EDA Pay, Compared Level for Level: Cadence Leads at Every Rung — Entry $134K vs $92.6K, Senior $181K vs $154K

Silicon Levels #1 (revised 2026-10-22). The conclusion first: level names differ by company, so this article compares career rungs, not names. Rung for rung, Cadence is above Synopsys at every published rung — Entry $134,000 vs $92,600, Senior rung $181,000 vs $154,000, Staff rung $210,000 vs $190,000 (Levels.fyi, US software engineer median total compensation). Siemens EDA has no Levels.fyi page, so it is excluded from the total-comp comparison and appears only in the H-1B base-pay and same-title comparisons that can include all three companies. Every number was checked on October 21, 2026, against Levels.fyi and US Department of Labor H-1B filings, and numbers measured on different bases are never mixed.

30-Second Summary

• The comparison rule changed first. Putting a Senior and a Principal on one line is not a comparison, however precise the numbers. This article publishes its rung mapping (Entry / Mid / Senior / Staff / Principal) up front and compares only within a rung.
• Entry rung: Cadence $134,000, Synopsys $92,600 — a gap of $41,400.
• Senior rung: Cadence Lead $181,000, Synopsys Senior I $154,000.
• Staff rung: Cadence Principal $210,000, Synopsys Senior II $190,000. The Principal rung (fifth and above) has no public values at either company and is not compared.
• Multipliers (in-company, arrival rung labeled): Synopsys Entry→Senior 1.66x, Entry→Staff 2.05x. Cadence Entry→Senior 1.35x, Entry→Staff 1.57x. Big Tech's Entry→Staff was 3.0–3.5x — a different structure.
• On base salary alone, the 2025 H-1B all-title medians are Cadence $151,091, Siemens EDA $147,400, Synopsys $144,284.
• Fix the job title and the order changes. In Applications Engineering, median base pay is Siemens EDA $154,782, Synopsys $149,714, Cadence $149,367.
• Stock share is compared only within one rung. At the Senior rung, stock is 6.9% of total comp at Cadence and 3.6% at Synopsys. Siemens EDA's stock share cannot be computed from base-salary data.

Read the Basis Before the Numbers

EDA pay comparisons usually go wrong for two reasons: mixing bases, and mixing levels.

First, total compensation (TC) is not base salary. TC is base plus annual stock plus bonus — the Levels.fyi US software engineer medians use this basis (725 submissions for Synopsys, 535 for Cadence). Base-only figures come from US Labor Condition Applications — the H-1B data. A total-comp chart and a base-pay chart must never be compared with each other.

Second, level names are company-native. Cadence's third level is called "Lead"; Synopsys's third level is "Senior I." The names look like different grades; the ladder position is the same. Conversely, Cadence's "Principal" sounds like the top, but Senior Principal and Architect rungs sit above it — it is the fourth rung. This article assigns standard rungs by level order and name.

Third, the same name can be a different company. "Siemens" on Levels.fyi is Siemens AG as a whole — healthcare, industry, and energy included. It is not Siemens EDA. The Siemens AG figures that appeared as reference values in the previous version have been removed from every chart in this revision. The only Siemens EDA data is the H-1B employer Siemens Industry Software Inc.

The Rung Mapping — This Article's Comparison Rule

How to read this: Cadence's "Principal" sits in the Staff rung here — by ladder position (fourth rung, with further rungs above it), not by name. Synopsys's "Senior II" is in the Staff rung for the same reason. Where a company has no data at a rung, the cell says so; no other rung's value is substituted.

Figure 1: Median total compensation at Synopsys and Cadence, aligned to standard rungs. Comparisons are valid only within a rung. The Principal rung has no public values at either company. Source: Levels.fyi, US Software Engineer, accessed 2026-10-21 (Synopsys n=725, Cadence n=535).

Ladder 1: Total Comp — Cadence Leads at Every Published Rung

Entry rung. A Cadence Software Engineer I has median total compensation of $134,000 — $121,000 base, $3,000 stock, $10,000 bonus. A Synopsys level 64 engineer is at $92,600 — in the published median package, the full $92,600 is base salary, with stock and bonus shown as $0. The starting gap is $41,400.

