Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY $500k – $850k/yr
visa sponsorshippythontypescriptreactDirect from employer Aug 27
Data Engineer salary in San Francisco
What employers are offering right now, from 72 live Data Engineer postings in San Francisco that publish a pay range. Updated October 2026.
Median
$240k
a year, base pay
Middle half
$200k–$311k
25th to 75th percentile
Highest posted
$675k
range midpoint
How the offers are spread
$149k
$215k
$281k
$346k
$412k
$478k
$544k
$609k
Data Engineer pay by level
| Level | Median | Postings |
|---|---|---|
| Senior | $207k | 21 |
| Staff & principal | $270k | 13 |
Top-paying companies for Data Engineer roles
Highest-paying open Data Engineer jobs
All 77 open jobs →Pre-training Data Infrastructure Engineer
San Francisco, CA $500k – $850k/yr
visa sponsorshippythonrustsparkDirect from employer Nov 3
Engineering Manager, Research Data Platform
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY $405k – $850k/yr
visa sponsorshipsparkbigquerymachine learningDirect from employer Jul 7
Data Engineering Manager, Growth & Revenue
San Francisco Full-time $459k – $536k/yr
pythonscalasqlsparkDirect from employer 27d ago
Engineering Manager, Data Infrastructure
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY $405k – $485k/yr
visa sponsorshipkafkasparkairflowDirect from employer 19d ago
AnthropicRemote
Staff+ Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure
Remote-Friendly (Travel-Required) | San Francisco, CA | Seattle, WA | New York City, NY $405k – $485k/yr
visa sponsorshippythonjavasqlDirect from employer Feb 13
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Data Engineer salary: common questions
- What is the average Data Engineer salary in San Francisco?
- The median midpoint of 72 live Data Engineer postings in San Francisco is $240k a year. Half of them fall between $200k and $311k.
- How does Data Engineer pay change with seniority?
- senior postings $207k. Staff, principal and director roles usually pay more and often add equity.
- Which companies pay Data Engineer roles the most?
- Among companies with at least two postings, the highest medians are at Anthropic ($404k), OpenAI ($351k), Perplexity ($283k), Pinterest ($280k).
- Where do these numbers come from?
- From the pay ranges employers publish in their own job postings (required in states such as California, Colorado, New York, Washington and Illinois). We take the midpoint of each range, convert hourly pay at 2,080 hours a year, and update the figures daily as postings open and close. They show base pay, not bonus or equity.
Other salaries in San Francisco
- Research Scientist · $300k
- Engineering Manager · $290k
- Hardware Engineer · $288k
- Cybersecurity · $278k
- Mobile Developer · $260k
- DevOps Engineer · $255k
- Full Stack Developer · $254k
- Software Engineer · $253k
- Legal & Compliance · $245k
- AI & Machine Learning · $243k
- Backend Developer · $241k
- Program Manager · $238k
- Product Manager · $236k
- Data Scientist · $236k
- Frontend Developer · $230k
- Sales · $220k
- Solutions Engineer · $212k
- Product & UX Designer · $206k
- Finance & Accounting · $200k
- Data Analyst · $200k
- Marketing · $199k
- Operations · $195k
- IT · $191k
- HR & Recruiting · $183k
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JobApplyPilot reads employers' own job postings. Pay shown is base salary from published ranges, not total compensation.