Side-by-side distribution
Engineering Manager
$170,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 37%
- Live roles
- 9,873
Full-Stack
$161,250
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 26.8%
- Live roles
- 4,504
Highest-paying jobs
Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)
Engineering Manager, Research Productivity
Engineering Manager, Research Data Platform
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager
Engineering Manager, Inference Infrastructure
Engineering Manager, Hardware Platform Security
Senior Engineering Manager
Engineering Manager, MLE
Program Capture Business Development Manager
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Principal Software Engineer, Full Stack — Codex
Fullstack Software Engineer, Agent Platform
Founding Engineer - Full Stack
Full-Stack Engineer, ChatGPT Education & Learning
Full Stack Engineer, Fleet Scheduling
Staff+ Fullstack Software Engineer, Safeguards Engineering
Staff+ Software Engineer, Full-stack
Staff+ Software Engineer, Enterprise (Full Stack)
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Northrop Grumman
|
$189,400 | 177 |
Databricks
|
$223,975 | 38 |
Cushman & Wakefield
|
$138,750 | 38 |
Anduril Industries
|
$171,500 | 34 |
Accenture
|
$205,350 | 31 |
|
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
|
$212,875 | 26 |
PwC
|
$182,500 | 25 |
|
OpenAI
|
$383,000 | 24 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$142,400 | 43 |
|
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 26 |
CACI
|
$139,950 | 25 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$135,200 | 22 |
GDIT
|
$168,000 | 19 |
Affirm
|
$183,000 | 15 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 15 |
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 15 |
Engineering Manager salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $239,200 | 416 |
| Seattle | $202,700 | 171 |
| New York | $202,000 | 492 |
| Los Angeles | $191,750 | 106 |
| London | $187,625 | 67 |
| Boston | $185,288 | 132 |
| Austin | $185,000 | 122 |
| Denver | $180,350 | 107 |
| Atlanta | $180,350 | 89 |
| Chicago | $168,025 | 188 |
Full-Stack salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $210,000 | 163 |
| Seattle | $197,541 | 38 |
| New York | $195,000 | 169 |
| Boston | $172,600 | 44 |
| Los Angeles | $165,500 | 29 |
| Austin | $165,500 | 27 |
| London | $156,168 | 14 |
| Chicago | $153,675 | 24 |
| Atlanta | $152,350 | 19 |
| Denver | $150,000 | 19 |
Engineering Manager vs Full-Stack: which pays more?
The median for Engineering Manager is $170,000 per year (typically $132,500–$211,513), versus $161,250 for Full-Stack ($127,153–$200,000). That puts Engineering Manager about 5% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Engineering Manager and Full-Stack 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.