AI Data Quality Engineer.
St. Louis.
$126,000
median salary, 10% below the national average
$95,000 to $167,000. Updated for 2026.
The numbers.
Everything you need to negotiate with confidence.
Here is what AI Data Quality Engineers actually make in St. Louis: $95,000 at the 25th percentile, $126,000 at the median, and $167,000 at the 75th. That is 10% below the national average. St. The number on your offer letter will depend on what you bring and how you ask.
Salary range
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How St. Louis compares
St. Louis, MO
$126,000
Cost of living: 10% below average
National Average
$140,000
St. Louis is $14,000 below
What you should know
If you are interviewing for AI Data Quality Engineer roles in St. Louis, here is what you are walking into. St. Louis offers one of the most affordable major metro areas in the country, with a strong base in healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing. The region's anchor employers include Boeing, Centene, and Washington University's medical campus. A growing biotech and plant sciences corridor centered on the Cortex Innovation District is attracting new investment and talent. AI data quality engineers ensure training and serving data meets standards for ML model reliability. Salary is driven by experience with data validation frameworks, drift detection systems, and automated quality monitoring at scale. Engineers working in regulated industries like healthcare and finance earn 12 to 20% premiums due to compliance requirements.
Junior AI data quality engineers earn $105,000 to $125,000. Engineers with 3 to 5 years of ML data quality experience reach $140,000 to $185,000. Senior engineers and quality team leads earn $190,000 to $248,000, while directors of data quality at enterprise AI companies can command $255,000 to $330,000. In St. Louis, 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. Tech companies provide equity grants of 12 to 22% of base salary. Bonuses range from 10 to 15% annually. Some firms offer additional compensation for maintaining critical data quality SLAs, adding $5,000 to $12,000 for on-call responsibilities. And on the tax side: missouri's top income tax rate is about 4.8%, and St. Louis City adds a 1% earnings tax. The low base cost of living means your after tax salary still stretches further than in most metros. When someone quotes you $126,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Emphasize your willingness to work in person at Cortex or the BJC campus. St. Louis employers offer higher packages for candidates who commit to the local innovation hubs. The range for AI Data Quality Engineers in St. Louis runs from $95,000 to $167,000. That is not a narrow window. Where you land inside it depends almost entirely on whether you negotiate and how well you prepare.
Top industries in St. Louis
Negotiating in St. Louis
Emphasize your willingness to work in person at Cortex or the BJC campus. St. Louis employers offer higher packages for candidates who commit to the local innovation hubs.