Big Tech used to pay engineers the most. Now, smaller companies like Brex and OpenAI offer top compensation.

• Facebook, Netflix and Google for years have been among the highest-paying tech companies.
• Today, most engineers are likely to get a bigger compensation package at a smaller company.
• Netflix is the only member of FAANG to remain in the top seven for early career pay.

Major technology firms are reserving large pay packages for the industry’s most experienced engineers.

A few years of fierce competition among the largest tech companies for all levels of tech talent, particularly engineers, resulted in some eye-popping compensation packages. Engineers with less experience can frequently negotiate six-figure pay packages at Meta, formerly known as Facebook, or Google. According to a new report from Levels.fyi, which has a large database of pay in tech, those same engineers are more likely to get higher pay at a much smaller company in a new era of tech austerity, especially those working in the buzzy fields of AI and AR/VR.

Netflix is the only company among the most well-known in technology to have made the top pay for engineers with less than 15 years of experience in the first half of this year, according to Levels.fyi found. The median pay at Netflix for a L4 level engineer with two or more years of experience was $312,000. A Netflix L5, or engineer with 5 or more years of experience, earned a median salary of $550,000.

Meta only made it into the top seven for the first half of 2023, with pay for principal engineers, who typically have 15 years or more of experience in their field. At Meta, the median pay for this level is close to $1 million, at $978,000. This is in contrast to last year, when Meta was also among the top-paying firms for engineers with around ten years of experience. Meta is in the midst of what Mark Zuckerberg has dubbed its “Year of Efficiency,” which includes mass layoffs and cost-cutting measures. Google, as well as other major tech companies such as Apple and Microsoft, were not on the list for 2023. In 2022 and 2021, all three made the list.

The vast majority of the highest-paying companies in the report are now small businesses.

Databricks, a 5,000-person company that analyzes and manages data, is the best-paying tech company for engineers in their early stages, with median pay ranging from $275,000 to $585,000.

Stripe is the only company that pays from the lowest level of engineer to the highest level of principal, with median compensation ranging from $217,000 for an early-career engineer to $945,000 for an engineer with a decade or more of experience. Roblox is also a high-paying company for mid-career engineers with five to ten years of experience, with median pay ranging from $370,000 to $683,000.

According to Levels, there are several new entrants into the highest-paying ranks.fyi. Brex, a company that provides corporate credit cards and an expense management tool, pays engineers with five or more years of experience a median salary of $450,000. Coupang, an online marketplace, is paying $490,000 for engineers at the same level. OpenAI, the generative AI company behind ChatGPT, is another new entrant to the list, with engineers with a decade of experience earning a median salary of $925,000, the highest pay in tech for that level of engineer. In addition, the company has a straightforward pay structure, which is somewhat unusual in tech these days.