Data engineer salary in Seattle, WA
Employers in the Seattle metro offered data engineers a median of $156,451 a year on approved H-1B applications. That is 26.2% above the US median for data engineers, and 9.4% below offers to software engineers in Seattle.
Median offer
$156,451
US median offer: $123,974
The middle half
$132,300 – $180,000
25th to 75th percentile
After cost of living
$140,780
Seattle prices: 11.1% above US average
Open data engineer jobs
29
In Seattle, from 22 companies
Pay range
The top 10% of data engineer offers in Seattle were above $209,940 a year. The bottom 10% were below $125,400.
10th percentile $125,400, 25th $132,300, 75th $180,000, 90th $209,940.
10th percentile $90,000, 25th $102,211, 75th $150,758, 90th $181,175.
10th percentile $99,190, 25th $132,800, 75th $211,860, 90th $257,960.
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 Seattle
Prices in Seattle are 11.1% above the US average, which makes the median offer worth $140,780 in US-average dollars. Housing costs 51.3% more than the US average.
Black line: US average = 100. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024.
Data engineers and other engineering jobs in Seattle
Median salary offered on approved H-1B applications in the Seattle metro, for every engineering job type with at least 30 applications.
| Job | Applications | Median offer |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering managers | 762 | $216,600 |
| AI engineers | 76 | $206,679 |
| Machine learning engineers | 271 | $195,000 |
| Infrastructure engineers | 54 | $180,710 |
| Frontend engineers | 132 | $180,655 |
| Cloud engineers | 53 | $174,000 |
| Site reliability engineers | 92 | $173,300 |
| All software engineers | 13,312 | $172,600 |
| Data engineers | 630 | $156,451 |
| DevOps engineers | 58 | $145,000 |
| Support engineers | 135 | $120,000 |
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 630 H-1B applications for data engineers in the Seattle metro, from 146 employers. Level II offers were the most common.
Applications
630
Employers
146
Most experienced (Level IV)
11.7%
Applications by wage level
- Level I (entry): 110
- Level II: 250
- Level III: 101
- Level IV (most experienced): 74
- Not stated: 95
These are salaries offered on approved applications, not salaries paid. Each application lists only its main work site.
29 open data engineer jobs in Seattle right now
From 22 companies. 3 were posted in the past week.
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 King, Pierce or Snohomish county.
- Software engineer pay: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (published May 15, 2026), Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro.
- Cost of living: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Open jobs: counted on hiredaemon as this page loads.