Side-by-side distribution
Principal Engineer
$168,713
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 47.3%
- Live roles
- 6,434
Software Engineer
$172,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 33.7%
- Live roles
- 32,568
Highest-paying jobs
Principal Software Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Principal Research Engineer, Model Training & Post-Training
Principal Engineer, Agentic AI Systems
Principal Software Engineer, Productivity
Principal Software Engineer, ChatGPT Education and Learning
Distinguished Engineer - Servicing Tech
Principal Sales Systems Engineer
Principal Software Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer
Senior Software Engineer (Database Reliability)
Frontend Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
Software Engineer, Research Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Northrop Grumman
|
$129,500 | 1,003 |
Elastic
|
$121,221 | 64 |
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
|
$260,500 | 51 |
Roblox
|
$320,145 | 50 |
Blue Origin
|
$262,223 | 44 |
Leidos
|
$184,325 | 42 |
| AL Astera Labs | $209,000 | 37 |
Draper
|
$170,000 | 36 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 332 |
|
Northrop Grumman
|
$135,858 | 268 |
|
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 183 |
SpaceX
|
$145,000 | 171 |
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$134,600 | 164 |
|
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 151 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 144 |
|
Blue Origin
|
$197,582 | 142 |
Principal Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $270,000 | 108 |
| Seattle | $261,800 | 101 |
| New York | $230,000 | 136 |
| Los Angeles | $225,000 | 53 |
| Boston | $223,750 | 76 |
| Atlanta | $222,438 | 26 |
| Austin | $214,475 | 44 |
| Chicago | $201,813 | 32 |
| Denver | $198,145 | 36 |
| Dublin | $162,261 | 5 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $230,000 | 1,608 |
| New York | $212,650 | 1,395 |
| Seattle | $209,750 | 684 |
| Los Angeles | $196,000 | 257 |
| Sydney | $195,000 | 3 |
| Austin | $186,500 | 209 |
| Boston | $186,050 | 289 |
| London | $180,443 | 146 |
| Denver | $179,375 | 217 |
| Atlanta | $168,210 | 133 |
Principal Engineer vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Principal Engineer is $168,713 per year (typically $131,359–$218,500), versus $172,500 for Software Engineer ($133,063–$215,000). That puts Software Engineer about 2% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Principal Engineer and Software 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.