Side-by-side distribution
Chief of Staff
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 39.7%
- Live roles
- 287
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44%
- Live roles
- 4,061
Highest-paying jobs
Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
Sr. Staff Program Manager & Chief of Staff, Operations
Chief of Staff (Executive Office) and VP of Strategy & Operations
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff to the COO & GM of Marketplace
Chief of Staff Director, Product
Chief of Staff, Product
Chief of Staff, CEO
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
SOC Emulation Engineer - Hardware Emulation Infrastructure
Infrastructure and Platform Development Engineer
Agent Platform Engineer
Software Engineer, Platform
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Coursera
|
$212,040 | 3 |
|
Flex
|
$301,500 | 2 |
|
Checkr
|
$282,250 | 2 |
Sonatus
|
$244,000 | 2 |
Nuro
|
$231,520 | 2 |
Coursera Sourcing
|
$228,926 | 2 |
EliseAI
|
$212,500 | 2 |
CHAOS Industries
|
$198,750 | 2 |
Speechify
OpenAI
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
Chief of Staff salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $300,000 | 3 |
| San Francisco | $205,000 | 18 |
| New York | $197,500 | 34 |
| Los Angeles | $192,500 | 4 |
| Toronto | $128,342 | 3 |
Platform Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $226,000 | 411 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 107 |
| New York | $211,000 | 316 |
| Austin | $202,500 | 40 |
| Boston | $190,000 | 64 |
| Los Angeles | $187,500 | 32 |
| Toronto | $185,000 | 63 |
| Chicago | $183,000 | 22 |
| Denver | $180,000 | 29 |
| Atlanta | $176,988 | 8 |
Chief of Staff vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Chief of Staff is $200,000 per year (typically $160,625–$238,863), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,476–$230,000). That puts Chief of Staff about 3% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Chief of Staff 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.