Side-by-side distribution
Frontend Engineer
$182,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34%
- Live roles
- 965
Staff Engineer
$222,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 53.4%
- Live roles
- 5,036
Highest-paying jobs
Site Reliability Engineer - Frontend
Staff Frontend Engineer ($400k - $500k salary)
Staff / Principal Frontend Software Engineer
Principal Software Engineer, Frontend - Design Systems
Software Engineer, Frontend
Senior Software Engineer, UI
Frontend AI Principal Engineer - Cortex Code
Staff Software Engineer, Frontend
Frontend Engineer
Principal Frontend Software Engineer, Connections
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff React Native Engineer ($500k - 1.5m salary)
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Staff Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Air Apps
|
$60,559 | 11 |
|
Roblox
|
$268,610 | 8 |
Harvey
|
$241,700 | 8 |
Sift Stack, Inc.
|
$192,500 | 8 |
|
Snowflake
|
$243,750 | 5 |
Reddit
|
$228,950 | 5 |
Verkada
|
$225,000 | 5 |
Sigma Computing
|
$230,000 | 4 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 106 |
|
Anthropic
|
$425,000 | 80 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 76 |
Crusoe
|
$232,500 | 49 |
Grafana Labs
|
$147,975 | 39 |
|
Harvey
|
$275,000 | 35 |
Okta
|
$175,200 | 34 |
Relativity Space
|
$205,000 | 33 |
Frontend Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $208,000 | 3 |
| San Francisco | $205,500 | 73 |
| New York | $201,150 | 64 |
| Boston | $200,000 | 9 |
| Seattle | $189,000 | 10 |
| London | $171,448 | 6 |
| Chicago | $165,000 | 3 |
| Toronto | $153,750 | 13 |
| Los Angeles | $134,531 | 6 |
| Berlin | $102,373 | 4 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $262,500 | 173 |
| London | $257,000 | 50 |
| New York | $250,000 | 493 |
| San Francisco | $249,500 | 647 |
| Austin | $229,000 | 47 |
| Chicago | $227,500 | 45 |
| Los Angeles | $223,000 | 59 |
| Boston | $219,375 | 84 |
| Denver | $212,500 | 57 |
| Toronto | $198,500 | 130 |
Frontend Engineer vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Frontend Engineer is $182,500 per year (typically $139,525–$220,000), versus $222,000 for Staff Engineer ($189,950–$257,913). That puts Staff Engineer about 22% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Frontend Engineer and Staff 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.