Highest Paying Jobs In San Diego, CA For 2024

The highest-paying jobs in San Diego include a range of industries, including healthcare, technology, and finance. If you’re looking for a high-paying career in the San Diego area, this list will help you narrow down your search to the best-paid professions available.

We cover the 25 highest-paying jobs in San Diego in 2024 using data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). Most of the high-paying positions in San Diego require extensive experience, but there are also some well-paid entry-level roles for job seekers with the right educational background.

Overall, the highest-paying job in San Diego is Staff Psychiatrist, with an average annual salary of $252,494 and an entry-level salary of $156,000.

Whether you’re considering a career change, thinking about moving to San Diego, or a recent graduate planning for your future, this guide to the highest-paying jobs and best-paid industries in San Diego can help you figure out your next move.

Here’s a quick look at the top 10 highest-paying jobs in San Diego, California:

Staff Psychiatrist – $252,494
Psychiatrist – $250,160
Operator And Truck Driver – $246,554
Child Psychiatrist – $236,503
Medical Director – $231,805
Chief Medical Officer – $230,759
Clinical Sciences Professor – $229,630
Physician – $225,628
Associate Professor, Physician – $221,848
Senior Vice President – $218,659

Detailed list of highest paying jobs in San Diego

Rank	Job Title	Average Salary	Entry Level Salary
1	Staff Psychiatrist	$252,494	$156,000
2	Psychiatrist	$250,160	$143,000
3	Operator And Truck Driver	$246,554	$133,000
4	Child Psychiatrist	$236,503	$140,000
5	Medical Director	$231,805	$149,000
6	Chief Medical Officer	$230,759	$144,000
7	Clinical Sciences Professor	$229,630	$124,000
8	Physician	$225,628	$123,000
9	Associate Professor, Physician	$221,848	$121,000
10	Senior Vice President	$218,659	$131,000
11	Associate Medical Director	$215,907	$126,000
12	Primary Care Physician	$214,957	$121,000
13	Family Medicine Physician	$212,905	$126,000
14	Professor	$212,480	$121,000
15	Internal Medicine Physician	$212,070	$127,000
16	Executive Vice President	$211,450	$116,000
17	Senior Director Of Engineering	$207,595	$129,000
18	Staff Physician	$206,650	$120,000
19	Pediatrician	$204,349	$130,000
20	Periodontist	$200,817	$120,000
21	Family Practice Physician	$199,853	$122,000
22	Director Of Software Development	$196,961	$131,000
23	Vice President & General Manager	$194,129	$115,000
24	Marketing Vice President	$193,566	$126,000
25	Vice President, Product Management	$193,023	$129,000

How we determined the highest paid jobs in San Diego for 2024

To figure out the highest-paying jobs in San Diego, we looked at the most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Foreign Labor Certification Data Center (FLC), Office of Personnel Management (OPM), and others.

Zippia’s data science team then supplements that data by continuously scanning through millions of job postings each day to find published salaries. We match these published salaries to the companies, locations, and job titles in other datasets.

Finally, we calculate a weighted average of these inputs to produce an estimated salary for the particular job title in San Diego.

In total, the team looked at the salary data set for all over 1,000 job titles in San Diego to identify the jobs that get paid the most.

Editor’s Note: Article updated for 2024. This is our eighth time ranking the highest paying jobs in San Diego.

Author

Chris Kolmar

Chris Kolmar is a co-founder of Zippia and the editor-in-chief of the Zippia career advice blog. He has hired over 50 people in his career, been hired five times, and wants to help you land your next job. His research has been featured on the New York Times, Thrillist, VOX, The Atlantic, and a host of local news. More recently, he's been quoted on USA Today, BusinessInsider, and CNBC.

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