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Home / Compensation / Jane Street / Software Engineer
Total compensation for a Jane Street Software Engineer ranges from about $375K at the entry level to $3.5M+ at the most senior bands, with a typical mid-level package around $1.1M. Below is the full breakdown by level - base salary, annual equity, and bonus - from public-source data.
Public-source estimates (Beta). Last updated 2026-06. Figures are annualized USD.
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| Level | Years | Base (p50) | Equity/yr (p50) | Bonus (p50) | Total (p25-p90) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New GradSoftware Engineer (New Grad) | 0-2 YOE | $225K | $2K | $225K | $375K - $685K |
| MidSoftware Engineer | 2-5 YOE | $275K | $5K | $425K | $550K - $1.2M |
| SeniorSenior Software Engineer | 5-9 YOE | $325K | $5K | $750K | $800K - $2.0M |
| LeadLead Software Engineer (Staff-equivalent) | 8+ YOE | $400K | $10K | $1.3M | $1.2M - $3.5M |
The highest new-grad offers in the dataset. First-year bonus is partially guaranteed; OCaml fluency is not required at offer time but the functional-programming interview bar is unusually high.
Bonus becomes the dominant component within 2-3 years. Year-to-year variance is real - a weak firm year compresses everyone's number regardless of individual performance.
Senior IC. Jane Street has no formal level ladder - seniority is informal and comp is set desk-by-desk. Engineers close to trading P&L out-earn platform engineers at the same tenure.
Staff-equivalent. At this tenure, comp is effectively a profit share negotiated individually. External hires at this level are rare - Jane Street strongly prefers growing seniors internally.
The entry level for a Jane Street Software Engineer in this dataset is New Grad - Software Engineer (New Grad) (0-2 YOE). Median total compensation is $450K, with the 25th-90th percentile at $375K-$685K; the median package is $225K base, $225K bonus, $2K equity a year.
These are the highest new-grad offers in this dataset. The first-year bonus is partially guaranteed. OCaml fluency is not required at offer time, but the functional-programming bar in the interview is unusually high. This dataset has no separate signing-bonus figure for Jane Street.
The median annual bonus for a Jane Street Software Engineer runs from $225K at New Grad to $1.3M at Lead, which is 50% of the median package at New Grad and 76% at Lead. Cash (base plus bonus) is 100% of the median package at New Grad and 99% at Lead.
There is no equity and no formal level ladder. Pay is base salary plus a discretionary bonus tied to firm-wide and desk performance, and the bonus becomes the largest part of pay within the first few years. A weak firm year compresses everyone's number regardless of individual performance; engineers close to trading out-earn platform engineers at the same tenure.
| Level | Bonus (p50) | Bonus share of package | Cash share (base + bonus) |
|---|---|---|---|
| New GradSoftware Engineer (New Grad) | $225K | 50% | 100% |
| MidSoftware Engineer | $425K | 60% | 99% |
| SeniorSenior Software Engineer | $750K | 69% | 100% |
| LeadLead Software Engineer (Staff-equivalent) | $1.3M | 76% | 99% |
| Promotion | Median before | Median after | Step |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Grad → Mid | $450K | $705K | +57% |
| Mid → Senior | $705K | $1.1M | +53% |
| Senior → Lead | $1.1M | $1.7M | +58% |
Jane Street Software Engineer total compensation runs $375K-$3.5M across 4 levels, from New Grad to Lead. The middle level, Senior - Senior Software Engineer, has a median of $1.1M.
The entry level for a Jane Street Software Engineer in this dataset is New Grad - Software Engineer (New Grad) (0-2 YOE). Median total compensation is $450K, with the 25th-90th percentile at $375K-$685K; the median package is $225K base, $225K bonus, $2K equity a year. The first-year bonus is partially guaranteed; this dataset has no separate signing-bonus figure.
The median annual bonus for a Jane Street Software Engineer runs from $225K at New Grad to $1.3M at Lead, which is 50% of the median package at New Grad and 76% at Lead. Cash (base plus bonus) is 100% of the median package at New Grad and 99% at Lead. The bonus is discretionary and tied to firm-wide and desk performance; there is no equity.
Jane Street Software Engineer levels and median total compensation - New Grad - Software Engineer (New Grad): $450K; Mid - Software Engineer: $705K; Senior - Senior Software Engineer: $1.1M; Lead - Lead Software Engineer (Staff-equivalent): $1.7M. Not formally: seniority is informal and pay is set desk by desk, so these level names are descriptive.
Jane Street's loop is mental math, probability puzzles and coding phone screens, then a trading game and a coding deep dive onsite. The prep pack walks through each round.
Jane Street Software Engineer prep pack7 rounds. 6 of them can be practised here - each one below links the rep that trains it.
Recruiter screen
30 minutes. Background, motivation alignment - Jane Street's training-heavy culture is a real fit question, especially for experienced engineers who'd be expected to learn OCaml from scratch. Recruiters screen for aptitude signals (math/puzzle background, prior functional programming exposure) and motivation to work in trading specifically.
Phone screen: mental math
30-45 minutes. Mental arithmetic under time pressure with the interviewer watching - multi-digit multiplication, division, percentages, sometimes more involved estimation problems. Jane Street is famous for this round. Speed and accuracy both matter; 'I'm not a math person' is not a viable response. Practice for weeks before the loop.
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Phone screen: probability and puzzles
45-60 minutes. Probability puzzles, often game-theoretic or multi-step. Common shapes: expected-value problems, Bayesian updating, optimal stopping, game-theoretic reasoning where you and an opponent both play optimally. The interviewer cares more about how explicitly you state assumptions and how you reason than about whether you arrive at the textbook answer quickly.
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Phone screen: coding
60 minutes. One coding problem in your language of choice - typically Python or C++ for external candidates. Cleanliness and explicit structure matter more than algorithmic cleverness. Jane Street weights code that other engineers could read and modify; clever one-liners score worse than well-structured straightforward code.
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Onsite: trading game
60 minutes. A mock trading exercise - the interviewer plays the market, you make trades based on partial information, and the round probes how you update beliefs as new information arrives. There is no 'right answer' - the round is about reasoning under uncertainty in real time, comfort with being wrong and updating, and ability to explain your strategy as you go.
Free rep: What this round looks for →Onsite: coding deep dive
60-90 minutes. A more involved coding exercise, sometimes building a small system end-to-end with the interviewer asking follow-up questions about design choices, edge cases, and how you'd extend the code. For external candidates with OCaml experience, this round may use OCaml; for everyone else, language is flexible.
Free rep: Coding challenges with a real sandbox →Onsite: behavioral / fit
45-60 minutes. Lighter than at most companies. Background, motivation for working at Jane Street specifically (the firm cares about this - engineers who treat Jane Street as 'just another job' don't fit), how you learn new things, examples of times you reasoned through hard problems. Generic 'tell me about a time you led a team' answers are less central here than at Amazon-style loops.
Free rep: STAR answers: Dive Deep (Amazon Leadership Principle) →The full Jane Street prep pack → what they value, topic emphasis, and the questions candidates ask.
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