2026 Tech and Engineering Salary Benchmark: The Bluecoders Data
Summary: Between August 2025 and August 2026, Bluecoders signed 69 permanent placements for which we hold the salary actually written into the contract. The median gross annual salary across these placements stands at €65,000, with an average of €69,961. One placement in two falls between €55,000 and €80,000, with extremes ranging from €32,000 to €180,000. This salary benchmark isn't built on self-reported data: every line corresponds to a signed contract, a negotiated and accepted amount.
€65,000. That's the median gross annual salary of the placements we closed over the past twelve months. Not a pay-grid average, not a job-ad range, not an estimate from a candidate survey. An amount that a company and an engineer agreed on, and that ended up in a contract.
It's also a small sample, and we say so upfront. 69 placements isn't a national panorama. It's a precise snapshot of a precise scope: the tech and engineering roles we work on, at the clients who entrust them to us. We'd rather publish 69 traceable figures than 5,000 self-reported answers.
Bluecoders has been recruiting tech and engineering profiles since 2016: developers, Data and AI engineers, embedded and hardware profiles, cybersecurity, technical C-Level. The figures that follow come from that ground, and nowhere else.
Key takeaways
- Median at €65,000 gross annual across 69 permanent placements signed between August 2025 and August 2026, average at €69,961
- One placement in two falls between €55,000 and €80,000: that's the core of the market where we negotiate
- Software Engineering sets the market at a €60,000 median, across 27 placements, the largest volume in the benchmark
- Technical leadership pulls the average up: €90,000 median, up to €180,000
- The real pay jump is the move into management, at €80,000 median, not seniority alone
- Remote doesn't show up as a pay premium on this scope, quite the opposite
- Three-figure salaries remain the exception and concern technical leadership and breakout Data and AI profiles
What this benchmark rests on, and what it doesn't
Let's lay out the method before the numbers. A salary benchmark that doesn't say how it was built isn't worth much.
Source
Our internal deal-tracking tool. The current form produced 72 lines over the period. Earlier versions of the form, used between 2016 and 2018, didn't include a usable salary field and are excluded from the calculation.
Scope
70 permanent-contract deals, 69 of which have a documented and verifiable salary. One freelance assignment and one line with an invalid amount were excluded. Period covered: August 2025 to August 2026.
What the salary field measures
The form records the fixed plus variable annual salary, read here as the gross annual package. Values entered in thousands were normalized. When an amount changed after the probation period, the target amount was used.
What the benchmark doesn't say
The variable portion is documented for only 16 of the 69 placements: it isn't usable as a standalone statistic, and we don't publish it separately. Job families are reconstructed from job titles, on an indicative basis. Breakdowns by job family and by domain cover 67 of the 69 placements, readings by seniority and by way of working cover all 69.
What to keep in mind before reading the tables
69 placements isn't France's tech market. It's Bluecoders over twelve months. Where the sample is too small to draw conclusions, we show it rather than hide it. Every row under three placements has been removed from the tables.
"69 placements isn't a national panel, and we will never present it as one. But these are 69 signed contracts, at amounts negotiated and accepted by both parties."
Christophe Hébert, CEO and founder of Bluecoders
2026 tech and engineering salaries: the median, and what it hides
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Permanent placements analyzed | 69 |
| Median gross annual salary | €65,000 |
| Average gross annual salary | €69,961 |
| First quartile (P25) | €55,000 |
| Third quartile (P75) | €80,000 |
| Minimum observed | €32,000 |
| Maximum observed | €180,000 |
Source: Bluecoders proprietary data, 69 permanent placements, August 2025 to August 2026.
The average exceeds the median by close to €5,000. That's the classic sign of a distribution skewed upward: a handful of technical leadership packages and breakout Data and AI profiles pull the average without shifting the market's center. When a candidate or an employer asks us for a ballpark figure, the median is the right benchmark. The average isn't.
The useful information sits elsewhere: half of our placements fall between €55,000 and €80,000. That's where nearly all of the negotiations we handle play out. Above €100,000, the conversation changes, and so does the profile.
The €32,000 floor deserves a note, because it will be read the wrong way without one: it doesn't correspond to an engineering role. It comes from the Sales and Business family, which we've kept in the benchmark for transparency, but which doesn't follow the same scarcity logic. Across the properly technical families, no placement dropped below €40,000.
