A $300K base is staff-level pay at the top of the startup market. 23% of staff engineer ranges at Series A to Series E startups reach $300K, and 4% reach $400K. At late-stage and public tech companies it is 39% and 10%. Senior engineer ranges rarely get there (7% at startups), and forward deployed engineer ranges sit in between (24%). Very few ranges start at $300K: 2–4% for staff roles. A $300K–$400K offer is the top of a range, paid for an engineer with the exact experience a company is short of.
This report is built from open US software engineering postings with pay (last 90 days, October 2026) at Series A to Series E startups and at late-stage and public tech companies, plus the roles Recruiting from Scratch recruits for.
| Role and segment | Paid postings | Ranges reaching $300K+ | Ranges reaching $400K+ | Top of range, 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Staff, Series A–E startups | 260 | 23% | 4% | $350K |
| Staff, late-stage and public tech | 245 | 39% | 10% | $400K |
| Forward deployed engineer, seed–Series B startups | 75 | 24% | 8% | $350K |
| Forward deployed engineer, late-stage and public tech | 53 | 32% | 4% | $330K |
| Senior, Series A–E startups | 469 | 7% | 1% | $275K |
| Senior, late-stage and public tech | 308 | 10% | 3% | $300K |
| Where | Ranges reaching $300K+ | Ranges reaching $400K+ | Top of range, 90th percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, late-stage and public | 79% | 21% | $445K |
| New York, startups | 46% | 5% | $375K |
| New York, late-stage and public | 45% | 15% | $400K |
| San Francisco, startups | 26% | 7% | $350K |
| Remote, startups | 11% | 0% | $300K |
San Francisco and New York are where $300K+ staff offers happen. Remote staff ranges almost never reach $400K.
At startups, 35% of AI and machine learning staff ranges and 32% of backend staff ranges reach $300K, and 12% of backend staff ranges reach $400K. Infrastructure, platform and security staff ranges reach $300K least often (12%). At late-stage and public companies, 43% of AI/ML and general software staff ranges reach $300K.
Across 335 staff engineering roles we recruited for in the last 12 months (185 companies), 37% of ranges reached $300K and 6% reached $400K. At our signed clients, 45% of staff ranges reached $300K. Senior roles we recruit for reach $300K far less often (13%).
In private recruiter briefs for senior and staff searches, startups paying at the top screen for:
For staff roles, budget the top of the range when you're competing for AI/ML or backend staff engineers in San Francisco or New York, or against well-funded late-stage companies.
We recruit for the roles that pay at the top of these ranges. 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. See the full staff engineer salary report, the senior software engineer salary report and the forward deployed engineer salary report.
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For staff roles, sometimes: 23% of staff engineer ranges at Series A to Series E startups reach a $300K base. For senior roles, rarely: 7% do.
Mostly late-stage and public tech companies: 10% of their staff ranges reach $400K, rising to 21% in San Francisco. At Series A to Series E startups, 4% of staff ranges reach $400K.
San Francisco late-stage and public tech companies: 79% of their staff ranges reach $300K. New York startups are next, at 46%.
Rarely. 11% of remote staff ranges at startups reach $300K, and none in our sample reach $400K.
A few. Only 2–4% of staff ranges start at $300K or more; most $300K offers come from the top of a wider range.
Postings: open US roles first seen in the last 90 days with staff, senior or forward deployed software engineering titles. Titles must name software work, so hardware and other non-software engineering roles are excluded. Startup figures cover companies whose last round was Series A to Series F (seed to Series B for forward deployed engineers), with a known total raised that fits the stage. 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. Duplicate multi-city posts count once, at most two postings per company are included, and ranges stated as total compensation are excluded. Shares count how often the top (or bottom) of a posted base range reaches each level. Segments with fewer than 20 paid postings are not shown. Amounts are rounded to $5K. "Roles we recruit for" covers roles opened with Recruiting from Scratch clients in the last 12 months, reported in aggregate only.
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