Principal Engineer H-1B wages

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

Employers filed 375 wage applications for Principal Engineer jobs from July 2025 to June 2026, across 184 employers. The median offered wage was $178,443, 5.9% above the government's prevailing wage for the job. Arm, Inc. filed the most (19, median $161,179).

Filings: 375
Positions covered: 554
Employers: 184
Median offered: $178,443
Median prevailing wage: $156,998
Filings since FY2020: 2,076
Median offer change since FY2020: +25%

Principal Engineer, all employers375 filings, July 2025 to June 2026

$178,443Median wage employers told the government they would pay

$153,202 to $213,600Where the middle half of the filings fall

$156,998Prevailing wage: the legal minimum for these jobs

Offered wage since 2020

The median wage offered for Principal Engineer jobs rose 25%, from $140,000 in fiscal 2020 to $175,510 in fiscal 2026 so far. In fiscal 2026 it was 6.3% above the prevailing wage. Filings peaked in fiscal 2025, with 387 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.

Principal Engineer by fiscal year

Fiscal year	Filings	Median offered	vs year before	Median prevailing	vs prevailing
2026 (Oct to Jun)	284	$175,510	+3.9%	$156,998	+6.3%
2025	387	$168,964	+2.3%	$149,781	+3.0%
2024	275	$165,155	+6.2%	$149,469	+6.9%
2023	280	$155,479	+0.3%	$136,822	+8.9%
2022	339	$155,000	+7.9%	$130,333	+9.9%
2021	230	$143,701	+2.6%	$125,143	+4.8%
2020	281	$140,000	n/a	$125,216	+7.0%

Employers that file for this title

Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wage

Employer	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
Arm, Inc.	19	$161,179	at the minimum
Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America, Inc. (TEMA)	17	$186,342	+24.3%
TSMC Technology, Inc.	13	$161,179	at the minimum
Infineon Technologies Americas Corp.	9	$175,000	+2.4%
CommVault Systems,Inc.	9	$176,700	+23.9%
Ice Mortgage Technology, Inc.	9	$206,400	at the minimum
SambaNova Systems Inc.	8	$186,000	+6.4%
Atlassian US, Inc.	8	$250,000	+17.5%
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company	7	$149,760	at the minimum
Upscale AI, Inc	7	$220,000	+1.8%
Palo Alto Networks, Inc.	7	$212,867	at the minimum
Majesco	6	$141,487	+14.6%
MediaTek USA Inc.	6	$218,500	+4.3%
Autodesk, Inc.	6	$180,596	at the minimum
Tenstorrent USA Inc.	5	$202,030	at the minimum
Quanta Technology LLC	5	$144,122	+5.5%
Target Enterprise, Inc.	5	$163,000	+12.4%
Macy's Systems and Technology, Inc.	4	$224,700	+47.7%
Cisco Systems, Inc.	4	$225,000	+11.2%
Intel Corporation	4	$225,868	at the minimum
F5, Inc.	4	$225,548	+12.8%
Comerica Management Company	4	$153,750	+11.0%
NextEra Energy Resources, LLC	4	$157,711	+32.4%
NextEra Energy Project Management, LLC	3	$159,938	+36.0%
Micron Technology, Inc.	3	$210,000	+45.7%

Showing the 25 employers with the most filings of 184. Employers with fewer than 5 filings in total are counted but not named.

Where Principal Engineer jobs are filed

Worksite	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
San Jose, CA	43	$199,796	+0.2%
Santa Clara, CA	23	$220,000	+0.9%
Austin, TX	21	$161,179	at the minimum
Plano, TX	21	$182,277	+21.5%
San Francisco, CA	17	$187,574	+2.2%
San Diego, CA	10	$178,067	+1.1%
Seattle, WA	9	$212,202	+9.9%
Juno Beach, FL	8	$163,000	+33.7%
Tinton Falls, NJ	8	$181,050	+22.6%
Pleasanton, CA	7	$213,600	at the minimum
Sunnyvale, CA	7	$225,000	+0.2%
Irvine, CA	6	$145,586	+0.7%
Minneapolis, MN	6	$155,350	+12.4%
Mountain View, CA	6	$232,900	+3.0%
New York, NY	6	$232,500	+33.2%
Palo Alto, CA	6	$272,257	+5.7%
Southfield, MI	6	$144,817	+8.8%
Atlanta, GA	5	$152,200	at the minimum
Boston, MA	5	$160,000	+6.7%
Folsom, CA	4	$181,314	+13.4%
Johns Creek, GA	4	$224,700	+47.7%
Kirkland, WA	4	$250,000	+17.8%
Phoenix, AZ	4	$164,428	+18.1%
Chicago, IL	3	$168,300	+23.4%
Houston, TX	3	$189,592	+26.6%

Seniority of the jobs filed

Level I, entry1%

Level II, qualified12%

Level III, experienced18%

Level IV, fully competent70%

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.
2 filings are 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.