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Seed startups pay a median of $196K across all roles in 2026, based on 8,473 active job postings. Salary range: $149K–$250K.
$196K median · $149K–$250K range · 8,473 active postings analyzed
| Role | Median |
|---|---|
| Staff Security | $600K |
| Staff AI/ML | $375K |
| Principal Legal | $350K |
| Principal AI/ML | $306K |
| Principal Engineering | $300K |
| Principal Finance | $300K |
| Staff Legal | $295K |
| Staff Sales | $294K |
| Stage | Median | |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | $196K ◀ | ████████████████ |
| Series A | $160K | █████████████ |
| Series B | $180K | ██████████████ |
| Series C | $194K | ███████████████ |
| Series D+ | $200K | ████████████████ |
| Public | $175K | ██████████████ |
Seed companies typically offer 0.1–1.0% equity. Options are standard; vesting is 4 years with a 1-year cliff.
Toast, · Orthogonal · Intent Inc · Stateful · Pin · Medley · Expert Intelligence · Vast.ai · Nuro · InRev · Pay-i · Consider · Clear Solar · Jack & Jill AI · Motional
The median salary at Seed startups is $196K in 2026, based on 8,473 active job postings analyzed by Recruiting from Scratch.
Seed companies typically offer 0.1–1.0% equity. Options are standard; vesting is 4 years with a 1-year cliff.
Among all stages, Seed companies pay a median of $196K. See the comparison table above for how this compares to earlier and Series A stage companies.
Salary data is drawn from 8,473 active job postings at Seed startups tracked by Recruiting from Scratch. Figures represent the median of posted salary maximums (annual USD only). Data updated regularly from our ATS sync pipeline.
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