The Full Ranking
Every week, The CRO Report tracks VP Sales, CRO, and executive sales postings across the country. We've now collected 1,426 total roles. Of those, 750 disclosed salary ranges. We broke those down by metro area, and the results aren't what most people expect.
Here's the full ranking by average maximum base salary.
According to The CRO Report's analysis of 750 salary disclosures across 1,426 VP Sales postings, San Francisco leads all metros at $347K average max base, while New York ranks just 7th despite having the most total postings.
| Rank | Metro | Roles w/ Salary | Avg Min Base | Avg Max Base | vs. National |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | San Francisco TOP | 18 | $244,452 | $347,218 | +38.1% |
| 2 | Seattle | 8 | $200,909 | $296,696 | +18.0% |
| 3 | Boston | 26 | $201,227 | $282,527 | +12.4% |
| 4 | Atlanta | 15 | $193,255 | $275,822 | +9.7% |
| 5 | Texas (DFW/Austin/Houston) | 33 | $157,863 | $260,065 | +3.4% |
| 6 | Denver | 9 | $192,784 | $254,067 | +1.0% |
| 7 | New York | 59 | $180,174 | $249,898 | -0.6% |
| 8 | Los Angeles | 15 | $171,794 | $235,740 | -6.3% |
| 9 | Remote | 79 | $158,530 | $224,695 | -10.6% |
| 10 | Chicago LOWEST | 20 | $151,832 | $222,485 | -11.5% |
National average: $170,395-$251,455 (750 roles with salary data, 1,426 total roles tracked)
The "Other" Category
We also tracked 212 roles in metros outside the top 10 (Nashville, Phoenix, Raleigh, etc.). Their combined average: $179K-$271K. That $271K max would slot in at #4 on this list, beating Atlanta. Smaller metros with fewer postings can punch above their weight when a handful of high-paying roles skew the average. We didn't rank them individually because sample sizes were too small for reliable metro-level comparisons.
The gap between #1 and #10 is $124,733 in average max base. That's not a rounding error. That's a down payment on a house in most of these cities. And the ranking itself tells a different story than conventional wisdom suggests. NYC at #7. Atlanta at #4. Let's dig into why.
The $275K+ Club: SF, Seattle, Boston
Three cities separate themselves from the pack. Their average max base sits $275K or higher, and the reasons are consistent: tech density, venture capital concentration, and fierce competition for a small pool of experienced sales leaders.
San Francisco: $347K Avg Max (18 roles)
San Francisco isn't just #1. It's #1 by a massive margin. The $347K average max base is a full $50K above #2 Seattle. That gap alone is bigger than the difference between #5 and #10 on this list.
The SF metro area has 25 total VP Sales postings, with 18 disclosing salary. About 32% of those are remote-eligible, which is lower than you'd expect from a tech hub. The company mix is telling: 44% enterprise or public companies, but 20% are Series C/D. That venture-backed segment pulls the average up considerably. When a Salesforce (which had 3 postings in our dataset) and a well-funded late-stage startup are both competing for the same VP, the bidding gets aggressive.
The top individual posting in SF hit $600K base. That's an outlier, but it's the kind of outlier that only exists in markets where venture money flows freely and quota-carrying sales leadership is viewed as the difference between a $100M and a $1B outcome.
Seattle: $297K Avg Max (8 roles)
Seattle's 8 salary-disclosing roles make it a small sample, but the number tracks with what we know about the market. This is Microsoft and Amazon territory. It's also home to a growing cluster of enterprise SaaS companies that relocated or expanded here to tap the engineering talent pool and ended up building full GTM teams.
Eleven total postings, 8 with salary. The tech cluster keeps comp high, and there's less corporate infrastructure than NYC or Chicago to drag down averages with structured pay bands. When your competitive set is two of the largest tech companies on Earth, you pay accordingly.
Boston: $283K Avg Max (26 roles)
Boston is the most interesting of the three premium markets because it gets there differently. This isn't a pure tech play. Boston's strength is financial services, biotech, and a disproportionate number of C-level sales roles.
Of 40 total postings, 27% were remote-eligible, which is the lowest of any metro we tracked. Boston companies want their sales leaders in the office. The 7.5% C-level share (CRO/CSO titles) is the highest of any market, and those roles pay more. Deloitte alone had 4 postings. Financial services companies dominate, and they pay well for leaders who understand complex enterprise selling in regulated environments.
Boston also has the largest salary-disclosing sample among the top three (26 roles), which makes its $283K number more statistically reliable than SF's 18 or Seattle's 8.
Tier 1 Summary
Three cities, three different reasons for premium pay. SF has venture capital and tech density. Seattle has the FAANG effect. Boston has financial services and a concentration of C-level openings. All three sit $30K+ above the national average max of $251K.
