By Recruiting from Scratch · Updated monthly · Last updated September 2026
Data: live engineering job postings tracked by Recruiting from Scratch (deduplicated by firm and title, internships excluded) + U.S. Department of Labor H-1B wage filings, FY2025–FY2026. All figures are base salary. Bonus and equity are paid on top and are covered in the structure section below.
The best software engineers in the U.S. now choose between three very different pay models: hedge funds and trading firms (base plus a large discretionary bonus), AI labs (high base plus equity), and big tech (base plus RSUs). Where they live changes the choice. New York is a fund town that AI labs are now recruiting into, San Francisco is an AI-lab town where funds barely post, and Chicago is almost entirely a trading-firm market.
This guide puts the three segments side by side in each city, using the filings and postings we track, so hiring managers and engineers can see the real market rather than anecdotes.
| City | Segment | Distinct engineering roles open | City-only roles | Median posted base range | H-1B median filed base (software engineers) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New York | Hedge funds & trading firms | 195 | 153 | $175K–$225K | $210K → $260K (119 filings) |
| New York | AI labs | 194 | 19 | $320K–$405K | $300K → $320K (11 filings) |
| New York | Big tech | 325 | 285 | $172K–$175K | $184K → $186K (1,122 filings) |
| San Francisco Bay | AI labs | 584 | 391 | $266K–$405K | $260K → $320K (115 filings) |
| San Francisco Bay | Big tech | 1,775 | 1,741 | $170K–$183K | $186K → $199K (8,092 filings) |
| San Francisco Bay | Hedge funds & trading firms | 15 | 13 | $238K–$265K | too few filings to report |
| Chicago | Hedge funds & trading firms | 106 | 76 | $175K–$250K | $150K → $185K (12 filings) |
| Chicago | Big tech | 14 | 10 | $124K–$179K | $155K → $156K (50 filings) |
"City-only" roles list only that city; the rest are open to several cities. Posted ranges use postings that disclose pay. H-1B figures are the median low and high end of the filed wage range. Big-tech posting counts reflect the boards we track, not total big-tech hiring.
Who is in each segment. Hedge funds and trading firms in this data include Point72, Two Sigma, Jane Street, Tower Research Capital, Jump Trading, DRW, IMC Trading, Virtu Financial and Old Mission Capital. AI labs include OpenAI, Anthropic, Scale AI, xAI and Cohere. Big tech includes Google, Meta, Apple and Amazon. Firms are named as market data only.
New York is a fund market that AI labs are recruiting into. Hedge funds and trading firms have 195 engineering roles open to New York candidates, and 153 of those roles are New York-only. AI labs list 194 roles New York engineers can apply for, but only 19 roles are New York-only; the rest list New York alongside San Francisco or Seattle. On base, AI labs post higher ($320K–$405K vs $175K–$225K). Funds answer with bonus.
San Francisco is an AI-lab market. AI labs have 584 distinct engineering roles open in the Bay Area, 391 of them Bay Area-only, with a median posted range of $266K–$405K and a 90th-percentile filed base of $460K. Funds post just 15 roles there. For a Bay Area engineer, a fund offer almost always means New York or Chicago.
Chicago is a trading-firm market. Funds and prop shops have 106 engineering roles open in Chicago, with DRW, IMC Trading, Chicago Trading Company, Jump Trading and Old Mission Capital the most active. Big tech has only 14 roles there in our tracking. Funds set the ceiling, and a lower cost of living stretches it further.
| Segment | Base | The big variable | What to ask for in an offer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hedge funds & multi-strategy funds | Competitive, often below AI labs | Discretionary annual bonus, frequently the larger share of total pay; year-one bonus often guaranteed for experienced hires | The guarantee amount, deferral terms, non-compete / garden-leave length |
| Proprietary trading firms | Competitive | Profit-linked bonus tied to firm and desk performance | How bonus is determined, sign-on and buyout of unvested pay |
| AI labs | Highest posted base in every city we track | Equity (stock, profit units or options) and tender-offer liquidity | Equity value at the current valuation, vesting, liquidity windows |
| Big tech | Lowest of the three in our data | RSUs plus annual refreshers | Refresh cadence and level at hire |
Funds disclose base ranges only because New York and California law requires it, and many post a single legal-minimum figure. That is why this guide pairs postings with federal wage filings: filings show what firms actually commit to paying, and many state both a low and a high end.
If you are hiring at a fund, you are competing with AI labs for the same candidates, even in New York. The engineers most in demand — low-latency C++, trading and ML infrastructure, research engineering — get AI-lab recruiters in their inbox every week. What wins:
Before you start a search, check your band against the filed ranges above — a band set against big-tech numbers will lose candidates to both funds and labs.
What candidates should know: compare offers over four years, not one. A fund's guaranteed first-year bonus can make its year-one number the highest; an AI lab's equity can overtake it if the company keeps growing; big tech is the most predictable. Ask every employer for the full structure in writing, and know your non-compete terms before you sign a fund offer.
Recruiting from Scratch is a technical recruiting firm with 300+ engineering placements, a 29-day average time to hire (versus a 49-day industry benchmark), and pay data from 1M+ job postings and federal filings. We recruit engineers for hedge funds, trading firms, AI labs and top startups, and we know what each is offering the same candidates.
City guides: Best Hedge Fund & Quant Recruiting Firms in New York · AI Engineer Recruiting Firms in San Francisco · Trading Firm Recruiters in Chicago
Do AI labs pay more than hedge funds?
On base salary, yes, in every city we track. AI-lab software engineers in New York file a median base of $300K–$320K versus $210K–$260K at funds. Funds typically close the gap with a discretionary bonus, and AI labs add equity.
Which city pays engineers the most?
On base, San Francisco AI labs have the highest ceiling (90th-percentile filed base of $460K). For fund roles, New York has both the most roles and the highest filed base.
Do hedge funds hire engineers in San Francisco?
Very few: we track 15 fund engineering roles in the Bay Area, versus 195 open to New York and 106 in Chicago.
Is big tech still competitive for top engineers?
Big tech remains the largest employer by volume, but its base sits below both funds and AI labs in our data ($184K–$186K median filed base for New York software engineers).
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