Terminal, the smarter global platform for hiring AI fluent software developers, today released its annual Remote Software Engineer Salary Insights Report, a data-driven benchmark of compensation for software engineers across Canada, Latin America, and Europe. Drawing on Terminal’s database of more than 260,000 engineers, the report shows that global engineer salaries run 37 to 60% lower than U.S. rates, with artificial intelligence and data roles paying the most.
“Compensation data is one of the clearest ways to understand how the engineering market is changing,” said Dylan Serota, CEO and Co-Founder at Terminal. “As AI shifts the skills companies need and global hiring becomes more common, employers need better visibility into where to build and what to pay across different roles. This report gives them that clarity, while helping engineers understand how their skills are valued around the world.”
New This Year
This edition adds contractor rate benchmarks alongside full-time salary data for every market, reflecting a growing trend toward flexible engagement models. In Poland, for example, full-time engineers earn a median of $89,183 a year, while contractors bill a median of $10,540 a month. Hungary, a growing tech hub, has also been added to European benchmarks.
Explore salaries for global software engineers by country, role, and level on Terminal’s website or download the guide as a PDF here.
Key Findings for 2026
Global tech hiring is up 9% year over year. Yet 74% of U.S. employers say they can’t fill technical roles fast enough. For engineering or people leaders trying to close that gap, the next hire probably isn’t sitting in their own backyard, and knowing what to pay them is critical.
Global engineer salaries run 37 to 60% lower than U.S. rates — Canada at 37%, Latin America at 44–46%, Europe at 51–60%. Canada remains the highest-paying market in the report, with a median salary of $121,124 and the deepest bench of specialized talent. Latin America continues to offer consistent pricing across countries, with medians ranging from $103,075 in Colombia to $106,918 in Costa Rica. Europe shows the widest spread, from $77,646 in Spain to $93,521 in Hungary.
Across every region, AI and data roles command the biggest premium. AI/ML engineers top the global earnings table at $108,526, followed by data scientists and data engineers. At the other end of the scale, less technical roles pay the least: designer, product manager, and scrum master all hover around $73,000 globally.
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