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Announcing Revenue per Engineer benchmarks for the DX Core 4 framework

Last year we introduced the DX Core 4 framework for measuring developer productivity, which brings together DORA, SPACE, and DevEx into one unified approach. The DX Core 4 includes a recommended set of metrics, one of which being Revenue per Engineer (RpE), which is a company’s gross revenue divided by the number of full-time employees in R&D. Today we released benchmarking data for Revenue per Engineer.

RpE is a particularly valuable signal at a time when tech leaders face growing pressure to demonstrate the return on a business’s investment in engineering. Engineering organizations have become the biggest line item for businesses as well as a key driver of their competitiveness, and as such, leadership teams want to ensure their engineering organization is operating as well as it can. RpE, when benchmarked against other companies, can serve as a helpful indicator of an organization’s efficiency and impact.

The new RpE benchmarks are based on data from over 300 public and private companies. The studied dataset consists primarily of SaaS companies, however the findings are relevant industry-wide.

In addition to providing benchmarks by revenue range, which we recommend leaders use to compare against, the full report also reveals findings about how RpE varies by organization size, founding year, and growth rate. Key findings include:

  • Benchmarks: The median Revenue per Engineer (RpE) across companies is $892K. Top-quartile companies achieve $1.5M+.
  • Fast-growing companies are less efficient. Fast-growing companies show lower RpE. Companies growing <20% year-over-year show the highest RpE figures.
  • Outsourcing to vendors increases RpE. Organizations that allocate a higher percentage of their total R&D spend to vendor tools and services show higher RpE. This suggests that leveraging third-party tools and services may free engineering teams to focus on higher-impact work.
  • Recently founded companies are more efficient. Those founded before 2010 show lower efficiency than those founded after 2010, suggesting that younger companies are benefiting from modern tech stacks and go-to-market strategies.

Although Revenue per Engineer is a lagging indicator and doesn’t capture the full story of engineering efficiency, it provides a valuable lens when paired with other metrics like those in the DX Core 4 framework. Additionally, leaders can move the needle by removing friction for their developers to enable faster delivery and innovation.

For executives, RpE provides an actionable reference point to track and discuss. For Developer Productivity leaders, it contextualizes investments in tools and processes within broader organizational objectives.

Read the 2025 Revenue per Engineer benchmarking report here.