Side-by-side distribution
AI Engineer
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 38.8%
- Live roles
- 5,113
Engineering Manager
$190,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 42.6%
- Live roles
- 4,368
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud Risk
Backend Engineer, AI
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Senior AI Security Engineer II
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Engineering Program Manager II - New Ventures
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager
Business Development Manager (Japanese and English bilingual)
Engineering Manager, Research Data Platform
Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)
Engineering Manager, Research Productivity
Senior Engineering Manager
Senior Engineering Manager, Progressive Onboarding and Funnel Optimisation
Engineering Manager, Product Engineering
Mindrift
Handshake
Motional
Reddit
Pinterest
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Databricks
|
$228,138 | 37 |
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 37 |
Brex
|
$254,250 | 29 |
Atwell, LLC
|
$117,500 | 24 |
OpenAI
|
$339,000 | 22 |
|
Anthropic
|
$445,000 | 21 |
Harvey
|
$350,000 | 20 |
DoorDash USA
|
$239,400 | 19 |
AI Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | $250,000 | 4 |
| San Francisco | $229,225 | 464 |
| New York | $220,000 | 350 |
| Seattle | $205,500 | 95 |
| Chicago | $205,000 | 37 |
| Los Angeles | $200,000 | 33 |
| Bangalore | $194,838 | 3 |
| Austin | $194,500 | 45 |
| Sydney | $190,000 | 3 |
| Toronto | $187,359 | 61 |
AI Engineer vs Engineering Manager: which pays more?
The median for AI Engineer is $200,000 per year (typically $165,000–$243,109), versus $190,000 for Engineering Manager ($141,791–$238,500). That puts AI Engineer about 5% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AI Engineer and Engineering Manager 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.