AI Engineering Roles · Columbus, OH
AI Engineering Roles salary in Columbus.
321 roles tracked. Median $123,690. 7% below national.
$31,620
Low
$123,690
Median
$322,710
High
Columbus is Ohio's largest city and a growing technology and logistics hub, home to companies like Nationwide Insurance and a major Intel semiconductor fab under construction. The city's large university system and low cost of living attract both startups and corporate expansions. Tech salaries have been climbing as national employers establish Midwest offices.
Ohio's income tax tops out around 3.5%, and Columbus adds a city income tax of 2.5%. The combined rate is moderate, but the city tax applies to all who work within city limits.
Mention Intel's new fab investment when negotiating. The semiconductor megaproject is driving salaries upward across the entire Columbus tech and engineering market.
AI Engineering Roles ranked by pay in Columbus.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Machine Learning Director$211,110$248,310$322,710AI Protein Structure Specialist$159,960$204,600$265,980AI Technical Lead$167,400$195,300$235,290ML Technical Lead$167,400$195,300$235,290Staff AI Engineer$167,400$195,300$235,290Principal AI Engineer$167,400$195,300$235,290Staff AI Agent Engineer$167,400$195,300$235,290Principal AI Agent Engineer$167,400$195,300$235,290Staff AI Agent Architect$167,400$195,300$235,290Principal AI Agent Architect$167,400$195,300$235,290Staff AI Compiler Engineer$167,400$195,300$235,290Principal AI Compiler Engineer$167,400$195,300$235,290Lead Radiology AI Engineer$167,400$195,300$235,290Lead KYC/AML Engineer$167,400$195,300$235,290Lead Contract AI Developer$167,400$195,300$235,290Staff ML Engineer$158,100$194,370$251,100Principal ML Engineer$158,100$194,370$251,100Staff NLP Engineer$158,100$194,370$251,100Principal NLP Engineer$158,100$194,370$251,100Staff LLM Engineer$158,100$194,370$251,100Principal LLM Engineer$158,100$194,370$251,100EV Battery AI Optimization Engineer$148,800$190,650$248,310AI Business Development Manager$125,550$182,280$246,450Route Optimization AI Specialist$137,640$176,700$229,710Humanoid Robotics Engineer$130,200$174,840$230,640Senior AI Chip Designer$155,310$172,050$192,510AI Inventory Optimization Specialist$130,200$167,400$217,620AI Data Labeling Manager$119,970$159,030$207,390AI Transformation Officer$119,970$159,030$207,390AI Environment Manager$119,970$159,030$207,390Model Registry Manager$119,970$159,030$207,390Engineering Manager, AI$119,970$159,030$207,390Prompt Operations Manager$119,970$159,030$207,390AI Agent Operations Manager$119,970$159,030$207,390AI Manager$119,970$159,030$207,390Machine Learning Manager$119,970$159,030$207,390AI Transformation Lead$132,990$158,100$197,160AI Operations Lead$120,900$158,100$204,600AI Adoption Lead$132,990$158,100$197,160AI Change Management Lead$132,990$158,100$197,160Senior AI Engineer$136,710$157,170$182,280Senior AI Agent Engineer$136,710$157,170$182,280Senior AI Agent Architect$136,710$157,170$182,280Senior AI Compiler Engineer$136,710$157,170$182,280Senior Radiology AI Engineer$136,710$157,170$182,280Senior KYC/AML Engineer$136,710$157,170$182,280Senior Contract AI Developer$136,710$157,170$182,280Senior AI Developer$136,710$157,170$182,280Senior ML Systems Engineer$136,710$157,170$182,280AI Learning Experience Designer$119,970$153,450$199,950No-Code AI Specialist$119,970$153,450$199,950Senior ML Engineer$119,970$145,080$176,700Senior NLP Engineer$119,970$145,080$176,700Senior LLM Engineer$119,970$145,080$176,700Senior Azure AI Engineer$119,970$145,080$176,700Senior GCP ML Engineer$119,970$145,080$176,700AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer$102,300$144,150$176,700AI Hardware Engineer$102,300$144,150$176,700AI Chip Designer$102,300$144,150$176,700AI Semiconductor Test Engineer$102,300$144,150$176,700AI Chipset Designer$102,300$144,150$176,700AI Chip Architect$102,300$144,150$176,700AI Accelerator Engineer$102,300$144,150$176,700AI Auditor$106,950$139,500$181,350AI Recruitment Specialist$105,090$134,850$175,770AI Transparency Lead$110,670$134,850$171,120AI Trust and Safety Lead$110,670$134,850$171,120AI Reasoning Specialist$90,210$131,130$173,910AI Agent Designer$101,370$130,200$169,260AI Vendor Manager$95,790$130,200$168,330AI Data Engineer$96,720$126,480$162,750Data Architect (AI/ML)$96,720$126,480$162,750AI Analytics Engineer$96,720$126,480$162,750Data Pipeline Engineer (ML)$96,720$126,480$162,750AI Data Quality Engineer$96,720$126,480$162,750Knowledge Graph Engineer$96,720$126,480$162,750Responsible AI Lead$105,090$126,480$159,030Machine Learning Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820ML Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820NLP Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Computer Vision Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820LLM Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820LLM Fine-Tuning Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Solutions Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820Generative AI Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820Robotics AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Agent Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820Edge AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Agentic Orchestrator$92,070$123,690$161,820Full Stack AI Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Systems Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Application Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Backend Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Frontend Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Embedded AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Firmware Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI API Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Microservices Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Integration Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Real-Time AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Compiler Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Model Distillation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820ML Pipeline Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Speech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Chatbot Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Localization Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820LiDAR AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Robotic Process Automation Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820Motion Planning AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Manipulation AI Specialist$92,070$123,690$161,820Robot