# Research scientist salary: $192,000–$304,750 a year

Every number below comes from 151 tracked live postings whose title matches "research scientist". No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.

Measured September 2026 · n=93 US postings with salary.

## Findings

- The median research scientist posting offers $192,000–$304,750 a year (n=93).
- 26.5% of the 151 live postings matching "research scientist" are remote.
- Level 4 research scientists (building AI systems) list $192,000–$304,750, vs $178,000–$242,250 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 | $172,000–$247,250 |
| Mid-level | 4 | $113,600–$156,000 |
| Senior | 37 | $192,000–$304,750 |
| Lead | 10 | $245,810–$358,960 |

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

| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Remote | 18 | $236,000–$358,460 |
| On-site / hybrid | 75 | $192,000–$304,750 |

## Companies hiring research scientists

- [NVIDIA](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/nvidia) (37)
- [OpenAI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/openai) (10)
- [Anthropic](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/anthropic) (8)
- [Scale AI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/scale-ai) (8)
- [Canva](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/canva) (7)
- [Applied Intuition](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/applied-intuition) (5)
- [Iambic Therapeutics](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/iambic-therapeutics) (5)
- [Luma AI](https://jobsbylevel.com/companies/luma-ai) (5)

## Method

US-dollar postings whose title contains "research scientist", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 93 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 Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.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 September 2026. Small-n slices move a lot — read the n column first.

## Research scientist salary questions, answered from the data

**What is the median research scientist salary?**

Across 93 live US postings for research scientists with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $192,000–$304,750 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.

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

26.5% of the 93 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.

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

In this sample, 134 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 15 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/role/research-scientist