AI Data Engineer Salary.
Across 83 U.S. cities.
$155,000
national median salary
$118,000 to $202,000. Last updated April 2026.
Highest Paying
$222,000
San Jose, CA
Best Purchasing Power
$162,000
Honolulu, HI
Lowest Paying
$119,000
Jackson, MS
Salary data sourced from SEC filings, H-1B Labor Condition Applications (DOL), Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, and aggregated job postings across 50+ platforms. Ranges reflect 25th to 75th percentile for full-time positions. Cost-of-living adjustments use Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parities (2025 index). Last updated April 2026.
The average AI Data Engineer salary in the United States is $155,000 in 2026, with the full range spanning $118,000 at the 25th percentile to $202,000 at the 75th. San Jose pays the most at $222,000, while Honolulu offers the best purchasing power after cost-of-living adjustments. AI data engineers who build and maintain ML data pipelines earn premiums based on scale of data handled and complexity of feature engineering systems.
AI Data Engineer salary by city
Skills that increase AI Data Engineer pay
The skills below command measurable salary premiums for AI Data Engineers based on job posting data. Learning the top skill here could add $21,700 to your annual compensation.
≈ +$21,700 per year
≈ +$20,150 per year
≈ +$18,600 per year
≈ +$17,050 per year
≈ +$15,500 per year
≈ +$15,500 per year
≈ +$15,500 per year
≈ +$13,950 per year
What you should know
AI data engineers who build and maintain ML data pipelines earn premiums based on scale of data handled and complexity of feature engineering systems. Experience with streaming data platforms like Kafka alongside batch processing tools commands 10 to 20% higher pay. Cloud platform expertise in AWS, GCP, or Azure ML infrastructure is a baseline requirement.
Junior AI data engineers earn $118,000 to $140,000. Mid-level engineers with 3 to 5 years managing ML pipelines reach $155,000 to $200,000. Senior engineers and tech leads earn $205,000 to $270,000, while staff engineers and directors of ML infrastructure can command $290,000 to $380,000.
Tech companies offer equity grants of 15 to 25% of base salary with four-year vesting. Annual bonuses range from 10 to 15%, and on-call compensation for maintaining production ML pipelines adds $5,000 to $15,000 annually at some firms.