Mid rung. Synopsys level 65 is at $123,000 ($114,000 base, $1,800 stock, $7,100 bonus). Cadence Software Engineer II is at $158,000 ($142,000 base, $4,900 stock, $11,700 bonus).

Senior rung. Synopsys Senior I, level 66, is at $154,000 ($138,000 base, $5,600 stock, $9,600 bonus). Cadence Lead is at $181,000 ($155,000 base, $12,400 stock, $14,000 bonus). Different names, same third rung.

Staff rung. Synopsys Senior II, level 67, is at $190,000 ($159,000 base, $14,200 stock, $16,400 bonus). Cadence Principal is at $210,000 ($173,000 base, $24,800 stock, $12,800 bonus). Both are the fourth rung.

Principal rung. Not comparable. Synopsys levels 68 and above, and Cadence's Senior Principal and above, have no values on the public Levels.fyi pages. This article does not fill missing rungs with estimates.

On the overall median, Cadence is at $180,000, $9,000 above Synopsys at $171,000 — but an overall median mixes rung compositions, so the rung-by-rung table above is this article's primary comparison.

Two observations follow. First, Cadence leads not only at the starting line but at every published rung. Second, the gap narrows as rungs rise: $41,400 at Entry, $20,000 at the Staff rung. Synopsys has the steeper slope; Cadence has the higher ladder.

Ladder 2: Base Pay — The Only Basis That Includes Siemens EDA

To include Siemens EDA, the basis has to change to base salary. An H-1B Labor Condition Application records the base salary an employer files when hiring an engineer in the United States. It understates total pay because it excludes equity, but all three companies can be placed side by side under their legal employer names.

The 2025 all-title median base salaries are: Cadence Design Systems Inc, $151,091 from 289 filings; Siemens Industry Software Inc — the Siemens EDA entity — $147,400 from 240 filings; and Synopsys Inc, $144,284 from 198 filings. First and third are separated by only $6,807. On base pay alone, the three companies sit inside one narrow band.

Figure 2: Median base salary on H-1B filings (all titles) — base only, not total compensation. Source: US DOL LCA via h1bdata.info, employer filings 2025, accessed 2026-10-21.

The width of the base-pay distribution is also similar at all three. Dividing the 75th percentile by the 25th for 2025 base pay gives 1.46 at Synopsys, 1.41 at Siemens Industry Software, and 1.40 at Cadence.

Same Title, Same Family — Fix the Job and the Order Changes

Matching rungs matters as much as matching job titles. H-1B filings report base salary by exact job title, which makes same-family comparisons possible. This is this article's primary head-to-head.

Applications Engineering. Median base pay is highest at Siemens Industry Software, $154,782 (n=50), followed by Synopsys at $149,714 (n=41) and Cadence at $149,367 (n=59). Unlike the all-title order, the Siemens EDA entity leads in AE. At the exact-title level, Synopsys's pooled APPLICATIONS ENGINEERING title has a median of $149,714 (n=38), while Cadence splits into LEAD APPLICATION ENGINEER at $139,235 (n=17) and PRINCIPAL APPLICATION ENGINEER at $167,024 (n=17). Siemens EDA's FIELD APPLICATION ENGINEER is $136,040 (n=8). Exact AE titles carry different scopes, so the job-family group is the primary figure.

Software. Group medians are Synopsys $173,701 (n=9 — thin, reference only), Cadence $151,656 (n=75), and Siemens Industry Software $145,832 (n=92). For the exact title SOFTWARE ENGINEER, Cadence is at $132,331 (n=9) and Siemens Industry Software at $121,973 (n=18); Synopsys has no separately reported value under that exact title and is excluded rather than approximated. Siemens EDA's senior software titles are split across three spellings — SOFTWARE ENGINEER SENIOR at $142,956 (n=11), SOFTWARE ENGINEER - SENIOR at $168,000 (n=9), and SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER at $177,316 (n=6) — so picking any one of them as "the" senior figure would be wrong.

R&D Engineering. Synopsys's R&D ENGINEERING title median is $162,973 (n=28). Cadence and Siemens EDA use different title systems, so no like-for-like group exists and none is presented.

