Side-by-side distribution
Application Security
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 55.1%
- Live roles
- 316
Principal Engineer
$223,544
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 45.9%
- Live roles
- 1,775
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
Principal Software Engineer
Distinguished Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Principal Engineer (Payments)
Principal Engineer
Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Delivery
Principal Research Engineer, Model Training & Post-Training
Principal Engineer, Agentic AI Systems
Staff / Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Serving - USA
Principal Engineer, AI Platform
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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Roblox
|
$320,145 | 42 |
| AL Astera Labs | $207,500 | 21 |
Motional
|
$285,000 | 19 |
Elastic
|
$134,329 | 18 |
| SE Sezzle | $111,000 | 16 |
Zscaler
|
$210,375 | 14 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$256,000 | 13 |
|
Snowflake
|
$321,750 | 12 |
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 |
Principal Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $282,500 | 70 |
| New York | $259,000 | 57 |
| Boston | $250,000 | 45 |
| Austin | $232,000 | 10 |
| Seattle | $231,500 | 33 |
| Chicago | $228,075 | 16 |
| Los Angeles | $225,000 | 31 |
| Toronto | $210,000 | 16 |
| London | $199,724 | 16 |
| Denver | $190,000 | 17 |
Application Security vs Principal Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Application Security is $190,000 per year (typically $160,000–$235,000), versus $223,544 for Principal Engineer ($187,500–$276,000). That puts Principal Engineer about 18% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Application Security and Principal 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.