Skip to content
BuildList

Staff & Principal salaries

What companies building the future pay, straight from their own job postings.

2,537 openings with posted pay · Updated Nov 1, 2026

Browse jobs
On this page

Find high-paying roles

Sorted by top of posted range

Staff / Principal

2,537 matching openings with posted pay
1
Staff Research Engineer, Multi-Agent Scaling

Anthropic · San Francisco, CA · Staff / Principal

$500k–$850k / year
2
Staff+ Research Scientist, Multi-Agent

Anthropic · San Francisco, CA · Staff / Principal

$500k–$850k / year
3
Pre-training Data Infrastructure Engineer

Anthropic · San Francisco, CA · Staff / Principal

$500k–$850k / year
4
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform

Anthropic · San Francisco, CA · Staff / Principal

$500k–$850k / year
5
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team

Anthropic · San Francisco, CA · Staff / Principal

$350k–$850k / year
6
Staff Software Engineer, Kubernetes Platform

Anthropic · United Kingdom · Staff / Principal

$436k–$650k / year
7
Staff Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure

Anthropic · United Kingdom · Staff / Principal

$436k–$650k / year
8
Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra

Anthropic · United Kingdom · Staff / Principal

$436k–$650k / year

Median base salary

$226k

2,537 openings with posted pay

Typical range

$193k–$267k

25th to 75th percentile

Across all 26,339 openings with posted pay, the median is $175k. Annual base salary. Equity and bonus excluded. Methodology

By experience level

All openings

Intern940 openings
Typical range $62k–$112k
$77k
Entry-Level1,845 openings
Typical range $63k–$123k
$91k
Mid-Level5,974 openings
Typical range $116k–$174k
$145k
Senior11,165 openings
Typical range $160k–$230k
$192k
Staff / Principal2,537 openings
Typical range $193k–$267k
$226k
Manager2,449 openings
Typical range $149k–$238k
$190k
Director1,307 openings
Typical range $213k–$290k
$250k
Executive122 openings
Typical range $258k–$325k
$300k

Methodology

All figures come from salary ranges companies publish on their own job postings, pulled from their applicant tracking systems hourly. Nothing is self-reported or estimated.

Pay in other currencies is converted at fixed recent exchange rates. Hourly, weekly, and monthly pay is annualized. Everything is base salary only. Equity and bonus are excluded because postings rarely quantify them.

Stats are medians and quartiles of each posting's range midpoint, weighted by open roles. Groups with fewer than 30 openings (8 for a single company) are not shown.

Numbers reflect currently open roles, not historical offers. About 57% of tracked openings post pay. US pay-transparency laws drive most disclosure, so coverage skews to US roles. Explore hiring patterns in the hiring report.

Frequently asked questions

What is the median salary at companies building the future?
The median posted base salary is $175k per year, across 26,339 live openings at 530 companies. The middle half of postings falls between $135k and $225k.
Which startup roles pay the most?
AI & Autonomy roles lead at a $230k median, followed by Software & Data ($215k) and Infrastructure, IT, & Security ($200k), based on the ranges companies post on live openings.
Which companies building the future pay the highest salaries?
MatX tops the list with a $394k median posted base salary, ahead of Aaru ($353k) and Anthropic ($345k), among companies with eight or more openings that post pay.
Do startup job postings include salary?
About 57% of the openings BuildList tracks post a pay range. Disclosure is highest at US companies covered by pay-transparency laws, so coverage skews to US roles.
Where does this salary data come from?
From the pay ranges companies publish on their own job postings, pulled hourly from their applicant tracking systems and normalized to annual base salary. Equity and bonus are excluded. Nothing is self-reported or estimated.

These numbers come from 26,339 live openings. Browse the roles behind them.

Browse JobsGet Weekly Jobs