Side-by-side distribution
Software Engineer
$173,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 30.5%
- Live roles
- 35,762
Staff Engineer
$210,200
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 50.8%
- Live roles
- 7,406
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Software Engineer, ML Networking
Senior Software Engineer
Lead Software Engineer
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff+ Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Staff Software Engineer, Claude Code
Staff Software Engineer, Environments Infrastructure
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Staff Full Stack Engineer ($500k - $1.5m salary)
Senior Staff React Native Engineer ($500k - 1.5m salary)
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra
Staff Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure
Staff Software Engineer, Code RL
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Northrop Grumman
|
$136,000 | 341 |
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 292 |
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 185 |
Leidos
|
$122,275 | 162 |
OpenAI
|
$355,500 | 142 |
CACI
|
$139,950 | 142 |
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 124 |
Blue Origin
|
$197,582 | 108 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Northrop Grumman
|
$210,200 | 260 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 106 |
|
Anthropic
|
$425,000 | 80 |
Databricks
|
$226,000 | 76 |
General Motors
|
$239,650 | 53 |
Crusoe
|
$232,500 | 49 |
GEICO
|
$172,500 | 49 |
| AD Analog Devices | $160,697 | 41 |
Software Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Sydney | $431,406 | 5 |
| San Francisco | $225,000 | 1,573 |
| New York | $212,225 | 1,430 |
| Seattle | $202,000 | 609 |
| Boston | $185,000 | 259 |
| Los Angeles | $183,075 | 228 |
| London | $181,500 | 135 |
| Austin | $171,700 | 207 |
| Atlanta | $162,000 | 167 |
| Chicago | $161,000 | 217 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| London | $263,000 | 52 |
| Seattle | $253,250 | 227 |
| New York | $248,050 | 527 |
| San Francisco | $245,650 | 690 |
| Los Angeles | $223,000 | 81 |
| Boston | $219,366 | 90 |
| Austin | $210,135 | 108 |
| Denver | $210,000 | 65 |
| Singapore | $195,465 | 3 |
| Toronto | $193,250 | 166 |
Software Engineer vs Staff Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Software Engineer is $173,500 per year (typically $135,000–$215,000), versus $210,200 for Staff Engineer ($176,260–$244,475). That puts Staff Engineer about 21% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Software Engineer 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.