Data Engineer.
Raleigh.
$149,000
median salary, 1% below the national average
$114,000 to $193,000. Updated for 2026.
The numbers.
Everything you need to negotiate with confidence.
Raleigh is 1% cheaper than the national average. For Data Engineers, that shakes out to a median of $149,000, with the full range spanning $114,000 to $193,000. Proficiency with modern data stack tools like Spark, Kafka, dbt, and Snowflake separates top earners from the pack. Know the range before you walk in.
Salary range
Tap to place your salary
How Raleigh compares
Raleigh, NC
$149,000
Cost of living: 1% below average
National Average
$150,000
Raleigh is $1,000 below
What you should know
The Data Engineer landscape in Raleigh is not what most salary sites will tell you. 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. Proficiency with modern data stack tools like Spark, Kafka, dbt, and Snowflake separates top earners from the pack. Engineers who build real-time streaming pipelines or manage petabyte-scale warehouses earn 15 to 25% more. Startups with heavy ML infrastructure needs often pay premiums to attract pipeline specialists.
Junior data engineers start at $85,000 to $105,000, progressing to mid-level at $115,000 to $155,000 within three years. Senior data engineers earn $160,000 to $195,000, while staff-level or principal roles reach $210,000 to $270,000 at top-tier companies. In Raleigh, 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. Equity grants at data-intensive startups can represent 15 to 30% of total compensation. Annual bonuses range from 10 to 15%, and many firms provide $3,000 to $8,000 yearly learning stipends for cloud platform training. And on the tax side: 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. 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: Cite Research Triangle talent competition in your negotiation. Employers here compete directly with each other and with remote offers, creating favorable leverage for candidates. The range for Data Engineers in Raleigh runs from $114,000 to $193,000. 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 Raleigh
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.