Salaries

Industry vertical.

AI Industrial Roles.

Where AI meets the physical world.

42
$133K
$60K to $273K

Source.

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

Industrial AI is where models leave the screen and touch the physical world. Manufacturing optimization, energy grid intelligence, agricultural systems, autonomous defense, supply chain orchestration, climate modeling. The engineering depth is brutal: distributed systems plus ML plus domain physics. Pay tracks the operational impact, which scales with the size of what models control. Roles below are sorted by base salary.

Roles in ai industrial roles.

AI Industrial Roles ranked by base median salary, sourced from Orbyt Intelligence Q2 2024.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Grid Optimization AI Specialist$164K$210K$273K
Supply Chain AI Optimization Engineer$160K$205K$267K
Climate AI Researcher$97K$141K$187K
Aerospace AI Engineer$100K$135K$180K
Autonomous Vehicle AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Drone AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Industrial Robot AI Programmer$99K$133K$174K
AI Energy Efficiency Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Autonomous Vehicle Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Energy Optimizer$99K$133K$174K
Defense AI Systems Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Agriculture Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Logistics Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Sustainability Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Construction Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Defense ML Engineer$99K$133K$174K
CleanTech ML Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Drone Software Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Logistics AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
CleanTech AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Energy AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Construction AI Engineer$99K$133K$174K
Autonomous Vehicle Vision Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Industrial Robotics Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Construction Planning Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Precision Agriculture Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Food Supply Chain Engineer$99K$133K$174K
AI Climate Scientist$95K$130K$170K
AI Climate/Sustainability Specialist$78K$113K$162K
AI Supply Chain Specialist$78K$113K$162K
AI Manufacturing Specialist$78K$113K$162K
AI Energy Grid Specialist$78K$113K$162K
Automotive ML Engineer$78K$113K$162K
Aerospace ML Engineer$78K$113K$162K
Logistics ML Engineer$78K$113K$162K
Defense AI Analyst$78K$113K$162K
AI Energy Optimization Specialist$78K$113K$162K
AI Supply Chain Manager$75K$102K$141K
AI Manufacturing Engineer$79K$101K$131K
Sustainability AI Product Manager$73K$101K$136K
AI Supply Chain Optimization Engineer$63K$91K$129K
AI Supply Chain Analyst$60K$81K$108K

Top cities.

Common questions.

Defense and energy, in that order. Defense AI engineers (autonomous systems, mission planning, ISR) clear $400K total comp at the major primes and frontier defense startups. Energy AI (grid optimization, predictive maintenance) pays $250K to $350K. Manufacturing pays less but has the most open roles.

More than other AI verticals. The best-paid industrial AI engineers know both ML and the physics of what they are modeling. A controls engineer who learned ML beats a generalist ML engineer for an autonomous-vehicles role almost every time.

Less than other AI categories. Many industrial roles need to be near the equipment, the simulator, or the cleared facility. Defense roles in particular require on-site work, often with security clearance. Remote-first industrial AI roles exist but are the exception, not the rule.

Related AI hubs.

Negotiate your next offer with confidence.

Open the salary calculator