Side-by-side distribution
Chief of Staff
$197,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 39.4%
- Live roles
- 284
Staff Engineer
$220,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.6%
- Live roles
- 4,848
Highest-paying jobs
Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
Sr. Staff Program Manager & Chief of Staff, Operations
Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Chief of Staff (Executive Office) and VP of Strategy & Operations
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
Staff, Hardware Electrical Engineer
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Frontend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff React Native Engineer ($500k - 1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Backend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Research Engineer (Senior Staff+), Safeguards Labs
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Flex
|
$301,500 | 2 |
|
Checkr
|
$282,250 | 2 |
Sonatus
|
$244,000 | 2 |
Nuro
|
$231,520 | 2 |
EliseAI
|
$212,500 | 2 |
Coursera
|
$212,040 | 2 |
Coursera Sourcing
|
$212,040 | 2 |
CHAOS Industries
|
$198,750 | 2 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 109 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 78 |
|
Anthropic
|
$445,000 | 65 |
Grafana Labs
|
$147,827 | 48 |
Crusoe
|
$231,750 | 46 |
Archer
|
$192,500 | 39 |
Okta
|
$206,175 | 36 |
Aurora Innovation
|
$231,500 | 35 |
Chief of Staff salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $300,000 | 3 |
| San Francisco | $220,000 | 19 |
| New York | $200,000 | 34 |
| Los Angeles | $192,500 | 4 |
| Toronto | $128,342 | 3 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $250,000 | 160 |
| San Francisco | $245,000 | 624 |
| New York | $240,250 | 474 |
| Dublin | $238,416 | 4 |
| Austin | $229,500 | 53 |
| Chicago | $225,000 | 47 |
| Los Angeles | $220,000 | 60 |
| Boston | $212,500 | 99 |
| Denver | $212,250 | 46 |
| London | $208,297 | 50 |
Chief of Staff vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Chief of Staff is $197,500 per year (typically $160,625–$234,088), versus $220,000 for Staff Engineer ($190,000–$250,000). That puts Staff Engineer about 11% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Chief of Staff 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.