Salaries / Software Developers / San Diego
Software Developers salaries in San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA
Auto-summary H-1B filings: DOL disclosure data Prevailing wages: DOL wage year 2026-27
Employers filed 1,284 certified H-1B applications for software developers in the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad, CA area (July 2025 to June 2026), from 307 employers.
The middle half of offers were $130,000 to $185,000 a year, with a median of $157,500: 10% above the national median for this job ($143,500).
The most common wage level was Level II (38% of filings).
The 2026-27 prevailing wage floor here is $105,664 at Level I and $134,347 at Level II.
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Wage levels
DOL sets four wage levels by experience. The share of filings at each level, and the minimum the employer must pay for that level here.
| Level | Share of filings | Prevailing wage (minimum) |
|---|---|---|
| Level I (entry) | 9% | $105,664 |
| Level II (qualified) | 38% | $134,347 |
| Level III (experienced) | 26% | $163,010 |
| Level IV (fully competent) | 27% | $191,693 |
Who sponsors software developers here
| Employer | H-1B filings | Median offer | Green card filings (PERM, this job, US) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. | 238 | $152,000 | 30 |
| Apple Inc. | 211 | $157,500 | 557 |
| Amazon.com Services LLC | 63 | $159,000 | 24 |
| Qualcomm Innovation Center, Inc. | 49 | $157,500 | 11 |
| ServiceNow, Inc. | 37 | $157,500 | 183 |
| Intuit Inc. | 32 | $188,500 | 191 |
| Amazon Web Services, Inc. | 20 | $165,000 | 3 |
| Asml Us, Lp | 19 | $134,000 | 41 |
| Qualcomm Atheros, Inc. | 18 | $130,500 | 2 |
| Sony Interactive Entertainment Llc | 16 | $156,000 | 8 |
| Brain Corporation | 16 | $133,500 | 1 |
| Illumina, Inc. | 14 | $171,500 | 14 |
| Qualcomm Incorporated | 14 | $151,500 | 2 |
| Google LLC | 11 | $203,000 | 1 |
| Specs Inc. | 11 | $157,500 | — |
More in San Diego
Computer Occupations, All Other · Data Scientists · Software Quality Assurance Analysts and Testers · Computer and Information Systems Managers · Electronics Engineers, Except Computer · Electrical Engineers · Computer and Information Research Scientists · Biological Scientists, All Other · Biochemists And Biophysicists
Common titles filed under this occupation: Software Engineer, Software Developer, Senior Software Engineer, Software Engineering, Software Dev Engineer Ii, Software Dev Engineer I, Software Development Engineer Ii, Staff Software Engineer.
About this data
Offers are the wages employers put on certified Labor Condition Applications (LCAs) for H-1B workers: Certified H-1B LCAs decided July 2025 to June 2026. An LCA is filed before a petition, so not every filing became a job, and pay excludes bonus and stock. Annual pay; hourly offers are multiplied by 2,080. Pages appear only where there were at least 100 filings. Source: DOL disclosure data and OFLC wage data. Not legal or financial advice.