The salary index
What funded startups pay software engineers.
Computed from the posted salary ranges on 859 live engineering roles at 201 venture-backed startups, read directly from each company’s own job site. Not a survey. Free to cite with attribution.
$229K
Median posted base, Senior, San Francisco
$252K
Median posted base, Staff, San Francisco
859
Live priced roles in the sample
201
Venture-backed companies
Posted base salary by level and market
Median, with the typical range (25th to 75th percentile) beneath it. Each role counts once, at the midpoint of its posted range.
| Level | San Francisco | New York | Remote (US) | All US markets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mid | $215K$190K - $250K274 roles | $193K$175K - $222K89 roles | $190K$158K - $230K90 roles | $201K$175K - $243K484 roles |
| Senior | $229K$198K - $260K100 roles | $211K$203K - $258K54 roles | $215K$198K - $238K54 roles | $219K$198K - $245K224 roles |
| Staff | $252K$230K - $313K86 roles | $250K$225K - $300K28 roles | $268K$215K - $289K26 roles | $250K$225K - $300K151 roles |
Base salary only; startup offers add equity on top. Buckets with fewer than 12 roles are hidden rather than shown thin.
Methodology
- Source. Live software engineering roles on the roles.cc board, which lists venture-backed US startups (pre-seed to Series C) with postings pulled from each company’s own job site.
- Figures. USD base salary ranges as posted. Postings quoting other currencies are excluded. Each role contributes one datapoint, the midpoint of its range, so wide ranges are not double-counted.
- Statistics. Median and the 25th to 75th percentile band, rounded to the nearest $1,000. Any level and market bucket with fewer than 12 roles is suppressed.
- Citation. Free to cite with attribution to roles.cc and a link to this page (CC BY 4.0). For questions about the data, hello@roles.cc.
Questions people ask
Where do these salary numbers come from?
From the live roles.cc board: software engineering roles at venture-backed startups, with the salary range each company posted on its own job site. No self-reported surveys, no stale scrapes. Each role contributes the midpoint of its posted USD base range.
Why do these differ from levels.fyi or salary surveys?
Most salary data is self-reported and skews toward big tech and toward people who choose to report. This index reads what funded startups are offering right now on open roles, so it reflects the current hiring market, not last year's offers.
Do the figures include equity or bonus?
No. These are posted base salary ranges only. Startup offers usually add meaningful equity on top, typically larger at earlier stages, which is why a startup base can trail big tech while the total package does not.
How often is the index updated?
The underlying board refreshes from company job sites daily and the index recomputes several times a day. Buckets with fewer than twelve roles are hidden rather than shown thin.
The data is a live board.
Every number above comes from roles you can open right now, sorted by how recently the company raised.