Side-by-side distribution
Rust
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 26.2%
- Live roles
- 122
Staff Engineer
$220,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.1%
- Live roles
- 4,834
Highest-paying jobs
Software Engineer - Platform Infrastructure (Rust, C++)
Staff Rust SDK Engineer
Founding Rust Engineer
Software Engineer 3 - Linux/Bash/Python/Rust/NoSQL/Docker/Kubernetes/Helm
Software Engineer, Rust, Agent Runtime
Principal Rust Developer
Principal Rust Developer
New Grad Software Engineer (Backend Rust)
Senior Software Engineer (Backend Rust)
Software Engineer (Backend Rust)
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Backend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff React Native Engineer ($500k - 1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff Frontend Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Staff Software Engineer (Backend)
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Research Engineer (Senior Staff+), Safeguards Labs
Senior Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 3 |
|
N1
|
$190,000 | 3 |
|
Zscaler
|
$221,000 | 2 |
Certik
|
$141,000 | 2 |
Blockhouse
|
$85,500 | 2 |
|
xAI
|
$310,000 | 1 |
|
Twin Labs
|
$261,899 | 1 |
|
LiveKit
|
$250,000 | 1 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 110 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 77 |
|
Anthropic
|
$405,000 | 57 |
Crusoe
|
$231,000 | 45 |
Grafana Labs
|
$147,923 | 43 |
Archer
|
$192,500 | 37 |
Aurora Innovation
|
$231,500 | 34 |
Okta
|
$206,000 | 34 |
Rust salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $190,000 | 6 |
| San Francisco | $190,000 | 5 |
| Toronto | $127,500 | 3 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin | $257,300 | 5 |
| Seattle | $255,000 | 151 |
| San Francisco | $244,573 | 612 |
| New York | $240,000 | 466 |
| Chicago | $230,000 | 46 |
| Austin | $228,750 | 52 |
| Los Angeles | $220,000 | 63 |
| Boston | $212,500 | 97 |
| Denver | $210,500 | 45 |
| London | $206,683 | 48 |
Rust vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Rust is $190,000 per year (typically $155,000–$203,000), versus $220,000 for Staff Engineer ($189,700–$250,000). That puts Staff Engineer about 16% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Rust 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.