Side-by-side distribution
Data Engineer
$170,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.9%
- Live roles
- 3,000
Data Scientist
$195,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 42.1%
- Live roles
- 1,684
Highest-paying jobs
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Data Infrastructure Engineer, Pre-training
Data Engineer
Senior Data Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Software Engineer - Data Aquisition (systems)
Software Engineer, Data Acquisition
Senior Staff Backline Engineer - Data & AI
Machine Learning Engineer, Distributed Data Systems - Robotics
Software Engineer, Frontier Data Products
Highest-paying jobs
Data Scientist (Growth Team)
Data Scientist, SMB Ads Growth
Data Scientist, Ads Demand
Data Scientist, Cybersecurity
Data Scientist, Identity
Founding Data Scientist, Pricing & Monetization
Data Scientist
Data Scientist, Developer Productivity
Data Scientist, Business
Data Scientist
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 102 |
Mindrift
|
$83,200 | 32 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$144,250 | 27 |
Olsson
|
$121,500 | 21 |
|
OpenAI
|
$315,000 | 17 |
Esri
|
$113,360 | 15 |
Anduril Industries
|
$181,500 | 14 |
|
Anthropic
|
$362,500 | 13 |
Launch Potato
Lyft
Pinterest
Roku
Reddit
Compass
Data Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $217,500 | 166 |
| New York | $213,281 | 168 |
| Seattle | $203,750 | 42 |
| Boston | $185,000 | 29 |
| Los Angeles | $175,000 | 21 |
| Chicago | $175,000 | 34 |
| Austin | $168,935 | 17 |
| Denver | $150,000 | 28 |
| Atlanta | $145,163 | 12 |
| London | $144,187 | 11 |
Data Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $224,750 | 180 |
| New York | $208,750 | 163 |
| Boston | $204,750 | 24 |
| Seattle | $203,175 | 47 |
| Austin | $187,500 | 14 |
| Chicago | $187,500 | 17 |
| Denver | $187,500 | 7 |
| Atlanta | $187,500 | 7 |
| Los Angeles | $183,750 | 18 |
| Berlin | $155,722 | 4 |
Data Engineer vs Data Scientist: which pays more?
The median for Data Engineer is $170,000 per year (typically $142,500–$214,700), versus $195,000 for Data Scientist ($152,161–$235,000). That puts Data Scientist about 15% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Data 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.