Side-by-side distribution
AI Engineer
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 39.1%
- Live roles
- 5,349
Security Engineer
$192,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.5%
- Live roles
- 2,056
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
Security Engineer
Security Platform Engineer
Senior AI Security Engineer II
Senior AI Security Engineer II
Senior Security Platform Engineer I
Staff AI Agentic Security Engineer
Lead Security Engineer
Offensive Security Engineer, Agent Products
Principal Security Engineer, Infrastructure Security
Principal Software Engineer, Infrastructure Security
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 |
|---|---|---|
Anduril Industries
|
$196,250 | 36 |
Aurora Innovation
|
$231,500 | 21 |
|
OpenAI
|
$309,700 | 18 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$151,800 | 17 |
Palantir
|
$167,500 | 16 |
CoreWeave
|
$203,500 | 15 |
SpaceX
|
$142,500 | 13 |
Robinhood
|
$203,500 | 12 |
AI Engineer vs Security Engineer: which pays more?
The median for AI Engineer is $200,000 per year (typically $162,000–$237,500), versus $192,500 for Security Engineer ($157,950–$232,500). That puts AI Engineer about 4% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so AI Engineer and Security 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.