Across 71 live US postings for data engineers with a listed USD salary, measured September 2026, the median offer is $180,000–$240,000 a year. This is the tracked catalog, not the whole labor market.
Measured September 2026 · n=71 US postings with salary
Data engineer salary: $180,000–$240,000 a year, measured from live postings.
Every number below comes from 171 tracked live postings whose title matches "data engineer". No surveys, no self-reports — listed salaries only, in US dollars.
- The median data engineer posting offers $180,000–$240,000 a year (n=71).
- 52.6% of the 171 live postings matching "data engineer" are remote.
- Level 4 data engineers (building AI systems) list $150,000–$205,000, vs $186,283–$238,800 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 | 0 | not enough data |
| Mid-level | 10 | $145,000–$188,000 |
| Senior | 51 | $180,000–$238,800 |
| Lead | 8 | $238,000–$349,600 |
Remote vs on-site (USD / year)
| Segment | US postings with salary | Median min–max / year |
|---|---|---|
| Remote | 36 | $183,033–$241,450 |
| On-site / hybrid | 35 | $174,000–$240,000 |
Companies hiring data engineers
Method
US-dollar postings whose title contains "data engineer", with both salary bounds listed. This page exists because 71 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 Not the whole labor market — do not cite as a national average.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.
Source: O*NET OnLine (U.S. Dept. of Labor) — Database Administrators (SOC 15-1242.00).
How many data engineers jobs are remote?
52.6% of the 71 live postings are marked remote by the employer, measured September 2026.
Does the AI level of the job change the pay?
In this sample, 5 postings are Level 4 (building AI systems) and 103 are Level 1 (AI is not the work). See the AI level breakdown below for the median in each band. Measured September 2026.