The Climbers: Atlanta, Texas, Denver
These three metros sit between $254K and $276K in average max base. They're above the national average, but not in the rarefied air of the Tier 1 cities. What makes them interesting is the trajectory. Five years ago, none of these would have appeared in a conversation about top-paying VP Sales markets. Now they're beating NYC.
Atlanta: $276K Avg Max (15 roles)
Atlanta at #4 is the single biggest surprise in this dataset. This is a city that most sales leaders don't put on their shortlist when thinking about where the money is. They should.
Twenty-three total postings, 15 with salary. The enterprise mix is heavy, which usually drags averages down (structured pay bands, compensation committees, the whole bureaucratic apparatus). But Atlanta's enterprise employers are apparently paying above the curve. The city has quietly built a serious tech scene over the past five years. NCR moved its HQ there. Mailchimp (now Intuit) is there. A growing set of fintech and logistics companies have planted flags.
The cost-of-living angle is the kicker. Housing in metro Atlanta runs roughly 40% of what San Francisco costs. So that $276K max stretches considerably further. We'll come back to this in the COL-adjusted section, but the short version is that Atlanta offers the best raw purchasing power of any metro in our top 5.
Texas: $260K Avg Max (33 roles)
We combined Dallas, Austin, and Houston into a single Texas category because individually, each metro had too few salary-disclosing roles for reliable averages. Together, they give us 57 total postings and 33 with salary.
The $260K max sits 3.4% above national average. That's not spectacular in raw terms, but Texas has no state income tax. A VP making $260K in Dallas takes home roughly the same as someone making $295K in California after state taxes. That 13% tax arbitrage is a real factor in relocation decisions, and Texas companies know it.
Austin tilts tech. Dallas tilts enterprise. Houston tilts energy and industrial. The combined average smooths over these differences, but if you're targeting a specific Texas metro, the profile matters. Austin VP Sales roles will look more like scaled-down versions of SF postings. Dallas roles will look more like Chicago. Houston is its own animal, driven by the energy sector's unique sales cycles.
Denver: $254K Avg Max (9 roles)
Denver is small (16 total postings, 9 with salary) but tech-forward. The city has attracted a wave of companies and workers relocating from the coasts over the past five years, and the comp data reflects that migration.
At $254K max, Denver sits just 1% above the national average. That's essentially at market. But like Atlanta, the cost-of-living math changes the picture. Denver housing costs about 60% of SF and 70% of NYC. A $254K base in Denver buys a lifestyle that would require $310K-$340K on the coasts.
The tech-forward lean means Denver VP Sales roles skew toward SaaS and cloud companies. If you're a sales leader with enterprise SaaS experience looking for a quality-of-life upgrade without taking a massive pay cut, Denver is worth investigating.
The Volume Markets: NYC, LA, Remote, Chicago
These four categories sit at or below the national average of $251K. That doesn't mean they're bad markets. NYC and Remote are the two largest job pools in the entire dataset. But the comp numbers are lower than most people assume, and the reasons are structural.
New York: $250K Avg Max (59 roles)
NYC at #7 is the headline finding in this analysis. The biggest job market in the country (67 total postings, 59 with salary) pays below the national average max. Let that settle for a second.
The reason is composition. Fifty-seven percent of NYC VP Sales postings come from enterprise or public companies. These are JPMorgan (7 roles in our dataset), Citi (4), Deloitte (4), and their peers. Large financial institutions and professional services firms have compensation committees, salary bands, and internal equity guidelines that prevent them from paying wild premiums for individual roles. When a JPMorgan posts a VP Sales position, they're not competing with a Series D startup's blank check. They're fitting into a structure.
Thirty-eight percent of NYC postings were remote-eligible, which is surprisingly high for a city that prides itself on in-person culture. That remote eligibility may also be pulling comp down, since companies with remote-eligible NYC roles are likely anchoring to a national pay band rather than a New York-specific one.
Does this mean NYC is a bad market for VP Sales? No. It means the average is deceptive. There are absolutely $350K+ VP Sales roles in New York. But they're outnumbered by the large financial and professional services companies posting $180K-$240K ranges with significant variable comp and benefits that don't show up in base salary data. NYC is a great market for total comp. It's a mediocre market for base salary.
Los Angeles: $236K Avg Max (15 roles)
LA is the most concerning metro on this list if you care about comp-to-cost ratios. Twenty-two total postings, 15 with salary. The $236K max base is 6.3% below national average. And LA isn't cheap. Housing, taxes, transportation. You're paying coastal prices for below-average sales leadership comp.
