# Data salary: $184,000–$260,050 a year

Every number below comes from 1,301 tracked live data postings. No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured September 2026 · n=528 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median data posting offers $184,000–$260,050 a year (n=528, USD).
- 51.9% of the 1,301 live data postings are remote.
- The middle half of postings (25th–75th percentile) top out between $217,500–$315,360 a year — the median alone hides how wide that spread is.
- Level 4 data roles (building AI systems) list $196,650–$280,000, vs $175,100–$244,550 at Level 1.

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intern | 0 | not enough data |
| Junior | 2 | $105,000–$167,500 |
| Mid-level | 79 | $140,000–$190,000 |
| Senior | 289 | $182,000–$255,000 |
| Lead | 98 | $208,743–$300,000 |

## Remote vs on-site (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 239 | $190,800–$260,000 |
| On-site / hybrid | 289 | $180,000–$264,500 |

## Building AI vs working around it

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Level 4 — Build AI systems | 192 | $196,650–$280,000 |
| Level 1 — Work around AI | 190 | $175,100–$244,550 |

## Companies hiring data roles

- [Adobe](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/adobe) (53)
- [Wayve](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/wayve) (41)
- [OpenAI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/openai) (38)
- [Reddit](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/reddit) (31)
- [Binance](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/binance) (29)
- [Salesforce](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/salesforce) (28)
- [CoreWeave](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/coreweave) (27)
- [NVIDIA](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/nvidia) (27)

## Method

US-dollar postings with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 528 such postings clear the 50-posting floor Level requires before publishing a dedicated salary page — below that, the median moves too much between ingestion cycles to be a citable number.

Sample: data postings at tech companies tracked by Level (1,301 live postings in this category on the measured date). Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.

All amounts are USD per year. Every median and quartile above excludes hourly-rate postings (a listed maximum under $1,000, almost always an hourly rate, not a salary) and mid-range postings that are neither clearly hourly nor clearly annual (maximum between $1,000 and $10,000) — mixing either into an annual median would understate the real number. The middle 50% of postings top out between $217,500–$315,360 (25th–75th percentile).

Refreshed automatically; this edition is measured September 2026. Small-n slices move a lot — read the n column first.

## Data salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median data salary?**

Across 528 live US postings for data roles with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $184,000–$260,050 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

**How many data roles jobs are remote?**

51.9% of the 528 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.

**Does the AI level of the job change the pay?**

In this sample, 436 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 596 are Level 1 (AI is not the work). See the AI level breakdown below for the median in each band. Measured September 2026.

Source: https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/data