GPU and Performance Engineer salary: $215K median
The median advertised GPU and Performance Engineer salary is $215K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $185K to $288K: counted from 127 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range: about $103 an hour or $17,917 a month. A tenth of the postings offer $368K or more. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
Check an offer against these figuresAll GPU and performance engineer jobs
$215Kmedian advertised salary
$185K – $288Kmiddle half of roles
$246Kaverage advertised salary
127roles counted
GPU and Performance Engineer salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $258K, 27% more than senior roles ($203K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $203K | $185K–$215K | 27 |
| Lead and above | $258K | $235K–$310K | 27 |
| No level in the title | $208K | $178K–$300K | 72 |
GPU and Performance Engineer salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $254K | 75 |
| 🇺🇸California | $238K | 97 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $215K | 122 |
Skills that pay more for GPU and Performance Engineer roles
| Skill | Median with it | Above the median | Postings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Machine Learning | $298K | +$82K | 23 |
| Distributed training | $262K | +$48K | 12 |
| Compilers | $262K | +$48K | 12 |
| Go | $250K | +$35K | 20 |
| GPU programming | $250K | +$35K | 31 |
Top-paying companies
Highest-paying open GPU and Performance Engineer roles
All GPU and performance engineer jobs- Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)Anthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA$500K - $850KMachine LearningOperating systems
- Performance EngineerAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA$280K - $850KMachine LearningLLMLoad balancing
- Training Performance EngineerOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$295K - $500KHybridRustPythonC++
- Software Engineer, TPU CompilersOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$380K - $500KHybridMachine LearningCompilers
- Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, GPU Cluster Infrastructure)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$250K - $485KRustGoC++
- Staff HPC Systems ArchitectLambda · 🇺🇸San Jose Office (First St)$314K - $465KHybridLead and aboveMachine LearningKubernetesPRDs
- Senior Staff/Principal Software Engineer - GPU System Software, Onboard ExecutionZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$339K - $455KLead and aboveC++LinuxCUDA
- Staff HPC Network ArchitectLambda · 🇺🇸San Jose Office (First St)$284K - $420KHybridLead and aboveMachine LearningDistributed trainingNetwork engineering
- Performance Engineer, HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA; Austin, TX$200K - $420KC++CUDAC
- Software Engineer, GPU KernelsRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$200K - $420KPythonC++PyTorch
- Member of Technical Staff — Inference-TPURadixark · 🇺🇸Palo Alto$200K - $400KPythonLLM
- Member of Technical Staff, TPU Kernel EngineeringInferact · 🇺🇸San Francisco$200K - $400KMachine LearningLLMPyTorch
- Member of Technical Staff, AMD GPU Kernel EngineeringInferact · 🇺🇸San Francisco$200K - $400KMachine LearningLLMPyTorch
- Principal Software Engineer, GPU ComputeRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$345K - $399KLead and aboveGoKubernetesCUDA
- Staff ML Performance Engineer, Performance ArchitectureWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$370K - $395KHybridLead and abovePythonMachine LearningCUDA
- Member of Technical Staff - GPU PerformanceGimlet · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$150K - $390KCUDA
- Principal Software Engineer - Performance Engineering (Cloud Infrastructure)Snowflake · 🇺🇸US-CA-Menlo Park$264K - $380KLead and aboveGCPAzureAWS
- Principal Engineer, SoC NPU ArchitectSamsung Research America · 🇺🇸665 Clyde Avenue, Mountain View, CA, USA$242K - $377KLead and abovePythonC++Machine Learning
- Software Engineer - GPU KernelsBaseten · 🇺🇸San Francisco$180K - $360KHybridC++Machine LearningAWS
- Sr. Software Engineer, Kernels/CUDA (C++)xAI · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$220K - $357KSeniorC++LinuxCUDA
Questions about GPU and Performance Engineer pay
- What is the average GPU and Performance Engineer salary?
- $246K a year on average and $215K at the median, across 127 open GPU and Performance Engineer postings at companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $185K to $288K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest GPU and Performance Engineer pay?
- Anthropic ($600K), OpenAI ($396K), Lambda ($325K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Is a gpu and performance engineer a high-paying job?
- The median GPU and Performance Engineer posting advertises $215K a year, more than the median of all 55,899 job postings with pay on Jobs Every Hour ($174K). That is 24% above the middle of the market.
- How much can you earn as a gpu and performance engineer?
- A tenth of the postings offer $368K a year or more; the highest open GPU and Performance Engineer role advertises up to $850K. Pay rises with level: see the table by level.
- What is the GPU and Performance Engineer salary per hour and per month?
- The median of $215K a year is about $103 an hour (2,080 working hours) and $17,917 a month before tax. The middle half of postings: $89 to $139 an hour.
- Which skills pay more for GPU and Performance Engineer roles?
- Postings that ask for Machine Learning (+$82K, 23 postings), Distributed training (+$48K, 12 postings), Compilers (+$48K, 12 postings) advertise more than the $215K median of all GPU and Performance Engineer postings with pay.
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
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The median advertised salary for GPU and Performance Engineer roles at companies is $215K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $185K to $288K. Counted from 127 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Jobs Every Hour, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/gpu-performance-engineer/
Free to use with the link.