Side-by-side distribution
Staff Engineer
$220,063
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 54.2%
- Live roles
- 4,821
Technical Product Manager
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 53.6%
- Live roles
- 1,029
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
Highest-paying jobs
Technical Program Manager
Technical Program Manager
Technical Program Manager, Product Software
Staff Technical Program Manager, Physical Design
Director, RISC-V Software TPM & Ops
Principal Technical Program Manager
Technical Program Manager, Architecture
Technical Program Manager, Hardware Chips Development
Technical Program Manager, Strategic Initiatives
Technical Program Manager, Applied API & Product
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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 62 |
|
Anthropic
|
$345,000 | 14 |
|
OpenAI
|
$271,000 | 14 |
|
Aurora Innovation
|
$221,500 | 14 |
Fluidstack
|
$213,000 | 12 |
CoreWeave
|
$207,000 | 9 |
Scout Motors
|
$155,000 | 9 |
| SA Scale AI | $209,150 | 8 |
Staff Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Dublin | $257,300 | 5 |
| Seattle | $250,000 | 154 |
| San Francisco | $244,573 | 626 |
| New York | $240,000 | 463 |
| Austin | $229,500 | 51 |
| Chicago | $227,250 | 44 |
| Los Angeles | $221,000 | 64 |
| Denver | $211,250 | 46 |
| Boston | $210,000 | 97 |
| London | $206,683 | 47 |
Technical Product Manager salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $215,000 | 129 |
| Austin | $213,000 | 17 |
| New York | $203,000 | 86 |
| Seattle | $203,000 | 51 |
| London | $179,671 | 4 |
| Denver | $173,568 | 10 |
| Boston | $171,563 | 28 |
| Los Angeles | $164,500 | 10 |
| Chicago | $147,500 | 3 |
| Toronto | $130,000 | 13 |
Staff Engineer vs Technical Product Manager: which pays more?
The median for Staff Engineer is $220,063 per year (typically $188,813–$250,000), versus $190,000 for Technical Product Manager ($155,000–$220,000). 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 Staff Engineer and Technical Product Manager 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.