Scene Understanding Engineer.
Des Moines.
$149,000
median salary, 15% below the national average
$112,000 to $194,000. Last updated April 2026.
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Data points to own the conversation.
The median Scene Understanding Engineer salary in Des Moines is $149,000, 15% below the national average. Entry level starts near $112,000. Experienced professionals push past $194,000. Des Moines is a major insurance and financial services hub, home to Principal Financial, EMC Insurance, and a growing fintech community. That spread is your negotiation window.
Salary range
Where do you fall?
Salary by experience
The gap between entry and lead level is typically $134,000. Where you land depends on years of experience and what you bring to the table.
Entry (0-2 yrs)
$97,000
to $119,000
Mid (3-5 yrs)
$127,000
to $156,000
Senior (6-9 yrs)
$164,000
to $194,000
Lead (10+ yrs)
$186,000
to $231,000
Salary trend
+7% YoYTotal compensation
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity, bonus, and signing can add $37,000 to the total package.
Base
$149,000
Equity
$21,000
Bonus
$13,000
Signing
$3,000
Estimated total: $186,000
How Des Moines compares
Des Moines, IA
$149,000
Cost of living: 14% below average
National Average
$175,000
Des Moines is $26,000 below
Scene Understanding Engineer salary by city
Salary by role in Des Moines
What you should know
If you are interviewing for Scene Understanding Engineer roles in Des Moines, here is what you are walking into. Des Moines is a major insurance and financial services hub, home to Principal Financial, EMC Insurance, and a growing fintech community. The metro's extremely low cost of living and strong job market make it one of the best value cities for finance professionals. Tech employment is growing as insurtech companies expand. Expertise in semantic segmentation, panoptic segmentation, and holistic scene parsing drives compensation. Engineers who can build systems that understand spatial relationships, predict scene layouts, and reason about physical properties of environments are highly valued. Experience with indoor and outdoor scene reconstruction and scene graph generation adds premiums.
Junior scene understanding engineers start at $105,000 to $135,000. Mid level engineers with deployed perception systems earn $155,000 to $195,000. Senior engineers reach $200,000 to $250,000. Principal perception scientists at autonomous systems companies can exceed $320,000 in total compensation. In Des Moines, your dollars stretch further. Cost of living runs 14% below the national average, which means even a median salary buys a stronger lifestyle.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity at robotics and autonomous systems startups adds 20 to 35% of total compensation. Performance bonuses of 15 to 25% are standard. Signing bonuses of $20,000 to $50,000 are common. Benefits often include hardware lab access and research publication support. And on the tax side: iowa has a flat 3.8% state income tax. Des Moines has no city income tax. The low tax rate and affordable housing create strong purchasing power. When someone quotes you $149,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Benchmark against national insurance industry pay scales. Des Moines insurance employers must compete with remote offers from larger metros and will often match. The range for Scene Understanding Engineers in Des Moines runs from $112,000 to $194,000. That is not a narrow window. Where you land inside it depends almost entirely on whether you negotiate and how well you prepare.
Sources: SEC filings, H-1B LCA (DOL), BLS OES, 50+ job posting platforms. COL: BEA Regional Price Parities (2025). Data verified by Justin Bartak, Founder & Chief AI Officer. Last verified April 8, 2026. Full methodology
Considering a related role?
- A Feature Store Engineer in Des Moines earns $148,000 (1% less)
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Common questions.
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