Remote Software Engineer Salary in South Africa

How much do remote developers in South Africa expect to make? $68,956 per year on average (based on self-reported data).

This estimated average salary is based on the expected salaries of Arc Developers in that location. Remote software engineer salaries in South Africa are amongst the highest for Africa. Below are some things to consider when hiring developers based in this location or building your next engineering hub.

$68,956USD
Avg. Developer Salary
$64,309USD
Avg. Senior Developer Salary

Established Companies in South Africa

Here are some notable companies with engineering hubs or engineering teams in this location.

GE remote branch in South Africa
GE
Stellenbosch, South Africa
Amazon remote branch in South Africa
AmazonSource
Cape Town, South Africa
Oracle remote branch in South Africa
Oracle
Cape Town, South Africa
Konga remote branch in South Africa
KongaSource
Cape Town, South Africa
Luno remote branch in South Africa
LunoSource
Johannesburg, South Africa

Salary breakdown by expertise

Use the dropdown to compare software engineer salaries in South Africa with another location.

Compare with:
Kenya
South Africa remote developer salarySouth Africa
Front-end Developer
$65,354
$48,074
Back-end Developer
$69,772
$53,708
Data Scientist
$69,999
$54,332
App Developer
$66,834
$48,578
DevOps Engineer
$74,395
$57,399

English Proficiency in South Africa

very high
#6
Ranking out of 100 locations/regionsLearn more
Proficiency
very high
high
moderate
low
very low

About software engineer salary in South Africa

Work with great developers — who just happen to be outside your zip code.We built this tool to help you understand how much remote developers expect to be paid annually across different countries around the world. Software engineer salary in South Africa are calculated using self-reported data from remote developers based in South Africa, and may not be representative of local salaries.Learn More

The salary data is based on the expected salary of over 300,000 remote developers in Arc's network. Developers provide us with their expected salary after passing our comprehensive vetting process (click here to learn more about Arc’s vetting process).

In addition to software development experience, our research indicates two other major factors that affect salary expectations:

・Local rent and cost of living.
・English ability (in countries where English is not the primary language, developers with a good command of English can often charge a premium compared to local rates).

In addition to providing a base salary, organizations may offer remote developers a more comprehensive package when hired long-term. This package may include benefits such as health insurance, equipment stipends, cash bonuses for high performance, company equity, etc. (For more information on benefits frequently offered to remote developers, click here.)

Hire remote developers in South Africa with Arc

Tich Z. - developer in South Africa
Tich Z.

I have over 6 years of experience working with JavaScript, including modern ES6+ syntax such as arrow functions, promises, async/await, closures, and event delegation. For front-end development, I have expertise in React.js (React Router, Redux, Context API), Vue, jQuery, and TailwindCSS for styling. On the backend, I have utilized Node.js and Express.js to build features like authentication and authorization. I also have a strong grasp of TypeScript. I focus on improving JavaScript applications with static types, setting up configurations, debugging type errors, and designing interfaces for enhanced type safety. For distributed systems, I have implemented microservices architectures with inter-service communication via HTTP/REST and employed load-balancing techniques. My cloud experience primarily involves AWS services, including EC2 and Lambda, and basic CI/CD setups using GitHub Actions. Additionally, I have used Docker for containerizing React and Node.js applications, Redis for caching to reduce API load times, and GraphQL for efficient data fetching In testing, I am skilled in writing unit tests and performing integration tests. You can review some of my work on my \[GitHub profile\](https://github.com/tichzvidzayi).

Adekunle U. - developer in South Africa
Adekunle U.

I am an accomplished Big Data Architect with over 15 years of progressive experience efficiently managing research, statistics and software engineering solutions for blue-chip environments, including global telecommunications, banking, manufacturing, healthcare and research institutions. I provide essential leadership in implementing Big Data infrastructure, configuration and testing technology to improve business performance. My skills include developing and executing effective business performance and data warehousing strategies and leading top-performing teams that consistently achieve and exceed even the most challenging targets.

langton M. - developer in South Africa
langton M.

I am a Senior AWS Data Engineer with expertise in Big Data, NoSQL, databases, programming, cloud services, and tools. I have led successful projects in data engineering and machine learning.

Salary reports by technologies

Now that you know the software engineer salaries in South Africa, take a look at developers’ salary expectations based on the technologies they’re experienced in.

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