Side-by-side distribution
Chief of Staff
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 39.8%
- Live roles
- 284
Tech Lead
$185,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.8%
- Live roles
- 2,594
Highest-paying jobs
Chief of Staff
Chief of Staff
Sr. Staff Program Manager & Chief of Staff, Operations
Chief of Staff to the CEO
Chief of Staff (Executive Office) and VP of Strategy & Operations
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
Senior Business Development Lead - Retail Tech & Software Services
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Customer Engineering Lead
Evals Infrastructure Tech Lead / Manager
Software Engineering Team Lead
Technical Lead, Safety Research
Team Lead, Site Reliability Engineering
RISC-V AI / HPC & Agentic Software Engineering Lead
Staff Engineer, Emulation Technical Lead
Technical Lead Manager, Data Engineering, Trust & Safety
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
|
$170,000 | 34 |
STR
|
$198,250 | 28 |
Fluidstack
|
$264,250 | 22 |
Motional
|
$237,500 | 22 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$197,750 | 22 |
Scout Motors
|
$176,250 | 16 |
|
OpenAI
|
$338,750 | 14 |
Relativity Space
|
$165,000 | 12 |
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 |
Tech Lead salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $254,500 | 28 |
| San Francisco | $235,000 | 143 |
| Seattle | $227,500 | 38 |
| New York | $224,000 | 101 |
| Boston | $215,750 | 52 |
| Denver | $201,250 | 16 |
| Atlanta | $183,188 | 14 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 20 |
| Toronto | $167,673 | 26 |
| Chicago | $166,000 | 30 |
Chief of Staff vs Tech Lead: which pays more?
The median for Chief of Staff is $200,000 per year (typically $161,250–$232,725), versus $185,000 for Tech Lead ($152,500–$223,050). That puts Chief of Staff about 8% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Chief of Staff and Tech Lead 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.