DFW is not Austin or the Bay Area. But the tech scene is growing fast and the cost-of-living math works in your favor. Here's the landscape.
Big tech / FAANG-adjacent:
- Meta — Offices in Dallas. Infra and AR/VR teams. $180-300K TC depending on level.
- Google — Limited DFW presence but remote-friendly for TX residents.
- Amazon — Warehouse tech + some AWS roles. $130-200K TC.
Corporate tech (the DFW bread and butter):
- Toyota Connected (Plano) — Mobility tech. $100-160K. Good WLB.
- Capital One (Plano) — Massive tech org. $120-180K TC. Strong engineering culture.
- JPMorgan Chase (Plano) — Tech hub growing fast. $110-160K.
- AT&T (Downtown Dallas) — Legacy but modernizing. $100-150K. Pension.
- Texas Instruments (Dallas) — Embedded/hardware. $95-140K. Excellent benefits.
Startups / growth stage:
- Bottle Rocket (Addison) — Digital agency. $90-130K.
- Various seed/Series A companies in Deep Ellum and Design District
The DFW advantage:
- A $150K salary in DFW buys the lifestyle of $220K+ in SF (SmartAsset COL calculator)
- Property you can own vs. renting forever
- 15-25 min commutes vs. 60+ min in other tech hubs
Sources:
- Levels.fyi — DFW tech compensation data
- LinkedIn — job posting analysis for DFW
- Glassdoor — company reviews
- SmartAsset — cost of living comparison calculator
- BLS — DFW tech employment statistics
Am I wrong here?
The COL math is the real story. My Bay Area friends make $250K but spend $3,500/month on a 1BR. I make $160K and own a house. Who's actually ahead?