Side-by-side distribution
Embedded Engineer
$183,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 48.5%
- Live roles
- 470
Prompt Engineer
$194,670
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 30.2%
- Live roles
- 106
Highest-paying jobs
Principal Engineer, Embedded Vehicle Software
Principal Embedded Software Engineer
Staff Embedded Security Engineer
Embedded SW Engineer
Senior Embedded Linux Engineer - Connectivity
Firmware/ Embedded Systems Engineer
Staff Embedded Software Engineer - Camera Firmware
Embedded Systems Engineer, Autonomous Vehicles - Federal
Senior Embedded Systems Engineer
Embedded Security Engineer
Highest-paying jobs
Machine Learning Engineer, Speech LLM Training - San Francisco
Principal Machine Learning Engineer- LLM Fine-tuning and Optimization
Machine Learning Engineer, Inference & Serving (Speech LLM) - San Francisco
Staff Machine Learning Engineer - LLM Quantization & Deployment
Senior Research Engineer, LLM Training & Post-Training
Senior Machine Learning Engineer - LLM Quantization & Deployment
Intermediate/ Senior Software Engineer - Cortex LLM Training Platform
Senior Staff LLM Inference Engineer
Staff Attack Engineer, AI/LLM
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, LLM Inference Optimization
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$201,250 | 22 |
SpaceX
|
$145,000 | 12 |
Silvus Technologies
|
$170,000 | 9 |
|
Verkada
|
$232,500 | 8 |
Applied Intuition
|
$196,000 | 7 |
TP-Link Systems Inc.
|
$152,500 | 6 |
Latitude AI
|
$200,000 | 5 |
| AX Axon | $183,300 | 5 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Otter.ai
|
$207,500 | 3 |
|
Plaud
|
$280,000 | 2 |
|
XPENG
|
$262,500 | 2 |
Censys
|
$179,000 | 2 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$151,800 | 2 |
Five9
|
$150,675 | 2 |
|
Airbnb
|
$328,500 | 1 |
|
Horizon3 AI
|
$249,000 | 1 |
Embedded Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $200,275 | 12 |
| San Francisco | $195,000 | 20 |
| New York | $181,900 | 6 |
| Los Angeles | $181,500 | 16 |
| Austin | $179,475 | 6 |
| Boston | $178,750 | 4 |
| Denver | $157,500 | 4 |
Prompt Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $237,500 | 5 |
| New York | $226,000 | 3 |
Embedded Engineer vs Prompt Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Embedded Engineer is $183,000 per year (typically $152,900–$207,075), versus $194,670 for Prompt Engineer ($168,300–$237,500). That puts Prompt Engineer about 6% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Embedded Engineer and Prompt 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.