Salary comparison
AI Engineer vs Data Engineer salary
AI Engineers and Data Engineers earn about the same at the national median. Here is the full side-by-side breakdown.
AI Engineers and Data Engineers earn about the same at the national median — roughly $133,080 per year. Both figures are national benchmarks (one or both mapped from the nearest tracked occupation).
AI Engineer
Mapped est.$133,080
Median annual wage
- Entry (10th pct)
- $79,850
- Top 10%
- $211,450
- Discipline
- Emerging
Data Engineer
Mapped est.$133,080
Median annual wage
- Entry (10th pct)
- $79,850
- Top 10%
- $211,450
- Discipline
- Emerging
AI Engineer vs Data Engineer — pay distribution
Percentile-by-percentile comparison of national annual wages.
| Percentile | Annual wage |
|---|---|
| 10th percentileAI Engineer | $79,850 |
| MedianAI Engineer | $133,080 |
| 90th percentileAI Engineer | $211,450 |
| 10th percentileData Engineer | $79,850 |
| MedianData Engineer | $133,080 |
| 90th percentileData Engineer | $211,450 |
Pay by experience
Modeled progression from entry to principal level for each role (estimated from the national percentile curve).
AI Engineer
Data Engineer
Which should you choose?
On pay alone, the two are close at the median, so the decision comes down to the work itself.
Pick AI engineer if…
AI engineers build applications and systems powered by machine learning and large language models — one of the fastest-growing engineering roles, with pay that runs above the broader software baseline.
- ▹Frontier-lab vs. application-layer roles
- ▹Research vs. applied engineering
- ▹Years of experience and rare specialization
Pick data engineer if…
Data engineers build and maintain the pipelines and infrastructure that move and transform data at scale, powering analytics and machine learning across a company.
- ▹Cloud and big-data stack depth (Spark, Snowflake, dbt)
- ▹Company type (Big Tech vs. enterprise)
- ▹Years of experience and seniority
AI Engineer vs Data Engineer — frequently asked
Who earns more, AI engineers or data engineers?
What is the salary range for AI engineers vs data engineers?
Should I become a AI engineer or a data engineer?
Source details
AI Engineer is not a BLS-tracked title; demand has pushed pay above the software baseline. BLS does not publish a separate wage for this title, so the figures shown are the published wage for BLS SOC 15-1252 Software Developers — the closest tracked occupation. Actual pay for this specialization can sit above or below it.
Benchmarks come from published government wage data via BLS OEWS. Local and emerging-role figures are labeled estimates. Full methodology →