Side-by-side distribution
Backend Engineer
$185,375
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 33%
- Live roles
- 2,443
Research Scientist
$219,375
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 53.1%
- Live roles
- 382
Highest-paying jobs
Intermediate Backend Software Engineer
Senior Staff Backend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Backend Engineer, AI
Backend Engineer
Senior Backend Engineer
Senior Backend Engineer (Java)
Senior Backend Engineer (Java)
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training
Research Scientist, Interpretability
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Personality and Model Behavior
Research Engineer / Research Scientist -Personal AGI, Proactivity
Research Engineer/Research Scientist - Personal AGI, North Stars
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training)
Staff / Principal Research Scientist - USA
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens
Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment
[Expression of Interest] Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment - London
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Air Apps
|
$68,094 | 33 |
Affirm
|
$183,000 | 20 |
Databricks
|
$205,100 | 16 |
Grafana Labs
|
$192,485 | 15 |
|
OpenAI
|
$309,000 | 9 |
Teleport
|
$261,440 | 9 |
Verkada
|
$215,000 | 9 |
Whoop
|
$150,000 | 9 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anthropic
|
$402,500 | 11 |
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 8 |
Astera Institute
|
$225,000 | 7 |
Waabi
|
$212,750 | 6 |
|
OpenAI
|
$425,000 | 5 |
| SA Scale AI | $243,000 | 5 |
Nuro
|
$229,900 | 5 |
World Labs
|
$300,000 | 4 |
Backend Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $220,000 | 166 |
| New York | $207,500 | 165 |
| Seattle | $205,500 | 38 |
| Denver | $195,875 | 4 |
| Austin | $194,500 | 7 |
| Los Angeles | $184,075 | 12 |
| Chicago | $175,000 | 5 |
| Boston | $175,000 | 21 |
| Singapore | $151,034 | 3 |
| Toronto | $149,375 | 38 |
Research Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | $275,000 | 8 |
| San Francisco | $262,500 | 67 |
| Seattle | $252,725 | 10 |
| New York | $243,000 | 37 |
| Toronto | $212,000 | 8 |
| London | $206,683 | 9 |
| Los Angeles | $125,000 | 4 |
Backend Engineer vs Research Scientist: which pays more?
The median for Backend Engineer is $185,375 per year (typically $145,499–$225,000), versus $219,375 for Research Scientist ($177,088–$275,000). That puts Research Scientist about 18% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Backend Engineer and Research Scientist 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.