Salaries in San Francisco.
422 roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 1.35x national average. Last updated April 2026.
422 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$419,000
Chief AI Officer
Median of All Roles
$203,000
Optical Character Recognition Engineer
Entry Level
$46,000
Hotel Clerk / Front Desk
Salary data sourced from SEC filings, H-1B Labor Condition Applications (DOL), Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and aggregated job postings across 50+ platforms. Ranges reflect 25th to 75th percentile for full-time positions. Cost-of-living adjustments use Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities (2025 index). Last updated April 2026.
San Francisco, CA has a cost-of-living index of 1.35x the national average. The highest-paying role is Chief AI Officer at $419,000, while the median across all 422 roles is $203,000. San Francisco is the epicenter of venture capital and startup innovation, consistently producing the highest tech salaries in the nation.
About the San Francisco market
San Francisco is the epicenter of venture capital and startup innovation, consistently producing the highest tech salaries in the nation. The city's concentration of AI labs, SaaS companies, and fintech firms creates intense competition for talent. Despite remote work trends, SF still commands the steepest salary premiums for engineering and product roles.
Software & SaaSArtificial IntelligenceFintechBiotechVenture Capital
Top 50 salaries in San Francisco
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Chief AI Officer | $419,000 | $311,000 – $540,000 |
| 2 | Chief Data & AI Officer | $414,000 | $309,000 – $541,000 |
| 3 | SVP of AI Innovation | $396,000 | $299,000 – $521,000 |
| 4 | Chief Technology Officer | $388,000 | $287,000 – $508,000 |
| 5 | CEO | $382,000 | $278,000 – $528,000 |
| 6 | Head of AI | $379,000 | $281,000 – $491,000 |
| 7 | Chief Product Officer | $368,000 | $273,000 – $484,000 |
| 8 | Chief Revenue Officer | $367,000 | $275,000 – $485,000 |
| 9 | Chief Algorithm Officer | $367,000 | $275,000 – $478,000 |
| 10 | Chief Marketing Officer | $362,000 | $271,000 – $473,000 |
| 11 | VP of AI Engineering | $361,000 | $273,000 – $470,000 |
| 12 | CFO | $358,000 | $269,000 – $475,000 |
| 13 | VP of AI Product | $358,000 | $267,000 – $463,000 |
| 14 | Chief Data Officer | $355,000 | $266,000 – $464,000 |
| 15 | Head of AI Research | $350,000 | $259,000 – $460,000 |
| 16 | Chief Operating Officer | $348,000 | $259,000 – $464,000 |
| 17 | Head of Applied AI | $348,000 | $259,000 – $457,000 |
| 18 | Head of AI Platform | $345,000 | $257,000 – $452,000 |
| 19 | VP of Engineering | $344,000 | $258,000 – $450,000 |
| 20 | Chief Human Resources Officer | $341,000 | $257,000 – $442,000 |
| 21 | VP of Product | $331,000 | $250,000 – $425,000 |
| 22 | Head of AI Partnerships | $324,000 | $241,000 – $427,000 |
| 23 | VP of Sales | $318,000 | $238,000 – $423,000 |
| 24 | VP of Marketing | $317,000 | $236,000 – $419,000 |
| 25 | VP of Product Design | $311,000 | $232,000 – $404,000 |
| 26 | AI Transformation Officer | $311,000 | $233,000 – $408,000 |
| 27 | Director of Generative AI | $301,000 | $227,000 – $395,000 |
| 28 | Foundation Model Engineer | $296,000 | $220,000 – $386,000 |
| 29 | Director of Data Science | $293,000 | $225,000 – $382,000 |
| 30 | AI Program Director | $292,000 | $220,000 – $382,000 |
| 31 | AI Cloud Architect | $285,000 | $216,000 – $362,000 |
| 32 | Director of Engineering | $285,000 | $220,000 – $369,000 |
| 33 | AI Alignment Researcher | $285,000 | $211,000 – $378,000 |
| 34 | Director of AI Strategy | $285,000 | $216,000 – $373,000 |
| 35 | AI Agent Architect | $282,000 | $213,000 – $365,000 |
| 36 | AI World Model Engineer | $282,000 | $209,000 – $372,000 |
| 37 | AI Financial Engineer | $281,000 | $207,000 – $361,000 |
| 38 | AI Compiler Engineer | $281,000 | $211,000 – $368,000 |
| 39 | Transformer Architecture Engineer | $281,000 | $209,000 – $367,000 |
| 40 | AI Systems Architect | $280,000 | $211,000 – $365,000 |
| 41 | AI Research Scientist | $275,000 | $207,000 – $358,000 |
| 42 | Reinforcement Learning Researcher | $275,000 | $206,000 – $364,000 |
| 43 | Multi-Agent Systems Architect | $275,000 | $203,000 – $364,000 |
| 44 | Neurosymbolic AI Researcher | $274,000 | $204,000 – $362,000 |
| 45 | AI Interpretability Researcher | $274,000 | $204,000 – $362,000 |
| 46 | Deep Learning Engineer | $273,000 | $211,000 – $348,000 |
| 47 | Privacy / Data Counsel | $273,000 | $209,000 – $355,000 |
| 48 | AI Reasoning Specialist | $273,000 | $202,000 – $361,000 |
| 49 | Reinforcement Learning Engineer | $270,000 | $203,000 – $351,000 |
| 50 | AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer | $270,000 | $201,000 – $356,000 |
Tax considerations
California's top marginal state income tax rate is 13.3%, the highest in the U.S. San Francisco has no additional city income tax, but overall tax burden remains steep.
Negotiating in San Francisco
Leverage competing offers aggressively. SF employers expect candidates to shop around, and matching or beating a rival offer is standard practice here.
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