one thing that stands out to me is "Senior engineer" vs "Staff engineer" position. I was in the same boat 2 years ago and had to decide between a startup who hired me as "Senior" with a lower salary with the promise of exiting big where I loved the job and there were many smart people around me, but then I got an offer from a big tech as "Staff" level with almost double the offer and benefits. I had a really hard time to decide, but ended up going with the latter even though the startup job was my passion. However, to my surprise the big tech position helped me to grow in ways that I could not even imagine.

Because it was a higher level position I had to deal with larger scope problems, I started learning about strategic thinking and dealing with large number of teams and learned to lead and be a thought leader. The people are also smart and turned out to be super nice and helpful and used every opportunity to help me grow. Now when I look back, I don't think I would be happier in the position where I thought it matched my passion, as the other unlocked a new point of view and a different perspective and opportunities. So aside from the money and benefits, make sure you are choosing the one that benefits you the most from different angles, passion and salary is just one angle.

I understand your decision and if I were at a different point in my life (I am 51, grown kids, low fixed expenses), I would have made the same decision. But I’m at a point in life that I would rather get a daily anal probe with a cactus than ever work at BigTech (again) even for twice the money.

> but then I got an offer from a big tech as "Staff" level with almost double

I've always heard the opposite ( staff at startup = senior at big tech )

how did you convince them to interview for staff ? were you staff before startup ?

or were you upleveled to staff after the interview process.