The median security engineer posting in Washington DC at a tech startup offers $198K base, with the middle half between $186K and $289K — from 19 live pay ranges at 6 companies.
| Level | Postings | Median | Middle 50% |
|---|---|---|---|
| Level not stated | 13 | $267K | $179K–$353K |
| Senior | 5 | $193K | $193K–$193K |
| Forward Deployed Security Engineer OpenAI |
$266K–$445K |
| Security Engineer, Detection & Response Anthropic |
$300K–$405K |
| Security Engineer, Corporate Security Anthropic |
$320K–$405K |
| Security Engineer - Threat Intel Anthropic |
$320K–$405K |
| Security Engineer, Offensive Security Anthropic |
$300K–$320K |
| Security Engineer, Infrastructure Scale AI |
$238K–$297K |
| Security Engineer, Product Security Scale AI |
$238K–$297K |
| Security Engineer - GRC Frameworks & AI Governance xAI |
$152K–$258K |
Figures are the midpoint of each pay range published in a job posting (US$, 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 24, 2026.