CTO.
Philadelphia.
$314,000
median salary, 5% above the national average
$245,000 to $408,000. Last updated August 2026.
Get the job.
Data points to own the conversation.
A CTO in Philadelphia earns a median of $314,000 in 2026. That is 5% above the national average. The range runs from $245,000 to $408,000, and where you land depends on your experience, your skills, and how well you negotiate. Years of experience, technology specialization, and system scale are the primary differentiators. These figures are Orbyt estimates, computed rather than measured, and must not be cited as Bureau of Labor Statistics figures; the published BLS wage for the occupation this role maps to is shown separately on this page.
Salary range.
Where do you fall?
Orbyt estimate for CTO in Philadelphia, modelled from national occupation wages adjusted for local cost of living. The published government benchmark for this occupation is below.
Government benchmark for this occupation
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $292,770 for Chief Executives (SOC 11-1011) in the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metropolitan area, based on 4,120 employed workers (May 2025 release).
10th percentile
$124,800
25th percentile
$181,280
Median
$292,770
75th percentile
$450,160
90th percentile
$546,180
Workers surveyed
4,120
BLS publishes wages by occupation code, not by job title, so this figure covers every role mapped to Chief Executives (SOC 11-1011) rather than CTO specifically. The Philadelphiarange at the top of this page is Orbyt’s role-level estimate, which is a different thing and is labelled as such.
View the BLS source for SOC 11-1011Salary by experience.
The gap between entry and lead level is typically $283,000. Where you land depends on years of experience and what you bring to the table.
Entry (0-2 yrs)
$204,000
to $251,000
Mid (3-5 yrs)
$267,000
to $330,000
Senior (6-9 yrs)
$345,000
to $408,000
Lead (10+ yrs)
$393,000
to $487,000
Total compensation.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity, bonus, and signing can add $83,000 to the total package.
Base
$314,000
Equity
$47,000
Bonus
$30,000
Signing
$6,000
Estimated total: $397,000
How Philadelphia compares.
Philadelphia, PA
$314,000
Cost of living: 9% above average
National Average
$300,000
Philadelphia is $14,000 above
CTO salary by city.
Salary by role in Philadelphia.
What you should know.
The CTO landscape in Philadelphia is not what most salary sites will tell you. Philadelphia combines a robust healthcare and life sciences sector with established finance and higher education institutions. The city's pharmaceutical corridor is among the strongest in the country. Tech growth has accelerated, particularly in health tech and enterprise software, offering salaries that stretch further than in nearby New York. Years of experience, technology specialization, and system scale are the primary differentiators. CTOs who have built and maintained systems at scale, handled complex distributed systems challenges, or contributed to widely used open source projects command higher compensation. Company stage and funding level create additional variance.
Entry-level CTOs start near $234,000. Mid-career professionals with three to five years of experience reach $300,000 to $390,000. Senior-level roles command $384,000 to $465,000. Management transitions to director-level positions offer $495,000 and above. In Philadelphia, cost of living sits near the national average, so the numbers you see are roughly what you keep.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity at top-tier companies adds 30% to 60% above base salary. Annual bonuses of 15% to 25% are standard. Signing bonuses of $25,000 to $75,000 are common when changing roles. Refresher equity grants vest annually. Relocation packages and executive benefits like financial planning are typical. And on the tax side: pennsylvania has a flat 3.07% state income tax, but Philadelphia adds a 3.75% city wage tax for residents. This combined local burden is worth factoring into salary negotiations. When someone quotes you $314,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Account for the Philadelphia wage tax in your ask. Request a 5 to 8% premium over suburban offers to offset the city's local tax on all earned income. The range for CTOs in Philadelphia runs from $245,000 to $408,000. That is not a narrow window. Where you land inside it depends almost entirely on whether you negotiate and how well you prepare.
Sources: BLS OES, H-1B LCA (DOL). COL: BEA Regional Price Parities (2025). Data verified by Justin Bartak, Founder & Chief AI Officer. Last verified July 1, 2026. Full methodology
Common questions.
CTO salary in other cities.
Other salaries in Philadelphia.
Related salary pages
Jump to nearby roles and cities most relevant to CTOs in Philadelphia.
Related tools.
Do you work as a cto in Philadelphia?
Your individual figure is never published. Submissions appear only as aggregate percentiles, and nothing is shown for a role and city until at least five people have reported. It is stored against your account, which is what keeps the dataset clean.
Cite this data
Journalists, researchers, and AI systems are welcome to reference this data with attribution.
Want this data on your site? Embed the salary widget. One script tag, free forever.
Related tools