City of Buffalo / Principal Architect
Role across City of Buffalo
Principal Architect
Lead staff and operations — set priorities, allocate resources, and oversee program delivery.
1 people hold the Principal Architect role across 1 department in City of Buffalo, with a median total compensation of $103,501.
- Employees
- 1
- Median pay
- $103,501
- Departments
- 1
- Cross-jurisdiction
- —
Compared with the local labor market
Principal Architect pay vs. the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area
Across all employers in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area, the median wage for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval — about 330 people — is $95,130. City of Buffalo pays a median base salary of $86,530 for this role, 9% below that figure — about the 36th percentile of local pay for the occupation.
Where City of Buffalo sits in the local pay range
The bar is the range of annual wages for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval across every employer in the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY area, from the 10th to the 90th percentile, with the middle 50% highlighted. The marker shows City of Buffalo’s median base salary for this role. Both figures are base pay only.
And across the country
Nationwide, the median wage for Architects, Except Landscape and Naval — about 106,770 people — is $99,280. City of Buffalo’s median base salary is 13% below that national figure, about the 35th percentile of pay for the occupation nationally.
Local and national wages differ for reasons beyond how well a job pays — cost of living, the mix of employers, and local demand for the occupation all move the Buffalo-Cheektowaga, NY range relative to the national one.
Median total compensation for this role at City of Buffalo is $103,501, which includes overtime and employer-paid benefits. The benchmark above excludes both, so total compensation is deliberately not compared against it.
Benchmark: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (May 2025). BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) covers all employers in the area — private, non-profit, and government alike — so this is a comparison against the whole local labor market for the occupation, not against private-sector pay. OEWS wages are straight-time pay and exclude overtime, shift differentials, and employer-paid benefits, so the government figure shown here is base pay on the same basis. Total compensation is not comparable to it. Job titles are matched to the closest standard occupation, so the comparison is between similar work rather than an identical job classification.
Compare jurisdictions
Principal Architect pay in other jurisdictions
Where Principal Architects are paid most
Median total compensation for comparable Principal Architectroles in other jurisdictions (highest first). Titles are matched by normalized name across sources, not by identical job classification, and pay is not cost-of-living adjusted. Each bar links to that jurisdiction’s page for this role.