Six Figure Work

Software Engineer

Variance

Company websitevariance.com (Variance, opens in new tab)

Base salary $160K  to $250K

Employer-published annual base salary, USD. Advertised base range in San Francisco, CA

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  • LocationSan Francisco, CA
  • WorkplaceOn-site
  • Status at last checkSource accepting applications when checked
  • Last checked (3 h ago) · observed since

About this job

Role

At Variance, we are teaching machines to make the hardest judgement calls at scale. That means building AI agents for the high-precision gray-area of risk investigations, fraud, and identity reviews.

We’re a small, talent-dense team in San Francisco, tackling problems that touch billions of events and entities. Our customers include several Fortune 500s, global marketplaces, and regulated financial services. If you thrive on extreme ownership, moving fast, and working directly with founders, you’ll feel at home here.

You’re a fit if you:

  • Have 1-3 years of experience of professional software engineering experience

  • Care deeply about craftsmanship and have strong opinions about building high-quality products

  • Are comfortable with our tech stack: React/Next.js, TypeScript, MySQL, and ClickHouse for agent context, though we value strong fundamentals over experience with any specific technology

  • Enjoy owning features end-to-end, from backend systems to polished UI to production

  • Thrive in fast-moving environments with short iteration cycles and a high degree of responsibility

  • Are excited by the prospect of building AI interfaces for high-stakes decisions that protect people from fraud, scams, and abuse

What you’ll do

  • Build and ship features end-to-end with iteration cycles measured in hours, not quarters

  • Work across the stack to turn ambiguous problems into reliable product experiences

  • Partner directly with the founders on massive-scale, frontier problems

  • Scale our product into new industries and workflows through fast pilots and live demos

  • Design systems where AI must decide in real time, balancing precision, speed, and user trust

  • Help improve the product through rapid feedback, experimentation, and strong execution

Our culture

We believe in ownership, urgency, and craft. We enjoy spirited debate, wild ideas, and building things we’re proud of. We’re fully in-person in San Francisco.

What we offer

  • Competitive salary and meaningful equity

  • Health care: we offer platinum-level medical, dental, and vision insurance

  • Unlimited PTO, sick leave, and parental leave

  • Up to $100 in reimbursement for personal health & wellness expenses each month

  • 401(k) plan

Source: Variance on Ashby · View original posting (opens in new tab)

Pay in context

This role's base floor ($160,000) is above 34% of the 4,192 Software Engineering roles in California listed on this site; 100 others list the same floor. Their median floor is $176,500; the middle half runs from $149,200 to $204,000.

Only jobs on this site count, and each one publishes a base salary of $100,000 or more, so this compares six-figure jobs with each other, not with the whole market. Computed Nov 6, 2026.

This range next to 2 other live Variance roles with the nearest advertised base floor
Chart as a table
This range next to 2 other live Variance roles with the nearest advertised base floor
RolePublished base
Software Engineer (this listing)$160K - $250K
Research Engineer, Evals$180K - $300K
Senior Software Engineer$200K - $300K

Same $100K to $400K scale as every card. All Variance roles · How to read the bar

Observed changes

  1. First observed on the employer's board
  2. Began meeting the published-salary criteria
Observed since
Employer-stated posting date
2026-03-30
Where this pay comes from

Location as the employer wrote it: San Francisco

USD 160,000 – 250,000 · 1 YEAR · Salary

Method
Structured pay field published by the employer
Checked
Rule set
us-base-v2

The employer's job board publishes this pay as a dedicated data field. We read the field directly; no interpretation was needed.

What we verified

  • The pay figures come from the employer's own listing, quoted exactly above.
  • The pay is an annual base salary in US dollars with a minimum of at least $100,000.
  • The role was publicly listed on the employer's job board when last checked.

We do not verify what the employer will actually offer, whether the employer is still recruiting for the role, or anything beyond what the employer published. Full methodology.