Side-by-side distribution
AI Engineer
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 39.1%
- Live roles
- 5,349
Data Engineer
$170,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 32%
- Live roles
- 3,425
Highest-paying jobs
Lead Software Engineer, Generative AI
Senior Software Engineer, Generative AI
Senior/Staff Backend Engineer, Applied AI
Senior/Staff Full Stack Engineer, Applied AI
Backend Engineer, AI
Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud Risk
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Data Engineer
Senior Data Engineer
Data Engineer
Senior Data Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Data Platform Engineer (Infrastructure & Integrations)
Senior Data Engineer
Senior Data Engineer
Data Engineer
Senior Data Engineer
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Mindrift
|
$72,800 | 47 |
OpenAI
|
$247,000 | 36 |
Unity Technologies
|
$198,550 | 34 |
Pinterest
|
$260,867 | 22 |
Motional
|
$200,500 | 22 |
| SE Sezzle | $70,499 | 22 |
Handshake
|
$252,500 | 20 |
Databricks
|
$221,553 | 20 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 103 |
|
Mindrift
|
$76,960 | 59 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$151,200 | 21 |
Fluidstack
|
$200,000 | 16 |
|
OpenAI
|
$307,500 | 15 |
Olsson
|
$122,500 | 14 |
Anduril Industries
|
$170,000 | 11 |
Air Apps
|
$70,422 | 11 |
Data Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $216,000 | 161 |
| New York | $196,250 | 156 |
| Seattle | $180,950 | 48 |
| Austin | $177,500 | 24 |
| Boston | $173,750 | 31 |
| Chicago | $172,500 | 26 |
| Atlanta | $165,000 | 12 |
| Los Angeles | $160,000 | 18 |
| Denver | $159,370 | 23 |
| Toronto | $153,750 | 31 |
AI Engineer vs Data Engineer: which pays more?
The median for AI Engineer is $200,000 per year (typically $162,000–$237,500), versus $170,000 for Data Engineer ($142,050–$206,366). That puts AI Engineer about 18% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AI Engineer and Data Engineer 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.