Salaries in Charleston.
422 roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 0.78x national average. Last updated April 2026.
422 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$251,000
Chief AI Officer
Median of All Roles
$115,000
AI Content Moderation Engineer
Entry Level
$25,000
Hotel Clerk / Front Desk
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.
Charleston, WV has a cost-of-living index of 0.78x the national average. The highest-paying role is Chief AI Officer at $251,000, while the median across all 422 roles is $115,000. Charleston is West Virginia's capital and largest city, with an economy driven by government, energy, healthcare, and chemical manufacturing.
About the Charleston market
Charleston is West Virginia's capital and largest city, with an economy driven by government, energy, healthcare, and chemical manufacturing. The city offers some of the lowest living costs in the nation. Federal and state government roles provide stable employment anchors.
GovernmentEnergy & ChemicalHealthcareEducationManufacturing
Top 50 salaries in Charleston
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Chief AI Officer | $251,000 | $187,000 – $324,000 |
| 2 | Chief Technology Officer | $233,000 | $173,000 – $305,000 |
| 3 | SVP of AI Innovation | $229,000 | $173,000 – $301,000 |
| 4 | Chief Data & AI Officer | $228,000 | $170,000 – $297,000 |
| 5 | CEO | $221,000 | $161,000 – $305,000 |
| 6 | Chief Algorithm Officer | $221,000 | $165,000 – $288,000 |
| 7 | Chief Revenue Officer | $212,000 | $159,000 – $280,000 |
| 8 | Chief Marketing Officer | $209,000 | $157,000 – $273,000 |
| 9 | Head of AI | $208,000 | $154,000 – $270,000 |
| 10 | CFO | $207,000 | $155,000 – $274,000 |
| 11 | VP of Engineering | $207,000 | $155,000 – $271,000 |
| 12 | VP of AI Product | $207,000 | $154,000 – $268,000 |
| 13 | Chief Data Officer | $205,000 | $154,000 – $268,000 |
| 14 | Chief Product Officer | $202,000 | $150,000 – $266,000 |
| 15 | Head of AI Research | $202,000 | $150,000 – $266,000 |
| 16 | Chief Operating Officer | $201,000 | $150,000 – $268,000 |
| 17 | Head of Applied AI | $201,000 | $150,000 – $264,000 |
| 18 | VP of Product | $199,000 | $150,000 – $256,000 |
| 19 | Head of AI Platform | $199,000 | $149,000 – $261,000 |
| 20 | VP of AI Engineering | $198,000 | $150,000 – $258,000 |
| 21 | Chief Human Resources Officer | $197,000 | $149,000 – $255,000 |
| 22 | VP of Marketing | $191,000 | $142,000 – $251,000 |
| 23 | AI Transformation Officer | $187,000 | $140,000 – $246,000 |
| 24 | VP of Sales | $183,000 | $138,000 – $245,000 |
| 25 | Director of Generative AI | $181,000 | $137,000 – $238,000 |
| 26 | VP of Product Design | $180,000 | $134,000 – $233,000 |
| 27 | Head of AI Partnerships | $178,000 | $132,000 – $235,000 |
| 28 | Director of Engineering | $172,000 | $133,000 – $222,000 |
| 29 | AI Financial Engineer | $169,000 | $125,000 – $217,000 |
| 30 | AI Program Director | $168,000 | $127,000 – $221,000 |
| 31 | AI Cloud Architect | $165,000 | $125,000 – $209,000 |
| 32 | Director of AI Strategy | $165,000 | $125,000 – $216,000 |
| 33 | Foundation Model Engineer | $163,000 | $121,000 – $212,000 |
| 34 | AI World Model Engineer | $163,000 | $121,000 – $215,000 |
| 35 | Reinforcement Learning Engineer | $162,000 | $122,000 – $211,000 |
| 36 | AI Compiler Engineer | $162,000 | $122,000 – $213,000 |
| 37 | Transformer Architecture Engineer | $162,000 | $121,000 – $212,000 |
| 38 | AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer | $162,000 | $121,000 – $215,000 |
| 39 | Director of Data Science | $161,000 | $124,000 – $210,000 |
| 40 | Director of Product | $159,000 | $123,000 – $207,000 |
| 41 | Reinforcement Learning Researcher | $159,000 | $119,000 – $210,000 |
| 42 | Multi-Agent Systems Architect | $159,000 | $117,000 – $210,000 |
| 43 | Deep Learning Engineer | $158,000 | $122,000 – $201,000 |
| 44 | Privacy / Data Counsel | $158,000 | $121,000 – $205,000 |
| 45 | Autonomous Vehicle AI Engineer | $158,000 | $118,000 – $209,000 |
| 46 | AI Reasoning Specialist | $158,000 | $117,000 – $209,000 |
| 47 | Autonomous Systems Engineer | $157,000 | $116,000 – $201,000 |
| 48 | AI Alignment Researcher | $157,000 | $116,000 – $208,000 |
| 49 | Multimodal AI Engineer | $156,000 | $117,000 – $203,000 |
| 50 | Agentic Orchestrator | $156,000 | $117,000 – $203,000 |
Tax considerations
West Virginia's top income tax rate is 5.12%. Charleston has no city income tax. The very low cost of living means even moderate salaries deliver strong purchasing power.
Negotiating in Charleston
Benchmark against federal government pay scales. Charleston employers often align with GS grades, and understanding the federal pay system gives you negotiating leverage.
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