The Pacific Northwest has an unexpected frontrunner when it comes to cities with the highest-paid software engineers.
According to a report from Blind, a social network for employees in tech and other industries, Kirkland has the highest average total compensation for software engineers in the Pacific Northwest. The Eastside city is the sixth-best-paying city for software engineers in the U.S., according to Blind.
The average total compensation for software engineers in Kirkland is more than $267,000, while the average salary is $151,495. Seattle came in second, with an average total compensation of more than $242,000 and an average salary of $148,636. Bellevue and Redmond came in third and fourth, respectively.
The Oregon cities of Portland and Hillsboro rounded out the top six.
The report notes that Google has a growing presence in Kirkland, and the city also has employers like GoDaddy and Tableau.
Cybersecurity company Tanium, which has a value of more than $9 billion, moved its headquarters from the Bay Area to Kirkland in 2020. Menlo Park, California-based fintech company Robinhood, meanwhile, has leased a mass timber building in Kirkland near Carillon Point.
And Information verification company AuthenticID already had its headquarters in Kirkland but opened a new headquarters near Carillon Point this year.
Blind offers an anonymous message board for employees to share stories and salaries. The website also shows open positions at various companies, and it offers a recruiting tool for employers.
For its study, Blind considered the Pacific Northwest to be Oregon, Washington and the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, but didn't have enough data to include British Columbia outside of Vancouver. The company said it looked at salary and total pay of engineers on its platform, and total compensation included base pay, stocks and bonuses.
"All data is self-reported by verified professionals on the professional social network Blind," the report read.
