Founding Software Engineer H-1B wages

Filings decided July 2025 to June 2026. Most are classified as Software Developers (SOC 15-1252).

Employers filed 53 wage applications for Founding Software Engineer jobs from July 2025 to June 2026, across 41 employers. The median offered wage was $172,500, 0.2% above the government's prevailing wage for the job. Effective AI, Inc. filed the most (6, median $161,637).

Filings: 53
Positions covered: 52
Employers: 41
Median offered: $172,500
Median prevailing wage: $161,637
Filings since FY2021: 101
Median offer change since FY2023: +9%

Founding Software Engineer, all employers53 filings, July 2025 to June 2026

$172,500Median wage employers told the government they would pay

$160,604 to $213,512Where the middle half of the filings fall

$161,637Prevailing wage: the legal minimum for these jobs

Offered wage since 2021

The median wage offered for Founding Software Engineer jobs rose 9%, from $172,500 in fiscal 2023 to $187,574 in fiscal 2026 so far. In fiscal 2026 it was 0.2% above the prevailing wage. Filings peaked in fiscal 2025, with 30 filings.

Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wageFilings per year

Fiscal years run October to September. Fiscal 2026 is still running: these figures cover October 2025 to June 2026.

Founding Software Engineer by fiscal year

Fiscal year	Filings	Median offered	vs year before	Median prevailing	vs prevailing
2026 (Oct to Jun)	46	$187,574	+42.1%	$161,637	+0.2%
2025	30	$132,000	−16.5%	$126,090	+2.4%
2024	8	$158,000	−8.4%	$147,368	+0.9%
2023	11	$172,500	n/a	$147,368	+14.1%
2022	3	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
2021	3	$150,000	n/a	$144,726	+3.6%

Employers that file for this title

Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wage

Employer	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
Effective AI, Inc.	6	$161,637	at the minimum
Prosights Labs, Inc.	2	$175,500	+0.2%
Sunday Robotics, Inc.	2	$295,000	+30.5%
Lockbox Technologies, Inc.	1	$132,000	at the minimum
4Wall AI Inc.	1	$135,699	at the minimum
Knit, Inc.	1	$275,000	+45.0%
Parker Group Inc.	1	$250,000	+31.9%
Sybill Inc.	1	$245,000	+8.3%
Intrinsic Technologies, Inc.	1	$190,000	+0.2%

Showing the 9 employers with the most filings of 41. Employers with fewer than 5 filings in total are counted but not named.

Where Founding Software Engineer jobs are filed

Worksite	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
San Francisco, CA	30	$163,319	+0.1%
New York, NY	12	$161,000	+0.2%
Mountain View, CA	5	$260,000	+6.2%
Palo Alto, CA	2	$215,000	+3.1%
San Mateo, CA	2	$188,500	+19.8%
Philadelphia, PA	1	$250,000	+63.0%
Washington, DC	1	$126,090	at the minimum

Seniority of the jobs filed

Level I, entry21%

Level II, qualified31%

Level III, experienced19%

Level IV, fully competent29%

The government assigns each job one of four wage levels. A higher level means a higher legal minimum.

What these numbers are

They are wages employers attested to on Labor Condition Applications (Form ETA-9035), not paychecks. Bonuses and stock are not included.
A filing is not a visa or a hire. One filing can cover several positions, and some are later withdrawn. Wage figures use certified filings only.
The prevailing wage is the minimum the employer must pay for that job in that area, set from government wage surveys.
1 filing is for part-time work. Hourly wages are shown as full-time equivalents (2,080 hours a year).

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC disclosure data. How we clean and count it.