US startups from Series A to Series E post a median staff engineer base range of $200K–$260K, with a typical midpoint of $230K. Pay barely moves with funding stage: Series A and Series D both sit at a $230K midpoint. Where the role is based matters more: New York's midpoint is $260K, San Francisco's is $245K, and remote roles sit at $220K. Staff engineer candidates who booked a call with us asked for a median of $250K. At the top of the market, a quarter of startup ranges and four in ten late-stage ranges reach a $300K base, and the top tenth reach $350K–$400K.
This report is built from 260 staff and principal software engineering postings with pay at Series A to Series F startups (last 90 days, October 2026), compared with what 79 staff-level candidates told us they want when they booked a call with Recruiting from Scratch.
Median posted base range, open US roles first seen in the last 90 days.
| Stage | Median posted range | Typical midpoint | Paid postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| All Series A–F | $200K – $260K | $230K | 260 |
| Series A | $200K – $260K | $230K | 53 |
| Series B | $210K – $270K | $240K | 62 |
| Series C | $200K – $260K | $230K | 68 |
| Series D | $210K – $250K | $230K | 45 |
| Series E | $195K – $270K | $235K | 20 |
Series F has fewer than 20 paid postings and is not shown.
| Location | Median posted range | Typical midpoint | Paid postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | $225K – $285K | $260K | 41 |
| San Francisco Bay Area | $210K – $270K | $245K | 73 |
| Remote | $200K – $250K | $220K | 89 |
| Other US cities | $190K – $250K | $225K | 57 |
The medians above describe a typical startup range. The top of the market sits well above them. This table shows how high employers' ranges reach.
| Segment | Top of range, 75th / 90th percentile | Ranges reaching $300K+ | Ranges reaching $400K+ | Ranges starting at $300K+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Series A–E startups | $295K / $350K | 23% | 4% | 2% |
| Late-stage and public tech companies | $330K / $400K | 39% | 10% | 4% |
| Roles Recruiting from Scratch recruits for | $300K / $355K | 37% | 6% | 3% |
| Of those, roles at our signed clients | $300K / $375K | 45% | 8% | 4% |
| Specialty | Median posted range | Typical midpoint | Paid postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI / machine learning | $220K – $280K | $245K | 55 |
| Backend | $205K – $265K | $240K | 25 |
| General software | $200K – $270K | $235K | 83 |
| Infrastructure, platform and security | $195K – $260K | $225K | 58 |
AI and machine learning staff roles post the highest pay. Infrastructure, platform and security roles post the lowest. Full-stack, data and frontend staff roles each have fewer than 20 paid postings and are not shown.
At startups the two titles pay the same. Staff postings have a typical midpoint of $234K and principal postings $228K (174 and 29 paid postings). That gap is within the normal spread, so treat the titles as interchangeable when you set a band.
Across 79 staff-level candidates who booked a call with us in the last six months, the median target was $250K, and the middle half asked for $180K–$275K. That sits about $20K above the typical posted midpoint. Of the staff and principal candidates we speak with, 68% already hold a staff or principal title, 10% are engineering managers moving back to hands-on work, 29% have worked at a large tech company, and 12% have founded a company.
Across 305 staff job descriptions at Series A to Series E startups:
We placed eight staff-level engineers in the last 12 months, and we hired six engineers for Mercor in a single month. We work on contingency and send a shortlist of 3–5 vetted candidates. If you're hiring a forward deployed engineer as well, see our forward deployed engineer salary report, and for the hiring process see how to hire a staff engineer at a startup.
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A median posted base range of $200K–$260K across 260 US Series A to Series F postings with pay (October 2026). The typical midpoint is $230K.
Barely. Series A and Series D both have a typical midpoint of $230K, and Series B is $240K. City and specialty move pay more than stage does.
New York staff postings have a typical midpoint of $260K, San Francisco $245K, and remote roles $220K.
Some do, at the top of their ranges. 23% of staff ranges at Series A–E startups reach a $300K base and 4% reach $400K. At late-stage and public tech companies it is 39% and 10%, and 45% of the staff roles at our signed clients reach $300K. Only 2–4% of ranges start at $300K.
Not at startups. Principal postings have a typical midpoint of $228K and staff postings $234K, a gap within the normal spread.
Most postings mention equity, but only 3% state a percentage, so equity is usually set in the offer rather than published.
Postings: open US roles first seen in the last 90 days with staff, senior staff or principal software engineering titles. Startup figures cover companies whose last round was Series A to Series F (since 2022), with a known total raised that fits the stage and 3,000 or fewer employees. Titles must name software work, so hardware and other non-software engineering roles are excluded. Duplicate multi-city posts count once, at most two postings per company are included, and ranges stated as total compensation are excluded. Segments with fewer than 20 paid postings are not shown. Amounts are rounded to $5K. Posted ranges are base salary. Late-stage and public figures cover companies that have raised more than $3B, raised Series F or later, or are public, and are reported separately. "Roles Recruiting from Scratch recruits for" covers staff roles opened with our clients in the last 12 months (335 roles at 185 companies; 49 roles at 22 signed clients), reported in aggregate only.
Candidate asks: the midpoint of the range stated by 79 unique staff-level candidates when booking a call in the last six months, counted once per person. Answers stated as total compensation are excluded. Asks may include additional compensation such as equity or bonus.
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