What kind of jobs do the software engineers who earn $500K a year do?

What kind of tasks or skills make them so valuable? And how can you replicate their success? The premise of the question is somewhat misguided in that there are no $500K guaranteed "earnings" out there for engineers. As the article mentions, this is a combination of salary and restricted stock units (RSU).
Read more: http://ift.tt/1PE48g7