Side-by-side distribution
Firmware Engineer
$191,250
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 53.6%
- Live roles
- 194
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.2%
- Live roles
- 4,052
Highest-paying jobs
Networking Operating System Firmware Engineer
Firmware Engineer, Robotics
ASIC Firmware Engineer, Modeling
Firmware Engineer, RTOS, Consumer Devices
Staff Embedded Firmware Engineer
Firmware Engineer, Robotics and Surgery Engineering
Founding Firmware Engineer
Firmware/ Embedded Systems Engineer
Staff Embedded Software Engineer - Camera Firmware
Staff Firmware Engineer
Highest-paying jobs
Platform Engineer
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Research Infrastructure
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Infrastructure
Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer, Safeguards Research
Agent Platform Engineer
SOC Emulation Engineer - Hardware Emulation Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Platform
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 14 |
|
OpenAI
|
$345,500 | 4 |
ALSO
|
$187,500 | 4 |
CoreWeave
|
$197,500 | 3 |
Mach Industries
|
$172,500 | 3 |
ALTEN Technology USA
|
$120,000 | 3 |
42dot
|
$228,000 | 2 |
Everpure
|
$216,250 | 2 |
Speechify
Nuro
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
Firmware Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $210,458 | 14 |
| New York | $197,500 | 7 |
Platform Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $228,500 | 411 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 108 |
| New York | $211,000 | 318 |
| Austin | $198,900 | 39 |
| Los Angeles | $187,500 | 32 |
| Boston | $187,500 | 64 |
| Toronto | $185,000 | 61 |
| Denver | $175,000 | 31 |
| Chicago | $174,250 | 24 |
| Atlanta | $170,000 | 11 |
Firmware Engineer vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Firmware Engineer is $191,250 per year (typically $160,000–$214,625), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,525–$230,000). That puts Platform Engineer about 2% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Firmware Engineer and Platform 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.