Update: for 2016 salaries and forward check out our dynamic salary guide:

www.TechSalaryCalculator.com by JobsBCN

“What is the salary for a Ruby on Rails guy in Barcelona?”

Software Engineers and HRs keep asking us questions like this over and over. At JobsBCN we have some salary numbers so maybe it’s time now to shed some light on the issue.

Salaries are related to a specific location and time. To make this guide we’ve used salary information gathered from Barcelona tech Startup job openings listed in JobsBCN from June to October’2015. Please remember that consultancy companies and banks are out of the scope of this guide. However, since we are talking about the same market, salaries might correlate.

Before we start, let me state this clear: Salary is not everything, specially if you work in a Startup. We love startups and if there weren’t people working for much less than what they should be paid, most Startups would simply not exist. The first years for most companies are quite difficult money wise. So, you shouldn’t just follow the money if you choose a startup which is not VC or Angel backed. You might be just learning, helping someone, or working for a stake in the future company.

So, let’s start with the salary guide…

FrontEnd Web Developer:

Dedicated to develop the part of the website that users see and interact with. In other words, the Frontend developer is responsible to put a facade on the Backend work. The most demanded developers are the ones who dominate the underlying technology but are also able to design web interfaces.

Most used technologies: JavaScript, JQuery, AngularJS, HTML/CSS, Grunt, BackboneJS, Less, Bootstrap, ReactJS, Gulp.

28.000€ – 36.000€ (Highest salary tops at 50.000€)

-> See offers

Backend Developer:

In charge of designing the “unseen part” of the web or video game, they develop the server-side and build the databases.

Most used technolgies: Node.js, Symfony, Ruby on Rails, Python, Java, PHP, JavaScript, Redis, MySQL, MongoDB, ElasticSearch.

26.000€ – 41.000€ (Highest salary tops at 70.000€)

-> See offers

Full-Stack Developer:

Fullstack Developers offer the full package. An extensive experience has given them the ability to make the work of a Backend, Frontend, and sometimes even DevOps, all in the same person; therefore they have a knowledge of the underlying technologies used by those profiles.

Most used technologies: BackboneJS, Node.js, AngularJS, HTML/CSS, Ruby on Rails, Symfony, MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Laravel, JavaScript.

26.000€ – 37.000€ (Highest salary tops at 50.000€)

-> See offers

Mobile Developer:

Is responsible for development of native mobile applications.

Most used technologies: iOS, Android, Objective-C, Java, Cocoa, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Swift, Core Data, Phonegap.

24.000€ – 36.000€ (Highest salary tops at 50.000€)

-> See offers

Software Engineer (Game developer, Network dev, and others):

We classify under this role/category all job offers that don’t have their own category. This category can fit a CTO (Chief Technology Officer), an Engineer specialized in computer vision techniques, a game developer in C++, an artificial intelligence developer, a systems architect, technical product owners, etc.

Most used technologies: C++, Java, Unity3D, MySQL, Scala, Python, iOS, Android, OpenGL.

37.000€ – 48.000€ (Highest salary tops at 60.000€)

-> See offers

Data Engineer (Data Scientists, Big Data Engineers and DBAs):

On one hand, they are related with the Data Science professionals, who are the ones who extract data from unstructured sources. Those profiles have a high analysis abilities, so they might hold a degree in computer science, but can also be mathematicians or physicists. On the other hand, Data Engineers are also related to Big Data Engineers, who are professionals with the knowledge of the architecture needed to implement data models in Big Data environments. There are also hybrid profiles, a mixture both, the Data Scientists and Big Data Engineers.

Most used technologies: SQL, Hadoop, Python, R, Hive, Java, Spark, QlikView, Storm, Tableau

Salary tops at 38.000 € (Not enough data to show salary range for Data Engineers. Please, don’t take this number too seriously.)

-> See offers

DevOps:

This role has superseded the System Administrator (sysAdmin) who was responsible for the proper operation of the technological infrastructure of the startup. The devOps is the same as a sysAdmin plus a bit of development to automate tasks.

Most used technologies: Docker, Puppet, Chef, Linux, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Python , Ansible, MySQL, Nginx, ElasticSearch, VMWARE.

Salary tops at 36.000€ (Not enough data to show salary range for DevOps. Please, don’t take this number too seriously.)

-> See offers

Quality Assurance:

Also known as QA. This profile is specialized in the testing of applications. We can include Game Testers in this field too.

Most used technologies: Selenium, Cucumber, Java, Python, JavaScript, JMeter, Calabash, Android, Watir, Appium.

Salary tops at 45.000€ (Not enough data to show salary range QAs. Please, don’t take this number too seriously.)

-> See offers

Do you feel like you need a rise? Check our Guide to salary negotiation for developers (in Spanish only)

Not finding your role/category? Check our post explaining the different technical roles

Note: All salaries listed here are gross salaries. What the employee finally gets depends on taxes and social security in a non linear way. For example: 24.000€ gross turns out to be 19.000€ net salary for the employee, whereas 60.000€ gross turns into a net 42.000€. As for the cost for the company you can use a rule of thumb: cost for the employeer is gross salary multiplied by 1,35.