Perception Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Agent Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Workflow Automation Specialist$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Simulation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Embodied AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Neuro AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820On-Device AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Wearables Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Spatial Computing AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Personal Assistant Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Workflow Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Fairness Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820LLM Operations Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Digital Twin Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820Developer Advocate, AI$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Accessibility Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Incident Commander$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Data Marketplace Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Knowledge Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Telecom Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Computer Vision Applications Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820NLP Applications Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Model Compression Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Search Ranking Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Embedded Systems Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Agent Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Systems Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820ML Solutions Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820Generative AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Evaluation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820TinyML Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820GovTech ML Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Workflow Automation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Prompt Operations Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Spatial Computing Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Tutor Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820Consulting ML Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Telecom ML Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Model Serving Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Training Data Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Founding ML Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Diagnostics Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Digital Therapeutics AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820MarTech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820SaaS AI Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820Adaptive Learning AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820InsurTech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Underwriting Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AgTech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI NPC Designer$92,070$123,690$161,820Telecom AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820HRTech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820GovTech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Building Design Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820FoodTech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Space Tech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Digital Health AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Spatial AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820LLM Ops Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Model Registry Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Carbon Capture AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820Chatbot Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI CRM Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Customer Support Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Email Marketing Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Pricing Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Revenue Optimization Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Accounting Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Payroll Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Audit Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Expense Management Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Credit Scoring Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Lending Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Document Review Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Property Valuation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Fleet Management Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Warehouse Optimization Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Demand Forecasting Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Quality Control Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Predictive Maintenance Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Digital Twin Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Assessment Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Recommendation Engine Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Vehicle Diagnostics Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Traffic Systems Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Network Planning Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Spectrum Optimization Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Claims Adjudication Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Visual Search Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Store Analytics Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Demand Planning Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Coaching Systems Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Recipe Recommendation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Talent Matching Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Workforce Planning Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Generative AI Solutions Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Agent Solutions Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Agent Integration Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Enterprise AI Agent Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Workflow Designer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Process Automation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Freelance AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820OpenAI API Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820Agentic AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Copilot Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Assistant Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Chatbot Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Search Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Benchmarking Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Document Understanding Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Code Generation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Reasoning Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Planning Systems Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Benchmark Developer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Data Pipeline Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Experiment Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Responsible AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI 3D Generation Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Text-to-Speech AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820Speech-to-Text AI Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Dubbing Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820ML Systems Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820ML Systems Architect$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Monitoring Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Incident Response Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Compiler Optimization Engineer$92,070$123,690$161,820AI Cloud Architect$91,140$120,900$158,100AI Customer Success Engineer$93,930$120,900$157,170Senior Magento Developer$93,000$119,040$154,380AI Training Manager$84,630$118,110$163,680AI Incident Response Analyst$80,910$116,250$153,450AI Privacy Engineer$80,910$116,250$153,450AI Enablement & Literacy Lead$93,000$114,390$148,800AI/GenAI Sales Engineer$79,980$113,460$153,450AI Sales Engineer$79,980$113,460$153,450Solutions Engineer, AI$79,980$113,460$153,450AI Solutions Engineer$79,980$113,460$153,450AI Pre-Sales Engineer$79,980$113,460$153,450AI Customer Engineer$79,980$113,460$153,450AI Field Engineer$79,980$113,460$153,450AI Demo Engineer$79,980$113,460$153,450Robotics Engineer$75,330$109,740$146,940AI Trainer / RLHF Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Training Data Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660Deep Learning Engineer$72,540$105,090$150,660AI/ML Data Analyst$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Business Intelligence Analyst$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Bias & Fairness Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Agricultural Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Model Evaluator$72,540$105,090$150,660Intelligence AI Analyst$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Trainer$72,540$105,090$150,660LLM Fine-Tuning Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660LLM Evaluator$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Ad Optimization Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Claims Processing Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Contract Analysis Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Crop Analysis Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660Network AI Optimization Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Analyst$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Consultant$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Specialist$72,540$105,090$150,660Machine Learning Analyst$72,540$105,090$150,660Machine Learning Consultant$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Model Trainer$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Data Curator$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Feature Engineer$72,540$105,090$150,660AI A/B Testing Engineer$72,540$105,090$150,660Time Series ML Engineer$72,540$105,090$150,660Graph ML Engineer$72,540$105,090$150,660Bayesian ML Engineer$72,540$105,090$150,660AI Localization Specialist$74,400$100,440$130,200AI Quality Assurance Engineer$70,680$95,790$126,480AI Testing Engineer$70,680$95,790$126,480Junior AI Engineer$81,840$95,790$110,670Junior AI Agent Engineer$81,840$95,790$110,670Junior AI Agent Architect$81,840$95,790$110,670Junior AI Compiler Engineer$81,840$95,790$110,670AI Agent QA Engineer$70,680$95,790$126,480AI Solutions Consultant$67,890$93,930$128,340AI Transformation Consultant$67,890$93,930$128,340AI Value Realization Analyst$67,890$93,930$128,340AI Roadmap Strategist$67,890$93,930$128,340AI Venture Analyst$69,750$93,930$127,410AI Workforce Planner$67,890$93,930$128,340AI Business Analyst$67,890$93,930$128,340AI Change Manager$67,890$93,930$128,340AI Adoption Manager$67,890$93,930$128,340AI Cost Analyst$69,750$93,930$127,410AI FinOps Engineer$69,750$93,930$127,410Magento Developer$72,540$93,000$120,900AI Documentation Engineer$60,450$85,560$96,720AI Transportation Planner$59,520$78,120$100,440Junior ML Engineer$63,240$77,190$92,070Junior NLP Engineer$63,240$77,190$92,070Junior LLM Engineer$63,240$77,190$92,070AI Partnership Manager$53,940$75,330$106,020AI Ecosystem Manager$53,940$75,330$106,020AI Geospatial Analyst$56,730$72,540$95,790AI Regulation Specialist$52,080$72,540$101,370AI Marketing Technologist$49,290$71,610$101,370AI Market Intelligence Analyst$49,290$71,610$101,370AI Pricing Analyst$49,290$71,610$101,370AI Procurement Analyst$52,080$70,680$95,790Technical Recruiter, AI$49,290$67,890$93,930AI Annotation Lead$45,570$51,150$58,590AI Customer Support Specialist$32,550$39,990$47,430AI Trainer / Data Annotator$31,620$37,200$44,640Salaries adjusted for Columbus 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 Columbus, OH is $123,690. The full range runs from $31,620 at the entry level for the lowest-paying tracked role up to $322,710 at the top of the highest-paying tracked role. Columbus sits 7% below the national average for cost-adjusted compensation.
Machine Learning Director is the highest-paying ai engineering role in Columbus, with a median base salary of $248,310 when adjusted for local cost of living. Total compensation including equity and bonuses runs significantly higher at top-tier employers.
Yes. Columbus is one of the active markets for AI talent in 2026. Columbus is Ohio's largest city and a growing technology and logistics hub, home to companies like Nationwide Insurance and a major Intel semiconductor fab under construction. AI Engineering Roles specifically benefit from local employer demand and the broader AI hiring boom that has pushed compensation up year over year.
Columbus pays roughly 7% less 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.
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