Salaries in Seattle.
3,500+ roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 1.24x national average. Last updated April 2026.
3445 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$443,000
Principal Quantitative Researcher
Median of All Roles
$193,000
Lead Revenue Operations Manager
Entry Level
$40,000
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.
Seattle, WA has a cost-of-living index of 1.24x the national average. The highest-paying role is Principal Quantitative Researcher at $443,000, while the median across all 3445 roles is $193,000. Seattle is home to Amazon, Microsoft, and a dense cluster of cloud computing, gaming, and AI companies.
About the Seattle market
Seattle is home to Amazon, Microsoft, and a dense cluster of cloud computing, gaming, and AI companies. The presence of major tech headquarters drives some of the highest engineering salaries outside the Bay Area. Seattle's job market is particularly strong for cloud infrastructure, machine learning, and enterprise software roles.
Cloud ComputingE-CommerceAerospaceGamingArtificial Intelligence
Top 50 salaries in Seattle
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Principal Quantitative Researcher | $443,000 | $345,000 – $575,000 |
| 2 | Principal AI Research Scientist | $434,000 | $339,000 – $564,000 |
| 3 | Technical Fellow | $425,000 | $332,000 – $553,000 |
| 4 | Principal AI Safety Engineer | $418,000 | $326,000 – $543,000 |
| 5 | Principal AI Compiler Engineer | $406,000 | $317,000 – $529,000 |
| 6 | SVP of Technology | $402,000 | $314,000 – $524,000 |
| 7 | Distinguished Engineer | $401,000 | $304,000 – $510,000 |
| 8 | Senior VP of Product | $401,000 | $313,000 – $521,000 |
| 9 | Chief Security Officer | $401,000 | $312,000 – $521,000 |
| 10 | Principal AI Agent Architect | $398,000 | $311,000 – $517,000 |
| 11 | Senior VP of Security | $396,000 | $310,000 – $515,000 |
| 12 | SVP of Product | $396,000 | $309,000 – $515,000 |
| 13 | Principal Cryptographer | $395,000 | $308,000 – $513,000 |
| 14 | Principal Deep Learning Engineer | $391,000 | $305,000 – $508,000 |
| 15 | Principal AI Agent Engineer | $391,000 | $305,000 – $508,000 |
| 16 | Principal Quantitative Developer | $387,000 | $302,000 – $503,000 |
| 17 | SVP of Sales | $387,000 | $302,000 – $503,000 |
| 18 | Principal LLM Engineer | $384,000 | $299,000 – $499,000 |
| 19 | Chief Science Officer | $384,000 | $300,000 – $500,000 |
| 20 | L7 Software Engineer | $384,000 | $300,000 – $500,000 |
| 21 | Lead High-Frequency Trading Engineer | $383,000 | $299,000 – $498,000 |
| 22 | Chief Architect | $383,000 | $299,000 – $498,000 |
| 23 | Principal Computer Vision Engineer | $381,000 | $296,000 – $494,000 |
| 24 | Principal Kernel Engineer | $381,000 | $296,000 – $494,000 |
| 25 | SVP of Data | $380,000 | $297,000 – $495,000 |
| 26 | Chief Machine Learning Officer | $379,000 | $296,000 – $493,000 |
| 27 | SVP of Strategy | $379,000 | $296,000 – $493,000 |
| 28 | Chief AI Officer | $377,000 | $279,000 – $486,000 |
| 29 | Principal AI Engineer | $377,000 | $293,000 – $489,000 |
| 30 | Chief Commercial Officer | $377,000 | $294,000 – $490,000 |
| 31 | VP of AI Research | $374,000 | $291,000 – $486,000 |
| 32 | Chief Transformation Officer | $374,000 | $291,000 – $486,000 |
| 33 | SVP of Marketing | $374,000 | $291,000 – $486,000 |
| 34 | Staff AI Research Scientist | $373,000 | $291,000 – $485,000 |
| 35 | SVP of Engineering | $373,000 | $291,000 – $485,000 |
| 36 | Principal Quantitative Analyst | $373,000 | $290,000 – $484,000 |
| 37 | Staff Quantitative Researcher | $373,000 | $291,000 – $485,000 |
| 38 | Chief Design Officer | $373,000 | $291,000 – $486,000 |
| 39 | Chief Strategy Officer | $373,000 | $291,000 – $485,000 |
| 40 | Principal Applied Scientist | $372,000 | $290,000 – $484,000 |
| 41 | Senior Head of Product | $372,000 | $291,000 – $484,000 |
| 42 | Staff AI Safety Engineer | $370,000 | $289,000 – $481,000 |
| 43 | Chief Risk Officer | $370,000 | $289,000 – $482,000 |
| 44 | Principal Machine Learning Engineer | $369,000 | $287,000 – $479,000 |
| 45 | Principal AI Infrastructure Engineer | $369,000 | $287,000 – $479,000 |
| 46 | Chief Legal Officer | $368,000 | $287,000 – $479,000 |
| 47 | SVP of Design | $368,000 | $286,000 – $478,000 |
| 48 | SVP of Business Development | $368,000 | $286,000 – $478,000 |
| 49 | Staff AI Agent Architect | $367,000 | $286,000 – $476,000 |
| 50 | SVP of Finance | $367,000 | $286,000 – $477,000 |
Tax considerations
Washington State has no personal income tax, which significantly boosts take home pay. However, state and local sales taxes are among the highest in the country at roughly 10.25%.
Negotiating in Seattle
Remind employers that no state income tax makes your effective compensation higher. You can accept a slightly lower gross salary and still take home more than in California.
Know the number. Get the offer.
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