Codi Software Engineering Salary Guide

Welcome to Codi's salary guide for software engineering & tech roles. This resource is designed to help employers and candidates understand current market rates across various engineering disciplines and seniority levels in Australia.

Market Overview

The Australian tech market continues to evolve in 2025, with an increased demand for specialised technical talent, particularly in AI and emerging-tech fields. While early 2024 saw slower growth, the latter part of the year showed increased confidence among leadership teams and investors, making 2024 the third highest year on record for VC investment. 2025 has already surpassed those numbers.

As a general trend, the more senior the position, the shorter the available talent pool.

With increasing complexity in applications and services combined with the rise of AI tooling within Software, there is a growing demand for specialisation and deeper experience at the principal and staff levels.

Key Trends

The back-to-office trend continues across the industry, driven by companies looking to maximize the efficiency and output of engineering teams
Fully remote roles still exist and can serve as a competitive hiring strategy for companies where this aligns with strategic goals
Specialized talent at senior levels remains in high demand, with niche roles typically requiring 1-3 months of dedicated search time
AI roles are seeing significant growth, particularly with commercially focused positions in financial services

Software Engineering Roles

All figures represent base salary in AUD ('000) - excluding 11.5% superannuation

Role	Mid-Level	Senior	Principal/Staff
Front End Engineer	$130-$155	$150-$190	$180-$220
Backend/Full Stack Engineer	$130-$155	$160-$190	$180-$220
Platform Engineer	$140-$160	$170-$200	$190-$225
Data Engineer	$120-$150	$150-$170	$170-$210
Quality Engineer	$110-$140	$150-$170	$160-$190

Product & Design Roles

Role	Mid-Level	Senior	Principal/Lead
Product Manager	$135-$160	$160-$190	$190-$240
Product or UI/UX Designer	$120-$140	$140-$160	$160-$210

Leadership Roles

Leadership compensation can vary significantly based on company size, funding stage, and industry. The figures below represent approximate ranges only.