LinkedIn Software Engineer Levels Explained: IC1 to IC8 and What They Pay

LinkedIn software engineer levels run from IC1 to IC8. IC stands for individual contributor, which means an engineer who builds software rather than managing people.

The titles are what you see in a job posting. IC2 is Software Engineer, IC3 is Senior Software Engineer, IC4 is Staff Software Engineer, and above those sit Senior Staff, Principal Staff, Distinguished Engineer, and Technical Fellow.

Two things surprise people. Almost nobody is hired at IC1, because that level belongs to LinkedIn's apprenticeship program. And three levels carry the word Staff, so a Staff Software Engineer and a Principal Staff Software Engineer are two promotions apart.

This guide covers what each level owns, what it pays, and why the numbers are not Microsoft's.

LinkedIn Levels in One Table

LinkedIn does not publish a level matrix. The IC numbers are levels.fyi ordering, the titles come from LinkedIn job postings, and the years come from reported offers. The equivalence column is contested, which the comparison section below explains.

Why LinkedIn Engineers Start at IC2, Not IC1

IC1 exists, but it is not a graduate level. It belongs to REACH, which is LinkedIn's engineering apprenticeship for people from non-technical backgrounds: bootcamp graduates, self-taught engineers, veterans, teachers, and people returning to work after a break. An apprenticeship runs at least one year, and apprentices are full-time employees with benefits.

The practical effect: a new graduate hired through the normal process is an IC2. The same note appears on levels.fyi, where the first LinkedIn level maps to the apprenticeship and ordinary new graduates enter at the second.

IC2: Software Engineer

IC2 is LinkedIn's main entry level, and the band is wide. It covers a new graduate in their first month and an engineer with four years of experience.

An IC2 builds features inside a defined area, with the larger design decisions made or reviewed by someone more senior. They also take their share of on-call, which means being the person contacted when a service breaks. Reported time at IC2 before promotion is two to three years.

LinkedIn has no mid-level title. There is no Software Engineer II, so an engineer who would be an SDE II at Amazon is simply a Software Engineer here.

IC3: Senior Software Engineer

IC3 is Senior Software Engineer, the level most LinkedIn engineers hold.

An IC3 owns a system or a service end to end: how it is built, the design document, and the production consequences. The difference from IC2 is scope rather than coding skill, because an IC2 owns features inside a system while an IC3 owns the system.

LinkedIn hires experienced candidates directly into IC3, and the design round is where most of the level decision happens. Our answer on what to expect in the LinkedIn system design interview covers those rounds.

IC3 is reported as LinkedIn's terminal level. A terminal level is one you can hold for an entire career with no pressure to be promoted, and candidate reports describe no up or out expectation here. Experience at IC3 runs from about three years to well past ten.

IC4: Staff Software Engineer

IC4 is Staff Software Engineer, the first level where most of the work sits outside your own team.

An IC4 sets technical direction for an area that several teams depend on, such as a shared platform, the feed serving path, or the graph infrastructure. They answer for outcomes that take more than a year to appear.

The step from IC3 to IC4 is the hardest common promotion at LinkedIn. Strong individual delivery is no longer sufficient, and you need a record of work that changed what other teams did. Most IC4 engineers have eight or more years of experience, and LinkedIn posts the level publicly with a specialization attached, such as Staff Software Engineer, Machine Learning.

Loops at IC3 and above put most of the weight on system design rather than on coding puzzles. Practicing complete designs out loud is the highest value preparation for a senior or staff loop.

IC5: Senior Staff Software Engineer

IC5 is Senior Staff Software Engineer. The title keeps the word Staff, and the scope grows from one area to several.

An IC5 owns technical strategy across an organization, settles disagreements between staff engineers, and decides which of several competing designs the company builds. Reported experience runs from ten to eighteen years, and external hires usually come in having led work at that scope somewhere else.

IC6: Principal Staff Software Engineer

IC6 is Principal Staff Software Engineer, the third and last title with Staff in it.

An IC6 sets direction for a major part of LinkedIn technology, such as search, the recommendation systems, or the data platform. LinkedIn does post IC6 roles publicly, including positions in development infrastructure, so this is a level you can be hired into and not only promoted into.

IC7 and IC8: Distinguished Engineer and Technical Fellow

IC7 is Distinguished Engineer and IC8 is Technical Fellow. Both are very small groups, and neither has a promotion timeline, because these levels are given by nomination rather than earned on a cycle.

A Distinguished Engineer shapes the technical direction of the whole company while remaining an individual contributor. Technical Fellow is the highest technical position at LinkedIn.

How LinkedIn Pay Works

LinkedIn pay has three parts: base salary, an annual cash bonus, and stock. Stock is what changes the picture between levels.

