Career field
Technology Careers
Technology is the cluster where compounding skill pays off most directly: the work is largely meritocratic, remote-friendly, and skills-first, so what you can build tends to matter more than where you went to school. It's also where pay ceilings run highest in the catalogue.
The trade is depth. The roles below reward long focus blocks and a tolerance for problems that don't resolve on a schedule — if you do your best work heads-down and like building things that work, this is fertile ground.
30 roles in this field, highest median pay first.
AI Research Scientist
$165K – $595K
AI Research Scientist career guide: frontier labs pay $400k+ for top candidates — among the highest comp in tech $235,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideMachine Learning Engineer
$130K – $380K
Machine Learning Engineer career guide: highest-paying engineering subfield right now — frontier-lab pay tops $400k $185,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideCloud Architect
$120K – $295K
Cloud Architect career guide: highly visible role — your designs shape how a whole engineering org builds for years $168,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideComputer Vision Engineer
$115K – $345K
Computer Vision Engineer career guide: hot specialty — autonomous vehicles + robotics + medical imaging all hiring aggressively $168,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideMLOps Engineer
$115K – $308K
MLOps Engineer career guide: highest-leverage role in a mature ml org — your platform makes 50 data scientists faster $168,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideSolutions Architect
$115K – $285K
Solutions Architect career guide: customer-facing engineering at the highest comp — variable bonus is real $168,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideSite Reliability Engineer
$110K – $305K
Site Reliability Engineer career guide: top salary band among engineering ic roles — google-style sre pay is real $162,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guidePlatform Engineer
$110K – $295K
Platform Engineer career guide: highest internal leverage — your tooling makes every engineer faster $162,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideTechnical Product Manager
$110K – $298K
Technical Product Manager career guide: engineering credibility + product instinct is a rare combination — premium pay reflects that $162,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideTechnical Program Manager
$105K – $305K
Technical Program Manager career guide: highest execution-discipline role in the catalog — matches your strongest band $158,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideSecurity Engineer
$110K – $295K
Security Engineer career guide: persistent demand — security headcount keeps growing across every sector $158,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideBlockchain Engineer
$105K – $325K
Blockchain Engineer career guide: salary premium is real — smart-contract specialists out-earn equivalent backend engineers $158,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideData Engineer
$105K – $285K
Data Engineer career guide: highest leverage in the data org — every team depends on the pipelines you ship $152,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideSoftware Engineer
$92K – $380K
Software Engineer career guide: highest salary ceiling of the catalog $148,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideBackend Engineer
$95K – $268K
Backend Engineer career guide: skills age slowly — distributed-systems intuition compounds across stacks $145,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideDeveloper Advocate
$95K – $258K
Developer Advocate career guide: hybrid ic role — you stay technical but also build a personal brand and audience $142,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideDevOps Engineer
$95K – $245K
DevOps Engineer career guide: force-multiplier role — one good devops eng saves a 10-person team from itself $138,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideFull-Stack Engineer
$88K – $252K
Full-Stack Engineer career guide: highest demand at startups — one person owning a feature end-to-end is a 10x hire $138,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideMobile Developer
$92K – $235K
Mobile Developer career guide: shipping to a phone people carry feels tangible in a way backend rarely does $134,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideFrontend Engineer
$85K – $248K
Frontend Engineer career guide: shortest distance between code and user — what you ship is what they see $132,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideiOS Developer
$88K – $235K
iOS Developer career guide: apple's tooling has matured — swift + swiftui feels good to use day-to-day $132,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideAndroid Developer
$85K – $228K
Android Developer career guide: global install base is double ios — emerging-markets reach is unmatched $128,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideRobotics Engineer
$85K – $245K
Robotics Engineer career guide: frontier work — humanoid robotics and warehouse automation are booming sectors $128,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideEmbedded Systems Engineer
$78K – $215K
Embedded Systems Engineer career guide: tangible work — your code runs in a physical product someone holds $118,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideAR/VR Developer
$78K – $218K
AR/VR Developer career guide: niche skill premium — fewer experienced unity/unreal devs than there is demand $118,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideDatabase Administrator
$78K – $195K
Database Administrator career guide: every business has a database — your skills are universally portable $115,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideGame Developer
$65K – $195K
Game Developer career guide: few jobs combine math, creativity, and craft this directly $95,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideNetwork Engineer
$65K – $168K
Network Engineer career guide: vendor certifications (ccnp, ccie) translate to industry-recognized salary jumps $95,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideData Analyst
$65K – $165K
Data Analyst career guide: most remote-friendly role in the catalog $92,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
Read guideQA Engineer
$65K – $178K
QA Engineer career guide: lower entry bar than backend / fe roles — break-in path is real for self-taught $92,000 median salary, day-to-day breakdown, required skills, and the path in.
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