Salaries

Industry vertical.

AI Healthcare Roles.

Where AI meets medicine.

23
$133K
$74K to $280K

Source.

By Justin Bartak, Founder & Chief AI OfficerUpdated Q2 2024 benchmarks

Healthcare AI work happens where models touch real patients. Clinical informatics, drug discovery, medical imaging, healthcare operations. The compliance bar is higher than general engineering, the consequences of mistakes are higher, and the pay is higher to match. Engineers and researchers who can navigate FDA-cleared workflows and HIPAA-grade data are scarce, and 2026 hiring is competitive. Roles below are sorted by base salary.

Roles in ai healthcare roles.

AI Healthcare Roles ranked by base median salary, sourced from Orbyt Intelligence Q2 2024.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Drug Discovery AI Researcher$168K$215K$280K
Lead Healthcare AI Engineer$180K$210K$253K
Lead Healthcare ML Engineer$180K$210K$253K
Lead Pathology AI Engineer$180K$210K$253K
Healthcare AI Researcher$164K$210K$273K
Pharmaceutical AI Product Manager$156K$200K$260K
Senior Healthcare AI Engineer$147K$169K$196K
Senior Healthcare ML Engineer$147K$169K$196K
Senior Pathology AI Engineer$147K$169K$196K
BioAI Researcher$97K$141K$187K
Healthcare AI Integrator$99K$133K$174K
Clinical AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Healthcare Data Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Healthcare ML Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Biotech AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Clinical Trial AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Healthcare Specialist$78K$113K$162K
AI Pharmaceutical/Drug Discovery Specialist$78K$113K$162K
Medical Imaging AI Specialist$78K$113K$162K
Biotech ML Engineer$78K$113K$162K
Drug Discovery ML Engineer$78K$113K$162K
Medical Image AI Specialist$78K$113K$162K
AI Drug Discovery Scientist$74K$101K$139K

Top cities.

Common questions.

No, but it helps. The most-hired profile is a strong ML engineer who learned the regulatory environment on the job. The fastest-growing profile is a clinician (MD, PA, NP, RN) who learned to code. Hiring managers value either path. The hardest path is a generalist with neither, who tends to lose offers to specialists.

It raises them. Engineers and researchers comfortable with PHI handling, BAAs, and the audit trail requirements that healthcare data demands are scarce. Candidates without that experience often get screened out in the first technical round, even with strong general ML credentials.

Three specifically: clinical decision support engineers, drug discovery scientists working with frontier models, and medical imaging AI specialists on FDA-cleared workflows. All three are active bidding wars right now and demand outpaces supply.

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