On November 9, 2026 there were 1,091 open AI engineer jobs in the US in our data, collected from employers' own hiring systems. 775 of them post an annual base salary range.

The median is $204K a year. The middle half of listings pays between $165K and $252K.

That is $14K more than the median for software engineers ($190K) and $14K less than for machine learning engineers ($218K).

These are advertised base salaries, taken as the midpoint of each posted range. Bonuses, commission and equity are not included.

How the pay is spread

Midpoint of the posted range Share of listings

Under $125K 5%

$125K–$150K 9%

$150K–$175K 15%

$175K–$200K 16%

$200K–$225K 17%

$225K–$250K 12%

$250K–$275K 8%

$275K–$300K 10%

$300K and up 8%

Only one listing in seven pays under $150K.…