Systems Engineer salary: $185K median
From 256 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$185Kmedian advertised salary
$152K – $225Kmiddle half of roles
$194Kaverage advertised salary
256roles counted
Systems Engineer salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $238K, 35% more than senior roles ($176K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $176K | $160K–$202K | 110 |
| Lead and above | $238K | $212K–$275K | 57 |
| No level in title | $160K | $125K–$215K | 88 |
Systems Engineer salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $228K | 73 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $212K | 17 |
| 🇺🇸New York | $212K | 19 |
| 🇺🇸California | $195K | 152 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $182K | 238 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles | $159K | 30 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $324K | 6 |
| Wayve | $294K | 3 |
| OpenAI | $287K | 7 |
| Waymo | $280K | 6 |
| 1X | $275K | 3 |
| $268K | 4 | |
| Zoox | $248K | 5 |
| Nuro | $237K | 4 |
| Cloudflare | $225K | 8 |
| Muon Space | $204K | 9 |
| CoreWeave | $195K | 8 |
| Lucid Motors | $188K | 4 |
| Pure Storage | $188K | 22 |
| Crusoe | $185K | 8 |
| Motional | $174K | 5 |
| Whoop | $168K | 3 |
| SpaceX | $162K | 23 |
| True Anomaly | $162K | 6 |
| Varda Space Industries | $160K | 5 |
| Rocket Lab | $147K | 23 |
| May Mobility | $135K | 4 |
| Lambda | $126K | 5 |
| Gotion | $105K | 6 |
Highest-paying open Systems Engineer roles
All systems engineer jobs- Portfolio Systems EngineerBridgewater Associates · 🇺🇸Westport, CT$225K - $450K
- Research Engineer / Research Scientist / AI Systems Engineer, RSIOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$295K - $445KLLM
- Head of Systems Engineering (Senior Director)Nuro · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California (HQ)$284K - $426KLead
- Principal Systems Engineer, SafetyZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$349K - $419KLead
- Senior Staff Machine Learning Systems Engineer, Ads ML PlatformReddit · 🇺🇸Remote - United States$292K - $410KRemoteLeadMachine LearningKafkaAirflow
- Staff / Senior Physical Security Systems EngineerAnthropic · 🇺🇸Remote-Friendly (Travel Required) | San Francisco, CA$320K - $405KRemoteLead
- Operating Systems Engineer, Linux Kernel | Consumer DevicesOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$230K - $385KRustLinux
- IT Systems Engineer, Client Platform Engineer, ChromeOSAnthropic · 🇺🇸Boston, MA; Remote-Friendly (Travel-Required) | San Franc…$325K - $360KRemotePythonTerraformLLM
- Senior Staff Regulatory and Compliance Systems EngineerWaymo · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA, USA; San Francisco, CA, USA$272K - $336KLead
- Sr. Staff Systems Engineer, Perception-Planner RiskWaymo · 🇺🇸Mountain View, CA, US$272K - $336KLeadPythonC++Machine Learning
- Staff Software Systems Engineer - Advanced Autonomy Systems Engineering LeadLatitude AI · 🇺🇸Pittsburgh, PA, Palo Alto, CA, Detroit, MI$224K - $336KLeadPythonC++Machine Learning
- Systems Engineering ManagerModal · 🇺🇸New York$275K - $330KRustJavaC++
- Staff Machine Learning Systems EngineerReddit · 🇺🇸Remote - United States$230K - $322KRemoteLeadPythonTerraformGCP
- Senior/Staff Systems Engineer, Autonomy VerificationNuro · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California (HQ)$176K - $320KLeadPythonC++
- Staff Compute Systems EngineerZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$226K - $311KLead
- Staff Systems Engineer, AI ValidationWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$276K - $311KLeadPythonSQLAI
- Staff Validation Systems Engineer, AI ValidationWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$276K - $311KLeadPythonSQLAI
- Staff Systems Engineer - Network1X · 🇺🇸San Carlos, CA$250K - $300KLeadC++
- Staff Systems Engineer - Core1X · 🇺🇸San Carlos, CA$250K - $300KLeadC++Linux
- Trading Systems Engineer (Kalshi Trading LLC)Kalshi · 🇺🇸New York, New York, United States$200K - $300KRustGoC++
Questions about Systems Engineer pay
- What is the average Systems Engineer salary?
- $194K a year on average and $185K at the median, across 256 open Systems Engineer 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 $152K to $225K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Systems Engineer pay?
- Anthropic ($324K), Wayve ($294K), OpenAI ($287K), 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 Systems Engineer roles at tech companies is $185K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $152K to $225K. Counted from 256 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/systems-engineer/
Free to use with the link.