Side-by-side distribution
Chief of Staff
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 39.7%
- Live roles
- 287
Software Engineer
$191,495
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.1%
- Live roles
- 15,413
Highest-paying jobs
Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
Sr. Staff Program Manager & Chief of Staff, Operations
Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff (Executive Office) and VP of Strategy & Operations
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Chief of Staff to the COO & GM of Marketplace
Chief of Staff, Product
Chief of Staff, CEO
Chief of Staff to the Chief Executive Officer
Highest-paying jobs
Intermediate Backend Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Software Engineer - EVM
Software Engineer - Compliance
Software Engineer - Solana
Software Engineer - Stellar
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Coursera
|
$212,040 | 3 |
talentpluto
|
$175,000 | 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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 301 |
OpenAI
|
$309,000 | 111 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 103 |
Databricks
|
$214,700 | 98 |
Roblox
|
$269,270 | 82 |
Applied Intuition
|
$179,250 | 82 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 78 |
SpaceX
|
$137,500 | 65 |
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 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 1,397 |
| Sydney | $224,060 | 8 |
| New York | $215,000 | 1,166 |
| Seattle | $210,800 | 421 |
| Austin | $197,950 | 136 |
| Boston | $186,050 | 226 |
| Los Angeles | $182,500 | 165 |
| Bangalore | $181,219 | 4 |
| Chicago | $180,000 | 137 |
| London | $175,072 | 113 |
Chief of Staff vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Chief of Staff is $200,000 per year (typically $160,625–$238,863), versus $191,495 for Software Engineer ($152,900–$225,000). That puts Chief of Staff about 4% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Chief of Staff and Software 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.