Side-by-side distribution
Data Engineer
$163,700
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 30.8%
- Live roles
- 5,834
Data Scientist
$167,725
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 41.9%
- Live roles
- 2,925
Highest-paying jobs
Pre-training Data Infrastructure Engineer
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Software Engineer - Data Aquisition (systems)
Software Engineer, Data Acquisition
Software Engineer, Search Systems - Code Data
Data Engineer
Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-Training
Software Engineer, Frontier Data Products
Machine Learning Engineer, Frontier Data Products
Highest-paying jobs
Data Scientist, Ads Demand
Data Scientist, Cybersecurity
Data Scientist, FinEng
Data Scientist, SMB Ads Growth
Data Scientist, B2B Strategy & Intelligence
Product Data Scientist - Youth, Families and Learning
Staff Data Scientist - Growth & Marketing ($400k - $500k)
Research Scientist - Environments, Data and Post-Training
Senior / Staff Data Scientist, Applied AI
Data Scientist
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 144 |
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 88 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$149,800 | 27 |
CACI
|
$134,200 | 25 |
Olsson
|
$120,000 | 21 |
Blue Origin
|
$197,582 | 17 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 17 |
Anduril Industries
|
$193,000 | 16 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 115 |
|
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 21 |
|
OpenAI
|
$339,000 | 17 |
Roche
|
$229,800 | 17 |
|
Accenture Federal Services
|
$166,850 | 16 |
RELX
|
$127,050 | 15 |
Faire
|
$250,750 | 14 |
Lyft
|
$159,627 | 14 |
Data Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $210,000 | 192 |
| Seattle | $196,700 | 69 |
| New York | $192,618 | 210 |
| Los Angeles | $180,350 | 35 |
| Boston | $171,875 | 54 |
| Singapore | $165,000 | 5 |
| Austin | $161,450 | 51 |
| Chicago | $153,300 | 94 |
| Denver | $153,300 | 57 |
| Atlanta | $153,300 | 33 |
Data Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $220,000 | 219 |
| Seattle | $205,025 | 72 |
| New York | $198,000 | 200 |
| Singapore | $187,200 | 3 |
| Boston | $174,375 | 42 |
| Austin | $167,500 | 21 |
| Denver | $166,725 | 14 |
| Los Angeles | $162,100 | 30 |
| Chicago | $153,950 | 48 |
| Atlanta | $145,720 | 15 |
Data Engineer vs Data Scientist: which pays more?
The median for Data Engineer is $163,700 per year (typically $129,594–$193,000), versus $167,725 for Data Scientist ($131,738–$214,875). That puts Data Scientist about 2% 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.