What Does a Financial Analyst Job in Los Angeles Pay? 53 Postings Put the Median at $90,000

Of the 61 open financial analyst postings I'm looking at in Greater Los Angeles right now, 53 show a pay figure (that's 87%), and the median of those lands at $90,000, which is a damn refreshing change for a city this size where most employers would rather you guess.

This comes from the Audit Friendly job database, where we track 80,000+ accounting and finance postings, strip out the recruiter-influenced noise, and link straight to the employer's own career page. Numbers below are as of October 2026, and I'm using the midpoint of each posted range.

What does a financial analyst job in Los Angeles actually pay?

The middle half of posted pay runs from about $75,000 to $115,000, with the median at $90,000, and the spread is wide enough that I'd treat any single number you hear with suspicion: the lowest posting I found starts at $35,520 and the highest range tops out at $205,000, which tells you the title 'financial analyst' covers everything from a part-time desk job to a role that sits next to a deal team. Most of what's open is individual-contributor work, 51 of the 61, and those roles post a median around $86,750. The handful tagged senior or staff level (four postings, so take it gently) sit around $112,500 to $117,700.

So if you're an early-career analyst eyeing Los Angeles, the realistic target is the high $70s to low $90s, and if you've got five-plus years the interesting postings are the ones north of $110,000. I wouldn't anchor on anything above that until you've seen how many of them are really manager seats wearing an analyst title.

Who is hiring financial analysts in Los Angeles?

The 61 postings come from 42 different employers, which sounds diverse until you notice that Northrop Grumman alone accounts for 10 of them, about 16% of the whole market, and the next names (Houlihan Lokey at 3, then The Aerospace Corporation, Heluna Health and Wonderful Pistachios & Almonds at 2 each) are tiny by comparison. Honestly I get why people think of LA finance as entertainment and banking, but what the postings show is aerospace and defense carrying the volume, with a long tail of single-posting employers behind it.

That concentration cuts both ways. A big contractor posting ten analyst roles is a real door, and it's also a single employer's budget cycle you're betting on. If you want the wider picture of who hires accountants and finance people in the city, my breakdown of accountant jobs in Los Angeles covers the hospital and audit-firm side, and tax pay in Los Angeles shows how steeply salaries climb with seniority.

Are there remote financial analyst jobs in Los Angeles?

Zero of the 61 are tagged remote, and 12 are explicitly hybrid, so if you're in LA and want a fully remote analyst role you're going to be searching outside the city's own postings, which is a different game. The remote accounting jobs page on our job board is where I'd start for that, and you can live anywhere in LA while working for an employer who isn't.

How does Los Angeles compare with the BLS numbers?

The Bureau of Labor Statistics counts about 12,520 financial and investment analysts in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area, with an annual mean wage of $116,990, versus a national mean of $112,950 and a national median of $99,010 in its OEWS data for this occupation. Our posted median ($90,000) sits below that mean, and I wouldn't read it as a contradiction: BLS covers a broader occupation that includes investment analysts, it's a mean that high earners pull upward, and postings skew toward open junior and mid-level seats. Both can be true at once, and the gap is a decent reminder that a posting is an offer to start talking and a survey is a snapshot of people who already got the job.

What I'd do

I'd start with the 8 postings that hide pay, because I'd rather know what I'm walking into, and ask for the range in the first call before I spend an interview loop on it (my take on negotiating when the posting hides the range walks through the exact wording). Then I'd set a job alert for the title across the whole metro rather than one city, since Orange County and the South Bay postings show up under different names. And I'd read the single biggest employer's postings closely, because ten near-identical listings usually mean one hiring manager has a real headcount plan, which is exactly the person you want to reach.

For comparison shopping, Denver and Atlanta have their own pay breakdowns from the same database.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a financial analyst make in Los Angeles?

Among 53 Los Angeles postings that show pay as of October 2026, the median is $90,000, and the middle half runs from about $75,000 to $115,000.

Who hires the most financial analysts in Los Angeles?

Northrop Grumman has the most open postings, 10 of 61, followed by Houlihan Lokey with 3, and the rest of the market is spread across dozens of employers with one or two postings each.

Are financial analyst jobs in Los Angeles remote?

None of the 61 postings I reviewed are tagged remote and 12 are hybrid, so most of the work is on site or partly on site.

How does Los Angeles analyst pay compare to national averages?

BLS lists a Los Angeles-area mean wage of $116,990 for financial and investment analysts against $112,950 nationally, though posted midpoints for open roles run lower than that mean.

Where can I find current financial analyst openings in Los Angeles?

Search the Audit Friendly job board, which reads employers' own career pages and updates daily, so you aren't applying through a recruiter's repost.

If you're sitting on a shortlist of employers, build yourself a small spreadsheet of posted ranges this week and watch it for a month - you'll learn more about the real market from that than from any salary guide.