Companies Hiring SDE 2 and SDE 3 Engineers in the USA (November 2026), With Salaries
Data collected on November 1, 2026. We update this list every month.
Looking for a mid-level or senior software engineering job in the US? We pulled every SDE 2 and SDE 3 opening from the official job boards of 48 tech companies, together with the pay range each company posts.
This month we found 815 openings: 271 at SDE 2 level and 544 at SDE 3 (senior) level. Amazon, NVIDIA and Roblox have the most openings.
Key Numbers for November 2026
| SDE 2 | SDE 3 / Senior | |
|---|---|---|
| Open roles | 271 | 544 |
| Typical posted base pay | $144K–$194K | $184K–$255K |
| Companies hiring | 33 | 45 |
"Typical base pay" is the middle value of the lowest and highest numbers in each posted range. Base pay is only your salary. Most of these companies also give stock and a bonus, so the full package (called total compensation) is often 30–80% higher. See our FAANG salary by level guide for full packages.
About 139 of these roles mention remote work. Most remote roles still ask you to live in the US.
What Do SDE 2 and SDE 3 Mean?
SDE stands for Software Development Engineer. Companies use numbers to show how senior a role is:
- SDE 2 is a mid-level engineer, usually with 2–5 years of experience. You build features on your own and help design parts of a system.
- SDE 3 is a senior engineer, usually with 5–8+ years of experience. You lead projects, make design decisions for your team and guide other engineers.
Every company names these levels differently. Amazon says "SDE II" and "SDE III", Salesforce says "MTS" and "SMTS", and most others say "Software Engineer" and "Senior Software Engineer". In this list we group them all into SDE 2 and SDE 3. When a job title does not show the level, we use the years of experience the posting asks for.
All 48 Companies Hiring SDE 2 and SDE 3 in the USA
Sorted by number of openings. Pay columns show the typical posted base range for that level at that company. A dash means the company did not post pay for those roles.
| Company | SDE 2 openings | SDE 3 / Senior openings | Main locations | SDE 2 base pay | SDE 3 base pay | Jobs page |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 149 | 100 | Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond +more | $144K–$194K | $168K–$227K | Open jobs |
| NVIDIA | 4 | 103 | Santa Clara, Seattle, Redmond +more | $124K–$196K | $184K–$328K | Open jobs |
| Roblox | 6 | 44 | San Mateo | $161K–$205K | $197K–$243K | Open jobs |
| Affirm | 16 | 19 | Remote / several | $140K–$204K | $173K–$255K | Open jobs |
| Snowflake | 8 | 20 | Menlo Park, Bellevue, Seattle | $160K–$230K | $200K–$288K | Open jobs |
| Coinbase | 6 | 21 | Remote / several | $152K–$179K | $186K–$219K | Open jobs |
| DoorDash | 13 | 14 | San Francisco, Seattle, Sunnyvale +more | $131K–$192K | $160K–$235K | Open jobs |
| OpenAI | 2 | 20 | San Francisco, New York, Washington DC +more | $244K–$434K | $266K–$385K | Open jobs |
| 6 | 13 | San Francisco | $164K–$230K | $191K–$267K | Open jobs | |
| Elastic | 2 | 16 | Remote / several | $133K–$163K | $133K–$253K | Open jobs |
| Stripe | 10 | 7 | San Francisco, New York, Seattle +more | — | $206K–$286K | Open jobs |
| Salesforce | 6 | 9 | San Francisco, Dallas, Bellevue +more | $117K–$194K | $148K–$246K | Open jobs |
| Cloudflare | 2 | 11 | Austin, New York, San Francisco +more | — | $185K–$266K | Open jobs |
| Robinhood | 3 | 10 | Menlo Park, New York, Bellevue | $130K–$195K | $153K–$230K | Open jobs |
| Adobe | 2 | 9 | San Jose | $139K–$258K | $152K–$265K | Open jobs |
| MongoDB | 0 | 11 | New York, Austin, Chicago +more | — | $101K–$260K | Open jobs |
| Anthropic | 4 | 6 | San Francisco, New York, Seattle +more | $280K–$320K | $320K–$405K | Open jobs |
| Chime | 4 | 6 | San Francisco, Chicago | $133K–$184K | $164K–$243K | Open jobs |
| Airbnb | 2 | 7 | San Francisco | $161K–$183K | $196K–$227K | Open jobs |
| Brex | 2 | 7 | New York, San Francisco, Seattle | $152K–$190K | $192K–$240K | Open jobs |
| Instacart | 0 | 9 | Remote / several | — | $180K–$210K | Open jobs |
| Discord | 2 | 6 | San Francisco | $160K–$200K | $196K–$245K | Open jobs |
| Plaid | 2 | 6 | Seattle, New York, San Francisco | $176K–$235K | $210K–$289K | Open jobs |
| Okta | 0 | 7 | San Francisco, Bellevue | — | $147K–$227K | Open jobs |
| PayPal | 0 | 7 | San Jose, Austin | — | $130K–$194K | Open jobs |
| Lyft | 3 | 3 | San Francisco, Seattle, New York | $141K–$176K | $148K–$185K | Open jobs |
| 4 | 2 | San Francisco, New York, Palo Alto +more | $124K–$255K | $156K–$320K | Open jobs | |
| Ramp | 1 | 5 | New York, San Francisco | $189K–$330K | $200K–$280K | Open jobs |
| Databricks | 1 | 4 | San Francisco, Mountain View | $136K–$187K | $166K–$218K | Open jobs |
| Mercury | 1 | 4 | New York, Portland, San Francisco | $116K–$158K | $190K–$251K | Open jobs |
| Samsara | 0 | 5 | San Francisco | — | $155K–$260K | Open jobs |
| Scale AI | 1 | 4 | San Francisco, New York, Denver +more | $180K–$225K | $216K–$270K | Open jobs |
| Toast | 0 | 5 | Boston | — | $125K–$254K | Open jobs |
| GitLab | 0 | 4 | Remote / several | — | $139K–$235K | Open jobs |
