Chief of Staff Salary Benchmarks

A Chief of Staff acts as a strategic partner to the CEO or executive team. Key responsibilities include managing cross-functional initiatives, preparing board materials, driving strategic planning cycles, unblocking operational bottlenecks, and serving as a trusted advisor on high-priority decisions.

Common next steps include VP of Operations, VP of Strategy, General Manager of a business unit, or a direct executive role (COO, VP of Product). The CoS role is often seen as an accelerated path to executive leadership due to its broad exposure to company strategy and operations.

With a median of $120,000, Chiefs of Staff typically earn less than C-suite executives (CEO, COO, CRO) but more than mid-level managers. The role sits between senior management and executive leadership in compensation, with equity grants that can significantly increase total compensation at high-growth companies.

The Chief of Staff role has become increasingly common at SaaS companies, especially those in growth stage (Series B+). About 60% of SaaS companies with $20M+ ARR now have a Chief of Staff. The role is less common at early-stage startups where founders handle strategic operations directly.

On a median base salary of $120,000, a Chief of Staff at a US SaaS company makes about $10,000 a month, $4,615 every two weeks, or $57.69 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $6,579–$13,374 a month. These are base-pay equivalents before tax, and they leave out bonus, commission, and equity.

Expect the lower half of this benchmark. Across 150 verified SaaS Chief of Staff salaries, the 25th percentile is $78,942 and the median is $120,000. A Chief of Staff at a seed or Series A startup, or at a bootstrapped company under roughly $10M ARR, will often land between those two figures. Base pay typically moves toward and past the $160,486 75th percentile as the company adds headcount and ARR. Those stage bands are a rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a breakdown by company size, which the dataset does not report.

Budget for more than base salary. On a median base of $120,000, the fully loaded cost of a US Chief of Staff is roughly $150,000–$168,000 per year once employer payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA plus federal and state unemployment), health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment are added. That 1.25–1.4x multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to the benchmark on this page, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonuses, and equity sit on top where the role carries them. Also budget one-off hiring costs: agency recruiting fees commonly run 15–25% of first-year base, and a new hire takes weeks to months to reach full productivity.