Systems Software Engineer salary
2 market ranges · employer-stated pay · updated Oct 22, 2026
The best-evidenced figure here is for systems software engineer roles at mid level across the United States: 23 postings where the employer stated pay put the middle half between $158,455 and $214,575, with a median of $182,940.
Pay rises with seniority across the United States: the medians run mid-level $182,940 and senior $190,750. Moving from mid-level to senior is worth roughly 4% more.
Every range here is counted from real postings, never modelled. Every range in the table rests on at least 10 postings.
Every measured range
2 by market and level| Market | Level | Market range | Median | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States · country-wide | Mid | $158,455 – $214,575 | $182,940 | 23 |
| United States · country-wide | Senior | $159,834 – $230,950 | $190,750 | 13 |
Entry is junior titles. Mid is mid-level and manager titles. Senior is senior titles. Lead is director, VP and above.
Ranges span the 25th to 75th percentile of employer-stated base pay for the market and level. Median is the 50th percentile. Sample is the number of postings measured.
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Open systems software engineer roles · 29 with stated pay
this job's paywhere most pay sits here, $129,600–$385,000scale $70,000–$540,000
Senior Systems Software Engineer (C++) KLA · Ann Arbor $129,600–$190,067 3w ago Senior Systems Software Engineer (C++) Kla (AnnArbor) · Ann Arbor $129,600–$190,067 3w ago Systems Software Engineer Hewlett Packard Enterprise · Ft. Collins $111,500–$211,500 3w ago 2027 Vehicle Systems Software Engineer Aerospace Corporation · El Segundo $90,000–$115,000 5w ago 
Principal Systems Software Engineer, Semiconductor Systems Inspection NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $272,000–$431,250 5w ago OEM Systems Software Engineer I Hewlett Packard Enterprise · Spring $71,700–$165,800 5w ago Senior Systems Software Engineer – GPU Software NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $152,000–$241,500 5w ago Senior Systems Software Engineer, Observability and Telemetry Platform NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $152,000–$241,500 6w ago 
Sr. Systems Software Engineer SPX · Fremont $175,000–$195,000 6w ago 
Mission Systems Software Engineer (R5888) Shield AI · Dallas $135,000–$250,000 6w ago 
Staff Systems Software Engineer thatgamecompany · Remote · US $162,500–$219,000 6w ago 
Control Systems Software Engineer, Robotics OpenAI · San Francisco $380,000–$460,000 6w ago 
R&D Embedded Systems Software Engineer Agilent · DE-Wilmington $116,800–$182,500 7w ago Senior Systems Software Engineer – GeForce NOW Cloud NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $224,000–$356,500 7w ago Senior Systems Software Engineer, CUDA Driver NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 7w ago Sr. Systems Software Engineer (Roseville, CA) Hewlett Packard Enterprise · Roseville $136,500–$276,500 7w ago Senior Systems Software Engineer - Autonomous Vehicles Platform NVIDIA · US, CA, Santa Clara $184,000–$287,500 8w ago Systems Software Engineer, Silicon Bringup OpenAI · San Francisco $266,000–$445,000 2mo ago Autonomous Systems Software Engineer Leidos · Lynnwood $131,300–$237,350 2mo ago 
Staff HPC Systems Software Engineer Nscale · New York $225,000–$275,000 4mo ago Mission Systems Software Engineer - BlueSky (R5199) Shield AI · Los Angeles $224,000–$335,000 4mo ago Systems Software Engineer, Security, First Party Hardware OpenAI · San Francisco $230,000–$385,000 4mo ago Host Systems Software Engineer OpenAI · San Francisco $266,000–$445,000 4mo ago Camera Systems Software Engineer Skild AI · San Mateo $100,000–$300,000 4mo ago Capacity Systems Software Engineer OpenAI · San Francisco $347,000–$445,000 5mo ago Systems Software Engineer, Management Plane OpenAI · San Francisco $266,000–$445,000 5mo ago Systems Software Engineer Sunday Robotics · Redwood City $200,000–$400,000 11mo ago 
Lead Autonomous Systems Software Engineer Danfoss · Minneapolis $100,000–$150,000