*Figure 3: Median H-1B base pay with the job family fixed. Synopsys Software group is n=9 and thin — reference only. Source: US DOL LCA via h1bdata.info, employer filings 2025, accessed 2026-10-21.

An EDA company is not only software developers. Applications engineers who support customer tapeouts, product engineers, and R&D engineers make up a large share of the workforce. The fact that fixing the job family changes the company order is exactly why a software-engineer total-comp table cannot stand in for a whole company's pay level.

The Multiplier: In-Company, With the Arrival Rung Labeled

The question every pay-ladder analysis asks is simple: how many times over does pay multiply from entry to the upper rungs? That is an in-company question, and it is valid — as long as the arrival rung is named.

Synopsys rises 1.66x from entry at $92,600 to the Senior rung at $154,000, and 2.05x to the Staff rung at $190,000.

Cadence rises 1.35x from entry at $134,000 to the Senior rung at $181,000, and 1.57x to the Staff rung at $210,000.

By contrast, published Big Tech cases from Levels.fyi data put the entry-to-Staff multiplier in a 3.0–3.5x range, reaching about 3.5x at Snap and Meta.

Figure 4: Multipliers over entry pay, with the arrival rung stated. The Big Tech range is Entry→Staff. Source: Levels.fyi US SWE medians, accessed 2026-10-21; Big Tech range from Levels.fyi published Big Tech data.

One caution belongs with that conclusion. The top rungs at both companies are not public, so a ladder that included them could produce a larger multiplier. This article speaks only for the verified range.

The reading is direct. In EDA, the starting line set by company choice is large, and no published in-company ladder was found that triples pay on its own. Pay growth may therefore be driven less by promotion alone and more by changing employer, changing job family, or negotiation. The data does not prove that claim; it frames the next question to test.

Stock Share: Compared Only Within the Senior Rung

Package composition has to be read within one rung as well, because stock grows with rung.

Senior rung. At Synopsys Senior I, stock is $5,600 a year, which is 3.6% of the $154,000 total. At Cadence Lead, stock is $12,400 a year, which is 6.9% of the $181,000 total.

Staff rung (shown separately, on purpose). Synopsys Senior II is $14,200 of $190,000, or 7.5%. Cadence Principal is $24,800 of $210,000, or 11.8%. These are not mixed into the Senior chart.

Figure 5: Stock as a share of total compensation at the Senior rung only. Siemens EDA is excluded: its stock share cannot be computed from base-salary-only data. Source: Levels.fyi US SWE median packages, accessed 2026-10-21.

At either rung, the structure is the same. Senior EDA pay is mostly base salary and bonus. In these median packages, there is no equity engine large enough for a rising share price to transform total compensation.

That is both a strength and a limit. A salary-led structure is predictable; a volatile share price does not move the center of the monthly paycheck. The same structure also limits upside in a rising market. Two engineers can both carry the word "Senior" while working under entirely different pay mechanics — one in EDA, one in Big Tech.

For Siemens EDA, no stock share can be computed at all. H-1B filings report base salary only. This article does not fill a value that cannot be computed with a value borrowed from another company, and Siemens AG (all-divisions) figures are not used as a substitute anywhere in this article.

So Which Company Pays the Most?

The answer has to be given by basis — and only within the same rung or the same title.

By total comp, rung for rung: Cadence leads at every published rung. Entry $134,000 vs $92,600; Mid $158,000 vs $123,000; Senior rung $181,000 vs $154,000; Staff rung $210,000 vs $190,000. The Principal rung has no data at either company.

By median base salary: Cadence $151,091, Siemens EDA $147,400, Synopsys $144,284.

By AE median base salary: Siemens EDA $154,782, Synopsys $149,714, Cadence $149,367.

By promotion multiplier (arrival rung stated): Entry→Staff is 2.05x at Synopsys and 1.57x at Cadence.

In other words: Cadence owns the starting line and every rung's height. Synopsys owns the steeper published slope. Siemens EDA leads in AE base pay. That is what this data actually says.

