Side-by-side distribution
Application Security
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 55.1%
- Live roles
- 316
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.2%
- Live roles
- 4,052
Highest-paying jobs
Staff+ Application Security Engineer - M&A
Staff+ Application Security Engineer
Senior Security Engineer, Product AppSec
Product & Application Security Engineer
Principal Software Engineer II - Product Security
Security Engineer, Application Security
Principal Security Software Engineer, Application Security
Senior Configuration Engineer, Product AppSec
Security Engineer, Product
Security Engineer, Application Security
Highest-paying jobs
Platform Engineer
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Research Infrastructure
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Infrastructure
Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer, Safeguards Research
Agent Platform Engineer
Software Engineer, Platform
SOC Emulation Engineer - Hardware Emulation Infrastructure
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$204,500 | 8 |
Mozilla
|
$85,751 | 5 |
|
Veeam Software
|
$315,000 | 4 |
Compass
|
$222,050 | 4 |
Harvey
|
$275,000 | 3 |
Brex
|
$216,000 | 3 |
Airwallex
|
$205,000 | 3 |
SpaceX
|
$202,500 | 3 |
Speechify
OpenAI
Nuro
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
Application Security salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $222,050 | 25 |
| San Francisco | $219,000 | 41 |
| Chicago | $213,750 | 7 |
| Boston | $209,775 | 4 |
| Seattle | $201,250 | 12 |
| Denver | $190,000 | 4 |
| Austin | $187,500 | 5 |
| Toronto | $174,644 | 6 |
| Los Angeles | $150,000 | 5 |
| London | $131,502 | 3 |
Platform Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $228,500 | 411 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 108 |
| New York | $211,000 | 318 |
| Austin | $198,900 | 39 |
| Los Angeles | $187,500 | 32 |
| Boston | $187,500 | 64 |
| Toronto | $185,000 | 61 |
| Denver | $175,000 | 31 |
| Chicago | $174,250 | 24 |
| Atlanta | $170,000 | 11 |
Application Security vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Application Security is $190,000 per year (typically $160,000–$235,000), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,525–$230,000). That puts Platform Engineer about 3% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Application Security and Platform Engineer are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.