Side-by-side distribution
Investment Banking
$206,250
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.8%
- Live roles
- 23
Principal Engineer
$223,100
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 45.9%
- Live roles
- 1,769
Highest-paying jobs
Investment Banker II
Investment Banker I
Associate - Investment Banking - Los Angeles
Investment Banking, Vice President & Associate, Consumer & Retail
Investment Banking, Associate, M&A
Investment Banking, Associate, Private Capital Advisory
Investment Banking, Senior Analyst/Associate, DCM
Analyst - Investment Banking - Los Angeles
Highest-paying jobs
Principal Software Engineer
Distinguished Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Principal Engineer (Payments)
Principal Engineer
Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Delivery
Principal Research Engineer, Model Training & Post-Training
Principal Engineer, Agentic AI Systems
Staff / Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Serving - USA
Principal Engineer, AI Platform
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| BT BTIG | $185,000 | 4 |
|
OffDeal
|
$486,250 | 2 |
|
Ducera Partners - Experienced Hires
|
$175,000 | 2 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Roblox
|
$320,145 | 41 |
| AL Astera Labs | $207,500 | 22 |
Motional
|
$285,000 | 19 |
Elastic
|
$141,686 | 19 |
| SE Sezzle | $111,000 | 16 |
Snowflake
|
$321,750 | 12 |
Anduril Industries
|
$256,000 | 12 |
STR
|
$244,500 | 12 |
Investment Banking salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $206,250 | 6 |
Principal Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $276,000 | 67 |
| New York | $262,000 | 56 |
| Boston | $255,500 | 42 |
| Austin | $232,500 | 9 |
| Seattle | $231,500 | 33 |
| Chicago | $228,075 | 16 |
| Los Angeles | $225,000 | 31 |
| Toronto | $204,126 | 18 |
| London | $191,448 | 15 |
| Denver | $190,000 | 17 |
Investment Banking vs Principal Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Investment Banking is $206,250 per year (typically $176,250–$228,750), versus $223,100 for Principal Engineer ($188,116–$276,000). That puts Principal Engineer about 8% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Investment Banking and Principal 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.