The LA market for VP Sales is thinner than you'd expect from the country's second-largest metro area. Entertainment, media, and agency-side companies dominate, and those industries have historically paid sales leadership less than tech or financial services. The tech scene exists (Snap, SpaceX, a growing SaaS cluster) but it hasn't reached the critical mass needed to pull overall VP Sales comp up to coastal-premium levels.
If you're based in LA and your comp is at market, you're getting squeezed. The same role in Atlanta or Denver pays more in raw dollars and significantly more in purchasing power.
Remote: $225K Avg Max (79 roles)
Remote is the largest single category: 193 total postings, 79 with salary. And it pays the second-lowest average max at $225K, which is 10.6% below the national average. Only Chicago is lower.
The "remote discount" is real and significant. At $225K max, remote VP Sales roles pay $27K less than even the cheapest named metro that beats them (New York at $250K). They pay $122K less than SF. That's not a rounding error. That's a strategic tradeoff.
Why the discount? Three factors. First, companies posting remote roles are often benchmarking to national or even global pay scales, not to any specific expensive market. Second, remote roles attract a broader candidate pool, which gives employers more negotiating power. Third, a VP who can work from Boise or Raleigh has lower living expenses, and companies factor that into their ranges.
The Remote Tradeoff
Remote pays 10-14% less than even the cheapest named metro. But it gives you 193 roles to choose from, compared to 25 in SF or 11 in Seattle. Volume and optionality have their own value. A VP with three competing remote offers has more negotiating power than one chasing the single open SF seat.
Chicago: $222K Avg Max (20 roles)
Chicago sits at the bottom of the ranking at $222K, which is 11.5% below the national average. Forty-two total postings, 20 with salary. And 38% of those are remote-eligible.
Chicago is an insurance, manufacturing, and logistics hub. Those industries pay VP Sales less than tech, financial services, or life sciences. The city has a solid but not exceptional tech scene, and it lacks the venture capital concentration that pushes comp up in SF, Seattle, and Boston. The result is a perfectly functional VP Sales market with average comp that sits firmly below the mean.
For candidates, Chicago's value proposition is similar to the Tier 2 cities: moderate cost of living relative to the coasts. But unlike Atlanta or Denver, Chicago's comp is also below average, which weakens the math. You're saving on housing compared to NYC, but you're also earning less.
What the Money Buys: COL-Adjusted View
Raw salary rankings only tell part of the story. A dollar in San Francisco buys less than a dollar in Atlanta. Considerably less. Here's a rough comparison of what these salaries mean in terms of purchasing power, indexed against the national average.
These are approximate adjustments using composite cost-of-living indices. Housing is the dominant factor, accounting for 50-60% of the COL difference between metros.
| Metro | Avg Max Base | COL Index (vs. avg) | Adjusted Purchasing Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atlanta BEST VALUE | $275,822 | 97 (below avg) | ~$284K |
| Denver | $254,067 | 113 | ~$225K |
| Texas | $260,065 | 96 (below avg) | ~$271K |
| Chicago | $222,485 | 105 | ~$212K |
| Boston | $282,527 | 140 | ~$202K |
| Seattle | $296,696 | 149 | ~$199K |
| New York | $249,898 | 136 | ~$184K |
| San Francisco | $347,218 | 176 | ~$197K |
| Los Angeles WORST VALUE | $235,740 | 146 | ~$161K |
The rankings shift dramatically. Atlanta moves from #4 in raw pay to #1 in purchasing power. San Francisco drops from #1 to the middle of the pack. And Los Angeles, which was already 8th in raw pay, becomes the worst value market on the list. That $236K in LA buys you roughly $161K worth of lifestyle. A VP making $276K in Atlanta is living like someone making $90K more in LA.
Texas benefits from the same dynamic as Atlanta: above-average comp in a below-average cost market. Add the no-state-income-tax advantage, and the effective purchasing power gap widens further. A VP making $260K in Dallas takes home more after taxes and housing than one making $297K in Seattle.
The LA Problem
Los Angeles is the only metro that combines below-average VP Sales comp with above-average cost of living. If you're a sales leader in LA making market rate, your purchasing power is roughly 36% below the national average. That's a structural disadvantage that only makes sense if you have strong personal reasons for being in the market.
The Real Winners and Losers
Winners: Atlanta and Texas combine above-average comp with below-average costs. Denver offers near-average comp with moderate costs and no state income tax aspirations (Colorado does have state tax, but it's a flat 4.4%, well below California's top rate). These are the metros where your VP Sales comp goes the furthest.
Losers: LA is the clear loser on comp-to-cost ratio. NYC is second-worst: below-average comp with significantly above-average costs. SF pays the most in raw terms, but after COL adjustment it drops to $197K in purchasing power, which is middle of the pack. You're paying a premium for the SF lifestyle, not for superior purchasing power.
