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Top Paying Companies in Chicago

We’re crunching the numbers and updating the list below every single day to help you find the highest paying companies.

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The compensation figures below reflect median total yearly compensation amounts, including base salaries, stock grants, and bonuses.

It's a difficult task to accurately compare leveling across companies. We aim to make that comparison as easy as possible, using our standard leveling framework. Currently, standard leveling is only available for Software Engineer positions within companies that have leveling structures submitted to our database. Median compensation across all levels is supported for all job roles.

You may see that some level/location combinations yield little to no valid data, but with your help, we can change that. If you would like to help support our mission to help people make better career decisions, we encourage you to contribute via Add Compensation, Add Level Mapping, and Add Benefits. Feel free to share data and levels.fyi with your friends, family, co-workers, classmates, and colleagues and encourage them to do the same! The more data points we have, the more power we have to change the culture around salary transparency, helping job seekers all across the world.

Want to give yourself the best shot at getting a job with one of these companies? We can help! Many companies rely on automated parsing software for resumes. Your resume could be the first impression they have of you, and it can make or break your chances of getting through to the next step of the hiring process. We provide a 1-on-1 Resume Review service where our team of experienced recruiters can help increase your chances of breaking through that first step.

Do you have an offer from one of these companies, but the numbers don't line up? We can help with that, too! We provide 1-on-1 Salary Negotiation Support coaching to help you learn the ins and outs of negotiating to ensure you're getting the right offer! Even if it's not an offer from a company on this list, you can browse our compensation database to determine if you are being compensated fairly. Get Paid, Not Played.

Curious about the accuracy of our data? Check out our Verified Salaries page for more information!

Disclaimer: Compensation and leveling depend on a variety of factors including interview performance, past experience, competitive offers, etc. The compensation numbers here are for the top paying companies for the selected level and location; it may not reflect compensation for the rest of the market.

