Staff Research Engineer, Multi-Agent Scaling
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA $500k – $850k/yr
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Research Scientist salary in SF Bay Area
What employers are offering right now, from 212 live Research Scientist postings in SF Bay Area that publish a pay range. Updated October 2026.
Median
$253k
a year, base pay
Middle half
$207k–$377k
25th to 75th percentile
Highest posted
$675k
range midpoint
How the offers are spread
$131k
$199k
$267k
$335k
$403k
$471k
$539k
$607k
Research Scientist pay by level
| Level | Median | Postings |
|---|---|---|
| Entry level | $130k | 5 |
| Senior | $240k | 28 |
| Staff & principal | $249k | 35 |
Top-paying companies for Research Scientist roles
| Company | Median | Postings |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $600k | 37 |
| OpenAI | $440k | 34 |
| Dyna Robotics | $313k | 2 |
| Databricks | $310k | 2 |
| Decagon | $300k | 6 |
| Generalist | $295k | 2 |
| RoboForce | $255k | 3 |
| Faire | $251k | 11 |
| Tessera Labs | $250k | 2 |
| Samsung Research America | $244k | 4 |
| FAR.AI | $244k | 6 |
| Scale AI | $243k | 11 |
Highest-paying open Research Scientist jobs
All 260 open jobs →Research Engineer / Research Scientist, RL Frontiers
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA $500k – $850k/yr
visa sponsorshippythonrustc++Direct from employer 12d ago
Research Engineer / Performance Engineer, RL Distributed Systems
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA $500k – $850k/yr
visa sponsorshippythonrustc++Direct from employer 12d ago
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY $500k – $850k/yr
visa sponsorshippythontypescriptreactDirect from employer Aug 27
Research Engineer, Chip Design RL (Reinforcement Learning)
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY $500k – $850k/yr
visa sponsorshipexcelrecruitingDirect from employer Jul 13
Research Engineer, Computer Use
San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA $500k – $850k/yr
visa sponsorshippythonmachine learningrecruitingDirect from employer Jun 30
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Research Scientist salary: common questions
- What is the average Research Scientist salary in SF Bay Area?
- The median midpoint of 212 live Research Scientist postings in SF Bay Area is $253k a year. Half of them fall between $207k and $377k.
- How does Research Scientist pay change with seniority?
- Entry-level postings have a median of $130k, while senior postings $240k. Staff, principal and director roles usually pay more and often add equity.
- Which companies pay Research Scientist roles the most?
- Among companies with at least two postings, the highest medians are at Anthropic ($600k), OpenAI ($440k), Dyna Robotics ($313k), Databricks ($310k).
- 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 SF Bay Area
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JobApplyPilot reads employers' own job postings. Pay shown is base salary from published ranges, not total compensation.