The highest-paying engineering roles in 2026 are Director of Engineering, Head of Security / CISO, Staff Software Engineer, with median base salaries up to $295K. Based on public job postings.
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Work with us → Browse open roles| # | Role | Median base | SF median | Postings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Director of Engineering | $295K | $310K | 495 |
| 2 | Head of Security / CISO | $260K | $290K | 88 |
| 3 | Staff Software Engineer | $255K | $280K | 3,261 |
| 4 | Staff ML Engineer | $252K | $280K | 356 |
| 5 | Platform Engineer | $250K | $275K | 1,213 |
| 6 | Head of AI | $250K | $236K | 135 |
| 7 | ML / AI Engineer | $240K | $325K | 857 |
| 8 | Infrastructure Engineer | $240K | $275K | 204 |
| 9 | VP Data | $240K | $250K | 60 |
| 10 | Staff Security Engineer | $233K | $265K | 237 |
| 11 | Engineering Manager | $230K | $275K | 1,316 |
| 12 | Staff Data Engineer | $230K | $260K | 121 |
| 13 | Senior Infrastructure Engineer | $229K | $220K | 98 |
| 14 | Site Reliability Engineer | $226K | $295K | 230 |
| 15 | MLOps Engineer | $225K | $271K | 28 |
Figures are base salary only, from public job postings (2025–2026) — equity and bonus are separate. Methodology: median of disclosed USD annual salary bands; companies with at least 10 disclosed-salary postings.
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