Median salary
$226,500
per year · annualized USD
Typical range
$198.5k – $262.3k
25th–75th percentile
Disclosing pay
83.2%
1,476 of 1,773 roles
Live roles
1,773
open right now
Salary trend
median · annualized USDSalary distribution
annualized USD · disclosed rolesHighest-paying jobs
Staff Research Engineer, Multi-Agent Scaling
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Staff Security Engineer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 95 |
Northrop Grumman
|
$221,300 | 78 |
|
Anthropic
|
$402,500 | 76 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 58 |
General Motors
|
$240,000 | 35 |
Crusoe
|
$237,500 | 32 |
Relativity Space
|
$205,000 | 30 |
Perplexity
|
$312,500 | 26 |
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How much do Staff Engineer roles in California pay?
The median salary for Staff Engineer roles in California is $226,500 per year. Most pay falls between $198,500 (25th percentile) and $262,272 (75th percentile), with the broader 10th–90th percentile band running from $175,000 to $312,500.
These figures are computed live from 1,773 active Staff Engineer roles in California on JobsRadar, of which 1,476 (83.2%) publish a salary range. Pay is normalized to annualized USD so roles can be compared on equal terms; the highest-paying roles listed above show their original posted currency. Numbers refresh every few hours as new roles are posted and older ones close.
Employers currently hiring well-paid Staff Engineer roles in California include Anthropic and Veeam Software.
Salary transparency varies by employer and region, so the disclosing share above reflects only roles that publish pay — not every open position. Use it as a directional benchmark rather than an exact offer.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the average Staff Engineer salary in California?
- The median is $226,500 per year, with most pay between $198,500 and $262,272 (25th–75th percentile), based on 1,476 live listings that disclose pay on JobsRadar.
- What is the Staff Engineer salary range in California?
- Pay ranges from about $175,000 to $312,500 per year (10th–90th percentile) around a median of $226,500. Figures are annualized USD from live listings, refreshed every few hours.