Side-by-side distribution
Firmware Engineer
$191,250
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 53.6%
- Live roles
- 194
Principal Engineer
$223,544
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 45.9%
- Live roles
- 1,775
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
Principal Software Engineer
Distinguished Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Principal Engineer (Payments)
Principal Engineer
Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Delivery
Principal Research Engineer, Model Training & Post-Training
Principal Engineer, Agentic AI Systems
Staff / Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Serving - USA
Principal Engineer, AI 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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Roblox
|
$320,145 | 42 |
| AL Astera Labs | $207,500 | 21 |
Motional
|
$285,000 | 19 |
Elastic
|
$134,329 | 18 |
| SE Sezzle | $111,000 | 16 |
Zscaler
|
$210,375 | 14 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$256,000 | 13 |
Snowflake
|
$321,750 | 12 |
Firmware Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $210,458 | 14 |
| New York | $197,500 | 7 |
Principal Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $282,500 | 70 |
| New York | $259,000 | 57 |
| Boston | $250,000 | 45 |
| Austin | $232,000 | 10 |
| Seattle | $231,500 | 33 |
| Chicago | $228,075 | 16 |
| Los Angeles | $225,000 | 31 |
| Toronto | $210,000 | 16 |
| London | $199,724 | 16 |
| Denver | $190,000 | 17 |
Firmware Engineer vs Principal Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Firmware Engineer is $191,250 per year (typically $160,000–$214,625), versus $223,544 for Principal Engineer ($187,500–$276,000). That puts Principal Engineer about 17% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Firmware Engineer and Principal 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.