The 20 Highest-Paying Entry-Level Tech Jobs
Wondering what job seekers can earn — and what solution providers can expect to pay — for tech talent? Here’s a look at the highest-paying entry-level tech jobs, according to a recent Glassdoor survey.
Wanted: Technology Expertise
The job market in the U.S. is the strongest it has been in years, especially for jobs that require some kind of technology expertise. New college graduates with tech educations and people just starting their technology-focused careers have a wealth of job opportunities today – perhaps more than any time since the heady days of the dot.com boom.
Glassdoor, the popular job listing and workplace rating site, recently posted a list of the highest-paying entry-level jobs on Glassdoor.com and tech-related jobs dominated. In the following slides we list the 20 highest-paying entry-level tech jobs along with the median base salary for each – starting with the job with the lowest pay and working up to the job with the highest-paying salary.
What is the highest-paying job right now? Glassdoor has listed this job as the best in America for four straight years, not just for its high pay, but also for the large number of job openings and for its high job satisfaction ratings. Take a look and see.
Tech Jobs Are Tops
Glassdoor Economic Research compiled its list using salary data from Glassdoor's job postings. While that list included some non-tech jobs (investment banking analyst and physical therapist, to name two), this slide show includes only the tech jobs on the list.
Glassdoor found that, generally speaking, technology-specific jobs and tech companies were most represented among the highest-paying entry-level jobs. This slideshow specifically lists tech-focused jobs that could be in any industry – a software engineer at a major retailer, for example, or a user-interface designer at a media company.
In addition to listing the jobs and their median base salary, we also provide a basic description of each job's responsibilities and the required qualifications and skills for each job.
For the descriptions of job responsibilities, qualifications and expertise, we've used information from sample Glassdoor job postings as examples, understanding that responsibilities and requirements for specific jobs will differ among prospective employers and across different industries.
20. Project Engineer
Median Base Salary: $63,000
Responsibilities: Manage portfolios of technical development and deployment projects; provide project control for on-premise deployments including installation, systems and workflow configuration, upgrades and post-delivery support; and maintain project documentation.
Qualifications and Expertise: Experience managing the deployment of complex, enterprise software; entry-level project management certification such as PMP or Agile PM/BA; resource management skills; and familiarity with project management and tracking systems such as Jira.
19. Field Engineer
Median Base Salary: $63,750
Responsibilities: Provide enterprise-level technical support to customers via phone, web, email and other support channels, helping to deliver effective solutions to both technical and non-technical users while supporting a wide range of technologies.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor's degree in computer science or related, experience with scripting languages like Python and Perl, and outstanding problem solving skills.
18. Quality Engineer
Median Base Salary: $64,750
Responsibilities: Responsible for quality assurance analysis, testing and delivery of solutions for digital products and platforms. Participates as part of an Agile development team to define, identify, collect and organize data relating to system testing requirements.
Qualifications and Expertise: Experience in computer science or related field, experience in delivering automated testing services for various project sizes, and proficiency in testing and development methodologies and in test automation tooling.
17. Programmer Analyst
Median Base Salary: $65,000
Responsibilities: Develop a knowledge of a company's application portfolio and its development tools and procedures. Work with development teams in solution design to deliver new applications or enhance existing applications. Participate in cross-functional discussions to review the impact of application changes from internal and external interfaces.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor's degree in computer science. Experience with programming/scripting languages such as Java, Javascript, Python, Ruby and others; web application frameworks such as Ruby on Rails; databases like PostgreSQL, MySQL and MongoDB; and Docker and Kubernetes container technology.
16. Test Engineer
Median Base Salary: $65,000
Responsibilities: Design, develop and analyze automated test suites, utilities and tools, often in a variety of programming languages, for a company's software development operations. Help improve the quality of software development and assist in maintaining quality of work through regular code reviews.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor's degree in computer science, engineering or math or graduation from a technical school; two years of programming experience (C#, Python, Ruby or Java) and one year of testing experience.
15. Applications Developer
Median Base Salary: $65,000
Responsibilities: Work in a team environment to design, code, test, document and deliver new and modified application functionality, coordinating with developers, testers, configuration management and system engineering to ensure successful integration with other software components.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor's degree in computer science, computer engineering or software engineering; proficiency in Java or C/C++ programming languages and experience with scripting languages like Perl; knowledge of object-oriented design; familiarity with version control systems and integrated development environments.
14. Design Engineer
Median Base Salary: $65,000
Responsibilities: Collaborate in product design, build and launch, including building prototypes, troubleshooting and debugging design flaws, and developing production lines and suppliers.
Qualifications and Expertise: Engineering degree, knowledge of engineering drawing practices and 3D computer-aided design systems.
13. Mechanical Engineer
Median Base Salary: $65,000
Responsibilities: Define product/program requirements, develop concepts and detailed designs, prototype hardware and integrate mechanical and electro-mechanical components. Produce documents, drawings and specifications for mechanical systems.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering and experience with computer-aided design programs.
12. Electrical Engineer
Median Base Salary: $66,000
Responsibilities: Depending on the employer, electrical engineers may be involved in digital engineering activities such as designing and testing microelectronics, circuit cards and IT hardware. Other posted jobs involve work with electrical systems and radio frequency and communications systems.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, while some jobs call for computer science, materials science or other STEM degree. Also analytical problem solving skills.
11. Product Engineer
Median Base Salary: $66,750
Responsibilities: Perform new product design, conduct in-depth analysis of new product characteristics, collaborate with design teams on product data and reviews, provide technical support to product development teams, and generate technical documentation.
