Hiring a data engineer in San Francisco? Across 254 live data engineer postings in San Francisco, the market pays a $205K median salary (typically $179K–$250K). 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 254 active data engineer postings in San Francisco:
| Percentile | Base salary |
|---|---|
| 25th | $179K |
| Median | $205K |
| 75th | $250K |
Based on 139 data engineer postings in San Francisco that disclose pay. Base only — equity is typically on top.
San Francisco pays about 21% above the US median for this role ($170K).
The companies with the most live data engineer openings in San Francisco, with what each pays and screens for (medians shown only where at least 3 postings disclose pay):
| Company | Open data engineer roles | Median pay (disclosed) | Top skills |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meta | 8 | $185K | — |
| OpenAI | 8 | $339K | Python, OpenAI, Airflow |
| 7 | — | Python, Java, Data Pipelines | |
| xAI | 5 | $215K | Python, Java, Scala |
| Tesla | 5 | — | — |
| Anthropic | 5 | $363K | Python, Dbt, SQL |
| 4 | — | — | |
| Apple | 3 | — | Data Pipelines, Python, Spark |
| CoreWeave | 3 | $212K | Python, Java, Scala |
| NexHealth | 3 | $210K | Python, Snowflake, BigQuery |
Where the data engineer demand sits across funding stages, across the 150 companies with the most live openings in San Francisco:
| Stage | Companies hiring | Open roles | Median pay (disclosed) | Examples |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | 11 | 22 | $185K | Meta, Mithrl Inc, Fabrion |
| Series A | 8 | 10 | — | Uncountable, Hilbert's AI, Mariana Minerals |
| Series B | 13 | 20 | — | Instagram, Braintrust, Gridware |
| Series C | 11 | 14 | $220K | NexHealth, Notion, Windsurf |
| Series D+ | 36 | 69 | $218K | OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic |
| Public | 29 | 52 | $213K | Google, Tesla, Apple |
A further 42 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 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 254 live postings in San Francisco, a $205K median salary (typically $179K–$250K) — 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, data pipelines, Snowflake, dbt, AWS, Kafka), 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.
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