Salaries in Richmond.
422 roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 1.01x national average. Last updated April 2026.
422 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$316,000
Chief AI Officer
Median of All Roles
$149,000
Predictive Modeling Specialist
Entry Level
$32,000
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.
Richmond, VA has a cost-of-living index of 1.01x the national average. The highest-paying role is Chief AI Officer at $316,000, while the median across all 422 roles is $149,000. Richmond combines a strong government and defense sector with growing technology and financial services industries.
About the Richmond market
Richmond combines a strong government and defense sector with growing technology and financial services industries. Capital One's headquarters drives significant fintech employment. The city's proximity to Washington DC creates spillover demand for federal contractors and tech workers seeking lower living costs.
Financial Services & FintechGovernmentDefenseHealthcareTechnology
Top 50 salaries in Richmond
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Chief AI Officer | $316,000 | $235,000 – $408,000 |
| 2 | Chief Data & AI Officer | $295,000 | $220,000 – $385,000 |
| 3 | SVP of AI Innovation | $285,000 | $215,000 – $375,000 |
| 4 | Chief Technology Officer | $284,000 | $211,000 – $372,000 |
| 5 | Head of AI Research | $284,000 | $210,000 – $373,000 |
| 6 | Chief Algorithm Officer | $283,000 | $212,000 – $369,000 |
| 7 | Head of AI | $278,000 | $206,000 – $361,000 |
| 8 | CEO | $278,000 | $202,000 – $384,000 |
| 9 | Chief Product Officer | $278,000 | $206,000 – $366,000 |
| 10 | VP of AI Engineering | $278,000 | $210,000 – $362,000 |
| 11 | Chief Data Officer | $273,000 | $205,000 – $357,000 |
| 12 | VP of Engineering | $273,000 | $205,000 – $357,000 |
| 13 | Chief Revenue Officer | $271,000 | $204,000 – $359,000 |
| 14 | Chief Marketing Officer | $263,000 | $197,000 – $343,000 |
| 15 | VP of AI Product | $263,000 | $196,000 – $340,000 |
| 16 | CFO | $260,000 | $195,000 – $345,000 |
| 17 | Chief Operating Officer | $252,000 | $188,000 – $337,000 |
| 18 | Head of Applied AI | $252,000 | $188,000 – $332,000 |
| 19 | Head of AI Platform | $248,000 | $185,000 – $325,000 |
| 20 | Chief Human Resources Officer | $247,000 | $187,000 – $321,000 |
| 21 | VP of Sales | $247,000 | $185,000 – $330,000 |
| 22 | Head of AI Partnerships | $240,000 | $179,000 – $316,000 |
| 23 | VP of Product | $238,000 | $179,000 – $305,000 |
| 24 | AI Transformation Officer | $238,000 | $178,000 – $312,000 |
| 25 | VP of Product Design | $233,000 | $173,000 – $302,000 |
| 26 | VP of Marketing | $233,000 | $173,000 – $307,000 |
| 27 | Director of Engineering | $231,000 | $179,000 – $299,000 |
| 28 | Director of Generative AI | $227,000 | $171,000 – $299,000 |
| 29 | AI Program Director | $223,000 | $168,000 – $292,000 |
| 30 | Director of AI Strategy | $222,000 | $168,000 – $291,000 |
| 31 | Foundation Model Engineer | $219,000 | $163,000 – $286,000 |
| 32 | Transformer Architecture Engineer | $218,000 | $163,000 – $286,000 |
| 33 | AI Financial Engineer | $214,000 | $158,000 – $275,000 |
| 34 | AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer | $214,000 | $160,000 – $283,000 |
| 35 | AI Alignment Researcher | $209,000 | $155,000 – $277,000 |
| 36 | AI Research Scientist | $208,000 | $156,000 – $270,000 |
| 37 | Reinforcement Learning Engineer | $208,000 | $156,000 – $270,000 |
| 38 | Director of Data Science | $208,000 | $160,000 – $271,000 |
| 39 | AI Reasoning Specialist | $208,000 | $154,000 – $276,000 |
| 40 | AI Cloud Architect | $207,000 | $157,000 – $263,000 |
| 41 | Multi-Agent Systems Architect | $206,000 | $152,000 – $272,000 |
| 42 | Privacy / Data Counsel | $204,000 | $157,000 – $266,000 |
| 43 | NLP Research Scientist | $203,000 | $151,000 – $268,000 |
| 44 | Neurosymbolic AI Researcher | $203,000 | $151,000 – $268,000 |
| 45 | Autonomous Vehicle AI Engineer | $203,000 | $151,000 – $268,000 |
| 46 | Reinforcement Learning Researcher | $202,000 | $151,000 – $267,000 |
| 47 | AI Agent Architect | $201,000 | $152,000 – $260,000 |
| 48 | Autonomous Systems Engineer | $201,000 | $149,000 – $258,000 |
| 49 | LLM Engineer | $200,000 | $152,000 – $263,000 |
| 50 | AI Systems Architect | $199,000 | $150,000 – $260,000 |
Tax considerations
Virginia's top income tax rate is 5.75%. Richmond has no city income tax. The moderate rate and reasonable cost of living create solid net compensation.
Negotiating in Richmond
Leverage DC corridor salary benchmarks. Richmond employers compete with Northern Virginia and DC for talent, especially in fintech and government contracting.
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