Side-by-side distribution
C / C++
$193,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 31%
- Live roles
- 387
Research Scientist
$219,375
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 53.1%
- Live roles
- 382
Highest-paying jobs
C Developer
Software Engineer - Training/Inference (C++)
Software Engineer - Network (C++)
Software Engineer - Platform Infrastructure (Rust, C++)
Software Engineer - Kernels/CUDA (C++)
Software Engineer, C++
Principal Engine Programmer - Systems (C++)
Principal Core Systems Software Engineer - Game Engine (C++)
Staff Software Engineer, Logging (C++)
Senior Software Engineer, C++ (Market Data)
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training
Research Scientist, Interpretability
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Personality and Model Behavior
Research Engineer / Research Scientist -Personal AGI, Proactivity
Research Engineer/Research Scientist - Personal AGI, North Stars
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training)
Staff / Principal Research Scientist - USA
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens
Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment
[Expression of Interest] Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment - London
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 16 |
Applied Intuition
|
$170,500 | 14 |
|
Roblox
|
$218,940 | 9 |
Esri
|
$134,264 | 8 |
Stevens Capital Management LP
|
$225,000 | 5 |
|
xAI
|
$310,000 | 4 |
| FT Flow Traders | $233,750 | 4 |
|
Aurora Innovation
|
$222,000 | 3 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anthropic
|
$402,500 | 11 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 8 |
Astera Institute
|
$225,000 | 7 |
Waabi
|
$212,750 | 6 |
|
OpenAI
|
$425,000 | 5 |
| SA Scale AI | $243,000 | 5 |
Nuro
|
$229,900 | 5 |
World Labs
|
$300,000 | 4 |
Research Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | $275,000 | 8 |
| San Francisco | $265,000 | 66 |
| Seattle | $252,725 | 10 |
| New York | $243,000 | 37 |
| Toronto | $212,000 | 8 |
| London | $203,341 | 10 |
| Los Angeles | $125,000 | 4 |
C / C++ vs Research Scientist: which pays more?
The median for C / C++ is $193,000 per year (typically $156,450–$222,000), versus $219,375 for Research Scientist ($177,088–$275,000). That puts Research Scientist about 14% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so C / C++ and Research Scientist 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.