Average Tech Salaries in 2021
Software development and coding are among the most lucrative fields in the United States, and unlike many other high-paying fields, jobs in tech don’t always require four-year degrees. But how much can you actually expect to earn with a career in the tech landscape? What sort of tech salaries can you expect after attending a code school like Boca Code?
You can find the answer here: we’ve compiled a list of 9 of the most popular jobs in tech, along with their average salaries. The annual salaries below are averaged from thousands of self-reported salaries across four different sources (Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter). Your salary might vary depending on experience, location, and company, but the list below should absolutely give you an idea of what to aim for and expect.
Front-End Developer
Front-end developers, like their title implies, develop the “front” of a web application: their role is to build every element that a user interacts with on a given application, implementing designs using a combination of HTML/CSS, JavaScript, and other front-end tools.
The average annual salary for a front-end developer is about $85,000. This amount can vary widely; according to Glassdoor, for example, the average salary for an entry-level front-end developer is closer to $63,000. A senior front-end developer, however, might make upwards of $112,000 annually, depending on location and company.
Back-End Developer
Back-end roles focus on functionality; if a front-end developer adds an input field to a webpage, the back-end developer ensures that the database actually stores that input. A back-end-specific role can come with a number of different job titles: you’re just as likely to see a job listing for a Python or PHP developer, for example, as you are to see one for a back-end developer.
The average annual salary for a back-end developer is about $100,000 in the United States, with Glassdoor reporting an average entry-level salary of about $85,000.
Full-Stack Developer
Full-stack developers combine the duties of front-end and back-end devs: their role is to create user-facing elements while also adding functionality to those elements. Most full-stack developers are also expected to have an understanding of databases; you’ll often see SQL or MongoDB listed under the qualifications section of many full-stack job postings.
The average salary of a full-stack developer is about $99,000 a year, depending on location, seniority, and company. According to Glassdoor, the entry-level salary for a full-stack developer is about $72,000.
Mobile Developer
Mobile developers focus primarily on development for devices such as smartphones and tablets. Mobile developers might use a number of languages and frameworks, such as Swift or Kotlin, depending on whether they choose to focus on Android or iOS development.
The average national salary for a mobile developer is about $99,000, with Glassdoor reporting an average entry-level salary of $72,000.
Web Designer
Web design is a field that often overlaps with web development — indeed, some front-end developers, especially at startups or smaller companies, are often asked to fill the role of web designer as well. Web designers focus on creating the layout and design of a web application. They must craft a design that is both attractive and accessible, balancing elements such as typography, layout, and content. Web designers often use a combination of front-end tools alongside design software such as Figma or Photoshop.
Since web design often requires less coding knowledge, average salaries tend to be lower than for more programming-heavy jobs. The national average salary for web designers is about $50,000, with Glassdoor reporting an average entry-level salary of $43,000.
UX/UI Designer
UX (User Experience) and UI (User Interface) design share some overlap with web design, and a good web designer should always have UX and UI in mind. However, there are major differences between web and UX/UI design, and between UX and UI design. The role of a UX designer is to ensure that users are able to interact easily with a web application, and UX design often involves user research and wireframe/prototype creation. UI designers will then take the results of that research and create the actual user interface using design best practices. At some companies, the same person may handle both UX and UI design.
The national average salary for a UI or UX designer is about $81,000, with Glassdoor reporting an average entry-level salary of $70,000.
QA Engineer
The role of the QA Engineer/QA Tester is to ensure a product is ready for users. QA Engineers work closely alongside developers to test applications, catalog bugs, identify potential edge cases, and account for anything that could affect a user’s experience with a product.
The average salary for QA Engineers in the United States is about $77,000. Glassdoor reports an average starting salary of $60,000.
DevOps Engineer
The DevOps (Development Operations) Engineer works with both web development and operations teams in order to facilitate deployment. Their job is to ensure that both teams have an understanding of each other’s needs, that communication is constant, and that the teams are able to work in an agile setting in order to deploy updates as efficiently and cleanly as possible.
The national average salary for DevOps Engineers is about $108,000, with Glassdoor reporting an average starting salary of $84,000.
Project Manager
The role of a project manager can vary drastically from company to company, but at its most basic, a PM’s job is to maintain control of a project: to ensure that the project meets user needs, that it doesn’t exceed budgetary, time, or resource restrictions, and that it’s ultimately released to users in as strong a condition as possible. Not every project manager comes from a coding background, even within the world of tech, but having knowledge of programming can be enormously helpful.
The average salary for a project manager is about $80,000. Glassdoor reports an average starting salary of $46,000, but experienced project managers at larger companies can potentially make above $120,000.
Let Boca Code Help You
It’s important to reiterate that your salary will probably vary: a junior developer’s salary is going to look different from a senior developer’s salary, and the salary of someone working out of Boca Raton will look different from the salary of someone working in St. Louis or San Fransisco. Many companies will also offer different salaries depending on whether an employee is working remotely or not, and those salaries might vary between employees depending on seniority, stack, and cost of living. No matter the position you’re aiming for, though, attending a coding school like Boca Code can absolutely change your life for the better.
