Side-by-side distribution
Instructional Designer
$115,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 20.1%
- Live roles
- 154
Professor
$120,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 42.9%
- Live roles
- 28
Highest-paying jobs
Instructional Designer
Senior Instructional Designer
Senior Learning Designer, Indian Languages
Learning Experience Designer
Instructional Designer
Sr. Learning Experience Designer, Global LXD Studio
Learning and Development Instructional Designer, Quality
Instructional Designer, RapidLearning
Instructional Designer
AI Learning Experience Designer (AI-LXD)
Highest-paying jobs
Physics Expert (Professor / Principal Investigator)
Physics Expert (Postdoc / Junior professor)
Mechanical Engineering Professor
Electrical Engineering Professor
Assistant/Associate Professor of Nursing & Religious Student Success Coordinator
Hourly Paid Lecturer - Games Programming
Hourly Paid Lecturer - Games Programming
Assistant Professor of Marketing | Tenure-track
Visiting Assistant Professor of Accounting
Philosophy Professor/Content Developer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Esri
|
$91,000 | 5 |
|
Anduril Industries
|
$123,000 | 3 |
Metropolis
|
$80,000 | 2 |
Inovalon
|
$70,050 | 2 |
|
Fivetran
|
$181,568 | 1 |
|
Verkada
|
$180,000 | 1 |
|
Duolingo
|
$168,000 | 1 |
|
Applied Intuition
|
$145,000 | 1 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
micro1
|
$218,400 | 4 |
|
University of Mount Saint Vincent
|
$77,500 | 3 |
|
AD Education
|
$93,147 | 2 |
|
UWorld, LLC
|
$70,000 | 2 |
Instructional Designer vs Professor: which pays more?
The median for Instructional Designer is $115,000 per year (typically $82,500–$130,500), versus $120,000 for Professor ($76,250–$187,200). That puts Professor about 4% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Instructional Designer and Professor 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.