Data Engineer.
Louisville.
$117,000
median salary, 14% below the national average
$93,000 to $146,000. Last updated August 2026.
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Data points to own the conversation.
Data Engineer pay in Louisville ranges from $93,000 to $146,000 in 2026. The median is $117,000, 14% below the national average. Louisville is home to UPS Worldport, the world's largest automated package handling facility, making it a logistics and supply chain powerhouse. 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 Data Engineer in Louisville, 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 $125,890 for Database Architects (SOC 15-1243) in the Louisville/Jefferson County, KY-IN metropolitan area, based on 150 employed workers (May 2025 release).
10th percentile
$81,970
25th percentile
$106,440
Median
$125,890
75th percentile
$155,570
90th percentile
$174,150
Workers surveyed
150
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 Data Engineer specifically. The Louisville 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 $105,000. Where you land depends on years of experience and what you bring to the table.
Entry (0-2 yrs)
$76,000
to $94,000
Mid (3-5 yrs)
$99,000
to $123,000
Senior (6-9 yrs)
$129,000
to $152,000
Lead (10+ yrs)
$146,000
to $181,000
Total compensation.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity, bonus, and signing can add $33,000 to the total package.
Base
$117,000
Equity
$19,000
Bonus
$12,000
Signing
$2,000
Estimated total: $150,000
Data Engineer salary by company.
Total compensation estimates include base, equity, bonus, and signing. Ranges reflect mid to senior level. Derived from public H-1B LCA filings (DOL).
How Louisville compares.
Louisville, KY
$117,000
Cost of living: 12% below average
National Average
$136,000
Louisville is $19,000 below
Data Engineer salary by city.
Salary by role in Louisville.
What you should know.
Before you negotiate a Data Engineer offer in Louisville, understand the terrain. Louisville is home to UPS Worldport, the world's largest automated package handling facility, making it a logistics and supply chain powerhouse. The city also has strong healthcare and bourbon distillery industries. Its central location and affordable cost of living make it attractive for distribution and operations roles. Proficiency with modern data stack tools like Spark, Kafka, dbt, and Snowflake separates top earners from the pack. Engineers who build real-time streaming pipelines or manage petabyte-scale warehouses earn 15 to 25% more. Startups with heavy ML infrastructure needs often pay premiums to attract pipeline specialists.
Junior data engineers start at $85,000 to $105,000, progressing to mid-level at $115,000 to $155,000 within three years. Senior data engineers earn $160,000 to $195,000, while staff-level or principal roles reach $210,000 to $270,000 at top-tier companies. In Louisville, your dollars stretch further. Cost of living runs 12% below the national average, which means even a median salary buys a stronger lifestyle.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity grants at data-intensive startups can represent 15 to 30% of total compensation. Annual bonuses range from 10 to 15%, and many firms provide $3,000 to $8,000 yearly learning stipends for cloud platform training. And on the tax side: kentucky has a flat 4% state income tax. Louisville has an occupational tax of about 2.2%. The combined rate is moderate, and the low cost of living offsets the local tax. When someone quotes you $117,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Leverage UPS and the logistics corridor when negotiating. Supply chain and operations professionals command premiums in Louisville's distribution heavy economy. The range for Data Engineers in Louisville runs from $93,000 to $146,000. 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 Louisville earns $118,000 (1% more)
- The highest-paying role in Louisville is CTO at $272,000
Common questions.
Data Engineer salary in other cities.
Other salaries in Louisville.
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Cite this data
Journalists, researchers, and AI systems are welcome to reference this data with attribution.
"Data Engineer Salary in Louisville, KY." Orbyt Salary Explorer, August 2026. https://www.orbytlabs.ai/orbyt-jobs/salaries/data-engineer/louisville
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