What AI roles actually pay, read straight off the listings. Every figure is aggregated from open positions that publish compensation, normalized to USD and scored for how much each role builds or uses AI. No surveys, no self-reported guesses.
Median, all AI roles
Half of all AI listings with published pay sit above this line. The middle 80% span $114K to $292K, a spread that says where you sit on the build-versus-use axis matters more than the title.
Distribution, P10 to P90
ML / Research roles lead at a $256K median, the top of the open market. Other sits at $118K. The gap is the price of building the model.
Finding No. 1Ranked by median total compensation across global listings that publish a salary range. The bar shows each family's middle 50% (P25 to P75) on a common dollar axis; the claret tick marks the median. Click a family for the full breakdown.
| Role family | P25 | Median | P75 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | ML / Research253 listings | $200K | $256K | $306K |
| 02 | Leadership70 listings | $217K | $256K | $300K |
| 03 | Product220 listings | $186K | $211K | $245K |
| 04 | Sales381 listings | $152K | $204K | $278K |
| 05 | Legal110 listings | $166K | $201K | $255K |
| 06 | Engineering2,166 listings | $168K | $200K | $240K |
| 07 | Design111 listings | $170K | $200K | $238K |
| 08 | Data203 listings | $159K | $194K | $223K |
| 09 | Marketing139 listings | $145K | $180K | $235K |
| 10 | Customer Success271 listings | $130K | $180K | $214K |
| 11 | Finance155 listings | $133K | $168K | $207K |
| 12 | People / HR98 listings | $125K | $158K | $193K |
| 13 | Operations1,014 listings | $114K | $150K | $178K |
| 14 | Other17 listings | $114K | $118K | $170K |
Every listing is read and scored from 0 to 100 for AI agency: a weighted blend of how much the role builds AI systems and how much it uses AI as a daily tool. Only roles scoring 50 and above appear in these benchmarks. A payroll analyst at an AI lab is still a payroll role.
Trains and red-teams frontier models end to end. Build axis near the ceiling, use axis high. The kind of role the score is built to surface to the top.
Build 96 · Use 88 · Weighted 93