AI salaries · updated November 3, 2026

AI Research Scientist salary

Research scientists invent and test new methods for training, evaluating and understanding AI models. Across 77 open postings that publish pay, the median is $311K a year, and the middle half pay $275K to $360K.

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Median yearly pay

$311K

10th
$229K
25th
$275K
75th
$360K
90th
$440K

From 77 open postings at 17 companies that publish pay.

  • $311KMedian posted pay
  • $126K–$850KLowest to highest posted
  • 77Postings with pay
  • 105Open roles now

Pay breakdown

By experience level

Median of each posting's pay range, grouped by the level in the job title.

  • Mid level 64$311K
  • Senior 11$315K

Remote or in the office

Remote roles often pay by the location you live in; on-site roles here are mostly in high-cost cities.

  • Remote 16$340K
  • On-site or hybrid 61$310K

Top-paying companies

Companies with at least two open AI Research Scientist postings that show pay, by median.

  • OpenAI 16$440K
  • Mercor 2$363K
  • Datadog 5$360K
  • Harvey 7$340K
  • Anthropic 15$333K
  • Databricks 2$310K
  • Snorkel AI 2$288K
  • Applied Intuition 5$275K

How we calculate this

We read the pay ranges employers publish on their own job postings (US pay-transparency laws require most of them), count each posting once at the middle of its range, and use 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. The data refreshes twice a day from 3,633 AI job postings with pay.

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AI Research Scientist jobs that show pay.

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