Principal Engineering salaries in United States
Built from 189 employer-stated ranges observed in live postings (as of 2026-10-11). Every number traces to a public source row.
Employers hiring Principal Engineering roles in United States state a median of $226,000 annual USD (P25 $206,300, P75 $270,000), measured from 189 employer-published ranges as of 2026-10-11.
Beyond base: 36.7% of evaluated postings here mention equity, 36.7% mention bonus/commission (n=281 evaluated excerpts).
Skills mentioned in this market
Tokens that literally appear in the posting text, with n and share of open roles. Not inferred.
| Skill | n | Share of open roles |
|---|---|---|
| Python | 69 | 24.6% |
| Roadmapping | 42 | 14.9% |
| AWS | 40 | 14.2% |
| CI/CD | 36 | 12.8% |
| Kubernetes | 32 | 11.4% |
| Azure | 31 | 11.0% |
| C++ | 30 | 10.7% |
| GCP | 29 | 10.3% |
| SQL | 23 | 8.2% |
| Linux | 22 | 7.8% |
| LLM | 21 | 7.5% |
| Prototyping | 20 | 7.1% |
Where would an offer land?
Type any annual figure to see its percentile inside the 189 employer-stated ranges on this page. Calculated in your browser — nothing is sent anywhere.
Enter an amount to place it against the published distribution.
- P10
- $184,700
- P20
- $202,500
- P30
- $207,500
- P40
- $215,000
- P50
- $226,000
- P60
- $240,000
- P70
- $260,550
- P80
- $285,500
- P90
- $304,150
Deciles of employer-stated ranges (midpoints, annual USD) for this market. Percentiles interpolate between deciles; sample statistics, not an offer recommendation.
Companies behind these numbers (United States)
| Company | Sector | Open roles | Stated ranges | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| asteralabs | hardware | 39 | 38 | View roles → |
| elastic | software | 12 | 12 | View roles → |
| chaosindustries | — | 10 | 10 | View roles → |
| linkedin3 | — | 9 | 9 | View roles → |
| servicenow | — | 9 | 8 | View roles → |
| axon | defense | 7 | 7 | View roles → |
| databricks | software | 7 | 7 | View roles → |
| docker | — | 6 | 6 | View roles → |
| twilio | software | 6 | 6 | View roles → |
| d-matrix | — | 5 | 5 | View roles → |
| alphasense | ai | 4 | 4 | View roles → |
| celonis | software | 4 | 3 | View roles → |