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Series A startups pay a median of $160K across all roles in 2026, based on 2,455 active job postings. Salary range: $115K–$219K.
$160K median · $115K–$219K range · 2,455 active postings analyzed
| Role | Median |
|---|---|
| Principal People | $300K |
| Principal Legal | $296K |
| Principal Product | $294K |
| Design | $277K |
| Staff Sales | $275K |
| Staff Legal | $275K |
| Principal Finance | $274K |
| Legal | $273K |
| Stage | Median | |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | $196K | ████████████████ |
| Series A | $160K ◀ | █████████████ |
| Series B | $180K | ██████████████ |
| Series C | $194K | ███████████████ |
| Series D+ | $200K | ████████████████ |
| Public | $175K | ██████████████ |
Series A companies typically offer 0.05–0.5% equity for IC roles. Options with 4-year vesting are standard.
Unal · Archer56 · Ideally · Ingest · Volz · LendOS · Etched · W Labs · Sequence · AnySignal · Echo · GigaML · Giga ML · Jane · Amperesand
The median salary at Series A startups is $160K in 2026, based on 2,455 active job postings analyzed by Recruiting from Scratch.
Series A companies typically offer 0.05–0.5% equity for IC roles. Options with 4-year vesting are standard.
Among all stages, Series A companies pay a median of $160K. See the comparison table above for how this compares to Seed and Series B stage companies.
Salary data is drawn from 2,455 active job postings at Series A 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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