AI Engineering Roles · Los Angeles, CA
AI Engineering Roles salary in Los Angeles.
321 roles tracked. Median $156,940. 18% above national.
$40,120
Low
$156,940
Median
$409,460
High
Los Angeles blends a thriving entertainment industry with a growing tech and startup ecosystem, often called Silicon Beach. The city's diverse economy spans aerospace, healthcare, fashion, and gaming. LA offers strong salaries that, while below San Francisco levels, pair with a broader lifestyle appeal and lower housing costs relative to the Bay Area.
California's 13.3% top state income tax rate applies to LA earners as well. There is no city income tax, but the high state rate makes take home pay lower than cities in no income tax states.
Highlight cross industry skills. LA employers value candidates who bridge entertainment and tech, so framing your experience across verticals can unlock higher offers.
AI Engineering Roles ranked by pay in Los Angeles.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Machine Learning Director$267,860$315,060$409,460AI Protein Structure Specialist$202,960$259,600$337,480AI Technical Lead$212,400$247,800$298,540ML Technical Lead$212,400$247,800$298,540Staff AI Engineer$212,400$247,800$298,540Principal AI Engineer$212,400$247,800$298,540Staff AI Agent Engineer$212,400$247,800$298,540Principal AI Agent Engineer$212,400$247,800$298,540Staff AI Agent Architect$212,400$247,800$298,540Principal AI Agent Architect$212,400$247,800$298,540Staff AI Compiler Engineer$212,400$247,800$298,540Principal AI Compiler Engineer$212,400$247,800$298,540Lead Radiology AI Engineer$212,400$247,800$298,540Lead KYC/AML Engineer$212,400$247,800$298,540Lead Contract AI Developer$212,400$247,800$298,540Staff ML Engineer$200,600$246,620$318,600Principal ML Engineer$200,600$246,620$318,600Staff NLP Engineer$200,600$246,620$318,600Principal NLP Engineer$200,600$246,620$318,600Staff LLM Engineer$200,600$246,620$318,600Principal LLM Engineer$200,600$246,620$318,600EV Battery AI Optimization Engineer$188,800$241,900$315,060AI Business Development Manager$159,300$231,280$312,700Route Optimization AI Specialist$174,640$224,200$291,460Humanoid Robotics Engineer$165,200$221,840$292,640Senior AI Chip Designer$197,060$218,300$244,260AI Inventory Optimization Specialist$165,200$212,400$276,120AI Data Labeling Manager$152,220$201,780$263,140AI Transformation Officer$152,220$201,780$263,140AI Environment Manager$152,220$201,780$263,140Model Registry Manager$152,220$201,780$263,140Engineering Manager, AI$152,220$201,780$263,140Prompt Operations Manager$152,220$201,780$263,140AI Agent Operations Manager$152,220$201,780$263,140AI Manager$152,220$201,780$263,140Machine Learning Manager$152,220$201,780$263,140AI Transformation Lead$168,740$200,600$250,160AI Operations Lead$153,400$200,600$259,600AI Adoption Lead$168,740$200,600$250,160AI Change Management Lead$168,740$200,600$250,160Senior AI Engineer$173,460$199,420$231,280Senior AI Agent Engineer$173,460$199,420$231,280Senior AI Agent Architect$173,460$199,420$231,280Senior AI Compiler Engineer$173,460$199,420$231,280Senior Radiology AI Engineer$173,460$199,420$231,280Senior KYC/AML Engineer$173,460$199,420$231,280Senior Contract AI Developer$173,460$199,420$231,280Senior AI Developer$173,460$199,420$231,280Senior ML Systems Engineer$173,460$199,420$231,280AI Learning Experience Designer$152,220$194,700$253,700No-Code AI Specialist$152,220$194,700$253,700Senior ML Engineer$152,220$184,080$224,200Senior NLP Engineer$152,220$184,080$224,200Senior LLM Engineer$152,220$184,080$224,200Senior Azure AI Engineer$152,220$184,080$224,200Senior GCP ML Engineer$152,220$184,080$224,200AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer$129,800$182,900$224,200AI Hardware Engineer$129,800$182,900$224,200AI Chip Designer$129,800$182,900$224,200AI Semiconductor Test Engineer$129,800$182,900$224,200AI Chipset Designer$129,800$182,900$224,200AI Chip Architect$129,800$182,900$224,200AI Accelerator Engineer$129,800$182,900$224,200AI Auditor$135,700$177,000$230,100AI Recruitment Specialist$133,340$171,100$223,020AI Transparency Lead$140,420$171,100$217,120AI Trust and Safety Lead$140,420$171,100$217,120AI Reasoning Specialist$114,460$166,380$220,660AI Agent Designer$128,620$165,200$214,760AI Vendor Manager$121,540$165,200$213,580AI Data Engineer$122,720$160,480$206,500Data Architect (AI/ML)$122,720$160,480$206,500AI Analytics Engineer$122,720$160,480$206,500Data Pipeline Engineer (ML)$122,720$160,480$206,500AI Data Quality Engineer$122,720$160,480$206,500Knowledge Graph Engineer$122,720$160,480$206,500Responsible AI Lead$133,340$160,480$201,780Machine Learning Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320ML Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320NLP Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Computer Vision Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320LLM Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320LLM Fine-Tuning Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Solutions Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320Generative AI Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320Robotics AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Agent Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320Edge AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Agentic Orchestrator$116,820$156,940$205,320Full Stack AI Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Systems Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Application Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Backend Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Frontend Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Embedded AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Firmware Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI API Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Microservices Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Integration Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Real-Time AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Compiler Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Model Distillation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320ML Pipeline Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Speech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Chatbot Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Localization Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320LiDAR AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Robotic Process Automation Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320Motion Planning AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Manipulation AI Specialist$116,820$156,940$205,320Robot