Side-by-side distribution
Application Security
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 55.1%
- Live roles
- 316
Tech Lead
$185,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 2,598
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
Senior Business Development Lead - Retail Tech & Software Services
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Customer Engineering Lead
Software Engineering Team Lead
Technical Lead, Safety Research
Data Engineering Lead
Lead Security Engineer
RISC-V AI / HPC & Agentic Software Engineering Lead
Staff Engineer, Emulation Technical Lead
Technical Lead Manager, Data Engineering, Trust & Safety
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 |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$170,000 | 33 |
STR
|
$198,250 | 26 |
Motional
|
$237,500 | 21 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$197,750 | 21 |
Fluidstack
|
$275,000 | 19 |
Scout Motors
|
$176,250 | 17 |
|
OpenAI
|
$338,750 | 14 |
Relativity Space
|
$165,000 | 13 |
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 |
Tech Lead salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $266,500 | 24 |
| San Francisco | $237,500 | 140 |
| Seattle | $234,225 | 34 |
| New York | $220,000 | 99 |
| Boston | $215,750 | 52 |
| Denver | $183,500 | 15 |
| Atlanta | $183,188 | 14 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 20 |
| Toronto | $167,673 | 26 |
| Chicago | $166,000 | 29 |
Application Security vs Tech Lead: which pays more?
The median for Application Security is $190,000 per year (typically $160,000–$235,000), versus $185,000 for Tech Lead ($152,625–$222,675). That puts Application Security 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 Tech Lead 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.