Texas has become the top state for technology jobs outside of California, according to a recent report from professional social network Blind.
Of the 80 best-paying cities for software engineering jobs in the nation, five were in the Lone Star State. The report analyzed annual base salaries and total compensation packages for more than 5 million professionals, including stock-based compensation and bonuses offered by employers.
It may come as no surprise that Austin is the top-paying market for software jobs in Texas. Austin's prowess in the technology field has attracted new investment from some of the world's most valuable companies, including Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL), Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA), Meta Platforms Inc. (Nasdaq: FB), Oracle Corp. (NYSE: ORCL) Google parent company Alphabet Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOGL) and more. Other large tech firms like Dell Technologies Inc. (NYSE: DELL) and chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (Nasdaq: AMD) have had operations in the Austin area for decades.
All those companies are advertising local software engineer jobs now on Indeed.com — which is also an Austin-based company in need of software engineers and offers some posts with salaries well above $200,000.
Software engineer jobs in Austin receive average total compensation of $171,981, which includes an average base salary of $128,524. Austin is the 35th best-paying market for tech jobs in the U.S., according to data from Blind.
Houston ranked No. 2 in Texas, with average total compensation of $137,987 for software engineer positions. The average base salary for such jobs in Houston is $111,625, according to the report.
Dallas ranked No. 3 in Texas, with average total compensation of $132,788 and an average base salary of $113,517 for software jobs. Plano came in at No. 4, with $121,127 in average total compensation and $107,251 for average base salary.
San Antonio ranked fifth on Blind's report, with average total compensation of $105,254 and an average salary of $94,626 for software engineering positions.
California, and the San Francisco Bay Area in particular, remains one of the hottest markets for software engineering jobs in the U.S. Software engineers in Menlo Park, California, earn an average total compensation of more than $328,000 and an average base salary of over $167,000, per the report. Of the 10 highest-paying markets for technology jobs in the country, nine were in California.
The top city for software engineers in the U.S. analyzed by Blind's report was Los Gatos, California, near San Jose, with average total compensation of $500,449 and an average base salary of $470,015.
