AI Engineering Roles · Honolulu, HI
AI Engineering Roles salary in Honolulu.
321 roles tracked. Median $172,900. 30% above national.
$44,200
Low
$172,900
Median
$451,100
High
Honolulu's economy is driven by military spending, tourism, and healthcare. The extremely high cost of living means employers must pay significant premiums. Federal and defense contractor roles offer the highest salaries, while the growing renewable energy sector is creating new technology positions.
Hawaii has the highest top state income tax rate in the nation at 11%. Honolulu has no city income tax, but the state burden combined with high living costs requires careful salary planning.
Negotiate housing allowances alongside salary. Honolulu employers, especially federal contractors, often provide COLA adjustments and housing stipends that significantly increase total compensation.
AI Engineering Roles ranked by pay in Honolulu.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Machine Learning Director$295,100$347,100$451,100AI Protein Structure Specialist$223,600$286,000$371,800AI Technical Lead$234,000$273,000$328,900ML Technical Lead$234,000$273,000$328,900Staff AI Engineer$234,000$273,000$328,900Principal AI Engineer$234,000$273,000$328,900Staff AI Agent Engineer$234,000$273,000$328,900Principal AI Agent Engineer$234,000$273,000$328,900Staff AI Agent Architect$234,000$273,000$328,900Principal AI Agent Architect$234,000$273,000$328,900Staff AI Compiler Engineer$234,000$273,000$328,900Principal AI Compiler Engineer$234,000$273,000$328,900Lead Radiology AI Engineer$234,000$273,000$328,900Lead KYC/AML Engineer$234,000$273,000$328,900Lead Contract AI Developer$234,000$273,000$328,900Staff ML Engineer$221,000$271,700$351,000Principal ML Engineer$221,000$271,700$351,000Staff NLP Engineer$221,000$271,700$351,000Principal NLP Engineer$221,000$271,700$351,000Staff LLM Engineer$221,000$271,700$351,000Principal LLM Engineer$221,000$271,700$351,000EV Battery AI Optimization Engineer$208,000$266,500$347,100AI Business Development Manager$175,500$254,800$344,500Route Optimization AI Specialist$192,400$247,000$321,100Humanoid Robotics Engineer$182,000$244,400$322,400Senior AI Chip Designer$217,100$240,500$269,100AI Inventory Optimization Specialist$182,000$234,000$304,200AI Data Labeling Manager$167,700$222,300$289,900AI Transformation Officer$167,700$222,300$289,900AI Environment Manager$167,700$222,300$289,900Model Registry Manager$167,700$222,300$289,900Engineering Manager, AI$167,700$222,300$289,900Prompt Operations Manager$167,700$222,300$289,900AI Agent Operations Manager$167,700$222,300$289,900AI Manager$167,700$222,300$289,900Machine Learning Manager$167,700$222,300$289,900AI Transformation Lead$185,900$221,000$275,600AI Operations Lead$169,000$221,000$286,000AI Adoption Lead$185,900$221,000$275,600AI Change Management Lead$185,900$221,000$275,600Senior AI Engineer$191,100$219,700$254,800Senior AI Agent Engineer$191,100$219,700$254,800Senior AI Agent Architect$191,100$219,700$254,800Senior AI Compiler Engineer$191,100$219,700$254,800Senior Radiology AI Engineer$191,100$219,700$254,800Senior KYC/AML Engineer$191,100$219,700$254,800Senior Contract AI Developer$191,100$219,700$254,800Senior AI Developer$191,100$219,700$254,800Senior ML Systems Engineer$191,100$219,700$254,800AI Learning Experience Designer$167,700$214,500$279,500No-Code AI Specialist$167,700$214,500$279,500Senior ML Engineer$167,700$202,800$247,000Senior NLP Engineer$167,700$202,800$247,000Senior LLM Engineer$167,700$202,800$247,000Senior Azure AI Engineer$167,700$202,800$247,000Senior GCP ML Engineer$167,700$202,800$247,000AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer$143,000$201,500$247,000AI Hardware Engineer$143,000$201,500$247,000AI Chip Designer$143,000$201,500$247,000AI Semiconductor Test Engineer$143,000$201,500$247,000AI Chipset Designer$143,000$201,500$247,000AI Chip Architect$143,000$201,500$247,000AI Accelerator Engineer$143,000$201,500$247,000AI Auditor$149,500$195,000$253,500AI Recruitment Specialist$146,900$188,500$245,700AI Transparency Lead$154,700$188,500$239,200AI Trust and Safety Lead$154,700$188,500$239,200AI Reasoning Specialist$126,100$183,300$243,100AI Agent Designer$141,700$182,000$236,600AI Vendor Manager$133,900$182,000$235,300AI Data Engineer$135,200$176,800$227,500Data Architect (AI/ML)$135,200$176,800$227,500AI Analytics Engineer$135,200$176,800$227,500Data Pipeline Engineer (ML)$135,200$176,800$227,500AI Data Quality Engineer$135,200$176,800$227,500Knowledge Graph Engineer$135,200$176,800$227,500Responsible AI Lead$146,900$176,800$222,300Machine Learning Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200ML Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200NLP Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Computer Vision Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200LLM Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200LLM Fine-Tuning Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Solutions Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200Generative AI Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200Robotics AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Agent Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200Edge AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Agentic Orchestrator$128,700$172,900$226,200Full Stack AI Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Systems Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Application Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Backend Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Frontend Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Embedded AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Firmware Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI API Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Microservices Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Integration Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Real-Time AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Compiler Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Model Distillation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200ML Pipeline Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Speech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Chatbot Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Localization Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200LiDAR AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Robotic Process Automation Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200Motion Planning AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Manipulation AI Specialist$128,700$172,900$226,200Robot