The median security engineer posting at a tech startup offers $206K base, with the middle half between $179K and $251K — from 201 live pay ranges at 79 companies. Entry-level postings sit around $169K; staff+ around $250K.
| Level | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry / new grad | 4 | $169K | $163K–$169K |
| Level not stated | 91 | $203K | $173K–$257K |
| Senior | 53 | $193K | $179K–$211K |
| Staff+ | 53 | $250K | $222K–$275K |
| City | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| New York | 45 | $262K | $204K–$310K |
| San Francisco | 42 | $267K | $211K–$355K |
| Washington DC | 19 | $198K | $186K–$289K |
| Seattle | 17 | $353K | $221K–$363K |
| Sunnyvale | 14 | $201K | $179K–$204K |
| Costa Mesa | 11 | $193K | $193K–$202K |
| Palo Alto | 11 | $179K | $179K–$205K |
| Bellevue | 10 | $191K | $170K–$204K |
| San Jose | 8 | $233K | $204K–$250K |
| Austin | 8 | $179K | $174K–$179K |
| Livingston | 7 | $203K | $175K–$204K |
| Denver | 6 | $214K | $201K–$244K |
| Long Beach | 6 | $214K | $201K–$244K |
| Company | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | 10 | $363K | $363K–$403K |
| OpenAI | 9 | $356K | $356K–$356K |
| Rogo | 2 | $300K | $300K–$300K |
| Cohere | 2 | $283K | $281K–$284K |
| Suno | 3 | $280K | $236K–$300K |
| Ramp | 3 | $280K | $265K–$293K |
| Harvey | 6 | $275K | $275K–$283K |
| Replit | 2 | $268K | $254K–$281K |
| Scale AI | 2 | $267K | $267K–$267K |
| Ripple | 6 | $262K | $260K–$262K |
| Headway | 2 | $251K | $251K–$251K |
| Faire | 2 | $250K | $238K–$262K |
| Verkada | 4 | $250K | $239K–$250K |
| LiveKit | 2 | $250K | $250K–$250K |
| Etched | 3 | $240K | $240K–$251K |
| Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security OpenAI |
$401K–$510K |
| Staff+ Software Security Engineer Anthropic |
$405K–$485K |
| Staff + Software Security Engineer, Labs Anthropic |
$320K–$485K |
| Staff+ Application Security Engineer Anthropic |
$320K–$485K |
| Staff+ Application Security Engineer - M&A Anthropic |
$320K–$485K |
| Security Engineer, Application Security OpenAI |
$266K–$445K |
| Security Engineer, Agent Security OpenAI |
$266K–$445K |
| Security Engineer, Application Security OpenAI |
$266K–$445K |
Figures are the midpoint of each pay range published in a job posting (US$, 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.