Side-by-side distribution
AI Engineer
$200,455
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 38.5%
- Live roles
- 5,105
Data Scientist
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 42.4%
- Live roles
- 1,661
Highest-paying jobs
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud Risk
Backend Engineer, AI
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Senior AI Security Engineer II
Highest-paying jobs
Data Scientist
Senior Data Scientist (Credit)
Senior Data Scientist (Credit)
Senior Data Scientist (Credit)
Data Scientist, Identity
Data Scientist
Applied Scientist
Data Scientist, Supply
Data Scientist, Developer Productivity
Machine Learning Scientist
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
OpenAI
|
$239,000 | 37 |
Mindrift
|
$312,000 | 31 |
Handshake
|
$252,500 | 22 |
Databricks
|
$224,163 | 22 |
Motional
|
$200,500 | 21 |
Pinterest
|
$265,928 | 20 |
Reddit
|
$276,000 | 19 |
Applied Intuition
|
$173,500 | 18 |
Launch Potato
Lyft
Roblox
Roku
AI Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | $250,000 | 4 |
| San Francisco | $229,756 | 466 |
| New York | $220,000 | 350 |
| Seattle | $205,500 | 97 |
| Los Angeles | $200,000 | 33 |
| Chicago | $197,500 | 36 |
| Austin | $196,000 | 44 |
| Bangalore | $194,838 | 3 |
| Sydney | $190,000 | 3 |
| Toronto | $187,500 | 59 |
Data Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $212,160 | 160 |
| New York | $190,000 | 138 |
| Seattle | $188,750 | 46 |
| Austin | $187,500 | 9 |
| Denver | $187,500 | 6 |
| Los Angeles | $183,750 | 16 |
| Boston | $182,500 | 29 |
| London | $160,895 | 21 |
| Toronto | $156,000 | 27 |
| Chicago | $153,300 | 21 |
AI Engineer vs Data Scientist: which pays more?
The median for AI Engineer is $200,455 per year (typically $165,350–$243,750), versus $190,000 for Data Scientist ($150,000–$229,900). That puts AI Engineer about 6% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AI Engineer and Data Scientist 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.