When it comes to jobs in tech, your natural instinct might be to look to Silicon Valley, the birthplace of many of today’s tech giants. And while San Jose, the largest city in Silicon Valley, tops many charts on tech offerings, along with nearby San Francisco and its own thriving tech scene, there are plenty of tech jobs available in cities across the US.
1. New York
The east coast counterpart to Silicon Valley, New York bears the nickname “Silicon Alley” for its own rich ecosystem of major tech players and burgeoning start-ups.
New York was among the highest-ranked US cities for tech jobs in a recent report from CloudZero, which found that the average tech salary here is the highest of all cities analyzed at over $147,000. However, workers should consider that as much as a third of that salary could be covering the higher rental costs in this city — one of the highest percentages in its analysis.
CloudZero recorded more than 5,000 tech jobs available in New York and more than 7,000 tech businesses based here. At this scale, roles in tech offer a lot of variety. Companies currently hiring tech roles in New York include creative software company Adobe, CRM software giant Salesforce, ticketing platform StubHub, payroll software provider Justworks and top media and analysis brand Bloomberg.
2. Dallas
Another US city making the CloudZero ranking is Dallas, which lands in fourth place overall thanks to a tech jobs market measuring more than 3,000 roles available and an average tech salary of more than $122,000.
The Dallas tech ecosystem might be smaller than New York and other US hubs, with just over 1,500 businesses located here, but where workers may have less choice of employer they will have more favorable living arrangements thanks to much lower rent and cost of living.
With bases across the US, Salesforce is also a major employer here, along with Amazon Web Services (AWS), the company that underpins much of our daily web activity. OpenText, one of Canada’s largest software companies, also has a base here, while plenty of big businesses beyond the tech sector are recruiting in Dallas for tech talent, such as Goldman Sachs.
3. Austin
Another Texas city that’s top for tech jobs is Austin. The home of SXSW has become an attractive spot for large tech players and new start-ups on the scene for some time now, resulting in about 66 per 1,000 employees in the city working in tech, according to a 2023 report from Indeed.
Average tech salaries in Austin are lower than the other cities on this list at about $97,000, but database architects can earn an average salary of over $139,000 according to Indeed’s estimates.
OpenText has roles available here, along with a swathe of household names in tech, including PayPal, Oracle, IBM and Electronic Arts (EA). And some of the roles available now are offering way above the average tech salary in Austin, such as this full stack software development role at IBM pitched at $102,000 per year, this engineering role on EA’s hit game The Sims which will offer up to $141,800 a year for the right candidate, or this senior software development role at financial services firm Charles Schwab offering a salary of up to $246,800.
4. Seattle
Seattle and the broader Washington state house the headquarters of some of the largest companies in the world, meaning a variety of roles from entry-level to executive populate the jobs market here.
According to Indeed, Seattle has one of the highest concentrations of tech workers in the Pacific Northwest, with 83.78 per 1,000 of its population working in the sector. Seattle also offers a generous average salary for tech workers at almost $130,000.
There’s so much on offer in Seattle that tech workers can really pick and choose, from homegrown tech veterans such as Dell Technologies to new global game-changers such as ByteDance. Oracle, AWS, Salesforce and EA are all recruiting in Seattle too, while jobs in fintech are available with international players such as FIS Global and Mastercard.
5. Boulder
Across the entire US, Boulder, Colorado has the fourth-highest concentration of tech workers, according to Indeed. The city is favored by tech workers, entrepreneurs and investors who want to be part of a tech hub with less of the big city hustle and bustle and a connection to the great outdoors.
Boulder is said to have a thriving community spirit, with many tech hires working to develop services and facilities to improve life for the city’s residents thanks to roles available in transport, civil service and environmental innovation.
Tech salaries in Boulder have an average of about $109,000. Companies seeking tech talent in the city at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains include US-headquartered marketing automation player The Trade Desk, long-standing Japanese electronics multinational Ricoh and German multinational software giant SAP.