Principal Engineer salaries in San Francisco.
What Principal Engineer roles in San Francisco pay, from live listings on JobsRadar.
Compare with anotherMedian salary
$285,000
per year · annualized USD
Typical range
$238.2k – $319k
25th–75th percentile
Disclosing pay
79.5%
70 of 88 roles
Live roles
88
open right now
Salary trend
median · annualized USDSalary distribution
annualized USD · disclosed rolesHighest-paying jobs
Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Delivery
Principal Engineer, Online Systems
Principal Engineer, AI Platform
Senior / Principal Demo Engineer
Principal Software Engineer, Codex Cyber
Principal Software Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Software Engineer, Simulation
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| LS Lila Sciences | $276,000 | 6 |
Okta
|
$319,000 | 5 |
Databricks
|
$308,725 | 5 |
|
OpenAI
|
$418,500 | 4 |
Crusoe
|
$296,750 | 4 |
|
Pinterest
|
$392,497 | 3 |
CoreWeave
|
$265,000 | 3 |
Armada
|
$260,550 | 3 |
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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 $285,000 per year. Most pay falls between $238,150 (25th percentile) and $319,000 (75th percentile), with the broader 10th–90th percentile band running from $214,000 to $400,280.
These figures are computed live from 88 active Principal Engineer roles in San Francisco on JobsRadar, of which 70 (79.5%) 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, Intercom and OpenAI.
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.