Side-by-side distribution
AI Engineer
$200,455
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 38.5%
- Live roles
- 5,105
Penetration Tester
$184,700
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 31.5%
- Live roles
- 73
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
Offensive Security Engineer, Agent Products
Offensive Hardware Security Engineer, Platform Security
Member of Technical Staff (Offensive Security Engineer)
Principal Offensive Security Engineer
Senior Information Security Engineer, Offensive Security
Staff Offensive Security Engineer
Senior Information Security Engineer, Offensive Security
Penetration Tester
WebApp Offensive Security Software Engineer
Offensive Security Engineer
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 |
|---|---|---|
| GR GRVTY | $215,000 | 2 |
|
Robinhood
|
$191,444 | 2 |
|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$174,200 | 2 |
M9 Solutions
|
$120,000 | 2 |
TP-Link Systems Inc.
|
$106,000 | 2 |
|
OpenAI
|
$418,500 | 1 |
|
Anthropic
|
$362,500 | 1 |
|
Perplexity
|
$312,500 | 1 |
AI Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | $250,000 | 4 |
| San Francisco | $230,000 | 465 |
| New York | $220,000 | 351 |
| Seattle | $205,500 | 98 |
| Chicago | $205,000 | 35 |
| Los Angeles | $200,000 | 33 |
| Austin | $197,500 | 45 |
| Bangalore | $194,838 | 3 |
| Sydney | $190,000 | 3 |
| Boston | $185,500 | 88 |
Penetration Tester salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $362,500 | 3 |
| San Francisco | $312,500 | 5 |
| New York | $236,000 | 7 |
AI Engineer vs Penetration Tester: which pays more?
The median for AI Engineer is $200,455 per year (typically $165,350–$243,750), versus $184,700 for Penetration Tester ($136,250–$218,250). That puts AI Engineer about 9% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AI Engineer and Penetration Tester 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.