Find high-paying roles
Sorted by top of posted range
Mechanical & Physical Systems in Defense: median base salary $170k · Typical range $150k–$204k · 317 openings with pay.
Mechanical & Physical Systems · Defense
Shield AI · Seattle, WA · Staff / Principal
Shield AI · Seattle, WA · Staff / Principal
Shield AI · Seattle, WA · Staff / Principal
Anduril Industries · Costa Mesa, CA · Director
Anduril Industries · Costa Mesa, CA · Director
Anduril Industries · Costa Mesa, CA · Director
Anduril Industries · Costa Mesa, CA · Director
Shield AI · Seattle, WA · Manager
Shield AI · Seattle, WA · Manager
Median base salary
$175k
All openings with posted pay
Typical range
$133k–$226k
25th to 75th percentile
23,743 openings with pay data across 510 companies · 52% of 45,656 tracked openings. Annual base salary. Equity and bonus excluded. Methodology
Distribution
Share of openings by posted midpoint
By role
Bar shows 25th to 75th percentile
By experience level
By funding stage
By sector
Top-paying companies
Median pay · 8+ openings each
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 52% 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 23,743 live openings at 510 companies. The middle half of postings falls between $133k and $226k.
- Which startup roles pay the most?
- AI & Autonomy roles lead at a $233k median, followed by Software & Data ($208k) and Infrastructure, IT, & Security ($201k), based on the ranges companies post on live openings.
- Which companies building the future pay the highest salaries?
- Anthropic tops the list with a $353k median posted base salary, ahead of Aaru ($353k) and Thinking Machines Lab ($330k), among companies with eight or more openings that post pay.
- Do startup job postings include salary?
- About 52% 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 23,743 live openings. Browse the roles behind them.