Hiring a backend engineer in San Francisco? Across 407 live backend engineer postings in San Francisco, the market pays a $205K median salary (typically $175K–$233K). Recruiting from Scratch is the contingency technical recruiting firm for these hires — a 29-day average time to hire, 300+ placements, and a 2M+ candidate network.
A backend engineer designs and builds the server-side services, APIs, and data systems that power the product. Hiring one in San Francisco means competing with the companies below.
What employers actually screen for, aggregated across 407 active backend engineer postings in San Francisco:
| Percentile | Base salary |
|---|---|
| 25th | $175K |
| Median | $205K |
| 75th | $233K |
Based on 276 backend engineer postings in San Francisco that disclose pay. Base only — equity is typically on top.
San Francisco pays about 10% above the US median for this role ($187K).
Across the 233 backend engineer postings in San Francisco that spell out responsibilities:
The companies with the most live backend engineer openings in San Francisco, with what each pays and screens for (medians shown only where at least 3 postings disclose pay):
| Company | Open backend engineer roles | Median pay (disclosed) | Top skills |
|---|---|---|---|
| Verkada | 10 | $215K | Python, Go, PostgreSQL |
| Conversion | 9 | $250K | Go, Kafka, PostgreSQL |
| Lapel | 8 | — | TypeScript, React, Node.js |
| Tesla | 6 | — | — |
| VC | 6 | $180K | — |
| Clera | 6 | $160K | TypeScript, React, Next.js |
| Databricks | 5 | $226K | Spark, Databricks, Python |
| OpenAI | 5 | $308K | Python, OpenAI, Go |
| Altruist | 5 | $239K | Java, Spring, PostgreSQL |
| Endor Labs | 4 | $260K | Go, React, PostgreSQL |
Where the backend engineer demand sits across funding stages, across the 149 companies with the most live openings in San Francisco:
| Stage | Companies hiring | Open roles | Median pay (disclosed) | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 18 | 40 | $210K | Lapel, Clera, LiteLLM |
| Series A | 15 | 26 | $213K | Ellipsis Health, Cogent Security, FleetWorks Technology |
| Series B | 16 | 31 | $220K | Endor Labs, Sentra, Doss |
| Series C | 10 | 28 | $215K | Conversion, Meter, Lumafield |
| Series D+ | 34 | 76 | $215K | Verkada, Databricks, OpenAI |
| Public | 10 | 20 | $200K | Tesla, Coupang, Orchestra Bio |
A further 46 of those companies have no funding stage on file and are not shown above.
Recruiting from Scratch is a contingency technical recruiting firm — no retainer and no upfront cost, so you pay only when you make a hire. The process: align on the role and must-haves → a curated shortlist of 3–5 genuinely qualified backend engineers (not resume volume) → a 29-day average time to hire versus the 49-day industry average → a 90-day replacement guarantee. Backed by 300+ placements, a 2M+ candidate network, and named hires at companies like Decagon and Mercor.
A backend engineer designs and builds the server-side services, APIs, and data systems that power the product.
What salary does a backend engineer in San Francisco command in 2026?Across 407 live postings in San Francisco, a $205K median salary (typically $175K–$233K) — base only; equity is typically on top. Most postings expect 5+ years of experience.
What should you look for when hiring a backend engineer?Depth in the skills these postings require (Python, AWS, PostgreSQL, Go, GCP, Kubernetes, TypeScript, Java), plus distributed-systems and API-design experience, database fluency, and a bias for reliability. Recruiting from Scratch sends a shortlist of 3–5 genuinely qualified candidates, not resume volume.
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