For a deeper look at how specific metros compare, see our city-specific salary breakdowns for New York, San Francisco, and Boston.
Where to Look if You're Job Hunting
Comp isn't the only variable. Volume matters. A lot.
If you're actively looking for a VP Sales or CRO role, the number of open positions in a market determines your negotiating power, your optionality, and frankly your odds of landing something within a reasonable timeline. A market with 3 openings gives you fewer at-bats than one with 60.
| Metro | Total Postings | Avg Max Base | Role Volume Grade |
|---|---|---|---|
| Remote | 193 | $224,695 | HIGH |
| New York | 67 | $249,898 | HIGH |
| Texas | 57 | $260,065 | HIGH |
| Chicago | 42 | $222,485 | MODERATE |
| Boston | 40 | $282,527 | MODERATE |
| San Francisco | 25 | $347,218 | MODERATE |
| Atlanta | 23 | $275,822 | LOW |
| Los Angeles | 22 | $235,740 | LOW |
| Denver | 16 | $254,067 | LOW |
| Seattle | 11 | $296,696 | LOW |
Remote has 193 postings. That's nearly 3x the next-largest market (NYC at 67). If you're open to remote work, you're fishing in the biggest pond by far. The comp is lower, but the sheer volume gives you optionality that no single metro can match.
NYC and Texas are the strongest in-person markets by volume. Fifty-seven roles across Dallas, Austin, and Houston means the Texas triangle has real depth for VP Sales candidates. NYC's 67 postings make it the densest single metro.
Here's the strategic tension: SF pays $347K but has only 25 total openings. A VP who narrowly targets SF is betting on a small pool. A VP who targets NYC plus Remote has 260 roles to pursue. Even at lower average comp, the probability of landing multiple offers (and using them to negotiate up) is significantly higher.
Boston stands out as the best balance of volume and comp. Forty postings at a $283K average max. That's enough depth to generate multiple opportunities, and the pay is solidly above average. If you're an enterprise sales leader with financial services or biotech experience, Boston is arguably the optimal market. The catch is that 73% of those roles want you in the office.
For those tracking specific openings, our jobs board is updated weekly with the latest VP Sales and CRO postings across all metros.
Inside Each Metro: Composition and Character
The averages tell you what each market pays. The composition tells you why. Here's a quick profile of each metro's hiring mix.
NYC: The Financial Services Machine
Sixty-seven total postings. 38% remote-eligible. 57% enterprise or public company. JPMorgan alone had 7 roles in our dataset, Citi had 4, Deloitte had 4. This is a market dominated by regulated industries with structured comp bands. The upside is benefits packages, stability, and total comp that's higher than base suggests. The downside is less room to negotiate base above band.
SF: The Startup Premium
Twenty-five total, 32% remote. The enterprise share (44%) is lower than NYC's, and the Series C/D share (20%) is the highest of any major metro. Salesforce has 3 postings. The top salary in our dataset ($600K base) came from this market. If you want maximum base salary and you're willing to bet on venture-backed growth, SF is still where the ceiling is highest.
Boston: The C-Suite Factory
Forty total, 27% remote (lowest of any metro). The 7.5% C-level share is the highest in the country, which means more CRO and CSO postings per capita than anywhere else. Deloitte has 4 roles. Financial services is the backbone. If you're targeting a CRO title specifically, not just VP Sales, Boston has more of those per posting than any other market.
Atlanta: The Quiet Climber
Twenty-three total. Enterprise heavy but paying above average. The tech migration into Atlanta (NCR, fintech startups, logistics companies) has created demand for VP Sales talent without the corresponding supply increase. When demand outpaces supply in a market where companies are still setting their comp norms, salaries rise. That's what we're seeing.
Texas: The Tax Advantage Play
Fifty-seven total across three metros. Dallas brings the enterprise roles. Austin brings the tech. Houston brings energy. The combined $260K average plus zero state income tax makes Texas the highest effective comp market outside of the Bay Area for candidates who factor in take-home pay rather than gross salary. The volume (57 roles) gives you enough openings to be selective.
Denver and Seattle: Small but Premium
Denver (16 total) and Seattle (11 total) are small markets with outsized comp. Both are tech-forward. Both benefit from the coastal exodus of companies and workers seeking lower costs without sacrificing talent density. The risk is limited optionality. If the two open roles in your target seniority aren't a fit, you've exhausted the market.
Chicago and LA: Volume Without Premium
Chicago (42 total) and LA (22 total) have decent volume but below-average comp. Chicago's industrial and insurance base keeps salaries modest. LA's media and agency tilt does the same. Both are functional VP Sales markets. Neither will maximize your base salary.