Average Pay for Fintech Software Engineers Tops $100k
The average salary for a fintech software engineer is now more than $100,000, according to a Bank Innovation analysis.
The exact average salary for a software engineer — a bread-and-butter position for a technology startup — is $100,188. With all the talk of an “overheating” fintech venture capital market, keeping an eye on salaries is important for indications that free-flowing VC money is driving up expenses.
Bank Innovation‘s investigation is based on a sampling of Glassdoor salary data for 12 of the “Top 50 Fintech Innovators” today, a recent ranking of startups by Australasian Wealth Investments and KPMG Australia. The companies included in our analysis are: Prosper, Square, Kabbage, Stripe, Yodlee, Motif Investing, Credit Karma, Lending Club, LearnVest, OnDeck, Klarna, and Wonga.
Prosper, which just raised $165 million on a $1.9 billion valuation, appears to pay its software engineers the most among the peer group: $132,290 per annum. Square is second in the group at $123,753. Rounding out the Top 3 is Kabbage, offering its software engineers a yearly salary of $118,000.
The analysis implied that software engineers are paid less in Europe than in the US. The two lowest software-engineer salaries are paid by Wonga and Klarna, both European startups. Wonga, a UK company, pays just $55,719 to its software engineers, least in the peer group. Klarna, the other European-based startup — in Sweden, specifically — pays $69,169. Without those two salaries, the average paid to software engineers by US companies is $107,737.
Below is the exact average salaries for software engineer within Bank Innovation’s sample group:
| Rank | Company | Software Engineer/Developer |
| 1 | Prosper | $132,290 |
| 2 | Square | $123,753 |
| 3 | Kabbage | $118,000 |
| 4 | Stripe | $108,613 |
| 5 | Yodlee | $106,442 |
| 6 | Motif Investing | $104,848 |
| 7 | Credit Karma | $102,051 |
| 8 | Lending Club | $97,597 |
| 9 | LearnVest | $97,365 |
| 10 | OnDeck | $86,410 |
| 11 | Klarna | $69,169 |
| 12 | Wonga | $55,719 |
Source: Bank Innovation/Glassdoor
We tried to determine how many jobs are available among top fintech companies, but that was more difficult to calculate. Suffice it to say, among a smaller cohort of top 50 fintech startups, fintech startups have an average of 39 open positions. Square lists 88 job openings; OnDeck Capital has 68. At the other end of the spectrum, Lending Club promotes just five job openings.