Perception Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Agent Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Workflow Automation Specialist$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Simulation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Embodied AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Neuro AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200On-Device AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Wearables Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Spatial Computing AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Personal Assistant Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Workflow Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Fairness Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200LLM Operations Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Digital Twin Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200Developer Advocate, AI$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Accessibility Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Incident Commander$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Data Marketplace Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Knowledge Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Telecom Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Computer Vision Applications Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200NLP Applications Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Model Compression Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Search Ranking Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Embedded Systems Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Agent Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Systems Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200ML Solutions Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200Generative AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Evaluation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200TinyML Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200GovTech ML Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Workflow Automation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Prompt Operations Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Spatial Computing Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Tutor Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200Consulting ML Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Telecom ML Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Model Serving Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Training Data Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Founding ML Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Diagnostics Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Digital Therapeutics AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200MarTech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200SaaS AI Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200Adaptive Learning AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200InsurTech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Underwriting Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AgTech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI NPC Designer$128,700$172,900$226,200Telecom AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200HRTech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200GovTech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Building Design Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200FoodTech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Space Tech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Digital Health AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Spatial AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200LLM Ops Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Model Registry Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Carbon Capture AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200Chatbot Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI CRM Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Customer Support Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Email Marketing Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Pricing Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Revenue Optimization Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Accounting Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Payroll Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Audit Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Expense Management Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Credit Scoring Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Lending Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Document Review Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Property Valuation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Fleet Management Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Warehouse Optimization Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Demand Forecasting Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Quality Control Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Predictive Maintenance Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Digital Twin Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Assessment Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Recommendation Engine Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Vehicle Diagnostics Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Traffic Systems Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Network Planning Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Spectrum Optimization Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Claims Adjudication Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Visual Search Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Store Analytics Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Demand Planning Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Coaching Systems Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Recipe Recommendation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Talent Matching Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Workforce Planning Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Generative AI Solutions Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Agent Solutions Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Agent Integration Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Enterprise AI Agent Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Workflow Designer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Process Automation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Freelance AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200OpenAI API Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200Agentic AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Copilot Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Assistant Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Chatbot Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Search Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Benchmarking Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Document Understanding Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Code Generation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Reasoning Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Planning Systems Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Benchmark Developer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Data Pipeline Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Experiment Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Responsible AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI 3D Generation Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Text-to-Speech AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200Speech-to-Text AI Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Dubbing Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200ML Systems Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200ML Systems Architect$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Monitoring Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Incident Response Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Compiler Optimization Engineer$128,700$172,900$226,200AI Cloud Architect$127,400$169,000$221,000AI Customer Success Engineer$131,300$169,000$219,700Senior Magento Developer$130,000$166,400$215,800AI Training Manager$118,300$165,100$228,800AI Incident Response Analyst$113,100$162,500$214,500AI Privacy Engineer$113,100$162,500$214,500AI Enablement & Literacy Lead$130,000$159,900$208,000AI/GenAI Sales Engineer$111,800$158,600$214,500AI Sales Engineer$111,800$158,600$214,500Solutions Engineer, AI$111,800$158,600$214,500AI Solutions Engineer$111,800$158,600$214,500AI Pre-Sales Engineer$111,800$158,600$214,500AI Customer Engineer$111,800$158,600$214,500AI Field Engineer$111,800$158,600$214,500AI Demo Engineer$111,800$158,600$214,500Robotics Engineer$105,300$153,400$205,400AI Trainer / RLHF Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Training Data Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600Deep Learning Engineer$101,400$146,900$210,600AI/ML Data Analyst$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Business Intelligence Analyst$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Bias & Fairness Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Agricultural Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Model Evaluator$101,400$146,900$210,600Intelligence AI Analyst$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Trainer$101,400$146,900$210,600LLM Fine-Tuning Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600LLM Evaluator$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Ad Optimization Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Claims Processing Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Contract Analysis Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Crop Analysis Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600Network AI Optimization Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Analyst$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Consultant$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Specialist$101,400$146,900$210,600Machine Learning Analyst$101,400$146,900$210,600Machine Learning Consultant$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Model Trainer$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Data Curator$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Feature Engineer$101,400$146,900$210,600AI A/B Testing Engineer$101,400$146,900$210,600Time Series ML Engineer$101,400$146,900$210,600Graph ML Engineer$101,400$146,900$210,600Bayesian ML Engineer$101,400$146,900$210,600AI Localization Specialist$104,000$140,400$182,000AI Quality Assurance Engineer$98,800$133,900$176,800AI Testing Engineer$98,800$133,900$176,800Junior AI Engineer$114,400$133,900$154,700Junior AI Agent Engineer$114,400$133,900$154,700Junior AI Agent Architect$114,400$133,900$154,700Junior AI Compiler Engineer$114,400$133,900$154,700AI Agent QA Engineer$98,800$133,900$176,800AI Solutions Consultant$94,900$131,300$179,400AI Transformation Consultant$94,900$131,300$179,400AI Value Realization Analyst$94,900$131,300$179,400AI Roadmap Strategist$94,900$131,300$179,400AI Venture Analyst$97,500$131,300$178,100AI Workforce Planner$94,900$131,300$179,400AI Business Analyst$94,900$131,300$179,400AI Change Manager$94,900$131,300$179,400AI Adoption Manager$94,900$131,300$179,400AI Cost Analyst$97,500$131,300$178,100AI FinOps Engineer$97,500$131,300$178,100Magento Developer$101,400$130,000$169,000AI Documentation Engineer$84,500$119,600$135,200AI Transportation Planner$83,200$109,200$140,400Junior ML Engineer$88,400$107,900$128,700Junior NLP Engineer$88,400$107,900$128,700Junior LLM Engineer$88,400$107,900$128,700AI Partnership Manager$75,400$105,300$148,200AI Ecosystem Manager$75,400$105,300$148,200AI Geospatial Analyst$79,300$101,400$133,900AI Regulation Specialist$72,800$101,400$141,700AI Marketing Technologist$68,900$100,100$141,700AI Market Intelligence Analyst$68,900$100,100$141,700AI Pricing Analyst$68,900$100,100$141,700AI Procurement Analyst$72,800$98,800$133,900Technical Recruiter, AI$68,900$94,900$131,300AI Annotation Lead$63,700$71,500$81,900AI Customer Support Specialist$45,500$55,900$66,300AI Trainer / Data Annotator$44,200$52,000$62,400Salaries adjusted for Honolulu cost of living (+30% 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 Honolulu, HI is $172,900. The full range runs from $44,200 at the entry level for the lowest-paying tracked role up to $451,100 at the top of the highest-paying tracked role. Honolulu sits 30% above the national average for cost-adjusted compensation.
Machine Learning Director is the highest-paying ai engineering role in Honolulu, with a median base salary of $347,100 when adjusted for local cost of living. Total compensation including equity and bonuses runs significantly higher at top-tier employers.
Yes. Honolulu is one of the active markets for AI talent in 2026. Honolulu's economy is driven by military spending, tourism, and healthcare. AI Engineering Roles specifically benefit from local employer demand and the broader AI hiring boom that has pushed compensation up year over year.
Honolulu pays roughly 30% 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.
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