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Top Paying Companies in Palo Alto

Discover the highest-paying opportunities. Updated daily with real compensation data from professionals like you.

The compensation figures below reflect median total yearly compensation amounts, including base salaries, stock grants, and bonuses.

It's a difficult task to accurately compare leveling across companies. We aim to make that comparison as easy as possible, using our standard leveling framework. Currently, standard leveling is only available for Software Engineer positions within companies that have leveling structures submitted to our database. Median compensation across all levels is supported for all job roles.

You may see that some level/location combinations yield little to no valid data, but with your help, we can change that. If you would like to help support our mission to help people make better career decisions, we encourage you to contribute via Add Compensation, Add Level Mapping, and Add Benefits.

Want to give yourself the best shot at getting a job with one of these companies? We provide a 1-on-1 Resume Review service where our team of experienced recruiters can help increase your chances of breaking through that first step.

Do you have an offer from one of these companies, but the numbers don't line up? We provide 1-on-1 Salary Negotiation Support coaching to help you learn the ins and outs of negotiating to ensure you're getting the right offer! Get Paid, Not Played.

Curious about the accuracy of our data? Check out our Verified Salaries page for more information!

Disclaimer: Compensation and leveling depend on a variety of factors including interview performance, past experience, competitive offers, etc. The compensation numbers here are for the top paying companies for the selected level and location; it may not reflect compensation for the rest of the market.

+ Add Compensation + Add Comp
Median across all levels.
Due to variability in submission data, median compensations may appear skewed, especially for non-Software Engineer roles. Help everyone gain access to better data by sharing this leaderboard, as well as contributing your salaries and compensations.
Typically 0-2 years of experience.
New-grads or little to no industry experience. Develop and maintain low to moderately complex components working on a team. Typically receives guidance and support from more experienced team members.
Typically 2-5+ years of experience.
Develop and own moderate to complex components. Possibly lead a small team or project. Ability to mentor engineers, provide technical guidance, code reviews, design and deliver on small projects end-to-end. Impact is typically at the immediate team scope. At many companies, this is considered a 'career-level', as in you can spend the rest of your career operating at this level without being pushed out for not being promoted.
Typically 5+ years of experience.
Typically less than 30% of employees in a company are at this level. Expected to lead and own complex technical initiatives. Begin setting the vision and future direction of team. Impact across multiple related teams within an org. Role shifts more towards design rather than implementation depending on size and expectations at company.
Typically 10+ years of experience.
This level is much more coveted than the previous ones. Typically less than 10% of employees in a company are at this level. Impact spans across organizations. Entrusted with business-critical projects and for setting technical vision for an org or multiple orgs. Responsible for reviewing and providing feedback on technical designs across an org. Little to no day-to-day coding. Role depends highly on organizational and company needs and becomes loosely defined. Expected to operate fully autonomously.
Typically 15+ years of experience.
Usually less than 3% of employees in a company are at this level. Smaller companies may not have any individuals at this level. Impact spans across the company and sometimes industry. Expected to operate fully autonomously.
1st
xAI
xAI
$620,000
2nd
Chai Research
Chai Research
$555,000
3rd
Snap
Snap
$515,000
RankCompanyTitle
Total Comp
Base | Stock | Bonus
1 xAIL5
$620,000
220K | 400K | N/A
2 Chai ResearchL4
$555,000
175K | 380K | N/A
3 Snap levels.fyi/leaderboardL4
$515,000
215K | 300K | N/A
4 TeslL4
$474,390
212K | 262K | N/A
5 AptosL5
$450,000
250K | 200K | N/A
6 Meta levels.fyi/leaderboardE5
$420,000
210K | 210K | N/A
7 Latitude AIL5
$400,200
239K | 125K | N/A
8 PageBitesL5
$400,000
300K | 0 | N/A
9 AppLovin levels.fyi/leaderboardSenior Software Engineer 2
$390,000
290K | 100K | N/A
10 BroadcomICB 4
$362,000
202K | 100K | N/A
11 TinderIC4
$351,000
220K | 100K | N/A
12 Pinterest levels.fyi/leaderboardIC15
$350,000
230K | 120K | N/A
13 RobinhoodL2
$325,000
170K | 130K | N/A
14 LyftT4
$325,000
175K | 135K | N/A
15 PepsiCo levels.fyi/leaderboardC5
$320,000
220K | 0 | N/A
16 Luminar TechnologiesStaff
$317,000
206K | 111K | N/A
17 Mysten LabsIC5
$313,000
220K | 0 | N/A
18 Cloudera levels.fyi/leaderboardIC4
$310,000
165K | 120K | N/A
19 Palo Alto NetworksPrincipal Engineer
$305,000
205K | 100K | N/A
20 Tableau SoftwareSoftware Engineer (SWE)
$302,000
120K | 170K | N/A
21 Pagebites levels.fyi/leaderboard
$300,000
250K | 50K | N/A
22 AppleICT4
$300,000
200K | 100K | N/A
23 HippoII
$300,000
210K | 90K | N/A
24 Augment Code levels.fyi/leaderboard
$300,000
300K | 0 | N/A
25 Luma AI3
$300,000
300K | 0 | N/A
26 AmazonSDE II
$295,000
195K | 100K | N/A
27 Salesforce levels.fyi/leaderboardSenior MTS
$283,000
215K | 33K | N/A
28 RivianRIV-5
$273,000
188K | 85K | N/A
29 Rivian and Volkswagen Group TechnologiesStaff Software Engineer
$270,000
210K | 60K | N/A
30 InnoPeak Technology levels.fyi/leaderboardSenior Engineer
$270,000
190K | 50K | N/A
31 HouzzL5
$270,000
170K | 100K | N/A
32 ALSO.Staff Firmware Engineer
$269,000
269K | 0 | N/A
33 Uber levels.fyi/leaderboardSenior Software Engineer
$268,000
173K | 75K | N/A
34 Obsidian SecurityPrincipal Engineer
$265,050
215K | 50K | N/A
35 CartaL5
$260,000
200K | 60K | N/A
36 Celonis levels.fyi/leaderboardIC3
$254,250
166K | 65K | N/A
37 SmartNewsSenior
$252,000
210K | 0 | N/A
38 TencentStaff
$250,000
250K | 0 | N/A
39 VMware levels.fyi/leaderboardSenior MTS
$250,000
190K | 40K | N/A
40 PalantirSoftware Engineer
$247,500
175K | 70K | N/A
41 Argo AISenior Software Engineer
$247,250
215K | 0 | N/A
42 Tesla levels.fyi/leaderboardP2
$245,000
145K | 100K | N/A
43 HPESenior 2
$243,000
240K | 3K | N/A
44 PlumeL5
$241,656
240K | 1.7K | N/A
45 Ford Motor levels.fyi/leaderboardGSR 8
$240,350
180K | 30K | N/A
46 Woven by ToyotaL4
$240,000
200K | 0 | N/A
47 WealthfrontE2
$235,845
155K | 62K | N/A
48 Mercari levels.fyi/leaderboardMG3
$235,000
225K | 10K | N/A
49 EverChargeL4
$230,000
230K | 0 | N/A
50 CrestaL3
$225,000
225K | 0 | N/A
Last Updated: March 30, 2026
How is this table calculated?

We aggregate our submissions from the last two years to calculate the data.

For 'All Levels', we compute the median entry across all submissions for a particular company, location and job role.

For Software Engineers, we support a standardized framework based around company leveling data. We compute the median entry for a particular company, location, standard level and job role.