AI Engineering Roles · Chicago, IL
AI Engineering Roles salary in Chicago.
321 roles tracked. Median $142,310. 7% above national.
$36,380
Low
$142,310
Median
$371,290
High
Chicago's economy is anchored by finance, manufacturing, and a rapidly expanding tech sector. The city has become a major hub for fintech, enterprise SaaS, and e-commerce. With lower living costs than coastal cities and a deep talent pool from top universities, Chicago offers strong salary to cost of living ratios for professionals across industries.
Illinois has a flat 4.95% state income tax. Chicago does not levy a separate city income tax, making the overall burden moderate compared to coastal metros.
Reference the Bay Area or NYC salary band for your role, then negotiate a modest discount. Chicago employers routinely offer 85 to 90% of coastal pay.
AI Engineering Roles ranked by pay in Chicago.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Machine Learning Director$242,890$285,690$371,290AI Protein Structure Specialist$184,040$235,400$306,020AI Technical Lead$192,600$224,700$270,710ML Technical Lead$192,600$224,700$270,710Staff AI Engineer$192,600$224,700$270,710Principal AI Engineer$192,600$224,700$270,710Staff AI Agent Engineer$192,600$224,700$270,710Principal AI Agent Engineer$192,600$224,700$270,710Staff AI Agent Architect$192,600$224,700$270,710Principal AI Agent Architect$192,600$224,700$270,710Staff AI Compiler Engineer$192,600$224,700$270,710Principal AI Compiler Engineer$192,600$224,700$270,710Lead Radiology AI Engineer$192,600$224,700$270,710Lead KYC/AML Engineer$192,600$224,700$270,710Lead Contract AI Developer$192,600$224,700$270,710Staff ML Engineer$181,900$223,630$288,900Principal ML Engineer$181,900$223,630$288,900Staff NLP Engineer$181,900$223,630$288,900Principal NLP Engineer$181,900$223,630$288,900Staff LLM Engineer$181,900$223,630$288,900Principal LLM Engineer$181,900$223,630$288,900EV Battery AI Optimization Engineer$171,200$219,350$285,690AI Business Development Manager$144,450$209,720$283,550Route Optimization AI Specialist$158,360$203,300$264,290Humanoid Robotics Engineer$149,800$201,160$265,360Senior AI Chip Designer$178,690$197,950$221,490AI Inventory Optimization Specialist$149,800$192,600$250,380AI Data Labeling Manager$138,030$182,970$238,610AI Transformation Officer$138,030$182,970$238,610AI Environment Manager$138,030$182,970$238,610Model Registry Manager$138,030$182,970$238,610Engineering Manager, AI$138,030$182,970$238,610Prompt Operations Manager$138,030$182,970$238,610AI Agent Operations Manager$138,030$182,970$238,610AI Manager$138,030$182,970$238,610Machine Learning Manager$138,030$182,970$238,610AI Transformation Lead$153,010$181,900$226,840AI Operations Lead$139,100$181,900$235,400AI Adoption Lead$153,010$181,900$226,840AI Change Management Lead$153,010$181,900$226,840Senior AI Engineer$157,290$180,830$209,720Senior AI Agent Engineer$157,290$180,830$209,720Senior AI Agent Architect$157,290$180,830$209,720Senior AI Compiler Engineer$157,290$180,830$209,720Senior Radiology AI Engineer$157,290$180,830$209,720Senior KYC/AML Engineer$157,290$180,830$209,720Senior Contract AI Developer$157,290$180,830$209,720Senior AI Developer$157,290$180,830$209,720Senior ML Systems Engineer$157,290$180,830$209,720AI Learning Experience Designer$138,030$176,550$230,050No-Code AI Specialist$138,030$176,550$230,050Senior ML Engineer$138,030$166,920$203,300Senior NLP Engineer$138,030$166,920$203,300Senior LLM Engineer$138,030$166,920$203,300Senior Azure AI Engineer$138,030$166,920$203,300Senior GCP ML Engineer$138,030$166,920$203,300AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer$117,700$165,850$203,300AI Hardware Engineer$117,700$165,850$203,300AI Chip Designer$117,700$165,850$203,300AI Semiconductor Test Engineer$117,700$165,850$203,300AI Chipset Designer$117,700$165,850$203,300AI Chip Architect$117,700$165,850$203,300AI Accelerator Engineer$117,700$165,850$203,300AI Auditor$123,050$160,500$208,650AI Recruitment Specialist$120,910$155,150$202,230AI Transparency Lead$127,330$155,150$196,880AI Trust and Safety Lead$127,330$155,150$196,880AI Reasoning Specialist$103,790$150,870$200,090AI Agent Designer$116,630$149,800$194,740AI Vendor Manager$110,210$149,800$193,670AI Data Engineer$111,280$145,520$187,250Data Architect (AI/ML)$111,280$145,520$187,250AI Analytics Engineer$111,280$145,520$187,250Data Pipeline Engineer (ML)$111,280$145,520$187,250AI Data Quality Engineer$111,280$145,520$187,250Knowledge Graph Engineer$111,280$145,520$187,250Responsible AI Lead$120,910$145,520$182,970Machine Learning Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180ML Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180NLP Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Computer Vision Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180LLM Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180LLM Fine-Tuning Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Solutions Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180Generative AI Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180Robotics AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Agent Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180Edge AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Agentic Orchestrator$105,930$142,310$186,180Full Stack AI Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Systems Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Application Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Backend Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Frontend Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Embedded AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Firmware Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI API Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Microservices Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Integration Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Real-Time AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Compiler Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Model Distillation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180ML Pipeline Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Speech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Chatbot Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Localization Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180LiDAR AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Robotic Process Automation Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180Motion Planning AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Manipulation AI Specialist$105,930$142,310$186,180Robot Perception Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Agent Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Workflow Automation