# Design salary: $168,650–$230,000 a year

Every number below comes from 611 tracked live design postings. No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured September 2026 · n=260 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median design posting offers $168,650–$230,000 a year (n=260, USD).
- 58.1% of the 611 live design postings are remote.
- The middle half of postings (25th–75th percentile) top out between $195,750–$274,475 a year — the median alone hides how wide that spread is.
- Level 4 design roles (building AI systems) list $180,000–$240,000, vs $164,500–$220,000 at Level 1.

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intern | 0 | not enough data |
| Junior | 3 | $90,000–$120,000 |
| Mid-level | 35 | $153,000–$220,000 |
| Senior | 137 | $163,600–$220,000 |
| Lead | 67 | $198,100–$260,000 |

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

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 131 | $172,000–$240,000 |
| On-site / hybrid | 129 | $166,000–$220,500 |

## Building AI vs working around it

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Level 4 — Build AI systems | 1 | $180,000–$240,000 |
| Level 1 — Work around AI | 134 | $164,500–$220,000 |

## Companies hiring design roles

- [Adobe](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/adobe) (17)
- [Stripe](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/stripe) (16)
- [Harvey](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/harvey) (14)
- [Moniepoint](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/moniepoint) (14)
- [Palantir](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/palantir) (13)
- [HelloFresh](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/hellofresh) (11)
- [Brex](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/brex) (10)
- [Figma](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/figma) (10)

## Method

US-dollar postings with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 260 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: design postings at tech companies tracked by Level (611 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 Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.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 $195,750–$274,475 (25th–75th percentile).

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

## Design salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median design salary?**

Across 260 live US postings for design roles with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $168,650–$230,000 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

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

58.1% of the 260 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.

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

In this sample, 3 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 351 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/design