Defense salaries
What companies building the future pay, straight from their own job postings.
4,598 openings with posted pay · Updated Oct 30, 2026
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Defense
Twenty · Chantilly, VA · Senior
Twenty · Fort Meade, MD · Senior
Twenty · Arlington, VA · Staff / Principal
Twenty · Arlington, VA · Staff / Principal
Twenty · New York, NY · Staff / Principal
Twenty · Arlington, VA · Staff / Principal
Twenty · Chantilly, VA · Senior
Twenty · New York, NY · Staff / Principal
Shield AI · San Mateo, CA · Manager
Shield AI · San Mateo, CA · Staff / Principal
Shield AI · San Mateo, CA · Staff / Principal
Median base salary
$172k
4,598 openings with posted pay
Typical range
$144k–$210k
25th to 75th percentile
Across all 26,267 openings with posted pay, the median is $175k. Annual base salary. Equity and bonus excluded. Methodology
Defense by role
Bar shows 25th to 75th percentile
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All openings
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 56% 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 26,267 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 ($214k) 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 56% 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 26,267 live openings. Browse the roles behind them.