Software Developers salary in Richmond, Virginia

About 6,990 Software Developers work in the Richmond metro, and the 2024 median annual wage came in at $130,760. That sits roughly 3% below the Virginia median of $134,470 and about 6% below the national figure of $138,520. Richmond is not the highest-paying market in the state, but the gap is smaller than the raw numbers suggest when you consider the area's lower housing and commuting costs compared to Northern Virginia.

The spread between bottom and top earners is wide. Developers at the 10th percentile earned around $74,960, while those at the 90th percentile reached $190,430. Top earners here make about 2.5 times what entry-level peers make, which reflects how much experience and specialization move the needle in this occupation. The difference between a junior developer and a senior architect, or between a generalist and someone deep in cloud infrastructure or cybersecurity, is large enough to show up clearly in the numbers.

The mean wage of $131,430 tracks very close to the median. When those two figures sit near each other, it usually means the distribution is fairly even across experience levels, without a small group of very high earners pulling the average up. By comparison, Virginia's mean of $142,230 sits about $7,700 above its own median, which points to more concentration of senior-level roles elsewhere in the state, particularly in the DC suburbs.

Richmond's 6,990-person base makes it a moderately sized market for this occupation. It is not a tech hub at the scale of the Northern Virginia corridor, but employment at that level supports a functioning local hiring market with steady demand across finance, healthcare, government contracting, and insurance, which are the industries that drive most of Richmond's white-collar employment.