Software developer salary in Australia
$95,000
Software Developer · typical · August 2026 · excluding super
A software developer in Australia typically earns around $95,000, with juniors starting near $70,000 and senior developers commonly reaching $140,000 and above. Remote work has largely erased the city discount: a Brisbane developer is now competing for the same roles as a Sydney one, at closer to the same rate.
What are you worth?
The figure above is everyone doing this job. Three questions puts you inside it - and you can see exactly how the number is worked out.
Estimate it for your situation
The band above is everyone. This puts you inside it.
Typical, before you adjust anything
$88,000 – $101,000
Software Developer · 3-5 years · Brisbane / SEQ
Have Ayu check it against live rolesHow this is worked out
It starts from the range this role spans junior to senior ($70,000-$140,000) and places you inside it by experience, then adjusts for where you work. Every step is listed here because a tool that hides its assumptions is asking to be trusted on nothing.
Where each experience step sits in the range
- 0-2 years: 8% of the way up
- 3-5 years: 35% of the way up
- 6-9 years: 60% of the way up
- 10-14 years: 82% of the way up
- 15+ years: 96% of the way up
Then
- Brisbane / SEQ: the base
- Sydney or Melbourne: +8%
- Regional or fully remote: -3%
- The result is held inside the range above, never outside it.
It is an estimate off advertised data, not an offer, and it cannot see the things that actually decide your number - what you have owned, who is hiring this month, and how badly. That is the conversation, and it is free.
What this market is doing right now.
Good developers are not on the market long and are usually in more than one conversation. Speed and salary honesty matter more here than in any discipline we recruit - a slow process loses candidates that a low offer would have kept.
Indicative only, and moving. Figures as at August 2026, excluding super - mostly typical advertised salaries, Brisbane where the data supports it and national otherwise, with the rows marked from our payroll taken from what LINK itself pays. The market is shifting and rates are moving constantly, so treat these as a starting point rather than a benchmark: you'll get Ayu's current read on your specific role, from searches running this month, in the first conversation.
What moves you within the band.
The figure above is the easy half. This is the half that decides whether you sit at the bottom of it or the top.
- Shipping to production
- Evidence you have owned something live, including its failures, outweighs almost everything else on a CV.
- Breadth of the stack
- Developers who can take a feature from database to interface are consistently better paid than specialists at the same level.
- Reasoning about code
- We screen on how someone explains a decision, not whether they memorised an algorithm. It correlates far better with what employers pay for.
- Remote competition
- Fully remote roles set a floor now. Local employers who benchmark against last year's Brisbane data lose candidates at offer stage.
Related roles, and what they pay
Most people checking a salary are really asking what the next step is worth. Where a discipline runs two tracks, moving across is a sideways step, not a rung.
| Role | What the step demands | Typical |
|---|---|---|
| Software Developer | We look at real code and how they reason about it, not a keyword-matched CV. | $95,000 |
| Help Desk & Support | Ticket triage, escalation judgement and how they talk to a frustrated non-technical user. | $65,000-$85,000 |
| Business Analyst | Requirements discipline, stakeholder handling, and whether they can write clearly. | $125,000 |
| IT Project Manager | Delivery record on real constraints - budget, scope and a business that needed it last quarter. | $105,000-$125,000 |
| Systems Administrator | Infrastructure depth, security instincts and evidence of BAU under load. | $100,000 |
Your questions, straight answers.
How much does a software developer earn in Australia?
Around $95,000 typically, with juniors near $70,000 and senior developers commonly $140,000 and above. Typical advertised figures as at August 2026, excluding super, and moving constantly.
Do developers earn less in Brisbane than Sydney?
Less than they used to. Remote and hybrid hiring means Brisbane developers compete for national roles, which has pulled Brisbane rates toward Sydney's faster than published guides reflect.
Is it worth specialising in one language?
Specialise deeply enough to be credible, broadly enough to be employable. The best-paid developers we place can take a feature end to end; the hardest to place are those tied to one framework with no evidence of shipping anything outside it.
What are you worth?
A published band is an average of everyone. Send Ayu your CV and you'll get the read for your actual experience - whether or not you ever apply for a role through us.