That's high, but not crazy high. A Staff Engineer at a FAANG can make ~$500k. See:

https://www.levels.fyi/# (L6 at Google, for instance.)

I know engineers in Canada who are making similar amounts. There's not a lot but it's not nonexistent.

The above was referring to total comp. From what I have read, annual stock/RSU compensation is equivalent to salary. I have read that a $300,000 salary is not unheard of for a senior FAANG engineering role.

How much of that is because of the stock tripling in the last year? Or were their initial grants significantly higher than initial salary?

So who in Toronto is paying senior or staff developers with 10 years of experience the local equivalent of >$400k USD (in lower cost cities than NYC/SF)?

I left Toronto immediately after my Master's, but have multiple extremely talented friends who feel they've topped out at well under half that.

Could you please name a couple of places that do? A lot of people I know would definitely appreciate this knowledge.

Nice, I'll definitely try again. I can't handle the 30C+ days.

No, $600k in SF is better than $200k in Canada in probably all circumstances. As long as your housing costs don’t scale with your income, you are already winning with an extra $100k of comp per year. That isn’t even considering that lots of things are more expensive in Canada, taxes are a bit higher, and Vancouver and Toronto aren’t cheap.

Where in Canada? Winnipeg? That's not where these offices are going.

Gosh if you just save that salary for 5 years in the US you wont need to work for life.