Salary: DS vs SWE

Question

I've noticed in levels.fyi that, ON AVERAGE, senior level Software engineers have much higher compensation (salary + stock + bonus) than equivalent data scientist with similar seniority level.

For example, as noted in the End of Year Pay Report 2021, staff engineers (IV) are racking up more than half a million dollars, on average, in major tech companies. https://www.levels.fyi/2021/?level=Senior%20Engineer%20(III)

Compare that to senior-level data scientist, it's more anomalous than usual to see similar compensation (as noted by reports from other organizations like Harnham).

Is this trend true, or am I making this up: Do senior level SWEs make more, on average, at major tech companies (let's say at FAANG) than DSs with similar number of year of experience? The question, of course, assumes that we'd be accounting for other variables like city, gender, company, etc..

kitkate · Accepted Answer

I think that's true based on what I've seen as well. I don't know the exact reason but typically pay is based on supply & demand roughly. If it's slightly harder to find good software engineers, the pay will be slightly harder.

Mark · Answer

Obvious next question: how easy is it to transition from being a DS to a SWE? :D

lemons · Answer

Yeah I think it’s true. Generally a senior software engineer will be paid more than a senior data scientist. The reason for that is that a data scientists job scope is a bit broader while a software engineers scope may be narrower and more hands on

jinyung2 · Answer

I think it depends on the company you are in but as a general, it seems true that senior/staff SWE salary is stronger than DS. I would say also there are definitely far more SWE submissions than DS, so it might be that the highest paid DS haven't contributed enough

Salary: DS vs SWE

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