Side-by-side distribution
General Counsel
$263,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 61.1%
- Live roles
- 185
Platform Engineer
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.3%
- Live roles
- 4,041
Highest-paying jobs
Chief Legal Officer (CLO) ($1M-$5M salary)
General Counsel
Chief Legal Officer
Chief Legal Officer
Chief Legal Officer (Pacific Northwest or Hybrid) (964-SLS)
General Counsel
Deputy General Counsel
Associate General Counsel, Product & Commercial
Deputy General Counsel
Associate General Counsel, Hardware IP
Highest-paying jobs
Platform Engineer
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Software Engineer, Research Infrastructure
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Principal .NET Software Engineer - Cloud Payments Platform
Principal .NET Software Engineer- Cloud Payments Platform
Staff+ Software Engineer, Safeguards Infrastructure
SOC Emulation Engineer - Hardware Emulation Infrastructure
Infrastructure Engineer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
FutureSight
|
$5,988 | 10 |
| TT The Trade Desk | $214,050 | 4 |
Hadrian Automation
|
$312,500 | 3 |
| SA Scale AI | $297,900 | 3 |
Fireblocks
|
$257,000 | 3 |
Robinhood
|
$236,000 | 3 |
|
STR
|
$355,000 | 2 |
The New York Times
|
$290,000 | 2 |
Speechify
Nuro
Palantir
Databricks
Coinbase
Reddit
General Counsel salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $253,500 | 23 |
| New York | $250,000 | 37 |
| Los Angeles | $229,325 | 10 |
| Boston | $216,345 | 4 |
| Chicago | $214,050 | 7 |
| Austin | $180,000 | 3 |
Platform Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $230,000 | 417 |
| Seattle | $216,000 | 111 |
| New York | $210,000 | 325 |
| Austin | $202,500 | 40 |
| Los Angeles | $187,500 | 31 |
| Chicago | $187,500 | 21 |
| Boston | $185,000 | 64 |
| Toronto | $185,000 | 59 |
| Denver | $180,200 | 28 |
| Atlanta | $176,988 | 8 |
General Counsel vs Platform Engineer: which pays more?
The median for General Counsel is $263,750 per year (typically $214,050–$297,600), versus $195,000 for Platform Engineer ($166,525–$230,000). That puts General Counsel about 35% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so General Counsel and Platform 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.