SaaS Salary Benchmarks

Software Engineering Manager Salary Benchmarks

Compensation data for the Software Engineering Manager role at US SaaS companies, based on 26 verified salaries.

Quartile breakdownAll SaaS roles
Base salary · US SaaS26 salaries
$178,500
Median base salary
Bottom 25% avg$0Top 25% avg$182,394
Average base salary
$146,170
Typical range (P25–P75)
$75,000–$180,000
Salaries analyzed
26

Hiring for this role? At the median, one Software Engineering Manager costs $178,500 a year in base salary.

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Overview
26 salaries

Software Engineering Manager Salary Overview

Bottom 25% AverageNo salaries in this band in the current sample
—
Middle 50% AverageAverage of the middle half · 16 salaries
$123,530
Top 25% AverageAverage of the highest-paid quarter · 10 salaries
$182,394

Median Software Engineering Manager base pay by pay period

Per year
$178,500
Per month
$14,875
Every two weeks
$6,865
Per hour
$85.82
Base-pay equivalents before tax; hourly assumes 2,080 working hours a year.

Software Engineering Manager salaries at SaaS companies average $146,170, with typical salaries ranging from $75,000 to $180,000. Based on 26 real salary data points from SaaS companies.

Quartile bands
Employees · annualized base

Detailed Software Engineering Manager Compensation Breakdown

Software Engineering Manager base salary by percentile band
Percentile BandSalary rangeAverage Base Salary# of salaries
Top 25%$180,000 and up$182,39410 salaries
Middle 50%$75,000–$180,000$123,53016 salaries
Bottom 25%——0 salaries
Hiring budget
Base salary · fully loaded

What Does a Software Engineering Manager Cost to Hire?

Budget for Software Engineering Manager hires at the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile of this benchmark, as base salary and as fully loaded cost.

Pay level
Hires
1

One Software Engineering Manager hire at the median: $178,500 a year in base salary, $223,125–$249,900 fully loaded.

Cost of one hire by pay level
Per hireP25MedianP75
Base salary / year$75,000$178,500$180,000
Base salary / month$6,250$14,875$15,000
Fully loaded / year1.25–1.4× base$93,750–$105,000$223,125–$249,900$225,000–$252,000
Fully loaded / month1.25–1.4× base$7,813–$8,750$18,594–$20,825$18,750–$21,000
Fully loaded adds employer payroll taxes, health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment at 1.25–1.4× base salary. That multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonus, equity, and recruiting fees are not included.

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Key insights

Software Engineering Manager Pay by the Numbers

  • The middle half of Software Engineering Manager salaries spans $75,000–$180,000: a $105,000 spread, 59% of the $178,500 median.
  • A 75th-percentile Software Engineering Manager earns 2.4× the 25th-percentile salary.
  • The Software Engineering Manager median is 67% above the median Engineering & Product role ($107,100 across 63 roles).

What Drives Higher Software Engineering Manager Pay?

  • Years of experience and proven track record
  • Company stage and funding (later stage typically pays more)
  • Technical expertise and specialization
  • Location and remote work policies
FAQ
Software Engineering Manager salary

On a median base salary of $178,500, a Software Engineering Manager at a US SaaS company makes about $14,875 a month, $6,865 every two weeks, or $85.82 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $6,250–$15,000 a month. These are base-pay equivalents before tax, and they leave out bonus, commission, and equity.

Expect the lower half of this benchmark. Across 26 verified SaaS Software Engineering Manager salaries, the 25th percentile is $75,000 and the median is $178,500. A Software Engineering Manager at a seed or Series A startup, or at a bootstrapped company under roughly $10M ARR, will often land between those two figures. Base pay typically moves toward and past the $180,000 75th percentile as the company adds headcount and ARR. Those stage bands are a rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a breakdown by company size, which the dataset does not report.

Budget for more than base salary. On a median base of $178,500, the fully loaded cost of a US Software Engineering Manager is roughly $223,125–$249,900 per year once employer payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA plus federal and state unemployment), health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment are added. That 1.25–1.4x multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to the benchmark on this page, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonuses, and equity sit on top where the role carries them. Also budget one-off hiring costs: agency recruiting fees commonly run 15–25% of first-year base, and a new hire takes weeks to months to reach full productivity.

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