# Research salary: $172,400–$248,700 a year

Every number below comes from 1,833 tracked live research postings. No surveys, no self-reports. Listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured November 2026 · n=891 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median research posting offers $172,400–$248,700 a year (n=891, USD).
- 17.9% of the 1,833 live research postings are remote.
- The middle half of postings (25th–75th percentile) top out between $193,200–$316,850 a year. The median alone hides how wide that spread is.
- Builds AI (AI Level 4) research roles list $183,800–$260,000, vs $142,800–$196,000 at Little AI (AI Level 1).

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intern | 27 | $141,000–$165,000 |
| Junior | 26 | $126,000–$196,600 |
| Mid-level | 121 | $149,600–$200,000 |
| Senior | 488 | $171,600–$226,100 |
| Lead | 96 | $206,000–$304,785 |

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

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 147 | $200,000–$300,000 |
| On-site / hybrid | 744 | $171,600–$233,450 |

## Building AI vs working around it

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Builds AI (AI Level 4) | 643 | $183,800–$260,000 |
| Little AI (AI Level 1) | 201 | $142,800–$196,000 |

## Companies hiring research roles

- [Amazon](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/amazon) (457)
- [NVIDIA](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/nvidia) (95)
- [Anthropic](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/anthropic) (58)
- [OpenAI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/openai) (41)
- [Capital One](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/capital-one) (35)
- [Point72](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/point72) (35)
- [Jump Trading](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/jump-trading) (28)
- [Morgan Stanley](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/morgan-stanley) (28)

## Method

US-dollar postings with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 891 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: research postings at tech companies tracked by Level (1,833 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 Do not cite as a national average.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 $193,200–$316,850 (25th–75th percentile).

Refreshed automatically; this edition is measured November 2026. Small-n slices move a lot. Read the n column first.

## Research salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median research salary?**

Across 891 live US postings for research roles with a listed USD salary, measured November 2026, the median offer is $172,400–$248,700 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

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

17.9% of the 891 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured November 2026.

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

In this sample, 1,180 postings build AI and 524 involve little AI. See the level breakdown below for the median at each level. Measured November 2026.

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

## Cite this page

Level. https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/research. Measured November 2026.

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