Text Analytics Engineer.
Columbia.
$123,000
median salary, 11% below the national average
$94,000 to $162,000. Last updated April 2026.
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Data points to own the conversation.
Columbia is 10% cheaper than the national average. For Text Analytics Engineers, that shakes out to a median of $123,000, with the full range spanning $94,000 to $162,000. Expertise in information extraction, topic modeling, and document classification drives compensation. Know the range before you walk in.
Salary range
Where do you fall?
Salary by experience
The gap between entry and lead level is typically $111,000. Where you land depends on years of experience and what you bring to the table.
Entry (0-2 yrs)
$80,000
to $98,000
Mid (3-5 yrs)
$105,000
to $129,000
Senior (6-9 yrs)
$135,000
to $160,000
Lead (10+ yrs)
$154,000
to $191,000
Salary trend
+4% YoYTotal compensation
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity, bonus, and signing can add $32,000 to the total package.
Base
$123,000
Equity
$18,000
Bonus
$12,000
Signing
$2,000
Estimated total: $155,000
How Columbia compares
Columbia, SC
$123,000
Cost of living: 10% below average
National Average
$138,000
Columbia is $15,000 below
Text Analytics Engineer salary by city
Salary by role in Columbia
What you should know
The Text Analytics Engineer landscape in Columbia is not what most salary sites will tell you. Columbia is South Carolina's capital and home to Fort Jackson, the University of South Carolina, and a growing insurance and financial services sector. The city offers very affordable living and stable government and military employment. Tech growth is accelerating as remote work brings new residents. Expertise in information extraction, topic modeling, and document classification drives compensation. Engineers who build scalable text processing pipelines handling millions of documents daily command higher pay. Experience with named entity recognition, relation extraction, and knowledge graph construction from unstructured text adds premiums in enterprise and intelligence sectors.
Junior text analytics developers start at $80,000 to $110,000. Mid level engineers with production NLP pipelines earn $125,000 to $160,000. Senior engineers reach $165,000 to $200,000. Lead text analytics architects at enterprise companies can exceed $250,000 in total compensation. In Columbia, cost of living sits near the national average, so the numbers you see are roughly what you keep.
Base salary is not the full picture. Performance bonuses of 10 to 20% are standard. Equity grants at data analytics startups add 15 to 30% of total compensation. Signing bonuses of $10,000 to $30,000 are typical. Benefits often include professional development budgets and data conference attendance. And on the tax side: south Carolina's top income tax rate is 6.4%. Columbia has no city income tax. The moderate state rate is offset by very affordable housing and living costs. When someone quotes you $123,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Leverage government and military contractor pay scales. Columbia employers align with federal benchmarks which often exceed local private sector rates. The range for Text Analytics Engineers in Columbia runs from $94,000 to $162,000. 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 Product Manager in Columbia earns $122,000 (1% less)
- The highest-paying role in Columbia is Distinguished Engineer at $306,000
Common questions.
Text Analytics Engineer salary in other cities
Other salaries in Columbia
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