Side-by-side distribution
Help Desk
$67,123
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 37.1%
- Live roles
- 415
Sales Engineer
$161,950
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.4%
- Live roles
- 1,693
Highest-paying jobs
IT Support Specialist
Sr. IT Operations Specialist - Corporate Events & Executive Support
Senior IT Infrastructure Support Specialist-ICAM & PKI
IT Support Specialist
Manager, Senior Application Specialist - IT Lending Support
IT End User Support Specialist
IT End User Support Specialist
IT Support Specialist -Cleared
IT Support Specialist
Sr IT Desktop Support Specialist
Highest-paying jobs
Principal Sales Systems Engineer
Field Sales Engineer
Full Stack Software Engineer, Sales Platform
SLED Sales Engineer Central Texas
Principal Network Sales Engineer
Principal Network Sales Engineer – Service Provider
Sr. Sales Systems Engineer
Pre-Sales Systems Engineer - SLED (South Dakota)
Pre-Sales Systems Engineer - Higher Education and State Government (Sacramento/San Francisco, CA)
Senior Pre-Sales Engineer - HPE Networking
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
GDIT
|
$69,992 | 15 |
Centene
|
$78,593 | 4 |
Washington University in St. Louis
|
$61,942 | 4 |
| AT AT&T | $59,800 | 4 |
| BI Beth Israel Lahey Health | $59,280 | 4 |
|
Astreya
|
$109,762 | 3 |
| UL Universal Logistics Holdings | $41,600 | 3 |
|
CACI
|
$107,450 | 2 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
CaptiveAire
|
$85,000 | 36 |
Zscaler
|
$188,063 | 28 |
Cohesity
|
$209,475 | 20 |
Samsara
|
$127,190 | 18 |
Datadog
|
$173,500 | 16 |
Everpure
|
$176,750 | 14 |
|
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
|
$244,500 | 13 |
|
Sierra
|
$230,000 | 12 |
Help Desk salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $110,000 | 3 |
| New York | $86,212 | 10 |
| Austin | $76,000 | 3 |
| Seattle | $70,512 | 3 |
| Los Angeles | $69,000 | 5 |
| Chicago | $54,532 | 6 |
Sales Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Atlanta | $230,000 | 20 |
| San Francisco | $217,034 | 60 |
| Singapore | $210,888 | 3 |
| Los Angeles | $187,950 | 9 |
| Seattle | $184,150 | 16 |
| New York | $180,000 | 81 |
| Boston | $178,375 | 24 |
| Chicago | $175,175 | 16 |
| Austin | $166,386 | 20 |
| Toronto | $155,193 | 6 |
Help Desk vs Sales Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Help Desk is $67,123 per year (typically $55,215–$79,760), versus $161,950 for Sales Engineer ($119,140–$205,667). That puts Sales Engineer about 141% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Help Desk and Sales 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.