Hiring a data engineer in San Francisco? Across 241 live data engineer postings in San Francisco, the market pays a $215K median salary (typically $180K–$262K). 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 data engineer builds and maintains the data pipelines, warehouses, and infrastructure the business runs on. Hiring one in San Francisco means competing with the companies below.
What employers actually screen for, aggregated across 241 active data engineer postings in San Francisco:
A sample of the companies with live data engineers openings in San Francisco:
| Company | Actively hiring |
|---|---|
| OpenAI | data engineers in San Francisco |
| data engineers in San Francisco | |
| Roblox | data engineers in San Francisco |
| Tesla | data engineers in San Francisco |
| Whatnot | data engineers in San Francisco |
| data engineers in San Francisco | |
| xAI | data engineers in San Francisco |
| Anthropic | data engineers in San Francisco |
| NexHealth | data engineers in San Francisco |
| Broccoli AI | data engineers in San Francisco |
| Mercor | data engineers in San Francisco |
| Neon Redwood | data engineers in San Francisco |
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 data 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 data engineer builds and maintains the data pipelines, warehouses, and infrastructure the business runs on.
What salary does a data engineer in San Francisco command in 2026?Across 241 live postings in San Francisco, a $215K median salary (typically $180K–$262K) — base only; equity is typically on top. Most postings expect 5+ years of experience.
What should you look for when hiring a data engineer?Depth in the skills these postings require (Python, SQL, Airflow, Snowflake, data pipelines, dbt, Kafka, BigQuery), plus pipeline and warehouse experience, strong SQL, and distributed-data fluency. Recruiting from Scratch sends a shortlist of 3–5 genuinely qualified candidates, not resume volume.
How does Recruiting from Scratch hire data engineers?On a contingency model — no retainer, no upfront cost, pay only on a hire — with a 29-day average time to hire (industry average 49 days), a 90-day replacement guarantee, and named hires at companies like Decagon and Mercor.
Recruiting from Scratch also publishes salary benchmarks and recruiting-firm rankings for data engineers.
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