Desk·2026-09-18
Anthropic still leads the staff-engineer rank
Same staff-engineer title. Anthropic prints the higher typical. OpenAI is the other lab under it. Name the staff seat before the mid SWE book.
Anthropic typical $1,250,000 against $1,160,000 at OpenAI.
Staff typical
Anthropic typical sits ~1.08× OpenAI
Same title. Frontier staff seat clears the higher mark. Second lab clears a higher cash mix. Thin samples on both.
How to plan it
Name the staff rank before treating mid SWE as the same lab book
A staff IC who can still ship systems should sit the Anthropic and OpenAI staff books as two seats, not one lab market. Anthropic prints $1.25M typical on the ledger. OpenAI prints $1.16M with a $363k base against Anthropic's $300k. Mid SWE flips: OpenAI $653k, Anthropic $591k. The staff rank is paper you underwrite. The base is the year you keep. If you want the higher staff mark and can carry the listing tape, take the Anthropic loop. If you want more cash in the staff year and the OpenAI name, sit that book — but name the tradeoff. Do not treat a $1.25M staff mark and a $653k mid SWE year as the same career move. The title is shared only at staff; the books are not.
Also: SWE companies · OpenAI vs Anthropic