Side-by-side distribution
AI Engineer
$200,455
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 38.5%
- Live roles
- 5,105
General Counsel
$263,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 61.1%
- Live roles
- 185
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 (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Senior AI Security Engineer II
Highest-paying jobs
Chief Legal Officer (CLO) ($1M-$5M salary)
General Counsel
Chief Legal Officer
Chief Legal Officer
Chief Legal Officer (Pacific Northwest or Hybrid) (964-SLS)
General Counsel
Deputy General Counsel
Associate General Counsel, Product & Commercial
Deputy General Counsel
Associate General Counsel, Hardware IP
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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
FutureSight
|
$5,988 | 10 |
| TT The Trade Desk | $214,050 | 4 |
Hadrian Automation
|
$312,500 | 3 |
| SA Scale AI | $297,900 | 3 |
Fireblocks
|
$257,000 | 3 |
Robinhood
|
$236,000 | 3 |
|
STR
|
$355,000 | 2 |
The New York Times
|
$290,000 | 2 |
AI Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | $250,000 | 4 |
| San Francisco | $229,756 | 466 |
| New York | $220,000 | 351 |
| Seattle | $205,500 | 98 |
| Chicago | $205,000 | 35 |
| Los Angeles | $200,000 | 33 |
| Austin | $196,000 | 44 |
| Bangalore | $194,838 | 3 |
| Sydney | $190,000 | 3 |
| Toronto | $187,429 | 58 |
General Counsel salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $253,500 | 23 |
| New York | $250,000 | 37 |
| Los Angeles | $229,325 | 10 |
| Boston | $216,345 | 4 |
| Chicago | $214,050 | 7 |
| Austin | $180,000 | 3 |
AI Engineer vs General Counsel: which pays more?
The median for AI Engineer is $200,455 per year (typically $165,350–$243,750), versus $263,750 for General Counsel ($214,050–$297,600). That puts General Counsel about 32% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AI Engineer and General Counsel 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.