The market benchmark. According to the Apec, France's national association for managerial employment, in its study on the compensation of managerial and professional staff across 111 job families published in December 2025, the median compensation of managerial and professional staff in post, fixed plus variable combined, stands at €55,000, and 80% of managerial and professional staff fall between €38,000 and €95,000. The Apec also puts the IT leadership job family at a €77,000 median. Two caveats before comparing: the Apec measures managerial and professional staff already in post, we measure hiring salaries, and its scope covers all French managerial and professional staff while ours is concentrated on sought-after tech and engineering profiles.
With those caveats in place, the gap still speaks for itself: €65,000 versus €55,000. Hiring a tech engineer in 2026 isn't the same as hiring managerial and professional staff.
Salaries by job family
| Family | n | Min | P25 | Median | Average | P75 | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical leadership and management | 8 | €75,000 | €76,000 | €90,000 | €100,750 | €105,000 | €180,000 |
| DevOps, Infrastructure and Platform | 3 | €57,000 | €64,000 | €72,000 | €69,609 | €76,000 | €80,000 |
| Design and Brand | 4 | €55,000 | €62,000 | €65,000 | €62,500 | €65,000 | €65,000 |
| Engineering and Hardware | 5 | €43,000 | €49,000 | €62,000 | €60,840 | €65,000 | €85,000 |
| Data, AI and ML | 7 | €48,000 | €58,000 | €62,000 | €83,571 | €105,000 | €150,000 |
| Software Engineering | 27 | €40,000 | €52,000 | €60,000 | €63,004 | €72,000 | €92,000 |
| Product | 5 | €55,000 | €58,000 | €60,000 | €64,204 | €68,000 | €80,000 |
| Sales and Business | 6 | €32,000 | €38,000 | €56,000 | €53,833 | €64,000 | €80,000 |
Source: Bluecoders proprietary data, August 2025 to August 2026. Two families with a single placement were removed from the table: at that headcount, a median means nothing. The DevOps (3 placements) and Design (4 placements) rows should be read as indications, not references.
Software Engineering sets the tone for the rest
27 of 69 placements, the backbone of the benchmark and the only headcount large enough to talk about a trend. The median stands at €60,000, a quarter of placements fall below €52,000, a quarter above €72,000, and the highest salary observed in this family is €92,000.
Data, AI and ML: the median lies
This is the most interesting line in the table, and the trickiest. It covers our Data Engineer placements.
It also covers our ML Engineer placements, alongside applied research profiles.
The median, €62,000, is nearly identical to development's. The average, €83,571, is far from it. The third quartile climbs to €105,000, the maximum to €150,000.
In other words, the job title doesn't determine the salary in this family. Two engineers can carry the same title and be hired at €48,000 or at €150,000. What drives the gap: the real scarcity of the know-how. AI Safety profiles climb as high as €150,000 in our placements. The rest of the family follows the same order of magnitude as development.
Technical leadership plays by its own rules
€90,000 median across 8 placements, with a first quartile already at €76,000 and a maximum of €180,000. No placement in this family dropped below €75,000. It's the only segment of the benchmark where the floor is high.
The other families
Engineering and Hardware shows a €62,000 median, with a wide range, from €43,000 to €85,000, reflecting the diversity of roles the label covers: embedded, mechatronics, systems, industrial R&D. Product comes out at €60,000, in a tight range between €55,000 and €80,000. DevOps comes out at €72,000 but on only three placements, a figure to handle with caution even though it's consistent with the tension we observe on these profiles.
The Sales and Business family, at €56,000, isn't an engineering role. We keep it in the benchmark for transparency, because it's part of our placements, but it follows different compensation logic and it's where the €32,000 floor comes from.
Salaries by seniority: the two readings that matter
Tenure and level of responsibility are two different things, and they don't produce the same effects on compensation. We publish both.
By level of experience
| Level | n | Min | Median | Average | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid-level (2 to 5 years) | 29 | €32,000 | €60,000 | €59,776 | €90,000 |
| Senior (5+ years) | 38 | €43,000 | €75,000 | €78,837 | €180,000 |
Source: Bluecoders proprietary data, August 2025 to August 2026. Junior profiles, 2 of the 69 placements, aren't published: the sample is too small to produce a usable median.
