Knowledge Graph Engineer.
Indianapolis.
$155,000
median salary, 9% below the national average
$116,000 to $202,000. Updated for 2026.
The numbers.
Everything you need to negotiate with confidence.
If you are evaluating a Knowledge Graph Engineer offer in Indianapolis, IN, here is the reality: $116,000 to $202,000, with $155,000 as the midpoint. 9% below the national average. Knowledge graph engineers combine graph database expertise with AI integration skills, a specialization that commands premium pay. Do not accept the first number.
Salary range
Tap to place your salary
How Indianapolis compares
Indianapolis, IN
$155,000
Cost of living: 9% below average
National Average
$170,000
Indianapolis is $15,000 below
What you should know
Here is what the Knowledge Graph Engineer market actually looks like in Indianapolis. Indianapolis has a diversified economy led by healthcare, life sciences, and motorsports engineering. Eli Lilly's headquarters drives a major pharmaceutical and biotech cluster. The city's extremely affordable cost of living means that even moderate salaries deliver strong purchasing power, making it an underrated destination for professionals seeking financial stability. Knowledge graph engineers combine graph database expertise with AI integration skills, a specialization that commands premium pay. Experience with enterprise knowledge graphs at scale using Neo4j, Amazon Neptune, or custom solutions drives salary above standard backend engineering. Pharmaceutical and fintech sectors pay the highest rates for this role.
Junior knowledge graph engineers earn $128,000 to $152,000. Engineers with 3 to 5 years of specialized experience reach $170,000 to $222,000. Senior engineers and graph platform leads earn $228,000 to $300,000, while principal engineers and directors of knowledge systems can command $310,000 to $400,000. In Indianapolis, 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 offer equity worth 18 to 30% of base salary. Annual bonuses range from 10 to 18%. Enterprise software companies may offer customer success bonuses tied to knowledge graph deployment milestones worth $8,000 to $20,000 annually. And on the tax side: indiana has a flat 3.05% state income tax, one of the lowest in the country. Marion County adds about 2.02% in local taxes. The combined rate remains well below most major metros. When someone quotes you $155,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Benchmark against pharmaceutical industry pay scales. Eli Lilly and the biotech cluster set high compensation floors that ripple across all professional roles in Indianapolis. The range for Knowledge Graph Engineers in Indianapolis runs from $116,000 to $202,000. 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 Indianapolis
Negotiating in Indianapolis
Benchmark against pharmaceutical industry pay scales. Eli Lilly and the biotech cluster set high compensation floors that ripple across all professional roles in Indianapolis.