Side by side

Mechanical Engineer vs Software Engineer

Pay is effectively the same — the medians sit under 1% apart. There is 5.6× more demand for Software Engineer. Listings for Software Engineer move faster — median age 68 days against 95.

Comparison

Side by side

MeasureMechanical EngineerSoftware EngineerGap
Open postings16,61992,298-75,679
Posted this week5243,101
Median salary$124,500$125,500$-1k
25th percentile$98.5k$99k
75th percentile$155k$156k
Salary disclosed2.7%6.2%
Remote share10.0%13.0%-3.0pp
Median age of posting95d68d
Open over 60 days41.5%43.1%
Visa sponsorship25.6%23.5%
Pay

Pay distribution

Mechanical Engineer

$56k$215k

Software Engineer

$56k$217k
Freshness

How old the listings are

Mechanical Engineer

just posted95d median90d+

Software Engineer

just posted68d median90d+
Demand

What each side asks for

Mechanical Engineer — technologies

Node.js
72.0%
TypeScript
65.8%
dbt
59.6%
Azure
53.4%
Tableau
47.2%
Swift
41.0%
Spark
34.8%

Software Engineer — technologies

HubSpot
72.0%
AWS
65.8%
Java
59.6%
Swift
53.4%
GCP
47.2%
JavaScript
41.0%
Azure
34.8%

Mechanical Engineer — employers

Halcyon Energy
9.4%
Pinewood Education
8.7%
Beacon Robotics
8.0%
Kestrel Health
7.2%
Tidewater Insurance
6.5%
Brightline Retail
5.8%
Vantage Logistics
5.1%

Software Engineer — employers

Kestrel Health
9.4%
Northwind Systems
8.7%
Fairmount Legal
8.0%
Cobalt Financial
7.2%
Meridian Software
6.5%
Umbra Security
5.8%
Tidewater Insurance
5.1%

Track this slice

A weekly note when openings, pay or freshness move for Mechanical Engineer vs Software Engineer.

More comparisons

Other Engineering comparisons

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Both sides are counted the same way on the same day, so the gap is comparable even where the absolute numbers move. Salary figures use only postings that publish a range — the disclosure rate is in the table because a median over 20% of a cohort is a weaker number than one over 70%.