Specialist$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Simulation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Embodied AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Neuro AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180On-Device AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Wearables Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Spatial Computing AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Personal Assistant Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Workflow Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Fairness Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180LLM Operations Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Digital Twin Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180Developer Advocate, AI$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Accessibility Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Incident Commander$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Data Marketplace Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Knowledge Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Telecom Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Computer Vision Applications Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180NLP Applications Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Model Compression Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Search Ranking Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Embedded Systems Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Agent Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Systems Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180ML Solutions Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180Generative AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Evaluation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180TinyML Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180GovTech ML Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Workflow Automation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Prompt Operations Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Spatial Computing Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Tutor Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180Consulting ML Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Telecom ML Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Model Serving Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Training Data Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Founding ML Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Diagnostics Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Digital Therapeutics AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180MarTech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180SaaS AI Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180Adaptive Learning AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180InsurTech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Underwriting Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AgTech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI NPC Designer$105,930$142,310$186,180Telecom AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180HRTech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180GovTech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Building Design Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180FoodTech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Space Tech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Digital Health AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Spatial AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180LLM Ops Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Model Registry Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Carbon Capture AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180Chatbot Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI CRM Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Customer Support Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Email Marketing Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Pricing Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Revenue Optimization Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Accounting Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Payroll Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Audit Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Expense Management Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Credit Scoring Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Lending Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Document Review Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Property Valuation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Fleet Management Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Warehouse Optimization Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Demand Forecasting Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Quality Control Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Predictive Maintenance Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Digital Twin Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Assessment Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Recommendation Engine Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Vehicle Diagnostics Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Traffic Systems Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Network Planning Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Spectrum Optimization Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Claims Adjudication Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Visual Search Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Store Analytics Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Demand Planning Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Coaching Systems Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Recipe Recommendation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Talent Matching Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Workforce Planning Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Generative AI Solutions Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Agent Solutions Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Agent Integration Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Enterprise AI Agent Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Workflow Designer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Process Automation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Freelance AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180OpenAI API Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180Agentic AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Copilot Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Assistant Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Chatbot Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Search Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Benchmarking Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Document Understanding Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Code Generation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Reasoning Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Planning Systems Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Benchmark Developer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Data Pipeline Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Experiment Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Responsible AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI 3D Generation Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Text-to-Speech AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180Speech-to-Text AI Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Dubbing Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180ML Systems Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180ML Systems Architect$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Monitoring Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Incident Response Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Compiler Optimization Engineer$105,930$142,310$186,180AI Cloud Architect$104,860$139,100$181,900AI Customer Success Engineer$108,070$139,100$180,830Senior Magento Developer$107,000$136,960$177,620AI Training Manager$97,370$135,890$188,320AI Incident Response Analyst$93,090$133,750$176,550AI Privacy Engineer$93,090$133,750$176,550AI Enablement & Literacy Lead$107,000$131,610$171,200AI/GenAI Sales Engineer$92,020$130,540$176,550AI Sales Engineer$92,020$130,540$176,550Solutions Engineer, AI$92,020$130,540$176,550AI Solutions Engineer$92,020$130,540$176,550AI Pre-Sales Engineer$92,020$130,540$176,550AI Customer Engineer$92,020$130,540$176,550AI Field Engineer$92,020$130,540$176,550AI Demo Engineer$92,020$130,540$176,550Robotics Engineer$86,670$126,260$169,060AI Trainer / RLHF Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Training Data Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340Deep Learning Engineer$83,460$120,910$173,340AI/ML Data Analyst$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Business Intelligence Analyst$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Bias & Fairness Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Agricultural Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Model Evaluator$83,460$120,910$173,340Intelligence AI Analyst$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Trainer$83,460$120,910$173,340LLM Fine-Tuning Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340LLM Evaluator$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Ad Optimization Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Claims Processing Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Contract Analysis Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Crop Analysis Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340Network AI Optimization Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Analyst$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Consultant$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Specialist$83,460$120,910$173,340Machine Learning Analyst$83,460$120,910$173,340Machine Learning Consultant$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Model Trainer$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Data Curator$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Feature Engineer$83,460$120,910$173,340AI A/B Testing Engineer$83,460$120,910$173,340Time Series ML Engineer$83,460$120,910$173,340Graph ML Engineer$83,460$120,910$173,340Bayesian ML Engineer$83,460$120,910$173,340AI Localization Specialist$85,600$115,560$149,800AI Quality Assurance Engineer$81,320$110,210$145,520AI Testing Engineer$81,320$110,210$145,520Junior AI Engineer$94,160$110,210$127,330Junior AI Agent Engineer$94,160$110,210$127,330Junior AI Agent Architect$94,160$110,210$127,330Junior AI Compiler Engineer$94,160$110,210$127,330AI Agent QA Engineer$81,320$110,210$145,520AI Solutions Consultant$78,110$108,070$147,660AI Transformation Consultant$78,110$108,070$147,660AI Value Realization Analyst$78,110$108,070$147,660AI Roadmap Strategist$78,110$108,070$147,660AI Venture Analyst$80,250$108,070$146,590AI Workforce Planner$78,110$108,070$147,660AI Business Analyst$78,110$108,070$147,660AI Change Manager$78,110$108,070$147,660AI Adoption Manager$78,110$108,070$147,660AI Cost Analyst$80,250$108,070$146,590AI FinOps Engineer$80,250$108,070$146,590Magento Developer$83,460$107,000$139,100AI Documentation Engineer$69,550$98,440$111,280AI Transportation Planner$68,480$89,880$115,560Junior ML Engineer$72,760$88,810$105,930Junior NLP Engineer$72,760$88,810$105,930Junior LLM Engineer$72,760$88,810$105,930AI Partnership Manager$62,060$86,670$121,980AI Ecosystem Manager$62,060$86,670$121,980AI Geospatial Analyst$65,270$83,460$110,210AI Regulation Specialist$59,920$83,460$116,630AI Marketing Technologist$56,710$82,390$116,630AI Market Intelligence Analyst$56,710$82,390$116,630AI Pricing Analyst$56,710$82,390$116,630AI Procurement Analyst$59,920$81,320$110,210Technical Recruiter, AI$56,710$78,110$108,070AI Annotation Lead$52,430$58,850$67,410AI Customer Support Specialist$37,450$46,010$54,570AI Trainer / Data Annotator$36,380$42,800$51,360Salaries adjusted for Chicago cost of living (+7% vs. national). Click any role for the full role-city breakdown including equity, bonuses, and city-specific negotiation tips.
Common questions.
The median salary across 321 ai engineering roles tracked in Chicago, IL is $142,310. The full range runs from $36,380 at the entry level for the lowest-paying tracked role up to $371,290 at the top of the highest-paying tracked role. Chicago sits 7% above the national average for cost-adjusted compensation.
Machine Learning Director is the highest-paying ai engineering role in Chicago, with a median base salary of $285,690 when adjusted for local cost of living. Total compensation including equity and bonuses runs significantly higher at top-tier employers.
Yes. Chicago is one of the active markets for AI talent in 2026. Chicago's economy is anchored by finance, manufacturing, and a rapidly expanding tech sector. AI Engineering Roles specifically benefit from local employer demand and the broader AI hiring boom that has pushed compensation up year over year.
Chicago pays roughly 7% more than the national average for ai engineering roles. Top markets like San Francisco, New York, and Seattle typically pay 30-50% above national. Mid-cost metros like Austin, Denver, and Raleigh pay closer to national.
AI Engineering Roles in other cities.
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