Side-by-side distribution
Principal Engineer
$223,100
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 45.9%
- Live roles
- 1,769
Privacy Officer
$232,507
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 36.5%
- Live roles
- 52
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
Highest-paying jobs
Associate General Counsel, Product and Privacy
Director, Corporate Counsel - Privacy
Senior Privacy & AI Counsel, San Francisco, CA (Hybrid) (963-SLS)
Associate General Counsel, Privacy & Compliance
Senior Counsel, Privacy and Compliance
Associate General Counsel, Product & Privacy
Senior Product & Privacy Counsel
Senior Privacy Counsel
Privacy Counsel
Senior Counsel, Privacy and Regulatory
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Roblox
|
$320,145 | 42 |
| AL Astera Labs | $207,500 | 22 |
Motional
|
$285,000 | 19 |
Elastic
|
$134,329 | 18 |
| SE Sezzle | $111,000 | 16 |
Anduril Industries
|
$256,000 | 13 |
Snowflake
|
$321,750 | 12 |
STR
|
$244,500 | 12 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| SA Scale AI | $297,900 | 1 |
|
Okta
|
$285,000 | 1 |
|
Recursion
|
$280,830 | 1 |
|
Solutuslegal
|
$270,000 | 1 |
|
Neuralink
|
$253,000 | 1 |
|
Verkada
|
$245,000 | 1 |
|
Nextdoor
|
$240,000 | 1 |
|
Teleport
|
$239,000 | 1 |
Principal Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $282,500 | 70 |
| New York | $262,000 | 56 |
| Boston | $252,500 | 44 |
| Seattle | $232,188 | 32 |
| Austin | $232,000 | 10 |
| Chicago | $228,075 | 16 |
| Los Angeles | $225,000 | 31 |
| Toronto | $210,000 | 16 |
| London | $199,724 | 16 |
| Denver | $190,000 | 17 |
Privacy Officer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $257,240 | 4 |
| San Francisco | $233,650 | 9 |
Principal Engineer vs Privacy Officer: which pays more?
The median for Principal Engineer is $223,100 per year (typically $188,116–$276,000), versus $232,507 for Privacy Officer ($198,877–$249,000). That puts Privacy Officer about 4% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Principal Engineer and Privacy Officer 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.