- Google has recently changed its compensation processes to underscore high performance.
- Federal filings reveal how much it pays engineers, product managers, and other key roles.
- As the AI talent wars rage on, software engineers can take home salaries like $340,000.
As the AI talent wars rage on, Google and other tech giants are shelling out top dollar to lure top talent.
Google has long been revered within Silicon Valley for its generous compensation packages, and its DeepMind unit even resorted to aggressive noncompetes in the UK.
At the same time, Google has made changes to its compensation processes in recent months as others in the tech industry — like Meta and Microsoft — have sought to weed out low performers.
In April, the search giant changed the way it ranked employees in their yearly performance reviews. Its head of compensation told staff in a memo that "high performance is more important than ever," Business Insider previously reported.
While Google keeps salary data confidential, publicly available work-visa data can provide a glimpse into how much it pays for certain roles. The figures are derived from filings all companies submit to the Labor Department to obtain work visas for foreign workers.
Google employs thousands of software engineers through this process, and according to the data, they can command salaries as high as $340,000.
It's worth noting that these figures only reflect salaries and don't account for the equity or bonuses that Google employees also receive.
In 2023, Business Insider obtained an internal spreadsheet where thousands of Googlers self-reported their 2022 pay, including some equity and bonus data. Despite the relatively high sums, many said they still felt underpaid.
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Here's what Google is paying across key roles, based on roughly 6,800 applications from the first quarter of 2025.
Business and analyst roles: Financial analysts can make over $200,000
Account Manager: $85,500 to $166,000
Business Systems Analyst: $141,000 to $201,885
Financial Analyst: $102,000 to $225,230
Search Quality Analyst: $120,000 to $235,000
Engineering roles: Google software engineers can take home as much as $340,000
Application Engineer: $138,000 to $199,000
Customer Engineer: $85,009.60 to $228,000
Customer Solutions Engineer: $108,000 to $228,000
Data Engineer: $111,000 to $175,000
Electrical Engineer: $119,000 to $203,000
Hardware Engineer: $130,000 to $284,000
Network Engineer: $108,000 to $195,000
Research Engineer: $153,000 to $265,000
Security Engineer: $97,000 to $233,000
Senior Software Engineer: $187,000 to $253,000
Silicon Design Verification Engineer: $126,000 to $207,050
Silicon Engineer: $146,000 to $252,000
Silicon Generalist: $144,000 to $223,000
Software Engineer: $109,180 to $340,000
Software Engineer (Waymo): $150,000 to $282,000
Software Engineer Manager: $199,000 to $316,000
Software Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer: $133,000 to $258,000
Staff Software Engineer: $220,000 to $323,000
Scientist roles: A research scientist can make as much as $303,000
Data Scientist: $133,000 to $260,000
Research Scientist: $155,000 to $303,000
Managing roles: Google's highest-paid product managers can make as much as $280,000
Product Manager: $136,000 to $280,000
Program Manager: $125,000 to $236,000
Technical Program Manager: $116,000 to $270,000
Consulting roles: A solutions consultant can make as much as $282,000
Solutions Consultant: $100,000 to $282,000
Technical Solutions Consultant: $110,000 to $253,000
Design roles: A UX designer at Google can pocket as much as $230,000
UX Designer: $124,000 to $230,000
UX Researcher: $124,000 to $224,000
