The median data engineer posting at a tech startup offers $193K base, with the middle half between $170K and $218K — from 93 live pay ranges at 60 companies.
| Level | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level not stated | 36 | $183K | $151K–$286K |
| Senior | 45 | $193K | $178K–$207K |
| Staff+ | 11 | $230K | $218K–$277K |
| City | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 28 | $209K | $185K–$286K |
| New York | 22 | $205K | $187K–$219K |
| Costa Mesa | 8 | $182K | $170K–$193K |
| Company | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | 4 | $363K | $355K–$363K |
| OpenAI | 4 | $338K | $302K–$367K |
| Cohere | 2 | $303K | $273K–$333K |
| Waymo | 2 | $281K | $281K–$281K |
| xAI | 2 | $263K | $239K–$286K |
| Faire | 3 | $233K | $220K–$233K |
| Metriport | 2 | $215K | $208K–$223K |
| CoreWeave | 2 | $212K | $212K–$212K |
| Plaid | 2 | $200K | $193K–$208K |
| Airwallex | 2 | $200K | $195K–$205K |
| Verse Medical | 2 | $198K | $186K–$209K |
| Decagon | 2 | $195K | $188K–$203K |
| Harvey | 2 | $195K | $195K–$195K |
| Zipline | 2 | $181K | $181K–$182K |
| Anduril | 10 | $170K | $144K–$193K |
| Data Engineer Mercor |
$160K–$500K |
| Senior Staff Data Engineer Cohere |
$275K–$450K |
| Data Engineer, Hardware & Consumer Devices OpenAI |
$295K–$445K |
| Analytics Engineer - X xAI |
$180K–$440K |
| Data Engineer, GTM Anthropic |
$320K–$405K |
| Data Engineer, Product Anthropic |
$320K–$405K |
| Data Engineer, Billing & Payments Anthropic |
$320K–$405K |
| Data Engineer OpenAI |
$235K–$385K |
Figures are the midpoint of each pay range published in a job posting (US$, base salary as posted), across open roles at the startups we track, recalculated daily. Postings without a range, interns and contractors are excluded. Updated Oct 27, 2026.