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Median across all levels.
Due to variability in submission data, median compensations may appear skewed, especially for non-Software Engineer roles. Help everyone gain access to better data by sharing this leaderboard, as well as contributing your salaries and compensations.
Typically 0-2 years of experience.
New-grads or little to no industry experience. Develop and maintain low to moderately complex components working on a team. Typically receives guidance and support from more experienced team members.
Typically 2-5+ years of experience.
Develop and own moderate to complex components. Possibly lead a small team or project. Ability to mentor engineers, provide technical guidance, code reviews, design and deliver on small projects end-to-end. Impact is typically at the immediate team scope. At many companies, this is considered a 'career-level', as in you can spend the rest of your career operating at this level without being pushed out for not being promoted.
Typically 5+ years of experience.
Typically less than 30% of employees in a company are at this level. Expected to lead and own complex technical initiatives. Begin setting the vision and future direction of team. Impact across multiple related teams within an org. Role shifts more towards design rather than implementation depending on size and expectations at company.
Typically 10+ years of experience.
This level is much more coveted than the previous ones. Typically less than 10% of employees in a company are at this level. Impact spans across organizations. Entrusted with business-critical projects and for setting technical vision for an org or multiple orgs. Responsible for reviewing and providing feedback on technical designs across an org. Little to no day-to-day coding. Role depends highly on organizational and company needs and becomes loosely defined. Expected to operate fully autonomously.
Typically 15+ years of experience.
Usually less than 3% of employees in a company are at this level. Smaller companies may not have any individuals at this level. Impact spans across the company and sometimes industry. Expected to operate fully autonomously.
RankCompanyTitle Name
Compensation
Base | Stock | Bonus
1
 NetflixL5
$450,000.00
450K | 0 | N/A
2
 CitadelL5
$410,000.00
240K | 0 | N/A
3
 Jump Trading
levels.fyi/leaderboard
L3
$400,000.00
250K | 0 | N/A
4 DoorDashE5
$400,000.00
225K | 175K | N/A
5 Old Mission
$400,000.00
200K | 0 | N/A
6 Facebook
levels.fyi/leaderboard
E5
$388,000.00
220K | 135K | N/A
7 Radix TradingNew Grad
$386,250.00
200K | 0 | N/A
8 Aquatic
$375,000.00
225K | 0 | N/A
9 Stripe
levels.fyi/leaderboard
L3
$367,265.50
184K | 156K | N/A
10 EquinixT5
$340,903.06
229K | 55K | N/A
11 DatabricksL5
$339,000.00
172K | 140K | N/A
12 Optiver
levels.fyi/leaderboard
L3
$337,500.00
175K | 0 | N/A
13 ZillowP5
$325,000.00
275K | 50K | N/A
14 ChimeL5
$312,000.00
212K | 100K | N/A
15 Affirm
levels.fyi/leaderboard
L6
$310,000.00
210K | 100K | N/A
16 GitHubE4
$305,000.00
205K | 100K | N/A
17 NvidiaIC4
$304,000.00
204K | 100K | N/A
18 Stitch Fix
levels.fyi/leaderboard
L5
$301,000.00
186K | 115K | N/A
19 IMCL1
$298,750.00
200K | 0 | N/A
20 RedditIC4
$298,000.00
220K | 78K | N/A
21 Etsy
levels.fyi/leaderboard
IC3-2
$295,475.00
198K | 78K | N/A
22 AttentiveL2
$276,000.00
176K | 100K | N/A
23 LinkedInSenior Software Engineer
$275,000.00
205K | 70K | N/A
24 Braze
levels.fyi/leaderboard
L5
$273,562.50
170K | 84K | N/A
25 Chicago TradingSoftware Engineer
$270,000.00
200K | 0 | N/A
26 Akuna CapitalMid-Level Software Engineer
$270,000.00
170K | 0 | N/A
27 Twitter
levels.fyi/leaderboard
SWE II
$265,000.00
165K | 75K | N/A
28 BlockLevel 4
$264,800.00
165K | 100K | N/A
29 TaniumL3
$262,000.00
245K | 17K | N/A
30 Dropbox
levels.fyi/leaderboard
IC2
$260,000.00
180K | 60K | N/A
31 The New York Times CompanyL4
$253,000.00
173K | 45K | N/A
32 Latitude AISoftware Engineer II
$251,750.00
200K | 8.8K | N/A
33 ServiceNow
levels.fyi/leaderboard
IC3
$250,000.00
180K | 70K | N/A
34 DRWL3
$250,000.00
175K | 0 | N/A
35 Bread Financial
$250,000.00
220K | 0 | N/A
36 Balyasny Asset Management L.P.
levels.fyi/leaderboard
Software Engineer
$250,000.00
180K | 0 | N/A
37 ConfluentL5a
$246,000.00
246K | 0 | N/A
38 HubSpotSenior Software Engineer I
$245,700.00
206K | 40K | N/A
39 Mixpanel
levels.fyi/leaderboard
L4
$242,000.00
197K | 25K | N/A
40 TwilioIC3
$240,000.00
170K | 70K | N/A
41 UpstartL5
$240,000.00
180K | 60K | N/A
42 Motional
levels.fyi/leaderboard
P3
$240,000.00
200K | 40K | N/A
43 CoalitionL3
$233,000.00
173K | 60K | N/A
44 HashiCorpL3
$225,000.00
180K | 45K | N/A
45 Disney
levels.fyi/leaderboard
Senior Software Engineer
$224,360.00
158K | 55K | N/A
46 BroadcomICB 2
$223,000.00
165K | 30K | N/A
47 GrindrL4
$221,000.00
195K | 26K | N/A
48 Salesforce
levels.fyi/leaderboard
Architect
$220,000.00
200K | 20K | N/A
49 KyndrylBand 6
$220,000.00
220K | 0 | N/A
50 BlackEdge Capital
$220,000.00
150K | 0 | N/A
Last Updated: November 6, 2025
How is this table calculated?

We aggregate our submissions from the last two years to calculate the data.

For 'All Levels', we compute the median entry across all submission for a particular company, location and job role.

For Software Engineers, we support a standardized framework based around company leveling data. We compute the median entry for a particular company, location, standard level and job role.