Salaries in Seattle.
422 roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 1.24x national average. Last updated April 2026.
422 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$377,000
Chief AI Officer
Median of All Roles
$183,000
EdTech Product Manager
Entry Level
$40,000
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.
Seattle, WA has a cost-of-living index of 1.24x the national average. The highest-paying role is Chief AI Officer at $377,000, while the median across all 422 roles is $183,000. Seattle is home to Amazon, Microsoft, and a dense cluster of cloud computing, gaming, and AI companies.
About the Seattle market
Seattle is home to Amazon, Microsoft, and a dense cluster of cloud computing, gaming, and AI companies. The presence of major tech headquarters drives some of the highest engineering salaries outside the Bay Area. Seattle's job market is particularly strong for cloud infrastructure, machine learning, and enterprise software roles.
Cloud ComputingE-CommerceAerospaceGamingArtificial Intelligence
Top 50 salaries in Seattle
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Chief AI Officer | $377,000 | $279,000 – $486,000 |
| 2 | Chief Data & AI Officer | $366,000 | $273,000 – $477,000 |
| 3 | Chief Technology Officer | $356,000 | $264,000 – $466,000 |
| 4 | Chief Algorithm Officer | $351,000 | $263,000 – $457,000 |
| 5 | Chief Revenue Officer | $347,000 | $260,000 – $459,000 |
| 6 | Head of AI Research | $345,000 | $255,000 – $453,000 |
| 7 | CEO | $344,000 | $250,000 – $476,000 |
| 8 | SVP of AI Innovation | $339,000 | $256,000 – $446,000 |
| 9 | Head of AI | $335,000 | $248,000 – $434,000 |
| 10 | Chief Product Officer | $331,000 | $246,000 – $436,000 |
| 11 | CFO | $326,000 | $244,000 – $432,000 |
| 12 | Chief Operating Officer | $323,000 | $240,000 – $430,000 |
| 13 | Chief Marketing Officer | $319,000 | $239,000 – $417,000 |
| 14 | Chief Data Officer | $316,000 | $237,000 – $413,000 |
| 15 | VP of Engineering | $316,000 | $237,000 – $413,000 |
| 16 | VP of AI Engineering | $315,000 | $238,000 – $411,000 |
| 17 | Head of Applied AI | $310,000 | $231,000 – $407,000 |
| 18 | VP of Product | $307,000 | $232,000 – $395,000 |
| 19 | AI Transformation Officer | $307,000 | $230,000 – $402,000 |
| 20 | VP of AI Product | $304,000 | $226,000 – $393,000 |
| 21 | Head of AI Platform | $301,000 | $225,000 – $395,000 |
| 22 | VP of Marketing | $300,000 | $224,000 – $396,000 |
| 23 | Head of AI Partnerships | $300,000 | $224,000 – $396,000 |
| 24 | Chief Human Resources Officer | $298,000 | $225,000 – $386,000 |
| 25 | VP of Sales | $286,000 | $214,000 – $381,000 |
| 26 | VP of Product Design | $280,000 | $208,000 – $363,000 |
| 27 | Director of Generative AI | $276,000 | $208,000 – $363,000 |
| 28 | Director of AI Strategy | $273,000 | $207,000 – $357,000 |
| 29 | AI Program Director | $271,000 | $204,000 – $355,000 |
| 30 | Director of Engineering | $270,000 | $209,000 – $350,000 |
| 31 | Director of Data Science | $267,000 | $205,000 – $347,000 |
| 32 | AI Cloud Architect | $259,000 | $196,000 – $329,000 |
| 33 | AI Financial Engineer | $258,000 | $190,000 – $331,000 |
| 34 | Transformer Architecture Engineer | $258,000 | $192,000 – $337,000 |
| 35 | AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer | $258,000 | $192,000 – $341,000 |
| 36 | Multi-Agent Systems Architect | $258,000 | $190,000 – $341,000 |
| 37 | Foundation Model Engineer | $256,000 | $190,000 – $333,000 |
| 38 | Quantum ML Researcher | $255,000 | $189,000 – $338,000 |
| 39 | AI Agent Architect | $254,000 | $192,000 – $329,000 |
| 40 | AI World Model Engineer | $254,000 | $188,000 – $335,000 |
| 41 | Agentic Orchestrator | $250,000 | $188,000 – $326,000 |
| 42 | Privacy / Data Counsel | $250,000 | $192,000 – $326,000 |
| 43 | Reinforcement Learning Researcher | $250,000 | $187,000 – $331,000 |
| 44 | Multimodal AI Researcher | $250,000 | $186,000 – $332,000 |
| 45 | Neurosymbolic AI Researcher | $249,000 | $185,000 – $330,000 |
| 46 | Neuro AI Engineer | $249,000 | $185,000 – $330,000 |
| 47 | AI Research Scientist | $248,000 | $186,000 – $322,000 |
| 48 | AI Compiler Engineer | $248,000 | $186,000 – $325,000 |
| 49 | Deep Learning Engineer | $246,000 | $190,000 – $313,000 |
| 50 | Director of Product | $246,000 | $190,000 – $319,000 |
Tax considerations
Washington State has no personal income tax, which significantly boosts take home pay. However, state and local sales taxes are among the highest in the country at roughly 10.25%.
Negotiating in Seattle
Remind employers that no state income tax makes your effective compensation higher. You can accept a slightly lower gross salary and still take home more than in California.
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