Every year, salary surveys get published with data collected months ago, filtered through dozens of assumptions, and presented as gospel. This isn't that. What follows is real offer data from 800+ placements HyrEzy made in the last 18 months — actual numbers candidates accepted, not self-reported figures from LinkedIn polls.
We've anonymised all company and candidate data per our DPDP compliance obligations. The ranges below represent the 25th–75th percentile of accepted offers in each category. Outliers exist — a founding engineer at a Series C might make 2x the top of these ranges. But these are the numbers you can actually plan around.
Engineering: Individual Contributors
| Role | Experience | Salary Range (LPA) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDE 1 / Junior Engineer | 0–2 years | 8–16L | ↑ 8% |
| SDE 2 / Mid Engineer | 2–4 years | 15–28L | ↑ 12% |
| SDE 3 / Senior Engineer | 4–7 years | 25–45L | ↑ 15% |
| Staff Engineer | 7–10 years | 40–65L | ↑ 18% |
| Principal Engineer | 10+ years | 60–95L | ↑ 20% |
Engineering: Management Track
| Role | Experience | Salary Range (LPA) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Engineering Manager (EM) | 6–9 years | 35–55L | ↑ 11% |
| Senior EM / Group EM | 8–12 years | 50–80L | ↑ 13% |
| Director of Engineering | 10–15 years | 75–1.2Cr | ↑ 16% |
| VP Engineering | 12+ years | 1–2Cr | ↑ 14% |
| CTO (Startup) | 10+ years | 80L–2.5Cr | ↑ 19% |
Specialised Engineering Roles
| Specialisation | Experience | Salary Range (LPA) | YoY Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| GenAI / LLM Engineer | 3–6 years | 28–55L | ↑ 24% |
| ML Engineer (Production) | 3–7 years | 22–45L | ↑ 20% |
| DevOps / Platform Engineer | 3–7 years | 18–40L | ↑ 14% |
| Data Engineer | 3–6 years | 16–35L | ↑ 12% |
| Security Engineer | 3–7 years | 20–42L | ↑ 16% |
| Mobile (iOS/Android) | 3–6 years | 16–32L | ↑ 9% |
City-by-City Premium
Delhi NCR is the base. Here's how other cities compare for the same role and experience:
Company Stage Premium
Company stage has a bigger impact on cash comp than most candidates realise:
- Bootstrapped / Pre-seed: 20–35% below market cash, compensated (hopefully) with meaningful equity
- Seed / Series A: 10–20% below market cash, better equity story
- Series B / C: At market or slightly above, equity still meaningful
- Late Stage / Pre-IPO: At market to 15% above, equity value clearer
- Public / MNC: At market to 20% above, equity in RSUs, better benefits
The equity conversation: Most Indian candidates still heavily discount equity in offer negotiations. In 2026, with several Indian SaaS and fintech companies having delivered real ESOP value, this is changing — but slowly. If you're offering below-market cash, your equity story needs to be specific: valuation, vesting schedule, last round price, and a realistic exit timeline.
What's Changed Most in 2026
Three trends stand out from our placement data this year:
AI skills command a premium regardless of role. A backend engineer with demonstrated LLM integration experience gets 15–20% more than a peer without it — even for non-AI roles. Companies are pricing in future optionality.
The senior engineer crunch is real. SDE 3 and Staff Engineer are the hardest levels to hire at. Supply hasn't kept pace with demand, and these candidates are getting 4–6 competing offers simultaneously. If you're hiring at this level, your process needs to be under 2 weeks.
Remote premium has disappeared. In 2023–24, remote roles commanded a premium because they were rare. Now that hybrid is standard, remote doesn't add to comp — but it does expand your candidate pool significantly.
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