Perception Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Agent Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Workflow Automation Specialist$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Simulation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Embodied AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Neuro AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320On-Device AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Wearables Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Spatial Computing AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Personal Assistant Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Workflow Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Fairness Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320LLM Operations Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Digital Twin Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320Developer Advocate, AI$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Accessibility Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Incident Commander$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Data Marketplace Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Knowledge Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Telecom Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Computer Vision Applications Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320NLP Applications Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Model Compression Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Search Ranking Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Embedded Systems Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Agent Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Systems Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320ML Solutions Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320Generative AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Evaluation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320TinyML Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320GovTech ML Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Workflow Automation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Prompt Operations Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Spatial Computing Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Tutor Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320Consulting ML Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Telecom ML Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Model Serving Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Training Data Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Founding ML Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Diagnostics Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Digital Therapeutics AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320MarTech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320SaaS AI Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320Adaptive Learning AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320InsurTech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Underwriting Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AgTech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI NPC Designer$116,820$156,940$205,320Telecom AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320HRTech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320GovTech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Building Design Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320FoodTech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Space Tech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Digital Health AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Spatial AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320LLM Ops Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Model Registry Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Carbon Capture AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320Chatbot Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI CRM Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Customer Support Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Email Marketing Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Pricing Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Revenue Optimization Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Accounting Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Payroll Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Audit Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Expense Management Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Credit Scoring Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Lending Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Document Review Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Property Valuation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Fleet Management Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Warehouse Optimization Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Demand Forecasting Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Quality Control Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Predictive Maintenance Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Digital Twin Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Assessment Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Recommendation Engine Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Vehicle Diagnostics Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Traffic Systems Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Network Planning Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Spectrum Optimization Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Claims Adjudication Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Visual Search Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Store Analytics Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Demand Planning Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Coaching Systems Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Recipe Recommendation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Talent Matching Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Workforce Planning Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Generative AI Solutions Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Agent Solutions Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Agent Integration Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Enterprise AI Agent Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Workflow Designer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Process Automation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Freelance AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320OpenAI API Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320Agentic AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Copilot Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Assistant Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Chatbot Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Search Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Benchmarking Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Document Understanding Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Code Generation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Reasoning Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Planning Systems Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Benchmark Developer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Data Pipeline Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Experiment Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Responsible AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI 3D Generation Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Text-to-Speech AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320Speech-to-Text AI Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Dubbing Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320ML Systems Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320ML Systems Architect$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Monitoring Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Incident Response Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Compiler Optimization Engineer$116,820$156,940$205,320AI Cloud Architect$115,640$153,400$200,600AI Customer Success Engineer$119,180$153,400$199,420Senior Magento Developer$118,000$151,040$195,880AI Training Manager$107,380$149,860$207,680AI Incident Response Analyst$102,660$147,500$194,700AI Privacy Engineer$102,660$147,500$194,700AI Enablement & Literacy Lead$118,000$145,140$188,800AI/GenAI Sales Engineer$101,480$143,960$194,700AI Sales Engineer$101,480$143,960$194,700Solutions Engineer, AI$101,480$143,960$194,700AI Solutions Engineer$101,480$143,960$194,700AI Pre-Sales Engineer$101,480$143,960$194,700AI Customer Engineer$101,480$143,960$194,700AI Field Engineer$101,480$143,960$194,700AI Demo Engineer$101,480$143,960$194,700Robotics Engineer$95,580$139,240$186,440AI Trainer / RLHF Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Training Data Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160Deep Learning Engineer$92,040$133,340$191,160AI/ML Data Analyst$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Business Intelligence Analyst$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Bias & Fairness Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Agricultural Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Model Evaluator$92,040$133,340$191,160Intelligence AI Analyst$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Trainer$92,040$133,340$191,160LLM Fine-Tuning Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160LLM Evaluator$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Ad Optimization Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Claims Processing Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Contract Analysis Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Crop Analysis Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160Network AI Optimization Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Analyst$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Consultant$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Specialist$92,040$133,340$191,160Machine Learning Analyst$92,040$133,340$191,160Machine Learning Consultant$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Model Trainer$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Data Curator$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Feature Engineer$92,040$133,340$191,160AI A/B Testing Engineer$92,040$133,340$191,160Time Series ML Engineer$92,040$133,340$191,160Graph ML Engineer$92,040$133,340$191,160Bayesian ML Engineer$92,040$133,340$191,160AI Localization Specialist$94,400$127,440$165,200AI Quality Assurance Engineer$89,680$121,540$160,480AI Testing Engineer$89,680$121,540$160,480Junior AI Engineer$103,840$121,540$140,420Junior AI Agent Engineer$103,840$121,540$140,420Junior AI Agent Architect$103,840$121,540$140,420Junior AI Compiler Engineer$103,840$121,540$140,420AI Agent QA Engineer$89,680$121,540$160,480AI Solutions Consultant$86,140$119,180$162,840AI Transformation Consultant$86,140$119,180$162,840AI Value Realization Analyst$86,140$119,180$162,840AI Roadmap Strategist$86,140$119,180$162,840AI Venture Analyst$88,500$119,180$161,660AI Workforce Planner$86,140$119,180$162,840AI Business Analyst$86,140$119,180$162,840AI Change Manager$86,140$119,180$162,840AI Adoption Manager$86,140$119,180$162,840AI Cost Analyst$88,500$119,180$161,660AI FinOps Engineer$88,500$119,180$161,660Magento Developer$92,040$118,000$153,400AI Documentation Engineer$76,700$108,560$122,720AI Transportation Planner$75,520$99,120$127,440Junior ML Engineer$80,240$97,940$116,820Junior NLP Engineer$80,240$97,940$116,820Junior LLM Engineer$80,240$97,940$116,820AI Partnership Manager$68,440$95,580$134,520AI Ecosystem Manager$68,440$95,580$134,520AI Geospatial Analyst$71,980$92,040$121,540AI Regulation Specialist$66,080$92,040$128,620AI Marketing Technologist$62,540$90,860$128,620AI Market Intelligence Analyst$62,540$90,860$128,620AI Pricing Analyst$62,540$90,860$128,620AI Procurement Analyst$66,080$89,680$121,540Technical Recruiter, AI$62,540$86,140$119,180AI Annotation Lead$57,820$64,900$74,340AI Customer Support Specialist$41,300$50,740$60,180AI Trainer / Data Annotator$40,120$47,200$56,640Salaries adjusted for Los Angeles cost of living (+18% 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 Los Angeles, CA is $156,940. The full range runs from $40,120 at the entry level for the lowest-paying tracked role up to $409,460 at the top of the highest-paying tracked role. Los Angeles sits 18% above the national average for cost-adjusted compensation.
Machine Learning Director is the highest-paying ai engineering role in Los Angeles, with a median base salary of $315,060 when adjusted for local cost of living. Total compensation including equity and bonuses runs significantly higher at top-tier employers.
Yes. Los Angeles is one of the active markets for AI talent in 2026. Los Angeles blends a thriving entertainment industry with a growing tech and startup ecosystem, often called Silicon Beach. AI Engineering Roles specifically benefit from local employer demand and the broader AI hiring boom that has pushed compensation up year over year.
Los Angeles pays roughly 18% 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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