Side-by-side distribution
Counsel
$214,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 51.7%
- Live roles
- 1,284
Staff Engineer
$220,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.1%
- Live roles
- 4,834
Highest-paying jobs
Legal Counsel (corporate / commercial, 3-5 PQE), hybrid/remote
Director, Corporate Counsel
Legal Counsel
General Counsel
Real Estate Senior Associate / Special Counsel ("Dirt" Focus)
Real Estate Associate / Special Counsel (Lender-Side Focus)
Antitrust and Competition Associate / Special Counsel
REIT Special Counsel / Senior Associate
Estate & Tax Planning Legal Counsel
Estate & Tax Planning Legal Counsel
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Backend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Frontend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff React Native Engineer ($500k - 1.5m salary)
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Research Engineer (Senior Staff+), Safeguards Labs
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| TM Tyson & Mendes LLP | $175,000 | 39 |
Fivetran
|
$214,096 | 25 |
Axiom Talent Platform
|
$214,750 | 21 |
Alliance Defending Freedom
|
$159,583 | 12 |
Barnes & Thornburg LLP
|
$275,000 | 10 |
Crusoe
|
$235,000 | 9 |
Clearway Energy
|
$215,000 | 9 |
Harvey
|
$237,500 | 8 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 111 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 77 |
|
Anthropic
|
$405,000 | 57 |
|
Crusoe
|
$231,000 | 45 |
Grafana Labs
|
$147,923 | 45 |
Aurora Innovation
|
$231,500 | 40 |
Archer
|
$192,500 | 38 |
Okta
|
$206,000 | 34 |
Counsel salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $228,275 | 124 |
| Seattle | $225,000 | 25 |
| New York | $222,000 | 164 |
| Boston | $219,875 | 12 |
| Los Angeles | $214,750 | 28 |
| Atlanta | $214,750 | 11 |
| Denver | $214,096 | 49 |
| Chicago | $214,050 | 19 |
| Austin | $195,000 | 15 |
| Dublin | $189,072 | 4 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin | $257,300 | 5 |
| Seattle | $250,000 | 153 |
| San Francisco | $245,000 | 621 |
| New York | $240,000 | 464 |
| Austin | $228,750 | 52 |
| Chicago | $227,250 | 44 |
| Los Angeles | $221,000 | 64 |
| Boston | $210,000 | 97 |
| Denver | $208,587 | 46 |
| London | $206,683 | 47 |
Counsel vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Counsel is $214,750 per year (typically $180,000–$250,000), versus $220,000 for Staff Engineer ($189,700–$250,000). That puts Staff Engineer about 2% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Counsel 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.