Salaries in Raleigh.
422 roles. One city.
Cost-of-living index: 0.99x national average. Last updated April 2026.
422 roles tracked
Highest Paying
$316,000
Chief AI Officer
Median of All Roles
$147,000
AI Frontend Engineer
Entry Level
$31,000
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.
Raleigh, NC has a cost-of-living index of 0.99x the national average. The highest-paying role is Chief AI Officer at $316,000, while the median across all 422 roles is $147,000. Raleigh sits at the heart of the Research Triangle, one of America's premier tech and life sciences corridors.
About the Raleigh market
Raleigh sits at the heart of the Research Triangle, one of America's premier tech and life sciences corridors. Cisco, Red Hat, Epic Games, and numerous biotech firms drive strong demand for engineering, research, and product roles. The combination of top tier universities and moderate living costs creates an exceptionally favorable salary to expense ratio.
TechnologyBiotech & PharmaHigher EducationHealthcareGaming
Top 50 salaries in Raleigh
| # | Role | Median | Range |
|---|
| 1 | Chief AI Officer | $316,000 | $235,000 – $408,000 |
| 2 | Chief Technology Officer | $284,000 | $211,000 – $372,000 |
| 3 | Chief Data & AI Officer | $280,000 | $209,000 – $366,000 |
| 4 | Chief Algorithm Officer | $280,000 | $210,000 – $365,000 |
| 5 | Chief Revenue Officer | $277,000 | $208,000 – $366,000 |
| 6 | CEO | $275,000 | $200,000 – $380,000 |
| 7 | Head of AI Research | $275,000 | $204,000 – $362,000 |
| 8 | SVP of AI Innovation | $271,000 | $204,000 – $356,000 |
| 9 | Head of AI | $267,000 | $198,000 – $347,000 |
| 10 | Chief Product Officer | $265,000 | $196,000 – $348,000 |
| 11 | Chief Data Officer | $265,000 | $199,000 – $347,000 |
| 12 | Chief Marketing Officer | $255,000 | $191,000 – $333,000 |
| 13 | VP of Engineering | $252,000 | $189,000 – $330,000 |
| 14 | VP of AI Engineering | $252,000 | $190,000 – $328,000 |
| 15 | Chief Human Resources Officer | $250,000 | $189,000 – $324,000 |
| 16 | CFO | $250,000 | $187,000 – $331,000 |
| 17 | Chief Operating Officer | $247,000 | $184,000 – $330,000 |
| 18 | Head of Applied AI | $247,000 | $184,000 – $325,000 |
| 19 | VP of Product | $245,000 | $185,000 – $315,000 |
| 20 | AI Transformation Officer | $245,000 | $184,000 – $321,000 |
| 21 | VP of AI Product | $242,000 | $181,000 – $314,000 |
| 22 | Head of AI Platform | $241,000 | $179,000 – $315,000 |
| 23 | VP of Product Design | $235,000 | $175,000 – $305,000 |
| 24 | VP of Marketing | $230,000 | $172,000 – $304,000 |
| 25 | Head of AI Partnerships | $230,000 | $172,000 – $304,000 |
| 26 | VP of Sales | $228,000 | $171,000 – $304,000 |
| 27 | AI Program Director | $227,000 | $172,000 – $298,000 |
| 28 | Director of Generative AI | $220,000 | $166,000 – $290,000 |
| 29 | AI Financial Engineer | $216,000 | $160,000 – $278,000 |
| 30 | Director of Engineering | $216,000 | $167,000 – $279,000 |
| 31 | Multi-Agent Systems Architect | $216,000 | $160,000 – $286,000 |
| 32 | Director of Data Science | $213,000 | $163,000 – $277,000 |
| 33 | Director of AI Strategy | $209,000 | $158,000 – $274,000 |
| 34 | Deep Learning Engineer | $206,000 | $160,000 – $263,000 |
| 35 | Director of Product | $206,000 | $160,000 – $268,000 |
| 36 | Transformer Architecture Engineer | $206,000 | $153,000 – $269,000 |
| 37 | AI Alignment Researcher | $205,000 | $152,000 – $272,000 |
| 38 | Quantum ML Researcher | $204,000 | $151,000 – $270,000 |
| 39 | Foundation Model Engineer | $204,000 | $152,000 – $266,000 |
| 40 | AI Agent Architect | $203,000 | $153,000 – $262,000 |
| 41 | AI World Model Engineer | $203,000 | $150,000 – $267,000 |
| 42 | AI Reasoning Specialist | $202,000 | $149,000 – $268,000 |
| 43 | Director of Product Design | $201,000 | $154,000 – $257,000 |
| 44 | Agentic Orchestrator | $200,000 | $150,000 – $260,000 |
| 45 | Reinforcement Learning Researcher | $200,000 | $149,000 – $265,000 |
| 46 | AI Cloud Architect | $199,000 | $150,000 – $252,000 |
| 47 | AI Research Scientist | $198,000 | $149,000 – $257,000 |
| 48 | AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer | $198,000 | $147,000 – $261,000 |
| 49 | Autonomous Systems Engineer | $197,000 | $146,000 – $252,000 |
| 50 | AI Memory Systems Engineer | $197,000 | $146,000 – $261,000 |
Tax considerations
North Carolina's flat 4.5% income tax keeps the burden low. Raleigh has no city income tax, and the Triangle's affordable housing amplifies your take home purchasing power.
Negotiating in Raleigh
Cite Research Triangle talent competition in your negotiation. Employers here compete directly with each other and with remote offers, creating favorable leverage for candidates.
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