Developer roles with the fastest-rising (and cooling) pay
A disclosed-wage trend is the change in a role's median base pay over time, measured from the wages U.S. employers certify on H-1B/LCA visa filings. The roles below are ranked by how far that median has moved from the first quarter on record to the latest — the ones pulling away at the top, the ones cooling below. Open any role for its full quarter-by-quarter band.
Fastest-rising pay
Developer roles whose disclosed median base wage has climbed the most — ranked by the size of the rise.
| Role | Change | Disclosed median |
|---|---|---|
| Embedded Engineer | ▲ Up 33% Since 2020 | US$160,046 from US$120,000 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Engineering Manager | ▲ Up 27% Since 2020 | US$209,400 from US$165,498 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Machine Learning Engineer | ▲ Up 25% Since 2020 | US$207,017 from US$165,000 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Software Engineer | ▲ Up 20% Since 2020 | US$140,000 from US$116,251 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Data Analyst | ▲ Up 17% Since 2020 | US$109,000 from US$93,395 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Mobile Engineer | ▲ Up 16% Since 2020 | US$135,460 from US$116,418 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Backend Engineer | ▲ Up 15% Since 2020 | US$172,000 from US$150,000 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| DevOps Engineer | ▲ Up 14% Since 2020 | US$131,997 from US$116,251 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Security Engineer | ▲ Up 12% Since 2020 | US$149,842 from US$133,356 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Full Stack Engineer | ▲ Up 12% Since 2020 | US$127,962 from US$114,400 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Data Engineer | ▲ Up 10% Since 2020 | US$133,580 from US$121,039 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| QA Engineer | ▲ Up 9% Since 2020 | US$115,687 from US$106,000 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
| Data Scientist | ▲ Up 9% Since 2020 | US$154,751 from US$142,553 · Q4 2020–Q4 2025 |
Cooling pay
Developer roles whose disclosed median base wage has fallen the most — the cooling end of the same series.
No role has a material decline on record yet.
Disclosed wage data from the U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC.