Principal Engineer
$168,500
median · per year, annualized USD
Median over time
▼ -23.2%
$219,500
$168,500
$130.3k
25th
$168.5k
Median
$216.3k
75th
$111.8k
$275k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th
Full range $13.8k – $600k · outliers off-axis
- Disclosing
- 47.8%
- Live roles
- 6,470
📊
Pick a role above to fill this side.
Highest-paying jobs
Principal Software Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Principal Research Engineer, Model Training & Post-Training
Principal Engineer, Agentic AI Systems
Distinguished Engineer - Servicing Tech
Principal Sales Systems Engineer
Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Software Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Staff / Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Inference - USA
Principal Field Application Engineer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Northrop Grumman
|
$129,500 | 1,040 |
Elastic
|
$123,105 | 60 |
Roblox
|
$320,145 | 47 |
Hewlett Packard Enterprise
|
$260,500 | 47 |
| AL Astera Labs | $209,000 | 41 |
Leidos
|
$184,325 | 40 |
Blue Origin
|
$219,831 | 38 |
Draper
|
$170,000 | 38 |
Principal Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $266,000 | 99 |
| Seattle | $244,000 | 97 |
| New York | $231,050 | 127 |
| Los Angeles | $230,000 | 51 |
| Atlanta | $228,000 | 23 |
| Boston | $222,000 | 75 |
| Denver | $203,549 | 44 |
| Chicago | $200,850 | 39 |
| Austin | $200,000 | 43 |
| Berlin | $159,275 | 3 |