C++ salary: $212K median
From 1,484 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$212Kmedian advertised salary
$171K – $251Kmiddle half of roles
$217Kaverage advertised salary
1,484roles counted
C++ salary by level
Senior roles advertise a median of $215K, 48% more than junior roles ($145K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior | $145K | $135K–$158K | 27 |
| Senior | $215K | $188K–$230K | 521 |
| Lead and above | $264K | $226K–$290K | 348 |
| No level in title | $175K | $142K–$225K | 586 |
C++ salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $238K | 723 |
| 🇺🇸New York | $238K | 72 |
| 🇺🇸California | $220K | 1,071 |
| 🇺🇸Pittsburgh | $218K | 28 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $212K | 1,425 |
| 🇺🇸Boston | $198K | 31 |
| 🇺🇸Denver | $190K | 41 |
| 🇺🇸Washington, DC | $187K | 20 |
| 🇺🇸Austin | $187K | 20 |
| 🇺🇸Texas | $187K | 25 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $169K | 176 |
| 🇺🇸Los Angeles | $145K | 187 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $402K | 16 |
| OpenAI | $356K | 47 |
| Lambda | $330K | 5 |
| Inworld AI | $315K | 3 |
| Perplexity | $312K | 5 |
| River AI Inc. | $310K | 9 |
| Wayve | $285K | 21 |
| $279K | 10 | |
| Roblox | $269K | 84 |
| Figma | $264K | 6 |
| Armada | $261K | 4 |
| Cohere | $259K | 4 |
| Pure Storage | $258K | 12 |
| Waymo | $257K | 104 |
| xAI | $255K | 22 |
| Apptronik | $250K | 8 |
| Baseten | $248K | 8 |
| 1X | $245K | 18 |
| Samsung Research America | $244K | 10 |
| Nuro | $242K | 62 |
| Zoox | $238K | 54 |
| Crusoe | $238K | 23 |
| Quora | $232K | 3 |
| Cloudflare | $230K | 15 |
| Samsara | $230K | 8 |
Highest-paying open C++ roles
All C++ jobs- Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)Anthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY$500K - $850KRustPythonC++
- Research Engineer / Performance Engineer, RL Distributed SystemsAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA$500K - $850KRustPythonC++
- Software Engineer, Collective CommunicationOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$380K - $500KC++CUDA
- Training Performance EngineerOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$295K - $500KRustPythonC++
- Principal Engineer, AI PlatformPinterest · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, US; Remote, US$243K - $500KRemoteLeadRustJavaC++
- Senior Staff / Principal Software Engineer - Freeway AutonomyZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$340K - $493KLeadC++
- Senior Staff / Principal Machine Learning Engineer - Autonomy BehaviorsZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$340K - $492KLeadPythonC++Machine Learning
- Member of Technical Staff (AI Researcher)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $485KPythonC++Machine Learning
- Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, GPU Cluster Infrastructure)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$250K - $485KRustGoC++
- Staff Software Engineer - Infrastructure StorageLambda · 🇺🇸San Francisco Office (Fremont St)$314K - $465KLeadRustC++Machine Learning
- Staff Software Engineer - ComputeLambda · Bellevue Office$314K - $465KLeadRustGoPython
- Director of Engineering – Studio SystemsRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$399K - $458KLeadC++LLM
- Principal Software Engineer, ML & Media InfraPinterest · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA; US; San Francisco, CA, US$285K - $450KLeadPythonJavaC++
- Software Engineer, Evaluation InfrastructurexAI · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$180K - $440KRustPythonC++
- Distinguished Engineer, Embedded Vehicle SoftwareWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$347K - $438KRustPythonC++
- Staff / Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Inference - USAInworld AI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California, USA$270K - $430KLeadRustPythonC++
- Staff Machine Learning Engineer, RoboticsWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$370K - $420KLeadPythonC++Machine Learning
- Compiler Engineer, HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$200K - $420KC++PyTorchCUDA
- Design Verification Emulation, HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Austin, TX, Palo Alto, CA$200K - $420KPythonC++CI/CD
- Forward Deployed Engineer, InferenceCohere · 🇺🇸United States$240K - $415KGoPythonC++
Questions about C++ pay
- What is the average C++ salary?
- $217K a year on average and $212K at the median, across 1,484 open C++ postings at tech companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $171K to $251K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest C++ pay?
- Anthropic ($402K), OpenAI ($356K), Lambda ($330K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for C++ roles at tech companies is $212K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $171K to $251K. Counted from 1,484 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://simba0315.github.io/crypto-vakansii/salaries/cpp/
Free to use with the link.