The median infrastructure engineer posting at a tech startup offers $213K base, with the middle half between $185K and $256K — from 207 live pay ranges at 85 companies.
| Level | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level not stated | 78 | $199K | $156K–$259K |
| Senior | 64 | $193K | $177K–$217K |
| Staff+ | 64 | $250K | $222K–$269K |
| City | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 49 | $260K | $213K–$305K |
| New York | 24 | $257K | $230K–$296K |
| Long Beach | 17 | $207K | $177K–$250K |
| Washington DC | 15 | $195K | $192K–$275K |
| Costa Mesa | 14 | $193K | $193K–$222K |
| Denver | 13 | $230K | $188K–$250K |
| Seattle | 12 | $229K | $202K–$305K |
| Mountain View | 6 | $212K | $189K–$307K |
| Company | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | 3 | $383K | $319K–$390K |
| Anthropic | 8 | $383K | $333K–$408K |
| Waymo | 3 | $333K | $263K–$333K |
| Sierra | 3 | $310K | $253K–$310K |
| Wispr Flow | 6 | $285K | $270K–$285K |
| Legora | 3 | $279K | $279K–$300K |
| Teleport | 2 | $274K | $274K–$274K |
| Mercor | 2 | $270K | $240K–$300K |
| Ramp | 2 | $266K | $256K–$275K |
| AlphaSense | 5 | $264K | $254K–$264K |
| Wayve | 2 | $259K | $241K–$276K |
| Faire | 3 | $257K | $232K–$275K |
| Saviynt | 4 | $256K | $245K–$268K |
| Zoox | 3 | $251K | $240K–$252K |
| Baseten | 2 | $248K | $248K–$248K |
| Pre-training Data Infrastructure Engineer Anthropic |
$500K–$850K |
| Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer, Safeguards Research Anthropic |
$350K–$500K |
| Data Platform Engineer Mercor |
$160K–$500K |
| AI Infrastructure Engineer, pAGI OpenAI |
$266K–$500K |
| Staff+ Infrastructure Engineer, Cluster Infrastructure Anthropic |
$320K–$485K |
| Staff+ Site Reliability Engineer, Safeguards ML Infra Anthropic |
$320K–$485K |
| Client Platform Engineer OpenAI |
$347K–$445K |
| ML Infrastructure Engineer xAI |
$180K–$440K |
Figures are the midpoint of each pay range published in a job posting (US$, 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.