Salaries in Birmingham.
422 roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 0.84x national average. Last updated April 2026.
422 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$263,000
Chief AI Officer
Median of All Roles
$123,000
AI UX Designer
Entry Level
$28,000
Home Health Aide
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.
Birmingham, AL has a cost-of-living index of 0.84x the national average. The highest-paying role is Chief AI Officer at $263,000, while the median across all 422 roles is $123,000. Birmingham is Alabama's largest metro, anchored by a major medical center, banking, and a growing innovation district.
About the Birmingham market
Birmingham is Alabama's largest metro, anchored by a major medical center, banking, and a growing innovation district. UAB is one of the state's largest employers and a driver of biomedical research jobs. The extremely low cost of living makes Birmingham a strong value for professionals in healthcare and finance.
HealthcareBanking & FinanceManufacturingTechnologyEducation
Top 50 salaries in Birmingham
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Chief AI Officer | $263,000 | $195,000 – $339,000 |
| 2 | SVP of AI Innovation | $247,000 | $186,000 – $324,000 |
| 3 | Chief Data & AI Officer | $245,000 | $183,000 – $320,000 |
| 4 | Chief Technology Officer | $239,000 | $177,000 – $313,000 |
| 5 | Chief Revenue Officer | $238,000 | $178,000 – $314,000 |
| 6 | CEO | $236,000 | $171,000 – $326,000 |
| 7 | Chief Product Officer | $236,000 | $175,000 – $310,000 |
| 8 | Chief Algorithm Officer | $230,000 | $173,000 – $300,000 |
| 9 | Head of AI Research | $229,000 | $170,000 – $301,000 |
| 10 | Chief Data Officer | $227,000 | $170,000 – $297,000 |
| 11 | CFO | $223,000 | $167,000 – $296,000 |
| 12 | Chief Operating Officer | $221,000 | $164,000 – $294,000 |
| 13 | Head of AI | $220,000 | $163,000 – $285,000 |
| 14 | Chief Marketing Officer | $216,000 | $162,000 – $283,000 |
| 15 | VP of AI Engineering | $214,000 | $161,000 – $278,000 |
| 16 | VP of AI Product | $212,000 | $158,000 – $274,000 |
| 17 | VP of Engineering | $210,000 | $157,000 – $274,000 |
| 18 | Head of AI Platform | $210,000 | $157,000 – $276,000 |
| 19 | Chief Human Resources Officer | $208,000 | $157,000 – $270,000 |
| 20 | VP of Product | $206,000 | $155,000 – $265,000 |
| 21 | Head of Applied AI | $206,000 | $153,000 – $270,000 |
| 22 | VP of Marketing | $203,000 | $151,000 – $268,000 |
| 23 | VP of Product Design | $201,000 | $150,000 – $261,000 |
| 24 | Head of AI Partnerships | $201,000 | $150,000 – $266,000 |
| 25 | AI Transformation Officer | $200,000 | $150,000 – $262,000 |
| 26 | Director of Generative AI | $199,000 | $150,000 – $261,000 |
| 27 | VP of Sales | $194,000 | $145,000 – $258,000 |
| 28 | AI Program Director | $189,000 | $143,000 – $248,000 |
| 29 | Director of AI Strategy | $187,000 | $141,000 – $244,000 |
| 30 | Director of Data Science | $186,000 | $143,000 – $242,000 |
| 31 | Multi-Agent Systems Architect | $182,000 | $134,000 – $241,000 |
| 32 | Director of Engineering | $181,000 | $140,000 – $235,000 |
| 33 | AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer | $180,000 | $134,000 – $238,000 |
| 34 | AI Cloud Architect | $179,000 | $135,000 – $227,000 |
| 35 | AI Financial Engineer | $178,000 | $132,000 – $229,000 |
| 36 | AI Alignment Researcher | $177,000 | $132,000 – $235,000 |
| 37 | AI World Model Engineer | $177,000 | $132,000 – $234,000 |
| 38 | Foundation Model Engineer | $175,000 | $130,000 – $228,000 |
| 39 | Multimodal AI Engineer | $173,000 | $130,000 – $225,000 |
| 40 | Multimodal AI Researcher | $173,000 | $129,000 – $230,000 |
| 41 | Transformer Architecture Engineer | $173,000 | $129,000 – $226,000 |
| 42 | AI Reasoning Specialist | $173,000 | $128,000 – $229,000 |
| 43 | Reinforcement Learning Engineer | $171,000 | $129,000 – $223,000 |
| 44 | Director of Product | $171,000 | $133,000 – $223,000 |
| 45 | AI Research Scientist | $170,000 | $127,000 – $221,000 |
| 46 | AI Agent Architect | $170,000 | $129,000 – $220,000 |
| 47 | Deep Learning Engineer | $170,000 | $132,000 – $216,000 |
| 48 | NLP Research Scientist | $170,000 | $127,000 – $225,000 |
| 49 | AI Security & Red Teaming Specialist | $169,000 | $125,000 – $221,000 |
| 50 | AI Systems Architect | $169,000 | $128,000 – $221,000 |
Tax considerations
Alabama's top state income tax rate is 5%. Birmingham has no city income tax. The low rate combined with very affordable housing creates excellent take home pay ratios.
Negotiating in Birmingham
Leverage UAB and the medical corridor when negotiating. Healthcare and biotech roles command nationally competitive salaries even in this low cost market.
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