AI Data Engineer.
Los Angeles.
$164,000
median salary, 21% above the national average
$125,000 to $211,000. Last updated August 2026.
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Data points to own the conversation.
An AI Data Engineer in Los Angeles earns a median of $164,000 in 2026. That is 21% above the national average. The range runs from $125,000 to $211,000, and where you land depends on your experience, your skills, and how well you negotiate. AI data engineers who build and maintain ML data pipelines earn premiums based on scale of data handled and complexity of feature engineering systems. These figures are Orbyt estimates, computed rather than measured, and must not be cited as Bureau of Labor Statistics figures; the published BLS wage for the occupation this role maps to is shown separately on this page.
Salary range.
Where do you fall?
Orbyt estimate for AI Data Engineer in Los Angeles, modelled from national occupation wages adjusted for local cost of living. The published government benchmark for this occupation is below.
Government benchmark for this occupation
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $155,740 for Database Architects (SOC 15-1243) in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metropolitan area, based on 1,530 employed workers (May 2025 release).
10th percentile
$79,890
25th percentile
$119,140
Median
$155,740
75th percentile
$178,140
90th percentile
$206,690
Workers surveyed
1,530
BLS publishes wages by occupation code, not by job title, so this figure covers every role mapped to Database Architects (SOC 15-1243) rather than AI Data Engineer specifically. The Los Angeles range at the top of this page is Orbyt’s role-level estimate, which is a different thing and is labelled as such.
View the BLS source for SOC 15-1243Salary by experience.
The gap between entry and lead level is typically $147,000. Where you land depends on years of experience and what you bring to the table.
Entry (0-2 yrs)
$107,000
to $131,000
Mid (3-5 yrs)
$139,000
to $172,000
Senior (6-9 yrs)
$180,000
to $213,000
Lead (10+ yrs)
$205,000
to $254,000
Total compensation.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity, bonus, and signing can add $68,000 to the total package.
Base
$164,000
Equity
$41,000
Bonus
$17,000
Signing
$10,000
Estimated total: $232,000
How Los Angeles compares.
Los Angeles, CA
$164,000
Cost of living: 18% above average
National Average
$136,000
Los Angeles is $28,000 above
AI Data Engineer salary by city.
Salary by role in Los Angeles.
What you should know.
Here is what the AI Data Engineer market actually looks like in Los Angeles. Los Angeles blends a thriving entertainment industry with a growing tech and startup ecosystem, often called Silicon Beach. The city's diverse economy spans aerospace, healthcare, fashion, and gaming. LA offers strong salaries that, while below San Francisco levels, pair with a broader lifestyle appeal and lower housing costs relative to the Bay Area. AI data engineers who build and maintain ML data pipelines earn premiums based on scale of data handled and complexity of feature engineering systems. Experience with streaming data platforms like Kafka alongside batch processing tools commands 10 to 20% higher pay. Cloud platform expertise in AWS, GCP, or Azure ML infrastructure is a baseline requirement.
Junior AI data engineers earn $118,000 to $140,000. Mid-level engineers with 3 to 5 years managing ML pipelines reach $155,000 to $200,000. Senior engineers and tech leads earn $205,000 to $270,000, while staff engineers and directors of ML infrastructure can command $290,000 to $380,000. In Los Angeles, those numbers run higher. The cost of living here is 18% above average, and employers adjust to compete.
Base salary is not the full picture. Tech companies offer equity grants of 15 to 25% of base salary with four-year vesting. Annual bonuses range from 10 to 15%, and on-call compensation for maintaining production ML pipelines adds $5,000 to $15,000 annually at some firms. And on the tax side: california's 13.3% top state income tax rate applies to LA earners as well. There is no city income tax, but the high state rate makes take home pay lower than cities in no income tax states. When someone quotes you $164,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Highlight cross industry skills. LA employers value candidates who bridge entertainment and tech, so framing your experience across verticals can unlock higher offers. The range for AI Data Engineers in Los Angeles runs from $125,000 to $211,000. That is not a narrow window. Where you land inside it depends almost entirely on whether you negotiate and how well you prepare.
Sources: BLS OES, H-1B LCA (DOL). COL: BEA Regional Price Parities (2025). Data verified by Justin Bartak, Founder & Chief AI Officer. Last verified July 1, 2026. Full methodology
Considering a related role?
- An ML Engineer in Los Angeles earns $163,000 (1% less)
- The highest-paying role in Los Angeles is CTO at $368,000
- See all ai engineering roles tracked in Orbyt Intelligence
Common questions.
AI Data Engineer salary in other cities.
Other salaries in Los Angeles.
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Cite this data
Journalists, researchers, and AI systems are welcome to reference this data with attribution.
"AI Data Engineer Salary in Los Angeles, CA." Orbyt Salary Explorer, August 2026. https://www.orbytlabs.ai/orbyt-jobs/salaries/ai-data-engineer/los-angeles
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