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.
Measured September 2026 · n=528 US postings with salary
Data salary: $184,000–$260,050 a year, measured from live postings.
Every number below comes from 1,301 tracked live data postings. No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.
- 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)
Seniority as tagged on the posting. Both salary bounds required.
| 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
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 Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.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 below 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.
Source: O*NET OnLine (U.S. Dept. of Labor) — Data Scientists (SOC 15-2051.00).
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.