Distinguished Engineer, H-1B salary
What 191 H-1B filings report for “Distinguished Engineer” (LCA, FY2017–2026): pay percentiles, the states paying most, and who files.
What is the H-1B salary for a Distinguished Engineer?
$209k median H-1B base salary for a Distinguished Engineer, typically $141k to $308k, across 191 H-1B LCA filings with the U.S. Department of Labor (FY2017 to FY2026). Highest in California at $260k median.
Median pay & filings over time · H-1B · FY2017–2026*
Top-paying states
Median for this title · ≥20 filings
- 1California74$260k+$51k
- 2Texas31$181k−$28k
- 3Virginia34$165k−$44k
Where the pay sits state by state, against the national $209kfor the same title. States with at least 20 filings, so a median is not built on a handful of rows.
Which companies sponsor H-1B for a Distinguished Engineer?
The employers that file the most H-1B labor condition applications for Distinguished Engineer roles are Capital One, Nvidia, and Cisco, based on their U.S. Department of Labor (LCA) filings. Open any for its full Distinguished Engineer filing history, pay, and open roles.
Top employers for this title
Most H-1B filings · with each employer’s median for the role
- 1Capital One57 filings$165k
- 2Nvidia10 filings$308k
- 3Cisco8 filings$243k
- 4Citizens Financial Group6 filings$168k
- 5Palo Alto Networks6 filings$280k
- 6Dell6 filings$229k
- 7Publicis Sapient5 filings$160k
- 8Uber5 filings$353k
- 9Extreme Networks4 filings$229k
- 10Cadence3 filings$243k
- 11GoDaddy3 filings$230k
- 12Intuit3 filings$240k
- 13Medtronic3 filings$141k
- 14Nagarro3 filings$126k
- 15SonicWall3 filings$205k
- 16Wawa3 filings$205k
- 17CommVault Systems3 filings$220k
- 18IBM3 filings$189k
- 19BlackBerry2 filings$172k
- 20FBG Enterprises Opco2 filings$326k
- 21GEICO2 filings$300k
- 22Home Depot2 filings$242k
- 23Pensando Systems2 filings$325k
- 24Pitney Bowes2 filings$151k
- 25Rorze Automation2 filings$179k
- 26Rubrik2 filings$275k
- 27Zuora2 filings$267k
- 28Foursquare2 filings$384k
- 29Q2 Software2 filings$191k
- 30SolarWinds2 filings$265k
- 31Apple1 filings$350k
- 32Autodesk1 filings$170k
- 33Avis Budget Group1 filings$190k
- 34Blackhawk Network1 filings$194k
- 35Citrix Systems1 filings$220k
- 36CVS Health1 filings$234k
- 37Coinme Inc.1 filings$230k
- 38Credo1 filings$260k
- 39Egnyte1 filings$203k
- 40Genpact1 filings$191k
- 41Fungible1 filings$240k
- 42Indeed1 filings$196k
- 43Michaels1 filings$263k
- 44Magnite1 filings$270k
- 45Nike1 filings$285k
- 46Nutanix1 filings$376k
- 47Offchain Labs1 filings$300k
- 48Ordr1 filings$195k
- 49priceline.com1 filings$139k
- 50PredictSpring1 filings$260k
Related titles in this family
277 filings carry “Distinguished Engineer” in the title, across 49 variants. Pay differs by variant, so each is listed with its own median.
- 1Associate Distinguished Engineer13 filings$132k
- 2Distinguished Engineer Software7 filings$236k
- 3Distinguished Engineer - Sw4 filings$189k
- 4Senior Distinguished Engineer4 filings$233k
- 5Distinguished Engineer-Full Stack3 filings$158k
- 6Distinguished Engineer I - Data3 filings$165k
- 7Distinguished Engineer (Principal Software Engineer)3 filings$234k
- 8Distinguished Engineer-Software Development3 filings$183k
- 9Distinguished Engineer, System Architecture3 filings$192k
- 10Distinguished Engineer-Architecture/Infrastructure2 filings$156k
- 11Distinguished Engineer - Commerce, Data, & Cloud Platforms2 filings$195k
- 12Distinguished Engineer - Product Lead/Architect2 filings$107k
Figures are for the exact title “Distinguished Engineer”; for a rare title we widen to the closest related titles (flagged above when that happens). To benchmark a specific offer by employer and state, use Salary Check.