Side-by-side distribution
Surgeon
$324,171
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 20.2%
- Live roles
- 124
Tech Lead
$185,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.3%
- Live roles
- 2,594
Highest-paying jobs
Oral Surgeon
Orthopaedic Surgeon | Staff Specialist | 0.5 FTE
Orthopedic Spine Surgeon - Mesa, AZ
Oral Surgeon Opportunity - Central New York
Orthopaedic Surgeon | Regional WA
Mohs Surgeon with Partnership-Shareholder Track
Part-time Mohs Surgeon / Dermatologist
Mohs Surgeon - Dermatologist
Mohs Surgeon with Shareholder Track
Breast Surgeon
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Business Development Lead - Retail Tech & Software Services
Lead Software Engineer (Backend)
Customer Engineering Lead
Technical Lead, Safety Research
Lead Security Engineer
Data Engineering Lead
RISC-V AI / HPC & Agentic Software Engineering Lead
Staff Engineer, Emulation Technical Lead
Technical Lead Manager, Data Engineering, Trust & Safety
Lead Machine Learning Inference Engineer, Advertising
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Greenlife Healthcare Staffing
|
$350,000 | 4 |
|
Oral Surgery Partners
|
$225,000 | 4 |
|
Platinum Dermatology Partners - Physicians
|
$450,000 | 3 |
|
HealthOp Solutions
|
$300,000 | 3 |
|
Mediix
|
$569,244 | 2 |
|
Leading Edge Specialized Dentistry
|
$475,000 | 2 |
| PH Pulse Healthcare | $256,818 | 2 |
Bond Vet
|
$247,500 | 2 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$170,000 | 33 |
STR
|
$198,250 | 26 |
Motional
|
$237,500 | 21 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$197,750 | 21 |
Fluidstack
|
$275,000 | 19 |
Scout Motors
|
$176,250 | 16 |
Relativity Space
|
$170,000 | 15 |
|
OpenAI
|
$338,750 | 14 |
Surgeon salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| New York | $350,000 | 6 |
Tech Lead salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Austin | $266,500 | 24 |
| San Francisco | $238,500 | 141 |
| Seattle | $234,225 | 34 |
| New York | $224,000 | 100 |
| Boston | $212,500 | 51 |
| Atlanta | $190,000 | 13 |
| Denver | $182,000 | 16 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 19 |
| Toronto | $167,673 | 24 |
| Chicago | $166,000 | 26 |
Surgeon vs Tech Lead: which pays more?
The median for Surgeon is $324,171 per year (typically $247,500–$450,000), versus $185,000 for Tech Lead ($152,500–$223,683). That puts Surgeon about 75% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Surgeon and Tech Lead 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.