AI Engineering Roles · Indianapolis, IN
AI Engineering Roles salary in Indianapolis.
321 roles tracked. Median $121,030. 9% below national.
$30,940
Low
$121,030
Median
$315,770
High
Indianapolis has a diversified economy led by healthcare, life sciences, and motorsports engineering. Eli Lilly's headquarters drives a major pharmaceutical and biotech cluster. The city's extremely affordable cost of living means that even moderate salaries deliver strong purchasing power, making it an underrated destination for professionals seeking financial stability.
Indiana has a flat 3.05% state income tax, one of the lowest in the country. Marion County adds about 2.02% in local taxes. The combined rate remains well below most major metros.
Benchmark against pharmaceutical industry pay scales. Eli Lilly and the biotech cluster set high compensation floors that ripple across all professional roles in Indianapolis.
AI Engineering Roles ranked by pay in Indianapolis.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Machine Learning Director$206,570$242,970$315,770AI Protein Structure Specialist$156,520$200,200$260,260AI Technical Lead$163,800$191,100$230,230ML Technical Lead$163,800$191,100$230,230Staff AI Engineer$163,800$191,100$230,230Principal AI Engineer$163,800$191,100$230,230Staff AI Agent Engineer$163,800$191,100$230,230Principal AI Agent Engineer$163,800$191,100$230,230Staff AI Agent Architect$163,800$191,100$230,230Principal AI Agent Architect$163,800$191,100$230,230Staff AI Compiler Engineer$163,800$191,100$230,230Principal AI Compiler Engineer$163,800$191,100$230,230Lead Radiology AI Engineer$163,800$191,100$230,230Lead KYC/AML Engineer$163,800$191,100$230,230Lead Contract AI Developer$163,800$191,100$230,230Staff ML Engineer$154,700$190,190$245,700Principal ML Engineer$154,700$190,190$245,700Staff NLP Engineer$154,700$190,190$245,700Principal NLP Engineer$154,700$190,190$245,700Staff LLM Engineer$154,700$190,190$245,700Principal LLM Engineer$154,700$190,190$245,700EV Battery AI Optimization Engineer$145,600$186,550$242,970AI Business Development Manager$122,850$178,360$241,150Route Optimization AI Specialist$134,680$172,900$224,770Humanoid Robotics Engineer$127,400$171,080$225,680Senior AI Chip Designer$151,970$168,350$188,370AI Inventory Optimization Specialist$127,400$163,800$212,940AI Data Labeling Manager$117,390$155,610$202,930AI Transformation Officer$117,390$155,610$202,930AI Environment Manager$117,390$155,610$202,930Model Registry Manager$117,390$155,610$202,930Engineering Manager, AI$117,390$155,610$202,930Prompt Operations Manager$117,390$155,610$202,930AI Agent Operations Manager$117,390$155,610$202,930AI Manager$117,390$155,610$202,930Machine Learning Manager$117,390$155,610$202,930AI Transformation Lead$130,130$154,700$192,920AI Operations Lead$118,300$154,700$200,200AI Adoption Lead$130,130$154,700$192,920AI Change Management Lead$130,130$154,700$192,920Senior AI Engineer$133,770$153,790$178,360Senior AI Agent Engineer$133,770$153,790$178,360Senior AI Agent Architect$133,770$153,790$178,360Senior AI Compiler Engineer$133,770$153,790$178,360Senior Radiology AI Engineer$133,770$153,790$178,360Senior KYC/AML Engineer$133,770$153,790$178,360Senior Contract AI Developer$133,770$153,790$178,360Senior AI Developer$133,770$153,790$178,360Senior ML Systems Engineer$133,770$153,790$178,360AI Learning Experience Designer$117,390$150,150$195,650No-Code AI Specialist$117,390$150,150$195,650Senior ML Engineer$117,390$141,960$172,900Senior NLP Engineer$117,390$141,960$172,900Senior LLM Engineer$117,390$141,960$172,900Senior Azure AI Engineer$117,390$141,960$172,900Senior GCP ML Engineer$117,390$141,960$172,900AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer$100,100$141,050$172,900AI Hardware Engineer$100,100$141,050$172,900AI Chip Designer$100,100$141,050$172,900AI Semiconductor Test Engineer$100,100$141,050$172,900AI Chipset Designer$100,100$141,050$172,900AI Chip Architect$100,100$141,050$172,900AI Accelerator Engineer$100,100$141,050$172,900AI Auditor$104,650$136,500$177,450AI Recruitment Specialist$102,830$131,950$171,990AI Transparency Lead$108,290$131,950$167,440AI Trust and Safety Lead$108,290$131,950$167,440AI Reasoning Specialist$88,270$128,310$170,170AI Agent Designer$99,190$127,400$165,620AI Vendor Manager$93,730$127,400$164,710AI Data Engineer$94,640$123,760$159,250Data Architect (AI/ML)$94,640$123,760$159,250AI Analytics Engineer$94,640$123,760$159,250Data Pipeline Engineer (ML)$94,640$123,760$159,250AI Data Quality Engineer$94,640$123,760$159,250Knowledge Graph Engineer$94,640$123,760$159,250Responsible AI Lead$102,830$123,760$155,610Machine Learning Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340ML Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340NLP Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Computer Vision Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340LLM Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340LLM Fine-Tuning Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Solutions Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340Generative AI Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340Robotics AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Agent Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340Edge AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Agentic Orchestrator$90,090$121,030$158,340Full Stack AI Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Systems Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Application Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Backend Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Frontend Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Embedded AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Firmware Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI API Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Microservices Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Integration Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Real-Time AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Compiler Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Model Distillation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340ML Pipeline Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Speech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Chatbot Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Localization Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340LiDAR AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Robotic Process Automation Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340Motion Planning AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Manipulation AI Specialist$90,090$121,030$158,340Robot