Side-by-side distribution
Postdoc
$72,754
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 59.5%
- Live roles
- 383
Research Scientist
$170,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 51.5%
- Live roles
- 818
Highest-paying jobs
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Physics Expert (PhD / Postdoc)
Postdoctoral Researcher, Post-Training and Continual Adaptation for Robotics
Postdoctoral Researcher, Human Aware Interaction Learning
Clinical Sciences FY27 Postdoctoral Fellow – Open Pool
Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Soil Security for Cotton Farming Systems
Postdoctoral Research Fellow/Research Fellow - Health Policy
Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Postdoctoral Researcher in Microwave and Antenna Engineering for CubeSat Applications
PostDoc – Machine Learning
Highest-paying jobs
Research Scientist / Research Engineer - Foundations, Search
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, RL Frontiers
Research Scientist, Interpretability
Staff+ Research Scientist, Multi-Agent
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training
[Expression of Interest] Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment - London
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training)
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Personalization
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Health
Research Engineer/Research Scientist- Personal AGI, Model Experience
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| NU Northeastern University | $72,754 | 39 |
The University of Texas at Austin
|
$65,000 | 27 |
| CS Colorado State University | $65,000 | 14 |
Cleveland Clinic
|
$63,480 | 13 |
University of British Columbia
|
$60,000 | 13 |
| MG Mass General Brigham | $76,465 | 11 |
| BI Beth Israel Lahey Health | $60,000 | 11 |
| UO University of Queensland | $99,516 | 10 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
The University of Texas at Austin
|
$48,000 | 19 |
|
Anthropic
|
$425,000 | 13 |
|
OpenAI
|
$440,000 | 12 |
Astera Institute
|
$177,500 | 11 |
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 10 |
UL Research Institutes
|
$128,747 | 10 |
MSD
|
$329,250 | 9 |
| SA Scale AI | $243,000 | 8 |
Postdoc salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $103,250 | 9 |
| New York | $78,000 | 12 |
| Boston | $72,754 | 48 |
| Austin | $62,131 | 8 |
Research Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| London | $275,000 | 9 |
| San Francisco | $267,500 | 85 |
| New York | $243,000 | 55 |
| Seattle | $216,900 | 20 |
| Toronto | $212,000 | 8 |
| Boston | $192,500 | 25 |
| Los Angeles | $187,500 | 3 |
| Chicago | $147,566 | 4 |
| Austin | $49,864 | 10 |
Postdoc vs Research Scientist: which pays more?
The median for Postdoc is $72,754 per year (typically $64,000–$83,025), versus $170,000 for Research Scientist ($115,506–$243,000). That puts Research Scientist about 134% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Postdoc and Research Scientist 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.