Side-by-side distribution
California
$155,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 73.5%
- Live roles
- 13,968
Seattle
$180,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 77.6%
- Live roles
- 3,337
Highest-paying jobs
Wholesale Account Executive, National
Senior Product Sourcing Engineer, Autonomous Airpower
Co-Founder & CEO - AI Retail Planning Autopilot
Account Director - Growth Marketing (Paid Social)
Co-Founder & CEO - AI Retail Planning Autopilot
Strategic Account Executive - San Francisco (Remote)
Strategic Account Executive - Southern California (Remote)
Create Your Own Role
Analog Mixed-Signal Design Engineer
Director / VP Sales
Highest-paying jobs
Mid-Market Customer Success Manager, North America
S&T Market Leader I
Education Market Leader I
Account Manager
Co-Founder & CEO - AI Retail Planning Autopilot
Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)
Research Engineer, Computer Use
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Performance Engineer, Inference Systems
Research Engineer, Visual Knowledge Work
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$170,000 | 1,244 |
Databricks
|
$216,104 | 282 |
Relativity Space
|
$165,000 | 231 |
NoGigiddy
|
$43,680 | 200 |
Cheer Home Care
|
$44,720 | 178 |
Revolution Medicines
|
$209,500 | 165 |
Archer
|
$171,100 | 153 |
ALO
|
$79,175 | 143 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Fluidstack
|
$217,500 | 251 |
Brex
|
$216,000 | 146 |
|
Anthropic
|
$362,500 | 120 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 120 |
DoorDash USA
|
$161,300 | 112 |
OpenAI
|
$307,500 | 74 |
| AX Axon | $184,421 | 62 |
DigitalOcean
|
$189,000 | 54 |
Highest-paying roles in California
| Role | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| DevOps | $185,788 | 242 |
| Software Engineer | $185,575 | 2,504 |
| Recruiter | $180,000 | 1,007 |
| Data Scientist | $176,801 | 167 |
| Product Manager | $170,000 | 1,567 |
| Customer Success | $169,000 | 1,939 |
| UX Designer | $165,000 | 33 |
| Sales | $150,000 | 2,083 |
| Project Manager | $148,625 | 944 |
| Marketing Manager | $138,588 | 686 |
Highest-paying roles in Seattle
| Role | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | $207,500 | 830 |
| Data Scientist | $193,375 | 66 |
| DevOps | $192,750 | 82 |
| UX Designer | $180,000 | 29 |
| Sales | $180,000 | 727 |
| Product Manager | $176,400 | 612 |
| Recruiter | $168,935 | 321 |
| Customer Success | $167,500 | 636 |
| Project Manager | $160,000 | 219 |
| Marketing Manager | $148,991 | 246 |
California vs Seattle: which pays more?
The median for California is $155,000 per year (typically $100,000–$200,000), versus $180,000 for Seattle ($132,500–$226,563). That puts Seattle about 16% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so California and Seattle 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.