Side-by-side distribution
Research Scientist
$219,688
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 52.9%
- Live roles
- 384
Researcher
$162,250
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 36%
- Live roles
- 1,102
Highest-paying jobs
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training
Research Scientist, Interpretability
Research Engineer / Research Scientist -Personal AGI, Proactivity
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Personality and Model Behavior
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Personal AGI-Model Experience
Research Engineer/Research Scientist - Personal AGI, North Stars
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training)
Staff / Principal Research Scientist - USA
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens
Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment
Highest-paying jobs
Researcher, Training - London
Member of Technical Staff (AI Researcher)
Researcher, Misalignment Research
Researcher, Alignment Science
Researcher, Synthetic RL
Researcher, Alignment Training
Researcher, Alignment CoT Monitorability
Researcher, Frontier Biological and Chemical Risks
Researcher, Automated Red Teaming
Researcher, Alignment Oversight
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anthropic
|
$377,500 | 12 |
Anduril Industries
|
$221,000 | 8 |
Astera Institute
|
$225,000 | 7 |
|
OpenAI
|
$425,000 | 6 |
Waabi
|
$212,750 | 6 |
| SA Scale AI | $243,000 | 5 |
Nuro
|
$229,900 | 5 |
World Labs
|
$300,000 | 4 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
OpenAI
|
$370,000 | 14 |
STR
|
$194,500 | 14 |
Egon Zehnder
|
$90,000 | 13 |
Two Six Technologies
|
$169,561 | 10 |
GiveWell
|
$308,000 | 9 |
Stevens Capital Management LP
|
$225,000 | 9 |
IMC
|
$275,000 | 8 |
Arc Institute
|
$80,000 | 8 |
Research Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $291,650 | 11 |
| Boston | $275,000 | 8 |
| San Francisco | $267,500 | 67 |
| New York | $243,000 | 38 |
| Toronto | $212,000 | 8 |
| London | $203,341 | 10 |
| Los Angeles | $80,000 | 3 |
Researcher salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | $237,500 | 9 |
| London | $208,740 | 15 |
| New York | $200,000 | 100 |
| San Francisco | $200,000 | 66 |
| Chicago | $187,500 | 47 |
| Austin | $172,850 | 11 |
| Atlanta | $154,500 | 9 |
| Seattle | $114,400 | 5 |
| Boston | $110,000 | 15 |
| Los Angeles | $109,750 | 6 |
Research Scientist vs Researcher: which pays more?
The median for Research Scientist is $219,688 per year (typically $177,088–$275,000), versus $162,250 for Researcher ($102,299–$220,195). That puts Research Scientist about 35% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Research Scientist and Researcher 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.