Qualifications and Expertise: Degree in mechanical or electrical engineering, familiarity with software such as Visio, and experience with simulation and analysis tools.
10. Front End Developer
Median Base Salary: $67,500
Responsibilities: Working on development teams to create technical systems that meet business needs, contributing to application architectural decisions and implementations, and submitting and conducting code reviews.
Qualifications and Expertise: Much the same as an entry-level software engineer including a bachelor's degree in computer science or computer engineering. The ability to work in diverse front-end development environments including WPF and Win Forms to React and React Native, and familiarity with Visual Studio, TFS/VSTS and GIT/VSTS.
9. Process Engineer
Median Base Salary: $68,258
Responsibilities: Process engineer jobs and requirements differ greatly between industries. In the insurance industry, for example, process engineers provide technical consulting, and manage and direct re-engineering projects to improve productivity and operational controls and decrease costs.
Qualifications and Expertise: Process engineering jobs can require a business degree, knowledge of re-engineering techniques and methods, and good project management, analytical and organizational skills.
8. Software Developer
Median Base Salary: $68,600
Responsibilities: Develop new or modify existing software, support multiple software development projects, perform software testing and data analysis to validate code accuracy, and debug and correct software defects.
Qualifications and Expertise: Basic qualifications include Bachelor's or Master's degree in computer science, computer engineering or electrical engineering, and familiarity with Windows, Linux and Unix operating systems. Other valuable skills include experience with software configuration management tools, Java web development, scripting languages, relational databases and SQL.
7. Systems Engineer
Median Base Salary: $70,000
Responsibilities: Design, document, configure and maintain networks, desktop computers and servers, providing computer administration support for users and developers working on these systems; serve as liaison between internal teams and external users for engineering efforts; review technical data to ensure materials and system performance comply with standards and verify that materials function properly and interact according to design when integrated into a complete system.
Qualifications and Expertise: Entry-level or early career engineer with bachelor's degree or master's degree in electrical engineering or computer science, and experience administering networks, servers and other IT systems.
6. Java Developer
Median Base Salary: $72,000
Responsibilities: Analyzes and evaluates existing or proposed systems and develops applications, systems and related procedures; prepares program specifications and codes, tests and debugs applications.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor's degree, preferably in computer science, software engineering or information systems, and 0-4 years systems programming experience; entry-level experience in Java/J2EE programming analysis and Angular framework.
5. Implementation Consultant
Median Base Salary: $72,000
Responsibilities: Design and develop software components leveraging SOA design principles on J2EE and .NET platforms, develop integration patterns using Microservice design, develop next-generation user interfaces for mobile and web interfaces using JavaScript technologies, and solve complex business problems by leveraging analytical tools and big data technologies.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor's degree required, STEM discipline preferred, advanced degree a plus.
4. UX Designer
Median Base Salary: $73,000
Responsibilities: Create web and digital experiences for clients and develop innovative, UX-driven visual designs, websites, landing pages and other marketing initiatives.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor of Arts degree or related field. Experience working as a designer at an agency or freelance with knowledge of Photoshop and Sketch. A solid understanding of design principles and knowledge of current web trends and technologies.
3. Product Designer
Median Base Salary: $85,000
Responsibilities: Another job that differs greatly between industries. Prepare design layouts and create and maintain detailed parts and assembly drawings using CAD and Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) tools; review engineering drawings and designs to ensure adherence to established specifications and standards; support engineering teams in development with mechanical layout and detail design and drawing for structural, mechanical, fluids and electronic detail parts and assemblies; and implement engineering and manufacturing best-practices to balance cost, schedule and performance requirements.
Qualifications and Expertise: Two-year associates degree in Computer Aided Drafting or Mechanical Engineering Technology; knowledge of designing/drafting for aerospace, automotive, marine or applicable structures, mechanical systems, fluid systems or electrical systems; mechanical design and integration skills using Creo or CATIA software; experience managing large CAD assemblies and associated drawings; and familiarity with existing applicable drafting standards.
2. Software Engineer
Median Base Salary: $90,000
Responsibilities: Use and apply basic principles, theories and concepts of software engineering; develop solutions to routine technical problems; contribute to the completion of program and project milestones; work closely with and communicate effectively with other team members to achieve program success; support peer reviews and associated software system documentation.
Qualifications and Expertise: Object-oriented software development experience using C/C++ and implementation of a classroom or professional project using C/C++ and/or Java/J2EE on a Unix/Linux or Windows operating system. Experience with software development tools, code editors, debuggers, code generators and testing tools; modern software design methodologies including Agile software development and UML for software design; graphical user interface design and implementation; development using the Java programming language and scripting languages (Perl, Python, Javascript); and standard MS-Office word processing, spreadsheet and presentation tools.
1. Data Scientist
Median Base Salary: $95,000
Responsibilities: Mine data from primary and secondary sources; clean and prune data to discard irrelevant information; analyze and interpret results using standard statistical tools and techniques; pinpoint trends, correlations and patterns in complicated data sets; identify new opportunities for process improvement; and provide concise data reports and clear data visualizations for management.
Qualifications and Expertise: Bachelor’s degree in computer science, mathematics, statistics, information systems or related field; experience with statistical modeling; fundamental knowledge of R, Python and/or SAS languages; experience with SQL databases and database querying languages; experience with data mining and data cleaning; and experience with data visualization and reporting techniques.