Side-by-side distribution
AI Engineer
$183,150
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 33.7%
- Live roles
- 9,752
Data Engineer
$165,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 30.6%
- Live roles
- 5,837
Highest-paying jobs
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Software Engineer - AI
Machine Learning Engineer ($400k - $600k salary)
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning
Highest-paying jobs
Pre-training Data Infrastructure Engineer
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Software Engineer - Data Aquisition (systems)
Software Engineer, Data Acquisition
Machine Learning Engineer, Frontier Data Products
Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-Training
Software Engineer, Frontier Data Products
Data Platform Engineer
Software Engineer, Frontier Data Products
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 144 |
Mindrift
|
$76,960 | 96 |
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$162,000 | 72 |
|
OpenAI
|
$307,500 | 39 |
SpaceX
|
$145,000 | 35 |
General Motors
|
$203,125 | 34 |
Thomson Reuters
|
$204,200 | 30 |
CACI
|
$148,825 | 30 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 144 |
|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 88 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$149,800 | 27 |
|
CACI
|
$139,950 | 25 |
Olsson
|
$120,000 | 21 |
Blue Origin
|
$188,162 | 17 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 17 |
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 16 |
AI Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $229,650 | 528 |
| New York | $211,819 | 490 |
| Seattle | $202,500 | 192 |
| Los Angeles | $202,125 | 66 |
| Boston | $194,100 | 141 |
| Singapore | $187,200 | 9 |
| Denver | $181,000 | 67 |
| Austin | $180,350 | 102 |
| Atlanta | $170,000 | 73 |
| London | $168,339 | 53 |
Data Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $210,000 | 191 |
| Seattle | $195,647 | 68 |
| New York | $192,500 | 211 |
| Los Angeles | $180,350 | 35 |
| Boston | $173,750 | 53 |
| Singapore | $165,000 | 5 |
| Austin | $161,450 | 51 |
| Chicago | $154,600 | 93 |
| Denver | $154,225 | 58 |
| Atlanta | $152,650 | 35 |
AI Engineer vs Data Engineer: which pays more?
The median for AI Engineer is $183,150 per year (typically $147,000–$225,438), versus $165,000 for Data Engineer ($130,800–$193,000). That puts AI Engineer about 11% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AI Engineer and Data Engineer are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.