Side-by-side distribution
CFO
$222,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 19.4%
- Live roles
- 345
Staff Engineer
$220,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.1%
- Live roles
- 4,834
Highest-paying jobs
1.1. Chief Financial Officer
VP of Finance
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
CFO, Prism Media LLC
Chief Financial Officer
VP, Finance
VP, Finance
Chief Financial Officer
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Backend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Frontend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff React Native Engineer ($500k - 1.5m salary)
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Research Engineer (Senior Staff+), Safeguards Labs
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 111 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 77 |
|
Anthropic
|
$405,000 | 57 |
Crusoe
|
$231,000 | 45 |
Grafana Labs
|
$147,923 | 45 |
Aurora Innovation
|
$231,500 | 40 |
Archer
|
$192,500 | 38 |
Okta
|
$206,000 | 34 |
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 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin | $257,300 | 5 |
| Seattle | $250,000 | 153 |
| San Francisco | $245,000 | 621 |
| New York | $240,000 | 464 |
| Austin | $228,750 | 52 |
| Chicago | $227,250 | 44 |
| Los Angeles | $221,000 | 64 |
| Boston | $210,000 | 97 |
| Denver | $208,587 | 46 |
| London | $206,683 | 47 |
CFO vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for CFO is $222,500 per year (typically $174,425–$279,000), versus $220,000 for Staff Engineer ($189,700–$250,000). That puts CFO about 1% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so CFO and Staff 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.