Side-by-side distribution
CFO
$222,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 19.4%
- Live roles
- 345
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.2%
- Live roles
- 4,052
Highest-paying jobs
1.1. Chief Financial Officer
VP of Finance
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
CFO, Prism Media LLC
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
VP, Finance
VP, Finance
Chief Financial Officer
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
SOC Emulation Engineer - Hardware Emulation Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Platform
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
CFO Insights
|
$187,539 | 8 |
The Symicor Group
|
$170,000 | 5 |
The Brydon Group
|
$268,750 | 2 |
Hold Brothers
|
$232,500 | 2 |
Black White Zebra
|
$125,000 | 2 |
The Pod Group
|
$112,500 | 2 |
|
Phoenix Tailings
|
$737,500 | 1 |
|
Duolingo
|
$440,000 | 1 |
Speechify
OpenAI
Nuro
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
CFO salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $301,250 | 8 |
| New York | $275,000 | 17 |
| Los Angeles | $215,000 | 3 |
| London | $187,539 | 9 |
| Chicago | $115,000 | 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 |
CFO vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for CFO is $222,500 per year (typically $174,425–$279,000), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,525–$230,000). That puts CFO about 14% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so CFO 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.