Perception Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Agent Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Workflow Automation Specialist$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Simulation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Embodied AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Neuro AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340On-Device AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Wearables Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Spatial Computing AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Personal Assistant Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Workflow Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Fairness Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340LLM Operations Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Digital Twin Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340Developer Advocate, AI$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Accessibility Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Incident Commander$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Data Marketplace Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Knowledge Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Telecom Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Computer Vision Applications Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340NLP Applications Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Model Compression Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Search Ranking Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Embedded Systems Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Agent Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Systems Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340ML Solutions Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340Generative AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Evaluation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340TinyML Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340GovTech ML Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Workflow Automation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Prompt Operations Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Spatial Computing Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Tutor Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340Consulting ML Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Telecom ML Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Model Serving Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Training Data Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Founding ML Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Diagnostics Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Digital Therapeutics AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340MarTech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340SaaS AI Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340Adaptive Learning AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340InsurTech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Underwriting Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AgTech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI NPC Designer$90,090$121,030$158,340Telecom AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340HRTech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340GovTech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Building Design Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340FoodTech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Space Tech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Digital Health AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Spatial AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340LLM Ops Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Model Registry Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Carbon Capture AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340Chatbot Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI CRM Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Customer Support Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Email Marketing Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Pricing Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Revenue Optimization Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Accounting Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Payroll Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Audit Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Expense Management Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Credit Scoring Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Lending Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Document Review Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Property Valuation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Fleet Management Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Warehouse Optimization Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Demand Forecasting Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Quality Control Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Predictive Maintenance Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Digital Twin Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Assessment Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Recommendation Engine Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Vehicle Diagnostics Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Traffic Systems Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Network Planning Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Spectrum Optimization Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Claims Adjudication Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Visual Search Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Store Analytics Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Demand Planning Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Coaching Systems Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Recipe Recommendation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Talent Matching Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Workforce Planning Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Generative AI Solutions Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Agent Solutions Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Agent Integration Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Enterprise AI Agent Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Workflow Designer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Process Automation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Freelance AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340OpenAI API Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340Agentic AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Copilot Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Assistant Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Chatbot Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Search Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Benchmarking Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Document Understanding Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Code Generation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Reasoning Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Planning Systems Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Benchmark Developer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Data Pipeline Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Experiment Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Responsible AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI 3D Generation Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Text-to-Speech AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340Speech-to-Text AI Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Dubbing Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340ML Systems Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340ML Systems Architect$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Monitoring Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Incident Response Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Compiler Optimization Engineer$90,090$121,030$158,340AI Cloud Architect$89,180$118,300$154,700AI Customer Success Engineer$91,910$118,300$153,790Senior Magento Developer$91,000$116,480$151,060AI Training Manager$82,810$115,570$160,160AI Incident Response Analyst$79,170$113,750$150,150AI Privacy Engineer$79,170$113,750$150,150AI Enablement & Literacy Lead$91,000$111,930$145,600AI/GenAI Sales Engineer$78,260$111,020$150,150AI Sales Engineer$78,260$111,020$150,150Solutions Engineer, AI$78,260$111,020$150,150AI Solutions Engineer$78,260$111,020$150,150AI Pre-Sales Engineer$78,260$111,020$150,150AI Customer Engineer$78,260$111,020$150,150AI Field Engineer$78,260$111,020$150,150AI Demo Engineer$78,260$111,020$150,150Robotics Engineer$73,710$107,380$143,780AI Trainer / RLHF Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Training Data Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420Deep Learning Engineer$70,980$102,830$147,420AI/ML Data Analyst$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Business Intelligence Analyst$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Bias & Fairness Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Agricultural Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Model Evaluator$70,980$102,830$147,420Intelligence AI Analyst$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Trainer$70,980$102,830$147,420LLM Fine-Tuning Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420LLM Evaluator$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Ad Optimization Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Claims Processing Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Contract Analysis Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Crop Analysis Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420Network AI Optimization Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Analyst$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Consultant$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Specialist$70,980$102,830$147,420Machine Learning Analyst$70,980$102,830$147,420Machine Learning Consultant$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Model Trainer$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Data Curator$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Feature Engineer$70,980$102,830$147,420AI A/B Testing Engineer$70,980$102,830$147,420Time Series ML Engineer$70,980$102,830$147,420Graph ML Engineer$70,980$102,830$147,420Bayesian ML Engineer$70,980$102,830$147,420AI Localization Specialist$72,800$98,280$127,400AI Quality Assurance Engineer$69,160$93,730$123,760AI Testing Engineer$69,160$93,730$123,760Junior AI Engineer$80,080$93,730$108,290Junior AI Agent Engineer$80,080$93,730$108,290Junior AI Agent Architect$80,080$93,730$108,290Junior AI Compiler Engineer$80,080$93,730$108,290AI Agent QA Engineer$69,160$93,730$123,760AI Solutions Consultant$66,430$91,910$125,580AI Transformation Consultant$66,430$91,910$125,580AI Value Realization Analyst$66,430$91,910$125,580AI Roadmap Strategist$66,430$91,910$125,580AI Venture Analyst$68,250$91,910$124,670AI Workforce Planner$66,430$91,910$125,580AI Business Analyst$66,430$91,910$125,580AI Change Manager$66,430$91,910$125,580AI Adoption Manager$66,430$91,910$125,580AI Cost Analyst$68,250$91,910$124,670AI FinOps Engineer$68,250$91,910$124,670Magento Developer$70,980$91,000$118,300AI Documentation Engineer$59,150$83,720$94,640AI Transportation Planner$58,240$76,440$98,280Junior ML Engineer$61,880$75,530$90,090Junior NLP Engineer$61,880$75,530$90,090Junior LLM Engineer$61,880$75,530$90,090AI Partnership Manager$52,780$73,710$103,740AI Ecosystem Manager$52,780$73,710$103,740AI Geospatial Analyst$55,510$70,980$93,730AI Regulation Specialist$50,960$70,980$99,190AI Marketing Technologist$48,230$70,070$99,190AI Market Intelligence Analyst$48,230$70,070$99,190AI Pricing Analyst$48,230$70,070$99,190AI Procurement Analyst$50,960$69,160$93,730Technical Recruiter, AI$48,230$66,430$91,910AI Annotation Lead$44,590$50,050$57,330AI Customer Support Specialist$31,850$39,130$46,410AI Trainer / Data Annotator$30,940$36,400$43,680Salaries adjusted for Indianapolis cost of living (-9% 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 Indianapolis, IN is $121,030. The full range runs from $30,940 at the entry level for the lowest-paying tracked role up to $315,770 at the top of the highest-paying tracked role. Indianapolis sits 9% below the national average for cost-adjusted compensation.
Machine Learning Director is the highest-paying ai engineering role in Indianapolis, with a median base salary of $242,970 when adjusted for local cost of living. Total compensation including equity and bonuses runs significantly higher at top-tier employers.
Yes. Indianapolis is one of the active markets for AI talent in 2026. Indianapolis has a diversified economy led by healthcare, life sciences, and motorsports engineering. AI Engineering Roles specifically benefit from local employer demand and the broader AI hiring boom that has pushed compensation up year over year.
Indianapolis pays roughly 9% 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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