Side-by-side distribution
Privacy Officer
$232,507
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 36.5%
- Live roles
- 52
Research Scientist
$214,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 52.8%
- Live roles
- 386
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
Highest-paying jobs
Research Scientist, Interpretability
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Personality and Model Behavior
Research Engineer/Research Scientist - Personal AGI, North Stars
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training)
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Personal AGI-Model Experience
Research Engineer / Research Scientist -Personal AGI, Proactivity
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens
Staff / Principal Research Scientist - USA
Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment
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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anthropic
|
$402,500 | 11 |
Anduril Industries
|
$206,250 | 10 |
Astera Institute
|
$225,000 | 7 |
|
OpenAI
|
$425,000 | 6 |
Waabi
|
$212,750 | 6 |
| SA Scale AI | $243,000 | 5 |
Nuro
|
$229,900 | 5 |
World Labs
|
$300,000 | 4 |
Privacy Officer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $233,650 | 5 |
| San Francisco | $233,650 | 9 |
Research Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $291,650 | 11 |
| Boston | $275,000 | 8 |
| San Francisco | $265,000 | 66 |
| New York | $243,000 | 38 |
| Toronto | $212,000 | 8 |
| London | $204,149 | 10 |
| Los Angeles | $80,000 | 3 |
Privacy Officer vs Research Scientist: which pays more?
The median for Privacy Officer is $232,507 per year (typically $206,649–$249,000), versus $214,750 for Research Scientist ($173,725–$275,000). That puts Privacy Officer about 8% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Privacy Officer 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.