AI Data Engineer.
New York.
$167,000
median salary, 23% above the national average
$128,000 to $215,000. Last updated August 2026.
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Data points to own the conversation.
AI Data Engineer pay in New York ranges from $128,000 to $215,000 in 2026. The median is $167,000, 23% above the national average. New York City remains one of the world's largest and most diverse job markets, with unmatched density in finance, media, and technology. Every dollar in that range is negotiable if you come prepared. 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 New York, 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 $131,540 for Database Architects (SOC 15-1243) in the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan area, based on 5,460 employed workers (May 2025 release).
10th percentile
$86,230
25th percentile
$93,280
Median
$131,540
75th percentile
$175,760
90th percentile
$216,480
Workers surveyed
5,460
Why this differs from the estimate above. The Orbyt estimate of $167,000 is 27% higher than this published figure. That is usually not an error in either number: BLS reports by occupation code, and Database Architects covers a different population than the AI Data Engineer title as it is typically advertised. Both are shown, unreconciled, so you can judge which one describes the job you mean.
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 New York range at the top of this page is Orbyt’s role-level estimate, which is a different thing and is labelled as such. New York is reported by BLS within the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ metropolitan area.
View the BLS source for SOC 15-1243Salary by experience.
The gap between entry and lead level is typically $150,000. Where you land depends on years of experience and what you bring to the table.
Entry (0-2 yrs)
$109,000
to $134,000
Mid (3-5 yrs)
$142,000
to $175,000
Senior (6-9 yrs)
$184,000
to $217,000
Lead (10+ yrs)
$209,000
to $259,000
Total compensation.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity, bonus, and signing can add $70,000 to the total package.
Base
$167,000
Equity
$42,000
Bonus
$18,000
Signing
$10,000
Estimated total: $237,000
How New York compares.
New York, NY
$167,000
Cost of living: 28% above average
National Average
$136,000
New York is $31,000 above
AI Data Engineer salary by city.
Salary by role in New York.
What you should know.
Before you negotiate an AI Data Engineer offer in New York, understand the terrain. New York City remains one of the world's largest and most diverse job markets, with unmatched density in finance, media, and technology. The city's tech sector has grown rapidly, rivaling the Bay Area for venture funding and startup activity. Remote work has reshaped demand slightly, but employers still pay premiums for in office presence in Manhattan. 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 New York, those numbers run higher. The cost of living here is 28% 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: new York State income tax rates reach 10.9%, and New York City adds a local income tax up to 3.876%. Combined with federal taxes, your effective rate can be among the highest nationally. When someone quotes you $167,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Emphasize your willingness to work from the office in Manhattan. Many NYC employers pay 10 to 15% more for in person roles compared to remote positions. The range for AI Data Engineers in New York runs from $128,000 to $215,000. 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 Aerospace Engineer in New York earns $166,000 (1% less)
- The highest-paying role in New York is CTO at $376,000
- See all ai engineering roles tracked in Orbyt Intelligence
Common questions.
AI Data Engineer salary in other cities.
Other salaries in New York.
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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 New York, NY." Orbyt Salary Explorer, August 2026. https://www.orbytlabs.ai/orbyt-jobs/salaries/ai-data-engineer/new-york
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