Side-by-side distribution
Counsel
$214,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 51.7%
- Live roles
- 1,284
Tech Lead
$185,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 2,598
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 Business Development Lead - Retail Tech & Software Services
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Customer Engineering Lead
Technical Lead, Safety Research
Data Engineering Lead
Lead Security Engineer
Staff Engineer, Emulation Technical Lead
RISC-V AI / HPC & Agentic Software Engineering Lead
Technical Lead Manager, Data Engineering, Trust & Safety
Lead Machine Learning Inference Engineer, Advertising
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
|
$170,000 | 33 |
STR
|
$198,250 | 26 |
Motional
|
$237,500 | 21 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$197,750 | 21 |
Fluidstack
|
$275,000 | 19 |
Scout Motors
|
$176,250 | 17 |
|
OpenAI
|
$338,750 | 14 |
Relativity Space
|
$167,500 | 14 |
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 |
Tech Lead salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $266,500 | 24 |
| San Francisco | $237,500 | 141 |
| Seattle | $234,225 | 34 |
| New York | $222,000 | 100 |
| Boston | $212,500 | 51 |
| Atlanta | $190,000 | 13 |
| Denver | $183,500 | 15 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 19 |
| Toronto | $167,673 | 26 |
| Chicago | $166,000 | 28 |
Counsel vs Tech Lead: which pays more?
The median for Counsel is $214,750 per year (typically $180,000–$250,000), versus $185,000 for Tech Lead ($152,625–$222,675). That puts Counsel about 16% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Counsel 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.