Side-by-side distribution
Privacy Officer
$233,650
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 42%
- Live roles
- 50
Software Engineer
$191,125
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.1%
- Live roles
- 15,329
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
Product & Privacy Counsel
Senior Product & Privacy Counsel
Senior Privacy Counsel
Privacy Counsel
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Growth
Intermediate Backend Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Software Engineer - Compliance
Software Engineer - EVM
Software Engineer - Solana
Software Engineer - Stellar
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
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 |
|
Nova Credit
|
$252,350 | 1 |
|
Verkada
|
$245,000 | 1 |
|
Nextdoor
|
$240,000 | 1 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 298 |
OpenAI
|
$309,000 | 113 |
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 103 |
Databricks
|
$214,700 | 98 |
Roblox
|
$269,270 | 83 |
Applied Intuition
|
$180,000 | 83 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 74 |
SpaceX
|
$137,500 | 66 |
Privacy Officer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $252,350 | 5 |
| San Francisco | $233,650 | 9 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 1,400 |
| Sydney | $224,060 | 8 |
| New York | $213,300 | 1,162 |
| Seattle | $212,500 | 416 |
| Austin | $197,000 | 137 |
| Boston | $186,050 | 225 |
| Los Angeles | $182,500 | 164 |
| Bangalore | $181,219 | 4 |
| Chicago | $178,500 | 137 |
| Atlanta | $173,875 | 58 |
Privacy Officer vs Software Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Privacy Officer is $233,650 per year (typically $206,254–$252,350), versus $191,125 for Software Engineer ($152,900–$225,000). That puts Privacy Officer about 22% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Privacy Officer 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.