AI salaries · updated November 3, 2026

What AI jobs really pay

Pay ranges from 3,631 open AI job postings that publish salary, at 36 companies. Not surveys or guesses: the numbers employers put on the job ad, refreshed twice a day.

Pay by job titleAI Jobs Report

Median yearly pay

$250K

10th
$169K
25th
$205K
75th
$313K
90th
$373K

From 3,631 open postings at 36 companies that publish pay.

  • $250KMedian AI pay
  • $205K–$313KMiddle half
  • 3,631Postings with pay
  • 21Job titles tracked

By job title

AI salaries by job title.

Job titleMedianMiddle halfPostings
AI Research Engineer$370K$313K–$600K75
Data Engineer at AI Companies$325K$214K–$363K25
AI Account Executive$323K$300K–$370K72
AI Security Engineer$316K$247K–$363K62
AI Research Scientist$311K$267K–$360K78
Software Engineer at AI Companies$286K$226K–$356K691
AI Engineer$275K$245K–$300K45
AI Lawyer (Counsel)$275K$245K–$325K58
Data Scientist at AI Companies$270K$226K–$346K48
AI Policy and Safety Roles$269K$219K–$308K139
AI Infrastructure Engineer$266K$223K–$313K93
Machine Learning Engineer$265K$236K–$296K73
AI Product Manager$253K$216K–$288K132
AI Product Designer$240K$209K–$278K45
AI Technical Program Manager$228K$207K–$284K156
Forward Deployed Engineer$216K$216K–$250K128
AI Solutions Engineer$214K$214K–$260K119
AI Marketing Manager$209K$175K–$303K39
AI Customer Success Manager$200K$173K–$240K32
AI Product Marketing Manager$195K$172K–$227K27
AI Recruiter$171K$145K–$202K50

More pay data

By type of role

Median pay for every role type at AI companies, including jobs that need no coding.

  • Research 278$340K
  • Legal & policy 298$270K
  • Data 255$270K
  • Engineering 2,814$260K
  • Sales 1,148$256K
  • Product 413$241K
  • Writing & education 66$241K
  • Design 187$235K
  • Finance 269$230K
  • Marketing 226$213K
  • Support 93$204K
  • Operations 423$202K
  • Recruiting & people 214$186K

By experience level

How pay grows from internships to leadership roles.

  • Entry 45$143K
  • Mid 1,274$260K
  • Senior 2,134$243K
  • Leadership 176$282K

Open now

The highest-paying AI jobs open today.

How these numbers work

Most US employers must now publish a pay range on job ads. We read those ranges from the careers pages of 67 AI companies twice a day, count each open posting once at the middle of its range, and keep only yearly US-dollar pay. Equity and bonuses are not included; for sales roles some employers publish on-target earnings (base plus commission) instead of base pay. Postings close and new ones open daily, so figures move a little from day to day.

Free to cite with a link. Suggested citation:

AI Understanding, "AI salaries from open job postings," November 3, 2026, https://aiunderstanding.org/ai-jobs/salary