Those are United States medians reported to levels.fyi, drawn from more than three thousand submissions. The figures from IC5 upward rest on very few reports, so read them as a shape rather than a number. Pay roughly doubles between IC3 and IC4, and again between IC4 and IC5, driven almost entirely by the stock grant.

The stock is Microsoft stock. LinkedIn grants restricted stock units, which are shares that become yours on a schedule rather than at once. According to levels.fyi, the schedule is 25 percent at the one year point, then 6.25 percent every quarter for the remaining three years. That one year point is a cliff, which means nothing becomes yours before it. Check levels.fyi for current figures before any offer conversation.

How LinkedIn Levels Relate to Microsoft Levels

Microsoft owns LinkedIn. It bought the company for $26.2 billion, and LinkedIn has run as a separate subsidiary since, with its own brand, its own leadership, and its own level system.

LinkedIn does not use Microsoft's numbers. Microsoft levels its engineers on a company-wide numeric scale that begins at 59 and reaches 80 for a Technical Fellow, which Microsoft software engineer levels explains in full. LinkedIn uses titles instead, and the IC numbers that compensation sites print are an ordering rather than an internal Microsoft band.

LinkedIn equity is Microsoft stock, and that is the only part of pay the two companies share. By scope, a rough pairing puts LinkedIn IC3 with Microsoft 63, IC4 with Microsoft 64 or 65, and IC5 with Microsoft 65 or 66. Neither company publishes that mapping, so use it to set expectations and not to argue a level.

How LinkedIn Levels Compare to Google, Meta, and Amazon

The LinkedIn rows overlap on purpose, because the titles and the reported offers disagree.

On Blind, engineers who interviewed at both describe LinkedIn titles as reaching Staff sooner than Google reaches L6. In one thread, commenters placed LinkedIn Senior Staff at Google L6 or Meta E6 rather than L7, and described LinkedIn Staff engineers as covering everything from L4 to L6 scope.

Pay sits between the two readings. LinkedIn IC3 reports near 296K, below the Google L5 median, while IC4 reports near 459K, close to Google L6. So the title tells you less than the scope does.

For the full five-company comparison, see the FAANG software engineer levels guide.

How to Avoid Being Down-Leveled at LinkedIn

Down-leveled means receiving an offer one level below the one you targeted. It happens often here, because IC2 is a wide band and IC3 is where most engineers already sit.

Ask the recruiter which level the loop is calibrated for before the interviews are scheduled. Interviewers are told which level they are assessing, so a loop set for IC2 will rarely produce an IC3 offer. In the interviews, describe ownership rather than contribution. Our answer on the LinkedIn interview process lists the rounds, and the top LinkedIn behavioral interview questions covers the non-technical ones.

Frequently asked questions

What is IC3 at LinkedIn? IC3 is Senior Software Engineer, the level most LinkedIn engineers hold. An IC3 owns a system end to end and sets its technical direction. Reported median total pay in the United States is around $296K.

What level is Staff Software Engineer at LinkedIn? IC4, the first level where the work is mostly outside your own team. Most IC4 engineers have eight or more years of experience, reported median total pay is around $459K, and the step up from IC3 is the hardest common promotion at the company.

How many levels does LinkedIn have for software engineers? Eight, from IC1 to IC8. Pay is reported on levels.fyi for seven of them, because Technical Fellow at IC8 has no reported figures. Hiring in practice happens between IC2 and IC6.

What is the terminal level at LinkedIn? Senior Software Engineer, which is IC3. A terminal level is one you can hold for a whole career with no promotion pressure, and candidate reports describe no up or out expectation there.

Does LinkedIn use Microsoft levels like 59 to 65? No. Microsoft owns LinkedIn, but LinkedIn keeps its own titles and its own level system. The one shared part is the equity, because LinkedIn stock grants are Microsoft shares.

Does LinkedIn have a mid-level engineer title? No. There is no Software Engineer II, so the IC2 band covers both new graduates and engineers with a few years of experience. The senior title therefore comes earlier at LinkedIn than the matching number does at Google.

Is LinkedIn Senior Software Engineer the same as Google L5? Not reliably. Reported offers place LinkedIn IC3 between Google L4 and L5, and pay data puts it below the Google L5 median. Compare the scope you owned rather than the two titles.

If you are heading into an offer conversation, Grokking Tech Salary Negotiations covers the scripts for level and compensation negotiation.

Related reading

• FAANG Software Engineer Levels Explained
• Microsoft Software Engineer Levels Explained
• Google Software Engineer Levels Explained
• Meta Software Engineer Levels Explained
• Top 20 Coding Questions to Pass the LinkedIn Interview
• Salary Negotiation for Software Engineers