Side-by-side distribution
Full-Stack
$175,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 30.6%
- Live roles
- 2,765
Staff Engineer
$220,063
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.2%
- Live roles
- 4,821
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Forward Deployed Engineer, Full-Stack
Staff Full Stack Engineer ($300k - $500k salary)
Staff Software Engineer, Fullstack
Fullstack Engineer, Assesment
Fullstack Engineer, RL Environments
Staff+ Software Engineer, Full-stack
Software Engineer, Full Stack, Tinker
Software Engineer, Full Stack
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Backend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff React Native Engineer ($500k - 1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Frontend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Research Engineer (Senior Staff+), Safeguards Labs
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
OpenAI
|
$307,500 | 17 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$157,275 | 14 |
| TP Third-Party Job Posts | $155,000 | 14 |
Databricks
|
$208,913 | 10 |
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 8 |
Silver.dev
|
$96,000 | 7 |
| GR GRVTY | $200,000 | 6 |
Benchling
|
$189,028 | 6 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 115 |
|
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 77 |
|
Anthropic
|
$405,000 | 57 |
Crusoe
|
$231,000 | 45 |
Grafana Labs
|
$147,923 | 45 |
Aurora Innovation
|
$231,500 | 40 |
Archer
|
$192,500 | 36 |
Okta
|
$206,000 | 34 |
Full-Stack salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $210,000 | 173 |
| Seattle | $210,000 | 35 |
| New York | $204,125 | 180 |
| Austin | $180,900 | 12 |
| Denver | $176,900 | 3 |
| Boston | $172,950 | 33 |
| Chicago | $165,000 | 19 |
| Los Angeles | $160,000 | 21 |
| Atlanta | $152,500 | 7 |
| London | $137,697 | 19 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin | $257,300 | 5 |
| Seattle | $250,000 | 155 |
| San Francisco | $245,000 | 625 |
| New York | $240,000 | 461 |
| Austin | $232,250 | 48 |
| Chicago | $229,500 | 43 |
| Los Angeles | $222,000 | 63 |
| Denver | $211,250 | 46 |
| Boston | $210,000 | 97 |
| London | $206,683 | 47 |
Full-Stack vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Full-Stack is $175,000 per year (typically $140,000–$210,000), versus $220,063 for Staff Engineer ($188,813–$250,000). That puts Staff Engineer about 26% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Full-Stack 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.