Kafka salary: $214K median
From 433 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$214Kmedian advertised salary
$185K – $250Kmiddle half of roles
$219Kaverage advertised salary
433roles counted
Kafka salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $241K, 19% more than senior roles ($202K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $202K | $186K–$220K | 189 |
| Lead and above | $241K | $215K–$272K | 124 |
| No level in title | $197K | $152K–$250K | 120 |
Kafka salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $238K | 170 |
| 🇺🇸California | $237K | 186 |
| 🇺🇸New York | $216K | 65 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $214K | 413 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $204K | 40 |
| 🇺🇸Chicago | $202K | 17 |
| 🇺🇸Boston | $162K | 18 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $362K | 4 |
| OpenAI | $353K | 10 |
| Sentry | $320K | 4 |
| Decagon | $300K | 3 |
| Harvey | $282K | 4 |
| Roblox | $269K | 8 |
| Nuro | $266K | 3 |
| Figma | $264K | 3 |
| $260K | 12 | |
| Kraken | $260K | 3 |
| Gamma | $258K | 4 |
| Block | $256K | 8 |
| xAI | $255K | 10 |
| Invisible Technologies | $255K | 3 |
| Together AI | $240K | 4 |
| Crusoe | $238K | 6 |
| Illumio | $236K | 6 |
| Chime | $230K | 6 |
| DriveWealth | $230K | 3 |
| Justworks | $229K | 8 |
| Hinge Health | $228K | 5 |
| Braze | $218K | 13 |
| Alchemy | $218K | 3 |
| Airbnb | $218K | 5 |
| Datadog | $216K | 3 |
Highest-paying open Kafka roles
All Kafka jobs- Software Engineer - Data InfrastructureMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$160K - $500KPythonSQLKafka
- Software Engineer, Developer ProductivityOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$210K - $490KPythonPostgreSQLTerraform
- Software Engineer, Build Systems / CIOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$185K - $490KRustGoPython
- Staff+ Software Engineer, Account Abuse (Machine Learning)Anthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY$320K - $485KLeadPythonSQLMachine Learning
- Senior Staff Machine Learning Systems Engineer, Ads ML PlatformReddit · 🇺🇸Remote - United States$292K - $410KRemoteLeadMachine LearningKafkaAirflow
- Engineering Manager, Finance EngineeringAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | Seattle, WA$320K - $405KGoLLMKafka
- Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Data Platform)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $405KGoPythonTypeScript
- Engineering Director, Agentic AI Data PlatformAirwallex · 🇺🇸US - San Francisco$300K - $400KLeadPythonSQLPostgreSQL
- Staff Software Engineer, IssuesSentry · 🇺🇸San Francisco, California$240K - $400KLeadPythonPostgreSQLKafka
- Senior Software Engineer, Issue DetectionSentry · 🇺🇸San Francisco, California$155K - $400KSeniorPythonKafka
- Senior Software Engineer, Platform SecurityDecagon · 🇺🇸San Francisco$200K - $400KSeniorPythonTypeScriptTerraform
- Senior Software Engineer, Data InfrastructureDecagon · 🇺🇸San Francisco$200K - $400KSeniorTerraformGCPAzure
- Principal Software Engineer, Creator AnalyticsRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$345K - $399KLeadGoPythonJava
- Member of Technical Staff, Financial DataVercel · 🇺🇸Hybrid - San Francisco, New York City$264K - $396KGCPAzureKafka
- Staff Software Engineer, Cash App BankingBlock · 🇺🇸Bay Area, CA, United States of America$264K - $395KLeadJavaKotlinKafka
- Staff Software Engineer, Cash App BankingBlock · 🇺🇸New York, NY, United States of America$264K - $395KLeadJavaKotlinKafka
- Software Engineer, Context EngineSierra · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$230K - $390KGoPythonTypeScript
- Staff Software Engineer, Data InfrastructurePatreon · Remote$232K - $386KRemoteLeadPythonJavaSQL
- Manager, Engineering (Data Platform)Garner Health · 🇺🇸New York City, New York$310K - $385KPythonTerraformKafka
- Software Engineer - Data InfrastructureFigma · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA • New York, NY • United States$153K - $376KGoPythonSQL
Questions about Kafka pay
- What is the average Kafka salary?
- $219K a year on average and $214K at the median, across 433 open Kafka postings at tech 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 $250K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Kafka pay?
- Anthropic ($362K), OpenAI ($353K), Sentry ($320K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- 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.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for Kafka roles at tech companies is $214K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $185K to $250K. Counted from 433 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/kafka/
Free to use with the link.