Salaries in Wichita.
422 roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 0.82x national average. Last updated April 2026.
422 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$264,000
Chief AI Officer
Median of All Roles
$121,000
Investment Banker
Entry Level
$26,000
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.
Wichita, KS has a cost-of-living index of 0.82x the national average. The highest-paying role is Chief AI Officer at $264,000, while the median across all 422 roles is $121,000. Wichita is the air capital of the world, home to major aerospace manufacturers including Spirit AeroSystems, Textron Aviation, and Airbus.
About the Wichita market
Wichita is the air capital of the world, home to major aerospace manufacturers including Spirit AeroSystems, Textron Aviation, and Airbus. The city's engineering talent pool is deep, and the extremely low cost of living means aerospace salaries deliver exceptional purchasing power.
Aerospace & AviationManufacturingHealthcareEnergyAgriculture
Top 50 salaries in Wichita
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Chief AI Officer | $264,000 | $196,000 – $341,000 |
| 2 | Chief Technology Officer | $238,000 | $176,000 – $312,000 |
| 3 | Chief Data & AI Officer | $235,000 | $175,000 – $306,000 |
| 4 | Chief Algorithm Officer | $234,000 | $176,000 – $305,000 |
| 5 | CEO | $230,000 | $167,000 – $318,000 |
| 6 | Head of AI Research | $230,000 | $171,000 – $303,000 |
| 7 | SVP of AI Innovation | $227,000 | $171,000 – $298,000 |
| 8 | Head of AI | $224,000 | $166,000 – $290,000 |
| 9 | Chief Revenue Officer | $223,000 | $167,000 – $294,000 |
| 10 | Chief Data Officer | $222,000 | $166,000 – $290,000 |
| 11 | Chief Product Officer | $221,000 | $164,000 – $291,000 |
| 12 | Chief Marketing Officer | $213,000 | $160,000 – $279,000 |
| 13 | VP of Engineering | $211,000 | $158,000 – $276,000 |
| 14 | VP of AI Engineering | $211,000 | $159,000 – $274,000 |
| 15 | Chief Human Resources Officer | $209,000 | $158,000 – $271,000 |
| 16 | CFO | $209,000 | $157,000 – $277,000 |
| 17 | Chief Operating Officer | $207,000 | $154,000 – $276,000 |
| 18 | Head of Applied AI | $207,000 | $154,000 – $272,000 |
| 19 | VP of Product | $205,000 | $155,000 – $263,000 |
| 20 | VP of AI Product | $203,000 | $151,000 – $262,000 |
| 21 | Head of AI Platform | $201,000 | $150,000 – $264,000 |
| 22 | VP of Product Design | $197,000 | $146,000 – $255,000 |
| 23 | AI Transformation Officer | $197,000 | $148,000 – $258,000 |
| 24 | VP of Marketing | $193,000 | $144,000 – $254,000 |
| 25 | Head of AI Partnerships | $193,000 | $144,000 – $254,000 |
| 26 | VP of Sales | $191,000 | $143,000 – $255,000 |
| 27 | AI Program Director | $190,000 | $144,000 – $249,000 |
| 28 | Director of Generative AI | $185,000 | $139,000 – $243,000 |
| 29 | Director of Engineering | $180,000 | $139,000 – $234,000 |
| 30 | Director of Data Science | $178,000 | $137,000 – $232,000 |
| 31 | Director of AI Strategy | $175,000 | $133,000 – $229,000 |
| 32 | Transformer Architecture Engineer | $172,000 | $128,000 – $225,000 |
| 33 | AI Alignment Researcher | $171,000 | $127,000 – $228,000 |
| 34 | Quantum ML Researcher | $171,000 | $126,000 – $226,000 |
| 35 | Foundation Model Engineer | $171,000 | $127,000 – $223,000 |
| 36 | AI Agent Architect | $170,000 | $128,000 – $219,000 |
| 37 | AI World Model Engineer | $170,000 | $126,000 – $224,000 |
| 38 | AI Reasoning Specialist | $169,000 | $125,000 – $224,000 |
| 39 | Agentic Orchestrator | $167,000 | $125,000 – $217,000 |
| 40 | Reinforcement Learning Researcher | $167,000 | $125,000 – $221,000 |
| 41 | AI Research Scientist | $166,000 | $124,000 – $215,000 |
| 42 | AI Cloud Architect | $166,000 | $126,000 – $211,000 |
| 43 | NLP Research Scientist | $166,000 | $124,000 – $220,000 |
| 44 | Autonomous Systems Engineer | $165,000 | $122,000 – $211,000 |
| 45 | AI Financial Engineer | $165,000 | $122,000 – $213,000 |
| 46 | AI Interpretability Researcher | $165,000 | $122,000 – $218,000 |
| 47 | AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer | $165,000 | $123,000 – $219,000 |
| 48 | AI Memory Systems Engineer | $165,000 | $122,000 – $218,000 |
| 49 | Multi-Agent Systems Architect | $165,000 | $122,000 – $219,000 |
| 50 | Responsible AI Lead | $164,000 | $124,000 – $215,000 |
Tax considerations
Kansas has a top income tax rate of 5.7%. Wichita has no city income tax. The moderate state rate combined with very low housing costs creates strong net pay.
Negotiating in Wichita
Highlight aerospace engineering expertise. Wichita manufacturers pay competitive national rates for specialized aviation and defense engineering talent.
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