Side-by-side distribution
Robotics
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 43.8%
- Live roles
- 381
Staff Engineer
$220,063
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.2%
- Live roles
- 4,821
Highest-paying jobs
Lead Safety Engineer, Robotics
Machine Learning Engineer, Distributed Data Systems - Robotics
Firmware Engineer, Robotics
Software Engineer, Distributed Data Systems - Robotics
Inference Engineer, Robotics
Electrical Engineer, Robotics
Staff Robotics Engineer / Tech Lead – Whole-Body Control & Robot Learning
Software Engineer: Robotics Controls
Software Engineer: ML Robotics Systems
Staff Robotics Software Engineer, Air Vehicle Autonomy
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Backend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Frontend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff React Native Engineer ($500k - 1.5m salary)
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Research Engineer (Senior Staff+), Safeguards Labs
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 53 |
Field Ai
|
$185,000 | 9 |
|
OpenAI
|
$370,000 | 7 |
| SA Skild AI | $200,000 | 7 |
Neuralink
|
$155,750 | 6 |
DoorDash USA
|
$207,500 | 5 |
Intrinsic
|
$174,050 | 5 |
Agility Robotics
|
$215,750 | 4 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 111 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 77 |
|
Anthropic
|
$405,000 | 57 |
Crusoe
|
$231,000 | 45 |
Grafana Labs
|
$147,923 | 45 |
Aurora Innovation
|
$231,500 | 40 |
Archer
|
$192,500 | 37 |
Okta
|
$206,000 | 34 |
Robotics salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | $222,000 | 13 |
| New York | $214,750 | 4 |
| Seattle | $214,750 | 6 |
| Austin | $212,000 | 9 |
| San Francisco | $206,000 | 36 |
| Denver | $150,000 | 3 |
| Los Angeles | $131,250 | 6 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin | $257,300 | 5 |
| Seattle | $250,000 | 154 |
| San Francisco | $245,000 | 625 |
| New York | $239,700 | 466 |
| Austin | $228,750 | 52 |
| Chicago | $227,250 | 44 |
| Los Angeles | $221,000 | 64 |
| Denver | $210,500 | 47 |
| Boston | $210,000 | 97 |
| London | $206,683 | 47 |
Robotics vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Robotics is $200,000 per year (typically $170,250–$222,000), versus $220,063 for Staff Engineer ($188,813–$250,000). That puts Staff Engineer about 10% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Robotics and Staff 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.