Principal Engineer salaries in San Francisco.
What Principal Engineer roles in San Francisco pay, from live listings on JobsRadar.
Compare with anotherMedian salary
$280,000
per year · annualized USD
Typical range
$235k – $315.9k
25th–75th percentile
Disclosing pay
77.7%
73 of 94 roles
Live roles
94
open right now
Salary trend
median · annualized USDSalary distribution
annualized USD · disclosed rolesHighest-paying jobs
Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Delivery
Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Software Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Software Engineer, Enterprise Technology Vertical
Principal Engineer, Autonomy
Principal Engineer, Big Data Platform
Principal Engineer, AI Platform
Principal Software Engineer, Codex Cyber
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| LS Lila Sciences | $276,000 | 6 |
|
OpenAI
|
$455,500 | 5 |
|
Pinterest
|
$371,088 | 5 |
Databricks
|
$308,725 | 5 |
Pragmatike
|
$300,000 | 5 |
Crusoe
|
$300,000 | 3 |
Cloudflare
|
$261,500 | 3 |
Armada
|
$260,550 | 3 |
See every Principal Engineer role
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How much do Principal Engineer roles in San Francisco pay?
The median salary for Principal Engineer roles in San Francisco is $280,000 per year. Most pay falls between $235,000 (25th percentile) and $315,875 (75th percentile), with the broader 10th–90th percentile band running from $209,980 to $402,740.
These figures are computed live from 94 active Principal Engineer roles in San Francisco on JobsRadar, of which 73 (77.7%) publish a salary range. Pay is normalized to annualized USD so roles can be compared on equal terms; the highest-paying roles listed above show their original posted currency. Numbers refresh every few hours as new roles are posted and older ones close.
Employers currently hiring well-paid Principal Engineer roles in San Francisco include Pinterest, OpenAI and AeroVect.
Salary transparency varies by employer and region, so the disclosing share above reflects only roles that publish pay — not every open position. Use it as a directional benchmark rather than an exact offer.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the average Principal Engineer salary in San Francisco?
- The median is $280,000 per year, with most pay between $235,000 and $315,875 (25th–75th percentile), based on 73 live listings that disclose pay on JobsRadar.
- What is the Principal Engineer salary range in San Francisco?
- Pay ranges from about $209,980 to $402,740 per year (10th–90th percentile) around a median of $280,000. Figures are annualized USD from live listings, refreshed every few hours.