Embedded software vs Software developers salaries

Thread Starter

Eric007

Joined Aug 5, 2011
1,158
Hi All!

I just wanted to know from your experience, knowledge or whatever who gets better paid between an embedded software developer and a software (application, database, web,...) developer?

Personally I am not too interested in databases and web development!

Btw, not sure if this is the proper forum or it should go to off-topic

eric007
 

WBahn

Joined Mar 31, 2012
29,978
I think the answer is going to be all over the map. In both realms, a very good developer is usually going to command premium salaries well above the median/average of either realm.

I would suspect that there are a lot more folks at the bottom end of the software world compared to the embedded world. But embedded salaries are going to be impacted by the relatively small number of positions available (compared to the vast number of "software developer" positions that are out there). You can probably find some salary surveys online.
 

wayneh

Joined Sep 9, 2010
17,496
I have no specific knowledge in this area, so my answer seconds the opinion of WBahn. In a perfect world the salary of an employee depends on the value created by the work, and the supply-demand balance for people capable of doing the work. So when new software is worth $1M, you might get half of that if you were the only person on the planet that could create it.
 

Papabravo

Joined Feb 24, 2006
21,159
Your ability to command a premium salary will be strongly correlated to your ability to design and debug hardware. Just imagine yourself in a design review being able to refine and improve on the hardware design your firmware will run on. When bringing a board up for the first time you can quickly resolve the question of the problem being in hardware or software. Management notices things like this.
 

nsaspook

Joined Aug 27, 2009
13,081
Databases and web development is now part of the embedded software developers job. We have large embedded control systems that store machine state in SQL databases with web based frontends for bit level control of I/O boards with embedded web servers using XML to transfer data. A good embedded guy has to know a lot about a lot especially when things go wrong. You don't need to be the expert but you do need a solid background from wire&solder to systems OS design to walk into some place and get a top salary unless you have very specialized knowledge that they need badly from the start.
 

Thread Starter

Eric007

Joined Aug 5, 2011
1,158
Databases and web development is now part of the embedded software developers job. We have large embedded control systems that store machine state in SQL databases with web based frontends for bit level control of I/O boards with embedded web servers using XML to transfer data. A good embedded guy has to know a lot about a lot especially when things go wrong. You don't need to be the expert but you do need a solid background from wire&solder to systems OS design to walk into some place and get a top salary unless you have very specialized knowledge that they need badly from the start.
I agree with you on that!:)
 

dannyf

Joined Sep 13, 2015
2,197
It is largely dependent on where you live and what you meant by "enveded software".

for mcu developers, mostly 80k to 150k for an experienced 8-bit non automotive developer. 250k plus for an arm developer.

cell phone firmnware or app developers on the higher end of that skill. All figures usd.
 
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