| Pure Storage | 0 | 4 | Santa Clara | — | $180K–$317K | Open jobs |
| Rubrik | 2 | 2 | Palo Alto | $158K–$237K | $188K–$283K | Open jobs |
| Vercel | 1 | 3 | San Francisco, New York | $196K–$294K | $208K–$312K | Open jobs |
| Checkr | 0 | 3 | San Francisco, Denver | — | $185K–$218K | Open jobs |
| Intel | 2 | 1 | Santa Clara | $150K–$243K | $256K–$361K | Open jobs |
| Asana | 2 | 0 | San Francisco | $171K–$190K | — | Open jobs |
| Dropbox | 0 | 2 | Remote / several | — | $133K–$193K | Open jobs |
| Figma | 0 | 1 | New York, San Francisco | — | $153K–$376K | Open jobs |
| Gusto | 0 | 1 | Denver, New York, San Francisco | — | $160K–$240K | Open jobs |
| InMobi | 1 | 0 | San Mateo | $172K–$210K | — | Open jobs |
| Mastercard | 0 | 1 | New York | — | $254K–$407K | Open jobs |
| Notion | 0 | 1 | New York, San Francisco | — | $179K–$200K | Open jobs |
| Twilio | 1 | 0 | Remote / several | $129K–$170K | — | Open jobs |
| Zscaler | 0 | 1 | San Jose, Santa Clara | — | $140K–$175K | Open jobs |
Highest-Paying Companies for Senior (SDE 3) Engineers
Ranked by the typical top of the posted base pay range, among companies with at least 2 senior openings that show pay.
| Rank | Company | Typical SDE 3 base pay |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Anthropic | $320K–$405K |
| 2 | OpenAI | $266K–$385K |
| 3 | NVIDIA | $184K–$328K |
| 4 | $156K–$320K | |
| 5 | Pure Storage | $180K–$317K |
| 6 | Vercel | $208K–$312K |
| 7 | Plaid | $210K–$289K |
| 8 | Snowflake | $200K–$288K |
| 9 | Stripe | $206K–$286K |
| 10 | Rubrik | $188K–$283K |
AI companies and well-funded startups pay the highest base salaries right now. Big companies like Amazon often post lower base pay and make up more of the package with stock.
Where the Jobs Are
| City | Openings | Companies hiring there |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | 168 | Amazon, Anthropic, Brex, Cloudflare, DoorDash, Lyft and more |
| San Francisco | 162 | Airbnb, Amazon, Anthropic, Asana, Brex, Checkr and more |
| Santa Clara | 119 | Amazon, Intel, NVIDIA, Pure Storage, Zscaler |
| New York | 107 | Amazon, Anthropic, Brex, Cloudflare, DoorDash, Figma and more |
| San Mateo | 51 | InMobi, Roblox |
| Bellevue | 50 | Amazon, Okta, Robinhood, Salesforce, Snowflake |
| Menlo Park | 31 | Robinhood, Snowflake |
| Austin | 29 | Amazon, Cloudflare, MongoDB, PayPal |
The San Francisco Bay Area (San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Menlo Park) and Seattle (with Bellevue and Redmond) still have the most openings. New York is the biggest hub outside the West Coast.
How We Made This List
We collected openings on November 1, 2026 directly from the public job boards of 48 companies (their official careers pages). We kept software engineering roles at SDE 2 and SDE 3 level, posted in the last 90 days. Pay ranges come straight from the job postings. US states like California, New York, Washington and Colorado require companies to show a pay range.
What is not included:
- Google, Microsoft, Meta and Apple. Their careers sites do not offer a public job feed, so we could not count their openings the same way. They are hiring. Check their careers pages directly.
- Staff, principal, manager, intern and new-grad roles.
- Jobs posted only on LinkedIn or recruiter sites.
Openings open and close every day, so treat the numbers as a snapshot. We publish a fresh list every month.
How to Prepare for These Interviews
Most of these companies use the same interview format for SDE 2 and SDE 3 roles:
- Coding rounds (2–3): data structures and algorithms problems, solved live while you explain your thinking. Start with our free DSA guides.
- System design (1–2): you plan a large system, like a chat app or a payment service. SDE 3 candidates get harder design rounds. Read What is System Design? and practice with our case studies.
- Behavioral (1): stories about your past work, using the STAR method.
Company-specific question lists for companies on this list:
- Amazon interview questions
- NVIDIA interview questions
- Roblox interview questions
- Snowflake interview questions
- OpenAI interview questions
- Salesforce interview questions
- Adobe interview questions
- Anthropic interview questions
- Airbnb interview questions
- Pinterest interview questions
Not sure where to start? Our free interview prep planner builds a plan for your level and target companies.
Your Next Steps
Step 1: Practice the questions these companies ask (free)
Browse 600+ real coding interview questions, tagged by company and sorted by how often they are asked.
Step 2: Do a practice interview
Reading solutions is not the same as solving a problem while someone watches. Alex, our AI interviewer, runs a real interview: a timer, follow-up questions and hidden test cases, then a scored report.
Step 3: Recently laid off?
We give a free mock interview credit to engineers affected by layoffs.
Related Reading
- Companies Hiring Software Engineers (Nov 2026): the bigger picture, including new-grad roles
- Companies Hiring SDE 2 and SDE 3 in India (November 2026)
- How to Prepare for SDE 2 Interviews
- FAANG Salary by Level
- Amazon SDE 2 Salary and Amazon SDE 3 Salary