The move from mid-level to senior is worth roughly €15,000 on the median. That's the figure to keep in mind when a company is deciding whether it's targeting a three-year profile or a seven-year one.
A word on juniors, because their near-absence is itself informative. Two of 69 placements isn't a statistical accident, it's our scope. Companies bring us the roles they can't fill on their own, and a junior profile is rarely sourced in that category.
By level of responsibility
| Level | n | Min | Median | Average | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Individual contributor | 39 | €32,000 | €60,000 | €63,327 | €150,000 |
| Lead | 17 | €49,000 | €65,000 | €69,091 | €100,000 |
| Manager | 13 | €50,000 | €80,000 | €91,000 | €180,000 |
Source: Bluecoders proprietary data, August 2025 to August 2026.
This reading is the more telling of the two, because it contradicts a widespread assumption.
Becoming a Lead doesn't move the needle much. The gap between an individual contributor role and a Lead role is €5,000 on the median, €60,000 versus €65,000. The Lead takes on technical responsibility and de facto team leadership, without the market paying much more for it.
Becoming a Manager, yes. The jump to €80,000 median represents €15,000 more than a Lead, and €20,000 more than an individual contributor role. It's the real compensation step in a tech career path. It's also the moment when hiring becomes hardest, because the pool of credible technical managers is narrower than that of good engineers.
And the expert track exists. The maximum observed for individual contributor roles reaches €150,000, more than the Leads' maximum of €100,000. An individual contributor role can therefore be paid more than any Lead in our sample, provided it's positioned on a rare skill.
Does remote pay more?
| Way of working | n | Min | Median | Average | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| On-site or hybrid | 56 | €32,000 | €65,000 | €71,532 | €180,000 |
| Remote | 13 | €40,000 | €60,000 | €63,192 | €120,000 |
Source: Bluecoders proprietary data, August 2025 to August 2026.
On our placements, no. The median for remote roles comes out €5,000 below that of on-site or hybrid roles, and the gap is even wider on the average.
This result runs against the idea that remote work commands a salary premium, so it needs to be handled with care. Three caveats, in order of importance:
Remote stays a minority in our placements, 13 of 69. At that headcount, one or two large packages are enough to shift the median in either direction. Next, these aren't the same roles: technical leadership and industrial roles, which pull compensation upward, are rarely fully remote. Finally, a remote role widens a company's geographic talent pool, which changes the structure of the negotiation.
The honest reading is this: we don't observe a remote premium on our placements, and we don't have the data to claim there's a discount either. What we do see is that remote gets negotiated as a trade-off, not as a bonus.
What the sector changes, more than the job title
The form doesn't record the client's originating Business Unit. The table below is a reconstruction by the hiring company's industry sector. It's indicative and doesn't constitute an official attribution.
| Client industry sector | n | Min | Median | Average | Max |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Deeptech, AI and Data | 21 | €40,000 | €75,000 | €75,667 | €150,000 |
| Aerospace, Defence and Industry | 14 | €43,000 | €64,000 | €70,430 | €180,000 |
| Business and Software Solutions | 32 | €32,000 | €62,000 | €65,191 | €120,000 |
Source: Bluecoders proprietary data, August 2025 to August 2026. Reconstruction by the client's industry sector, 67 of 69 placements.
This is the most counterintuitive reading in the benchmark, and it's worth pausing on.
The Data, AI and ML family comes out at a €62,000 median. The Deeptech, AI and Data sector comes out at €75,000. A €13,000 gap, on the same theme, depending on whether you look at the job title or the company that's hiring.
The explanation lies in what each column measures. The first looks at the job label: an ML Engineer, wherever they work. The second looks at the employer: a deeptech company doesn't only hire researchers, it also hires developers, DevOps engineers and Product Managers, and pays them at the level of its own scarcity market.
In other words, the company's industry sector weighs more heavily on compensation than the job title. A back-end developer hired by a deeptech startup negotiates above the same developer hired by a SaaS vendor.
