 don’t have a

ton of concrete data; based on the other companies and the compensation at the L7 level, you

can make your own prediction as to what the figures look like.

Subscribe: Before we get into our last two companies,

Netflix and Google, if you’ve enjoyed this video, please consider subscribing.

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shows me that my effort is helping some people, which is incredibly motivation.

Thanks, and let’s move on to the next entry on the list.

Netflix is a bit of an odd man out when it comes to compensation.

While the other 4 companies in the acronym all follow very similar compensation structures

and promotion ladders, Netflix does things differently.

In fact, Netflix only has two software engineer titles: New Grad, and Senior.

Historically, Netflix only ever hired Senior Software Engineers.

Their culture revolves around the idea of “top talent” and therefore they only want

the best, most experienced engineers working on their products.

However, recently, Netflix did add a New Grad Software Engineering position, but keeping

in line with their “top talent” ideals, they only hire the select few best of the

best.

On top of this, Netflix pays effectively 100% in salary, with no stock or bonus, which differs

from the other FAANG companies.

So, how much do Netflix engineers get paid?

New grads at Netflix make, on average, just over $200,000 in salary, with competitive

applicants occasionally getting between 15 and $30,000 as a sign-on bonus.

Netflix Senior Software Engineers get paid, on average, $500,000, all in salary.

However, even though there is only one title, this does not mean there is only one base

salary.

Some more experienced engineers at Netflix make upwards of $750,000 in salary, with the

highest entrant on levels.fyi coming in at $1.5 million.

Netflix definitely has a different approach to acquiring talent, but with their success

in the past 2 decades, it’s clear that they’ve figured out a winning strategy for themselves.

Lastly, what many people have probably been waiting for.

Google is considered by many in the tech world to be the most sought after company to work

at.

Along with a great work-life balance, interesting products, and an amazing brand name, Google

is also very generous with their compensation.

But just how generous are they compared to the other FAANG companies?

Google’s entry-level software engineering role is the L3, which pays around $191,000,

with $132,000 in salary, $38,000 in stock, and $21,000 in bonus.

Google’s next software engineering role is the L4.

Total compensation for this role comes in at around $268,000, with $160,000 coming in

the form of salary, $80,000 coming in stock, and $28,000 coming in as bonus.

Google’s senior software engineering, the L5 position, pays around $359,000. $189,000

of this is salary, $133,000 is stock, and $37,000 is bonus.

Google’s staff software engineer is the L6, and pays just under $500,000, with $225,000

in salary, $215,000 in stock, and around $60,000 in bonus.

Google’s senior staff software engineering is, as you might expect, the L7 position.

Total compensation here is around $700,000, with $265,000 in salary, $355,000 in stock,

and around $80,000 in bonus.

The last Google role with a decent amount of data points is the L8, which is their principal

engineer.

These engineers make upwards of $1,000,000, with $330,000 as salary, $600,000 as stock,

and upwards of $100,000 as bonus.

Google does have two more roles, which are the distinguished engineer and Google fellow,

but as has been the case with all the other FAANG companies, data points for these are

too scarce to be taken into consideration.

So there you have it.

FAANG companies in the software engineering world are very competitive to get in to, but

reward their employees with very high compensation.

On top of that, money is only one aspect of work, and in the other aspects like work-life

balance and culture, FAANG companies also do an amazing job.

I just want to restate what we went over at the start of the video, which is that this

is just meant to be primarily some insight into what people have reported on the levels.fyi

website.

I do not have any proof myself to back any of this up, and I’m not affiliated with

any of these companies as of release of this video.

These companies just happen to be some of the biggest in the world – there are a ton

of other amazing companies that I’m sure pay just as well, so make sure you’re doing

your own research before making any decisions.

Thanks so much for watching!

The link to the website I referenced data from will be down in the description below.

I’ll continue to make content on programming, as well as the software engineering world,

so please subscribe if you want to stay up to date with new content as I post it.

Thanks, and see you in the next video.