Software Developers salary in Cleveland, Ohio

About 8,930 Software Developers worked in the Cleveland metro in 2024, making it a meaningful local market for the role. The median annual wage was $102,790, sitting roughly 4.5% below the Ohio median of $107,690 and about 26% below the national median of $138,520. Both gaps are worth understanding before reading the numbers at face value.

The spread within Cleveland tells a more complicated story. A developer at the 10th percentile earned $67,660, while one at the 90th earned $163,100. Top earners made about 2.4 times what those at the bottom of the range made. That kind of range usually reflects real differences in seniority, sub-specialty, and the type of employer: a junior developer at a regional manufacturer and a senior engineer at a financial services firm both show up in these figures.

The average wage of $111,710 runs about $8,900 above the median. That gap suggests a smaller group of higher-paid developers pulls the average up, which is typical in markets where a handful of large employers pay well above the going rate for the role.

Cleveland pays below Columbus and Cincinnati when compared against Ohio's overall state figure, though the 4.5% gap is narrower than the state-to-national gap would suggest. The city lands well below coastal tech centers, but the cost of doing business in northeast Ohio is also lower, something these figures do not capture on their own.