Data engineer salary in San Jose, CA
Employers in the San Jose metro offered data engineers a median of $174,304 a year on approved H-1B applications. That is 40.6% above the US median for data engineers, and 9.0% below offers to software engineers in San Jose.
Median offer
$174,304
US median offer: $123,974
The middle half
$142,384 – $210,746
25th to 75th percentile
After cost of living
$157,850
San Jose prices: 10.4% above US average
Open data engineer jobs
9
In San Jose, from 6 companies
Pay range
The top 10% of data engineer offers in San Jose were above $264,514 a year. The bottom 10% were below $119,710.
10th percentile $119,710, 25th $142,384, 75th $210,746, 90th $264,514.
10th percentile $90,000, 25th $102,211, 75th $150,758, 90th $181,175.
10th percentile $138,420, 25th $173,650, 75th $226,080, 90th $289,150.
Line: 10th to 90th percentile. Box: the middle half (25th to 75th). Dark mark: the median. Data engineers: salaries offered on H-1B applications. All software engineers: salaries paid, from the BLS.
How far the pay goes in San Jose
Prices in San Jose are 10.4% above the US average, which makes the median offer worth $157,850 in US-average dollars. Housing costs 111.9% more than the US average.
Black line: US average = 100. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024.
Data engineers and other engineering jobs in San Jose
Median salary offered on approved H-1B applications in the San Jose metro, for every engineering job type with at least 30 applications.
| Job | Applications | Median offer |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering managers | 880 | $236,630 |
| AI engineers | 182 | $200,000 |
| Machine learning engineers | 924 | $200,000 |
| Frontend engineers | 83 | $198,000 |
| All software engineers | 13,918 | $191,450 |
| Cloud engineers | 134 | $187,741 |
| Infrastructure engineers | 296 | $187,741 |
| Site reliability engineers | 174 | $184,692 |
| iOS engineers | 40 | $177,500 |
| Android engineers | 51 | $175,000 |
| Data engineers | 341 | $174,304 |
| DevOps engineers | 89 | $169,262 |
| Support engineers | 92 | $135,000 |
All software engineers: every application filed under the BLS software developer job code, whatever its title. Backend and full-stack engineers: left out, since a plain "Software Engineer" title counts as both.
Experience level of these offers
From October 2025 to June 2026, the Department of Labor approved 341 H-1B applications for data engineers in the San Jose metro, from 142 employers. Level II offers were the most common.
Applications
341
Employers
142
Most experienced (Level IV)
17.0%
Applications by wage level
- Level I (entry): 62
- Level II: 92
- Level III: 28
- Level IV (most experienced): 58
- Not stated: 101
These are salaries offered on approved applications, not salaries paid. Each application lists only its main work site.
9 open data engineer jobs in San Jose right now
From 6 companies. 1 was posted in the past week.
Data engineer jobs nearby: Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Santa Clara
What counts as a data engineer
The BLS has no data engineer category, so these figures come from job titles. An H-1B application or a job on hiredaemon counts as a data engineer job when its title names data engineering, such as "Data Engineer", "Analytics Engineer" or "ETL Developer". Data scientists and data analysts are not counted.
Sources and notes
- Data engineer offers: US Department of Labor, H-1B application data, October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Approved H-1B applications whose job title names data engineering and whose work site is in San Benito or Santa Clara county.
- Software engineer pay: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (published May 15, 2026), San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara metro.
- Cost of living: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Open jobs: counted on hiredaemon as this page loads.