# Staff software engineer salary: $217,000–$278,250 a year

Every number below comes from 689 tracked live postings whose title matches "staff software engineer". No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured September 2026 · n=366 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median staff software engineer posting offers $217,000–$278,250 a year (n=366).
- 43.3% of the 689 live postings matching "staff software engineer" are remote.
- Level 4 staff software engineers (building AI systems) list $221,200–$292,000, vs $217,000–$278,250 at Level 1.

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Mid-level | 1 | $192,000–$260,000 |
| Senior | 116 | $217,000–$274,300 |
| Lead | 249 | $217,000–$280,000 |

## Remote vs on-site (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 165 | $218,025–$290,000 |
| On-site / hybrid | 201 | $207,000–$275,000 |

## Companies hiring staff software engineers

- [Databricks](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/databricks) (96)
- [Harvey](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/harvey) (33)
- [Okta](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/okta) (33)
- [Canva](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/canva) (31)
- [Affirm](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/affirm) (28)
- [Anthropic](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/anthropic) (27)
- [Coinbase](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/coinbase) (25)
- [Airwallex](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/airwallex) (20)

## Method

US-dollar postings whose title contains "staff software engineer", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 366 such postings clear the 50-posting floor Level requires before publishing a dedicated salary page — below that, the median moves too much between ingestion cycles to be a citable number.

Sample: postings at tech companies tracked by Level. Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.

Refreshed automatically; this edition is measured September 2026. Small-n slices move a lot — read the n column first.

## Staff software engineer salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median staff software engineer salary?**

Across 366 live US postings for staff software engineers with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $217,000–$278,250 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

**How many staff software engineers jobs are remote?**

43.3% of the 366 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.

**Does the AI level of the job change the pay?**

In this sample, 106 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 436 are Level 1 (AI is not the work). See the AI level breakdown below for the median in each band. Measured September 2026.

Source: https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/role/staff-software-engineer