Side-by-side distribution
Full-Stack
$161,300
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 26.3%
- Live roles
- 4,570
Staff Engineer
$210,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 50.7%
- Live roles
- 7,605
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Founding Engineer - Full Stack
Fullstack Software Engineer, Agent Platform
Full Stack Engineer, Fleet Scheduling
Full-Stack Engineer, ChatGPT Education & Learning
Staff+ Fullstack Software Engineer, Safeguards Engineering
Staff+ Software Engineer, Full-stack
Staff+ Software Engineer, Enterprise (Full Stack)
Lead / Staff Full-Stack Software Engineer - Console Experience
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, Multi-Agent Scaling
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$142,400 | 43 |
|
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 25 |
CACI
|
$139,950 | 25 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$135,200 | 22 |
GDIT
|
$168,000 | 19 |
Affirm
|
$183,000 | 15 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 15 |
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 14 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Northrop Grumman
|
$210,750 | 258 |
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 126 |
|
Anthropic
|
$402,500 | 96 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 71 |
Crusoe
|
$235,000 | 51 |
GEICO
|
$182,500 | 47 |
| AD Analog Devices | $168,305 | 44 |
General Motors
|
$236,000 | 36 |
Full-Stack salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $216,808 | 166 |
| Seattle | $202,500 | 38 |
| New York | $195,000 | 169 |
| Austin | $180,000 | 25 |
| Boston | $174,375 | 42 |
| Los Angeles | $170,000 | 27 |
| London | $156,168 | 14 |
| Chicago | $153,675 | 24 |
| Atlanta | $152,350 | 19 |
| Denver | $150,000 | 17 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| London | $274,386 | 46 |
| Seattle | $256,000 | 250 |
| San Francisco | $254,500 | 739 |
| New York | $252,500 | 539 |
| Berlin | $227,311 | 11 |
| Los Angeles | $223,000 | 98 |
| Boston | $219,375 | 93 |
| Austin | $206,675 | 101 |
| Atlanta | $206,250 | 29 |
| Denver | $205,000 | 79 |
Full-Stack vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Full-Stack is $161,300 per year (typically $127,728–$200,000), versus $210,000 for Staff Engineer ($176,425–$245,000). That puts Staff Engineer about 30% 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.