IT and tech companies in Seattle: a few giants and a long tail of small firms

This page is for people searching for Seattle IT and tech companies: an organization choosing an IT provider or developer, an engineer weighing employers, an investor, or a B2B seller whose buyers are tech firms. It gives the federal count, shows how concentrated the market is, lists the public companies headquartered here and points to the registries that name the rest.

The count

County Business Patterns (CBP), the Census Bureau's annual count of businesses with employees, puts 3,853 tech establishments in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA Metro Area (CBSA 42660) for 2023. Tech covers four NAICS industry groups: software publishers (5112), computer systems design and related services (5415), data processing, hosting and related services (518) and other information services (5191).

The payroll total includes the payroll of other information services (5191), which the Census Bureau flagged as high-noise: the noise it adds to protect confidentiality changed that figure by 5% or more. The employee totals carry lower noise flags, so treat the payroll and average pay as approximate.

An average of 43 employees per site and about $248,064 in average pay are both far above other large metros: Dallas-Fort Worth averages 18.9 employees per site and $133,611 (see tech companies in Dallas). Both numbers are pulled up by a small number of very large employers.

How concentrated the market is

That's 3,249 establishments with 1 to 19 employees, 413 with 20 to 99 and 191 with 100 or more. The industry split shows where the large sites are:

Software publishers average about 146 employees per site and account for 56% of the metro's tech jobs. Everywhere else the market looks like any big city's: about 2,300 programming and systems design establishments averaging 16 employees, plus hosting firms and 242 internet publishing and web portal sites. If you're hiring an IT provider, the systems design and facilities management rows are your field; if you're selling to engineering teams, the software publisher row is where the headcount is.

King County is the market

Employee counts marked not reported carry the Census Bureau's high-noise flag: to protect confidentiality it changed them by 5% or more, so they're left out here.

King County, which includes Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond, has 83% of the establishments and 97% of the jobs. Snohomish County's 412 establishments average about seven employees each, and Tacoma's Pierce County has 253. King County's own annual financial report shows the Information sector employing 125,958 people in 2025, 8.55% of county employment, up from 97,400 (7.23%) in 2016, according to the state Employment Security Department.

Public tech companies headquartered here

These SEC-registered companies in computer, electronics and software codes give Seattle-area principal executive offices in their latest 10-Ks:

Amazon isn't on the list because EDGAR classifies it as a catalog and mail-order retailer (SIC 5961), though its 10-K gives 410 Terry Avenue North, Seattle as its headquarters and reports 2025 revenue of $716,924 million; see Amazon's headcount. The same logic keeps many tech-heavy companies out of every industry-coded list, including the Census count above.

Don't expect a state list of the largest employers: King County's report notes that the State of Washington is legally prohibited from disclosing the names of individual employers.

Finding Seattle IT companies by name

The license file is the closest thing to a complete city list, and it's the source most directory sites skip. It covers the City of Seattle only, so use the state registry for Bellevue, Redmond and the rest of King County.

Choosing a Seattle IT provider

Prospecting Seattle tech companies

Split the market before you start. The 191 sites with 100 or more employees, many of them software publishers, buy through procurement and security review, and the person who feels the problem is rarely the one who signs. The 413 with 20 to 99 employees usually have a functional owner (engineering, people, finance) with budget. The 3,249 smaller ones are founder-run and decide in a call. How to find decision makers covers the titles by size.

1. Pick the band you can serve, then filter the City license file by NAICS and ZIP code.
2. Add Bellevue and Redmond firms from the state registry and the Chamber.
3. Look for a recent trigger: a funding round, a new office lease, a jump in engineering job posts, a new state contract.
4. Open with the trigger, then the problem it creates.

Worked example: a technical recruiting firm

Illustrative example. The company, people and fees are fictional, to show the method.

Cascade Bench (cascadebench.example) places senior engineers with growing software companies. Large employers run in-house recruiting, so it targets software publishers and programming firms with 20 to 99 employees.

• Establishments with 20 to 99 employees: 279 + 134 = 413.
• Software publishers and custom programmers are 1,792 of 3,853 establishments (47%), so about 190 of the 413.
• Cascade checks job boards and keeps those with two or more open engineering roles: it assumes half, about 95 accounts.
• One placement fee covers a month of its outreach, so two placements a quarter from 95 accounts pays for the program.

Checking 190 companies' hiring pages by hand takes days. Bebop takes "Seattle and Bellevue software companies with 20 to 99 employees hiring senior engineers" and returns the matches with a playbook for each.

Subject: The [role] you've had open since [month]

Hi [first name],

I noticed [Company] has had a [role] posting up for [number] weeks. At teams your size that usually means the hiring manager is also the interviewer, the sourcer and the closer.

We send three vetted candidates within ten days, and you only pay if one starts. Would it help if I shared two profiles this week?

[Your name], Cascade Bench

Reading the numbers

CBP counts establishments, single locations with at least one paid employee, for the week of March 12, 2023. A company with offices in Seattle and Bellevue counts twice, owner-only consultancies don't count, and in-house tech teams at retailers, aerospace firms and hospitals count under their employers' industries.

Next step: build the list with how to build a prospect list.