Google employees’ salaries revealed: Work visa data spills what software engineers, scientists, managers really make
While Google salaries are otherwise kept under wraps, an abundance of skilled immigrant employees at such tech giants has helped sneak a peek at how much each role earns - all thanks to work visa data.
‘Embrace AI or be left behind’: Google warns its employees for staying ahead in race
The growing demand for AI advancements has undoubtedly led companies to welcome a very specific type of employee talents into the pool. While layoffs and job cuts have become a common feature across fields, Google, among other tech beasts, is sparing no money to entice as many big players as possible who may be crucial to their operations across the board.
Amid the ever-changing tide on the tech wave, Google’s salary data across positions seems to have slipped out the back door. Although Google, like many big players in the market, keeps their salary data under wraps, work visa data has offered some valued insight into how much everyone from software engineers to research scientists earn.
Considering how tech giants in the US significantly rely on high-skilled immigrant employees, these numbers have rounded up thanks to the filings companies send out to the Labor Department to secure work visas (H-1Bs) for international additions to the workforce.
Google salaries revealed: How much each role makes
The figures listed below, as shared by Business Insider, are based on about 6,800 applications from this year’s first quarter. They don’t incorporate equity or bonuses of Google employees.
Business-analyst roles (Range: $85,500 to $235,000)
Account manager: $85,500 to $166,000
Financial analyst: $102,000 to $225,230
Search quality analyst: $120,000 to $235,000
Business systems analyst: $141,000 to $201,885
Google engineers’ salaries (Range: $85,009.60 to $340,000)
Customer engineer: $85,009.60 to $228,000
Security engineer: $97,000 to $233,000
Customer solutions engineer: $108,000 to $228,000
Network engineer: $108,000 to $195,000
Software engineer: $109,180 to $340,000
Data engineer: $111,000 to $175,000
Electrical engineer: $119,000 to $203,000
Silicon design verification engineer: $126,000 to $207,050
Hardware engineer: $130,000 to $284,000
Software engineer, site reliability engineer: $133,000 to $258,000
Technical solutions consultant: $110,000 to $253,000
Google designers (Range: $124,000 to $230,000)
UX designer: $124,000 to $230,000
UX researcher: $124,000 to $224,000
Google employee performance ratings
Employee performances are rated annually through the internal system ‘Googler Reviews and Development.’ Scores are ranked from “No Enough Impact” as the lowest to “Transformative Impact” as the highest to determine employees’ equity and bonus.
In a bid to strengthen their “performance culture,” Google’s head of compensation and benefits, John Casey, previously told employees that the company would be revamping its table of performance ratings. Given the changes, more Googlers were granted the opportunity to achieve the “Outstanding Impact” score during annual reviews. “…their bonus and equity award will be modeled using the O’s individual multiplier in 2026,” he said in an email, as per Business Insider.
Other ranking pools include “Significant Impact” – the third-highest bracket and “Moderate Impact,” a fifth label which comes between Significant and Not Enough. The majority of Googlers secure the former of these two ranks.