# AI engineer salary: $182,000–$250,208 a year

Every number below comes from 731 tracked live postings whose title matches "ai engineer". No surveys, no self-reports. Listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured November 2026 · n=175 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median ai engineer posting offers $182,000–$250,208 a year (n=175).
- 32.1% of the 731 live postings matching "ai engineer" are remote.
- Builds AI (AI Level 4) AI engineers list $200,000–$264,500, vs $150,000–$200,000 at Little AI (AI Level 1).

## Median salary by seniority (USD / year)

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Intern | 1 | $60,000–$100,000 |
| Junior | 0 | not enough data |
| Mid-level | 21 | $135,000–$230,000 |
| Senior | 94 | $199,000–$259,500 |
| Lead | 37 | $200,000–$286,000 |

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

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 76 | $200,000–$267,500 |
| On-site / hybrid | 99 | $173,000–$241,500 |

## Companies hiring AI engineers

- [Capital One](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/capital-one) (82)
- [OpenAI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/openai) (43)
- [PwC](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/pwc) (30)
- [SpaceX](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/spacex) (18)
- [Capco](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/capco) (17)
- [NVIDIA](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/nvidia) (16)
- [Workday](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/workday) (16)
- [Mastercard](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/mastercard) (15)

## Method

US-dollar postings whose title contains "ai engineer", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 175 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: postings at tech companies tracked by Level. Not the whole labor market. Do not cite as a national average.

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

## AI engineer salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median ai engineer salary?**

Across 175 live US postings for AI engineers with a listed USD salary, measured November 2026, the median offer is $182,000–$250,208 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

**How many AI engineers jobs are remote?**

32.1% of the 175 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured November 2026.

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

In this sample, 563 postings build AI and 45 involve little AI. See the level breakdown below for the median at each level. Measured November 2026.

Source: https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/role/ai-engineer

## Cite this page

Level. https://jobsbylevel.com/salaries/role/ai-engineer. Measured November 2026.

Get job alerts: https://jobsbylevel.com/newsletter