What This Means for an Engineer Reading Outside the US

Every number in this article is a US number. Converting it directly into another country's salary would be wrong. Taxes, housing, healthcare, pensions, and working arrangements all differ.

Four things still travel across borders.

First, read the rung and the package, not the level name. The same name can be a different rung, and the same rung can carry different names.

Second, the highest starting line and the highest senior destination do not have to be the same company — a statement that can only be made once rungs are aligned.

Third, the job family matters. The software-engineer ranking and the applications-engineering ranking have different orders — and in an industry built around AE, the job-family comparison can matter as much as the company comparison.

Fourth, distrust any comparison that fills a missing company with a confident number. Siemens EDA is the test case in this article: where public total-comp data does not exist, the honest answer is to change the basis, label it, and say what cannot be known.

Sources and Limits

The sources and limits for this article are stated once, here. Levels.fyi figures are US software engineer median total compensation, checked on October 21, 2026 (Synopsys: https://www.levels.fyi/companies/synopsys/salaries/software-engineer, 725 submissions; Cadence: https://www.levels.fyi/companies/cadence-design-systems/salaries/software-engineer, 535 submissions). H-1B figures are 2025 median base salaries aggregated by legal employer name from US Department of Labor LCA disclosures via h1bdata.info (for example: https://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=SYNOPSYS+INC&year=2025); job-family and exact-title medians were computed directly from the filing rows. Rungs were normalized by each company's level order and names, and the mapping table is published in the article. The Big Tech 3.0–3.5x range comes from published entry-to-Staff cases in Levels.fyi Big Tech data. The limits are as follows. Levels.fyi is a self-reported sample, not a company-wide average, and values for Synopsys levels 68 and above and for Cadence Senior Principal and above are not on the public pages. "Siemens" on Levels.fyi is Siemens AG as a whole, not Siemens EDA, and is not used in any comparison in this article; Siemens EDA is compared only through Siemens Industry Software Inc in the H-1B data. H-1B figures are filed base salaries on LCAs, not total pay actually received, and exact titles carry different scopes at different companies. No Korean data is included in this article.

Polishing your application: Once the pay data helps you pick a target company, the next step is the application itself. For global semiconductor roles, a clean English resume and cover letter matter — an English editing service such as Wordvice AI can help refine them. Purchases through this link may generate a commission.

FAQ

Q1. Which of the three EDA companies pays the most? Rung for rung, Cadence is above Synopsys at every published rung in US software engineer total compensation (Entry $134,000 vs $92,600; Senior rung $181,000 vs $154,000; Staff rung $210,000 vs $190,000). Median base salary (H-1B, 2025) is Cadence $151,091, Siemens EDA $147,400, and Synopsys $144,284. Siemens EDA has no public total-comp data, so it is excluded from the total-comp comparison.

Q2. Is the Synopsys entry figure of $92,600 base salary or total compensation? It is median total compensation of $92,600. In the level 64 package published by Levels.fyi, base salary is $92,600 and stock and bonus are shown as $0. It is the median of submitted packages, not the salary of every entry engineer.

Q3. Why is Siemens EDA not on the total-comp ladder? Because Levels.fyi has no dedicated Siemens EDA (Siemens Digital Industries Software) page. The Siemens data on Levels.fyi covers Siemens AG as a whole and cannot be used as an EDA figure. Siemens EDA is therefore compared only through the Siemens Industry Software Inc H-1B data, and its stock share cannot be computed from base-salary-only data.

Q4. How many times does pay multiply with promotion in EDA? With the arrival rung stated: Entry→Senior is 1.66x at Synopsys ($92,600 to $154,000) and 1.35x at Cadence ($134,000 to $181,000). Entry→Staff is 2.05x at Synopsys (to $190,000) and 1.57x at Cadence (to $210,000). Principal-rung values are not public at either company.

The Closing Question

If you were choosing an EDA career, which would you weight more — a company that is higher at every rung, or a company with a larger promotion multiplier? And at your company, how differently are level names used from the actual career rungs?

Silicon Levels is a VLSI Korea series comparing semiconductor industry pay with public data. Its one comparison rule: same rung, same title, or no comparison.

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