SaaS Salary Benchmarks

AI Engineer Salary Benchmarks

Compensation data for the AI Engineer role at US SaaS companies, based on 35 verified salaries.

Quartile breakdown All SaaS roles

Base salary · US SaaS35 salaries

$105,000

Median base salary

Bottom 25% avg$34,134Top 25% avg$126,146

Average base salary: $91,003
Typical range (P25–P75): $78,627–$119,971
Salaries analyzed: 35

Hiring for this role? At the median, one AI Engineer costs $105,000 a year in base salary.

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Overview

35 salaries

AI Engineer Salary Overview

Bottom 25% AverageAverage of the lowest-paid quarter · 9 salaries: $34,134
Middle 50% AverageAverage of the middle half · 17 salaries: $102,504
Top 25% AverageAverage of the highest-paid quarter · 9 salaries: $126,146

Median AI Engineer base pay by pay period

Per year: $105,000
Per month: $8,750
Every two weeks: $4,038
Per hour: $50.48

Base-pay equivalents before tax; hourly assumes 2,080 working hours a year.

AI Engineer salaries at SaaS companies average $91,003, with typical salaries ranging from $78,627 to $119,971. Based on 35 real salary data points from SaaS companies.

Quartile bands

Employees · annualized base

Detailed AI Engineer Compensation Breakdown

AI Engineer base salary by percentile band
Percentile Band	Salary range	Average Base Salary	# of salaries
Top 25%	$119,971 and up	$126,146	9 salaries
Middle 50%	$78,627–$119,971	$102,504	17 salaries
Bottom 25%	Under $78,627	$34,134	9 salaries

Hiring budget

Base salary · fully loaded

What Does an AI Engineer Cost to Hire?

Budget for AI Engineer hires at the 25th percentile, median and 75th percentile of this benchmark, as base salary and as fully loaded cost.

Pay level

Hires

One AI Engineer hire at the median: $105,000 a year in base salary, $131,250–$147,000 fully loaded.

Cost of one hire by pay level
Per hire	P2525th percentile	MedianMedian	P7575th percentile
Base salary / year	$78,627	$105,000	$119,971
Base salary / month	$6,552	$8,750	$9,998
Fully loaded / year1.25–1.4× base	$98,284–$110,078	$131,250–$147,000	$149,963–$167,959
Fully loaded / month1.25–1.4× base	$8,190–$9,173	$10,938–$12,250	$12,497–$13,997

Fully loaded adds employer payroll taxes, health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment at 1.25–1.4× base salary. That multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonus, equity, and recruiting fees are not included.

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Key insights

AI Engineer Pay by the Numbers

The middle half of AI Engineer salaries spans $78,627–$119,971: a $41,344 spread, 39% of the $105,000 median.
A 75th-percentile AI Engineer earns 1.5× the 25th-percentile salary.
The AI Engineer median is 2% below the median Engineering & Product role ($107,320 across 63 roles).

What Drives Higher AI Engineer Pay?

Years of experience and proven track record
Company stage and funding (later stage typically pays more)
Technical expertise and specialization
Location and remote work policies

FAQ

AI Engineer salary

On a median base salary of $105,000, an AI Engineer at a US SaaS company makes about $8,750 a month, $4,038 every two weeks, or $50.48 an hour over 2,080 working hours a year. The middle half of salaries (25th–75th percentile) works out to $6,552–$9,998 a month. These are base-pay equivalents before tax, and they leave out bonus, commission, and equity.

Expect the lower half of this benchmark. Across 35 verified SaaS AI Engineer salaries, the 25th percentile is $78,627 and the median is $105,000. A AI Engineer at a seed or Series A startup, or at a bootstrapped company under roughly $10M ARR, will often land between those two figures. Base pay typically moves toward and past the $119,971 75th percentile as the company adds headcount and ARR. Those stage bands are a rule of thumb applied to this benchmark, not a breakdown by company size, which the dataset does not report.

Budget for more than base salary. On a median base of $105,000, the fully loaded cost of a US AI Engineer is roughly $131,250–$147,000 per year once employer payroll taxes (~7.65% FICA plus federal and state unemployment), health and retirement benefits, software seats, and equipment are added. That 1.25–1.4x multiplier is a planning rule of thumb applied to the benchmark on this page, not a surveyed cost figure. Commission, bonuses, and equity sit on top where the role carries them. Also budget one-off hiring costs: agency recruiting fees commonly run 15–25% of first-year base, and a new hire takes weeks to months to reach full productivity.

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