Side-by-side distribution
Chicago
$134,400
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 67.8%
- Live roles
- 4,565
Seattle
$180,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 77.6%
- Live roles
- 3,337
Highest-paying jobs
Sales Leader, Quality Engineering Services
Regional Health Market Leader - Great Lakes Region
Account Manager
Outside Sales Representative
Co-Founder & CEO - AI Retail Planning Autopilot
Account Executive, Enterprise
Account Executive, Enterprise
Senior Account Executive, Emerging Enterprise
Senior Account Executive, Emerging Enterprise
Account Executive, Enterprise
Highest-paying jobs
S&T Market Leader I
Mid-Market Customer Success Manager, North America
Education Market Leader I
Account Manager
Co-Founder & CEO - AI Retail Planning Autopilot
Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)
Research Engineer, Computer Use
Performance Engineer, Inference Systems
Research Engineer, Visual Knowledge Work
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
DoorDash USA
|
$130,200 | 108 |
Okta
|
$213,750 | 75 |
|
Braze
|
$144,750 | 72 |
| DR DRW | $177,500 | 57 |
IMC
|
$212,500 | 48 |
Insomniacookies
|
$35,412 | 42 |
Optiver
|
$200,000 | 39 |
Charles River Associates
|
$141,250 | 39 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Fluidstack
|
$217,500 | 252 |
Brex
|
$216,000 | 146 |
|
Anthropic
|
$362,500 | 119 |
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 119 |
|
DoorDash USA
|
$161,300 | 112 |
OpenAI
|
$307,500 | 71 |
| AX Axon | $185,250 | 61 |
DigitalOcean
|
$189,000 | 54 |
Highest-paying roles in Chicago
| Role | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | $170,000 | 377 |
| Data Scientist | $166,000 | 31 |
| DevOps | $160,000 | 98 |
| UX Designer | $158,750 | 20 |
| Customer Success | $143,500 | 804 |
| Financial Analyst | $141,250 | 200 |
| Product Manager | $140,992 | 612 |
| Sales | $135,000 | 1,127 |
| Recruiter | $135,000 | 407 |
| Marketing Manager | $127,500 | 430 |
Highest-paying roles in Seattle
| Role | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | $207,900 | 827 |
| Data Scientist | $193,000 | 65 |
| DevOps | $192,500 | 81 |
| UX Designer | $180,000 | 29 |
| Sales | $180,000 | 717 |
| Product Manager | $176,400 | 607 |
| Recruiter | $168,935 | 321 |
| Customer Success | $167,500 | 631 |
| Project Manager | $158,400 | 219 |
| Marketing Manager | $149,750 | 244 |
Chicago vs Seattle: which pays more?
The median for Chicago is $134,400 per year (typically $90,000–$180,000), versus $180,000 for Seattle ($132,500–$226,563). That puts Seattle about 34% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Chicago 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.