Salaries in Madison.
3,445 roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 0.95x national average. Last updated June 2026.
3,445 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$339,000
Principal Quantitative Researcher
Median of All Roles
$148,000
Consulting Data Engineer
Entry Level
$30,000
Hotel Clerk / Front Desk
Salary data sourced from Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, H-1B Labor Condition Applications (DOL), state pay-transparency job postings, and community submissions. 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 June 2026.
Madison, WI has a cost-of-living index of 0.95x the national average. The highest-paying role is Principal Quantitative Researcher at $339,000, while the median across all 3,445 roles is $148,000. Madison is a growing tech hub anchored by the University of Wisconsin and Epic Systems, one of the largest health IT companies.
About the Madison market
Madison is a growing tech hub anchored by the University of Wisconsin and Epic Systems, one of the largest health IT companies. The city consistently ranks among the best places to live and has a thriving startup ecosystem. Salaries are competitive relative to the modest cost of living.
Health ITHigher EducationGovernmentBiotechTechnology
Top 50 salaries in Madison
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Principal Quantitative Researcher | $339,000 | $265,000 – $441,000 |
| 2 | Principal AI Research Scientist | $333,000 | $259,000 – $432,000 |
| 3 | Technical Fellow | $326,000 | $254,000 – $424,000 |
| 4 | Senior VP of Product | $323,000 | $252,000 – $420,000 |
| 5 | Principal AI Compiler Engineer | $311,000 | $243,000 – $405,000 |
| 6 | Principal AI Safety Engineer | $308,000 | $240,000 – $400,000 |
| 7 | SVP of Technology | $308,000 | $241,000 – $401,000 |
| 8 | Distinguished Engineer | $307,000 | $233,000 – $391,000 |
| 9 | Chief Security Officer | $307,000 | $239,000 – $399,000 |
| 10 | Principal AI Agent Architect | $305,000 | $238,000 – $396,000 |
| 11 | Senior VP of Security | $304,000 | $237,000 – $395,000 |
| 12 | Chief AI Officer | $303,000 | $225,000 – $391,000 |
| 13 | Principal Cryptographer | $302,000 | $236,000 – $393,000 |
| 14 | SVP of Engineering | $300,000 | $234,000 – $391,000 |
| 15 | Staff Quantitative Researcher | $300,000 | $234,000 – $391,000 |
| 16 | Principal Deep Learning Engineer | $299,000 | $234,000 – $390,000 |
| 17 | Principal AI Agent Engineer | $299,000 | $234,000 – $389,000 |
| 18 | Principal Quantitative Developer | $296,000 | $231,000 – $386,000 |
| 19 | Chief Science Officer | $295,000 | $230,000 – $383,000 |
| 20 | L7 Software Engineer | $295,000 | $230,000 – $383,000 |
| 21 | Principal LLM Engineer | $294,000 | $229,000 – $382,000 |
| 22 | Chief Architect | $294,000 | $229,000 – $382,000 |
| 23 | Lead High-Frequency Trading Engineer | $293,000 | $229,000 – $381,000 |
| 24 | Principal Computer Vision Engineer | $292,000 | $227,000 – $379,000 |
| 25 | Principal Kernel Engineer | $292,000 | $227,000 – $379,000 |
| 26 | SVP of Product | $292,000 | $228,000 – $379,000 |
| 27 | SVP of Data | $291,000 | $227,000 – $379,000 |
| 28 | SVP of Strategy | $291,000 | $227,000 – $378,000 |
| 29 | Principal AI Engineer | $289,000 | $225,000 – $375,000 |
| 30 | VP of AI Research | $287,000 | $223,000 – $372,000 |
| 31 | Chief Transformation Officer | $287,000 | $223,000 – $372,000 |
| 32 | SVP of Marketing | $287,000 | $223,000 – $372,000 |
| 33 | Staff AI Research Scientist | $286,000 | $223,000 – $371,000 |
| 34 | Principal Quantitative Analyst | $286,000 | $222,000 – $371,000 |
| 35 | Chief Design Officer | $286,000 | $223,000 – $372,000 |
| 36 | Chief Strategy Officer | $286,000 | $223,000 – $371,000 |
| 37 | Principal Applied Scientist | $285,000 | $223,000 – $371,000 |
| 38 | SVP of Sales | $285,000 | $222,000 – $371,000 |
| 39 | Staff AI Safety Engineer | $284,000 | $221,000 – $369,000 |
| 40 | Chief Risk Officer | $284,000 | $221,000 – $369,000 |
| 41 | Principal Machine Learning Engineer | $283,000 | $220,000 – $367,000 |
| 42 | Principal AI Infrastructure Engineer | $283,000 | $220,000 – $367,000 |
| 43 | Chief Legal Officer | $282,000 | $220,000 – $367,000 |
| 44 | SVP of Design | $282,000 | $219,000 – $367,000 |
| 45 | Staff AI Agent Architect | $281,000 | $219,000 – $365,000 |
| 46 | SVP of Finance | $281,000 | $219,000 – $365,000 |
| 47 | Principal Distributed Systems Engineer | $280,000 | $218,000 – $363,000 |
| 48 | Principal Language Runtime Engineer | $280,000 | $218,000 – $363,000 |
| 49 | Senior Head of Security | $280,000 | $219,000 – $364,000 |
| 50 | Senior VP of Design | $280,000 | $219,000 – $364,000 |
Tax considerations
Wisconsin's top income tax rate is 7.65%. Madison has no city income tax. The moderate state rate is offset by the affordable cost of living and strong employer base.
Negotiating in Madison
Reference Epic Systems compensation benchmarks. Epic sets the salary standard for tech in Madison and most employers in the area compete against their packages.
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