Side-by-side distribution
Frontend Engineer
$181,642
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 1,051
Tech Lead
$185,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 2,594
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Frontend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Principal Front End Developer
Senior Frontend Engineer
Senior Frontend Engineer
Staff Frontend Engineer ($300k - $500k salary)
Staff / Principal Frontend Software Engineer
Principal Software Engineer, Frontend - Design Systems
Web Developer
Senior Software Engineer, UI
Frontend Engineer, Financial Web Platform
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Business Development Lead - Retail Tech & Software Services
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Customer Engineering Lead
Technical Lead, Safety Research
Lead Security Engineer
Data Engineering Lead
RISC-V AI / HPC & Agentic Software Engineering Lead
Staff Engineer, Emulation Technical Lead
Technical Lead Manager, Data Engineering, Trust & Safety
Lead Machine Learning Inference Engineer, Advertising
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Mindrift
|
$124,800 | 12 |
Roblox
|
$269,270 | 11 |
Air Apps
|
$61,110 | 10 |
Verkada
|
$220,000 | 7 |
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 6 |
PlayStation Global
|
$187,600 | 6 |
Harvey
|
$241,700 | 5 |
Sigma Computing
|
$230,000 | 4 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$170,000 | 33 |
STR
|
$197,000 | 27 |
Motional
|
$237,500 | 21 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$197,750 | 21 |
Fluidstack
|
$275,000 | 19 |
Scout Motors
|
$176,250 | 16 |
Relativity Space
|
$170,000 | 15 |
|
OpenAI
|
$338,750 | 14 |
Frontend Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $201,150 | 70 |
| San Francisco | $200,000 | 63 |
| Boston | $191,250 | 6 |
| Seattle | $184,250 | 14 |
| Los Angeles | $159,766 | 6 |
| Toronto | $134,418 | 15 |
| Singapore | $124,800 | 5 |
| Berlin | $101,594 | 4 |
| Dublin | $99,370 | 3 |
| London | $78,965 | 5 |
Tech Lead salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $266,500 | 24 |
| San Francisco | $238,000 | 142 |
| Seattle | $234,225 | 34 |
| New York | $224,000 | 100 |
| Boston | $212,500 | 51 |
| Atlanta | $190,000 | 13 |
| Denver | $182,000 | 16 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 19 |
| Toronto | $167,673 | 24 |
| Chicago | $166,000 | 26 |
Frontend Engineer vs Tech Lead: which pays more?
The median for Frontend Engineer is $181,642 per year (typically $134,531–$220,000), versus $185,000 for Tech Lead ($152,500–$223,683). That puts Tech Lead about 2% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Frontend Engineer and Tech Lead 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.