Principal Engineer
$223,250
median · per year, annualized USD
Median over time
▲ +1.7%
$219,500
$223,250
$187.5k
25th
$223.3k
Median
$275.6k
75th
$143k
$321.8k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th
Full range $10k – $600k · outliers off-axis
- Disclosing
- 46.2%
- Live roles
- 1,771
📊
Pick a role above to fill this side.
Highest-paying jobs
Principal Software Engineer
Distinguished Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Principal Engineer (Payments)
Principal Engineer
Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Delivery
Principal Research Engineer, Model Training & Post-Training
Principal Engineer, Agentic AI Systems
Principal .NET Software Engineer - Cloud Payments Platform
Principal .NET Software Engineer- Cloud Payments Platform
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Roblox
|
$320,145 | 42 |
| AL Astera Labs | $207,500 | 21 |
Motional
|
$285,000 | 20 |
Elastic
|
$134,329 | 18 |
| SE Sezzle | $111,000 | 16 |
Anduril Industries
|
$256,000 | 13 |
Zscaler
|
$207,188 | 13 |
Snowflake
|
$321,750 | 12 |
Principal Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $282,500 | 70 |
| New York | $259,000 | 55 |
| Boston | $250,000 | 45 |
| Austin | $232,000 | 10 |
| Seattle | $231,500 | 33 |
| Chicago | $228,075 | 16 |
| Los Angeles | $225,000 | 31 |
| Toronto | $210,000 | 17 |
| London | $199,724 | 16 |
| Denver | $190,000 | 17 |