Aerospace, Defence and Industry present a different profile: a €64,000 median, but the highest maximum in the entire benchmark, €180,000. A market with a more contained compensation floor, and leadership roles that climb very high.
How to read these figures
The median, not the average
Across the whole benchmark, the average exceeds the median by close to €5,000. The gap reaches €21,000 for the Data, AI and ML family, where the average stands at €83,571 against a median of €62,000. An average aggregates technical leadership packages and rare profiles that shift the indicator without reflecting the market's center. The quartiles, P25 and P75, show where three-quarters of placements actually sit.
Two breakdowns that don't measure the same thing
The job-family table classifies placements by job title. The domain table classifies them by the hiring company's industry sector. A Data engineer hired by a SaaS vendor appears in the Data, AI and ML family and in the Business and Software Solutions domain. The two readings complement each other and don't add up.
Headcount determines reliability
The number of placements, the n column, is the most important piece of information in each table. Rows with five or more placements support a reading. Those with three or four placements, flagged as such, are indications. Rows with one or two placements have been removed, even when they concerned roles we recruit regularly.
What we do with these figures
This benchmark isn't a communications exercise. It's the tool we use to frame a range before opening a role, to tell a client that their budget won't work, and to tell a candidate that their expectation is above or below what we see get signed.
Since 2016, Bluecoders has completed more than 1,200 tech and engineering placements. This benchmark covers 69 of them, those from the past twelve months for which we hold the contracted amount.
Opening a tech role and want to know if your range holds up against the market? Let's talk. We'll tell you what we see get signed for that type of profile, before you publish the job ad.
FAQ
What is the median tech salary in France in 2026?
Across the 69 permanent placements Bluecoders signed between August 2025 and August 2026, the median gross annual salary stands at €65,000. This figure reflects our scope, tech and engineering roles entrusted to a specialist agency, not the French market as a whole. For comparison, the Apec puts the median compensation of managerial and professional staff in post at €55,000 in its study across 111 job families published in December 2025.
How much does a developer earn in 2026?
On our placements, the Software Engineering family, which accounts for 27 of 69 placements, shows a median of €60,000 gross annual. A quarter of placements fall below €52,000, a quarter above €72,000, and the highest salary observed in this family is €92,000.
Does an AI engineer earn more than a developer?
Not systematically, and it's the most surprising result in our benchmark. The Data, AI and ML family shows a median of €62,000, very close to development's €60,000. But its spread is much wider: the third quartile reaches €105,000 and the maximum €150,000. In other words, the job title says nothing about the compensation level in this family, skill scarcity says everything.
What salary should you offer to hire a technical manager?
On our placements, Manager roles show a median of €80,000 gross annual, against €65,000 for a Lead and €60,000 for an individual contributor role. The Technical leadership and management family, which groups leadership roles, comes out at a €90,000 median, with a first quartile already at €76,000 and no placement below €75,000.
At what level does a tech role reach €100,000?
Three-figure salaries remain the exception in our benchmark. They concern technical leadership, whose third quartile stands at €105,000 and maximum at €180,000, as well as breakout Data and AI profiles, which climb as high as €150,000. For most of the roles we recruit, the market plays out between €55,000 and €80,000.
Does remote work lower an engineer's salary?
Across our 69 placements, remote roles show a median of €60,000 against €65,000 for on-site or hybrid roles. The remote sample is small, 13 placements, and it doesn't cover the same types of roles: technical leadership and industrial roles are rarely fully remote. We therefore don't observe a remote premium, without being able to claim there's a discount.
What data does this salary benchmark rest on?
On our internal deal-tracking tool, which produced 72 lines over the period August 2025 to August 2026. After removing one freelance assignment and one line with an invalid amount, 69 permanent placements have a documented and verifiable salary. The amount used corresponds to the gross annual package, fixed plus variable. Every line corresponds to a signed contract, not a candidate's self-report or a job-ad range.
What are the limits of this benchmark?
They're real and we show them. The sample is small, 69 placements, which rules out drawing conclusions about the French market as a whole. Since the variable portion is documented for only 16 placements, it isn't published separately. Job families are reconstructed from job titles, and rows with fewer than three placements have been removed from the tables. Finally, the breakdowns by family and by sector cover 67 of the 69 placements.