AI Engineering Roles · Raleigh, NC
AI Engineering Roles salary in Raleigh.
321 roles tracked. Median $131,670. 1% below national.
$33,660
Low
$131,670
Median
$343,530
High
Raleigh sits at the heart of the Research Triangle, one of America's premier tech and life sciences corridors. Cisco, Red Hat, Epic Games, and numerous biotech firms drive strong demand for engineering, research, and product roles. The combination of top tier universities and moderate living costs creates an exceptionally favorable salary to expense ratio.
North Carolina's flat 4.5% income tax keeps the burden low. Raleigh has no city income tax, and the Triangle's affordable housing amplifies your take home purchasing power.
Cite Research Triangle talent competition in your negotiation. Employers here compete directly with each other and with remote offers, creating favorable leverage for candidates.
AI Engineering Roles ranked by pay in Raleigh.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Machine Learning Director$224,730$264,330$343,530AI Protein Structure Specialist$170,280$217,800$283,140AI Technical Lead$178,200$207,900$250,470ML Technical Lead$178,200$207,900$250,470Staff AI Engineer$178,200$207,900$250,470Principal AI Engineer$178,200$207,900$250,470Staff AI Agent Engineer$178,200$207,900$250,470Principal AI Agent Engineer$178,200$207,900$250,470Staff AI Agent Architect$178,200$207,900$250,470Principal AI Agent Architect$178,200$207,900$250,470Staff AI Compiler Engineer$178,200$207,900$250,470Principal AI Compiler Engineer$178,200$207,900$250,470Lead Radiology AI Engineer$178,200$207,900$250,470Lead KYC/AML Engineer$178,200$207,900$250,470Lead Contract AI Developer$178,200$207,900$250,470Staff ML Engineer$168,300$206,910$267,300Principal ML Engineer$168,300$206,910$267,300Staff NLP Engineer$168,300$206,910$267,300Principal NLP Engineer$168,300$206,910$267,300Staff LLM Engineer$168,300$206,910$267,300Principal LLM Engineer$168,300$206,910$267,300EV Battery AI Optimization Engineer$158,400$202,950$264,330AI Business Development Manager$133,650$194,040$262,350Route Optimization AI Specialist$146,520$188,100$244,530Humanoid Robotics Engineer$138,600$186,120$245,520Senior AI Chip Designer$165,330$183,150$204,930AI Inventory Optimization Specialist$138,600$178,200$231,660AI Data Labeling Manager$127,710$169,290$220,770AI Transformation Officer$127,710$169,290$220,770AI Environment Manager$127,710$169,290$220,770Model Registry Manager$127,710$169,290$220,770Engineering Manager, AI$127,710$169,290$220,770Prompt Operations Manager$127,710$169,290$220,770AI Agent Operations Manager$127,710$169,290$220,770AI Manager$127,710$169,290$220,770Machine Learning Manager$127,710$169,290$220,770AI Transformation Lead$141,570$168,300$209,880AI Operations Lead$128,700$168,300$217,800AI Adoption Lead$141,570$168,300$209,880AI Change Management Lead$141,570$168,300$209,880Senior AI Engineer$145,530$167,310$194,040Senior AI Agent Engineer$145,530$167,310$194,040Senior AI Agent Architect$145,530$167,310$194,040Senior AI Compiler Engineer$145,530$167,310$194,040Senior Radiology AI Engineer$145,530$167,310$194,040Senior KYC/AML Engineer$145,530$167,310$194,040Senior Contract AI Developer$145,530$167,310$194,040Senior AI Developer$145,530$167,310$194,040Senior ML Systems Engineer$145,530$167,310$194,040AI Learning Experience Designer$127,710$163,350$212,850No-Code AI Specialist$127,710$163,350$212,850Senior ML Engineer$127,710$154,440$188,100Senior NLP Engineer$127,710$154,440$188,100Senior LLM Engineer$127,710$154,440$188,100Senior Azure AI Engineer$127,710$154,440$188,100Senior GCP ML Engineer$127,710$154,440$188,100AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer$108,900$153,450$188,100AI Hardware Engineer$108,900$153,450$188,100AI Chip Designer$108,900$153,450$188,100AI Semiconductor Test Engineer$108,900$153,450$188,100AI Chipset Designer$108,900$153,450$188,100AI Chip Architect$108,900$153,450$188,100AI Accelerator Engineer$108,900$153,450$188,100AI Auditor$113,850$148,500$193,050AI Recruitment Specialist$111,870$143,550$187,110AI Transparency Lead$117,810$143,550$182,160AI Trust and Safety Lead$117,810$143,550$182,160AI Reasoning Specialist$96,030$139,590$185,130AI Agent Designer$107,910$138,600$180,180AI Vendor Manager$101,970$138,600$179,190AI Data Engineer$102,960$134,640$173,250Data Architect (AI/ML)$102,960$134,640$173,250AI Analytics Engineer$102,960$134,640$173,250Data Pipeline Engineer (ML)$102,960$134,640$173,250AI Data Quality Engineer$102,960$134,640$173,250Knowledge Graph Engineer$102,960$134,640$173,250Responsible AI Lead$111,870$134,640$169,290Machine Learning Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260ML Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260NLP Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Computer Vision Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260LLM Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260LLM Fine-Tuning Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Solutions Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260Generative AI Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260Robotics AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Agent Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260Edge AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Agentic Orchestrator$98,010$131,670$172,260Full Stack AI Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Systems Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Application Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Backend Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Frontend Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Embedded AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Firmware Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI API Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Microservices Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Integration Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Real-Time AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Compiler Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Model Distillation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260ML Pipeline Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Speech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Chatbot Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Localization Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260LiDAR AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Robotic Process Automation Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260Motion Planning AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Manipulation AI Specialist$98,010$131,670$172,260Robot Perception Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Agent Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Workflow Automation Specialist$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Simulation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Embodied AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Neuro AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260On-Device AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Wearables Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Spatial Computing AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Personal Assistant Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Workflow Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Fairness Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260LLM Operations Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Digital Twin Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260Developer Advocate, AI$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Accessibility Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Incident Commander$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Data Marketplace Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Knowledge Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Telecom Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Computer Vision Applications Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260NLP Applications Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Model Compression Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Search Ranking Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Embedded Systems Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Agent Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Systems Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260ML Solutions Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260Generative AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Evaluation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260TinyML Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260GovTech ML Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Workflow Automation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Prompt Operations Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Spatial Computing Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Tutor Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260Consulting ML Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Telecom ML Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Model Serving Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Training Data Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Founding ML Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Diagnostics Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Digital Therapeutics AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260MarTech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260SaaS AI Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260Adaptive Learning AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260InsurTech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Underwriting Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AgTech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI NPC Designer$98,010$131,670$172,260Telecom AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260HRTech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260GovTech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Building Design Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260FoodTech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Space Tech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Digital Health AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Spatial AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260LLM Ops Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Model Registry Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Carbon Capture AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260Chatbot Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI CRM Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Customer Support Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Email Marketing Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Pricing Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Revenue Optimization Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Accounting Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Payroll Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Audit Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Expense Management Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Credit Scoring Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Lending Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Document Review Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Property Valuation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Fleet Management Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Warehouse Optimization Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Demand Forecasting Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Quality Control Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Predictive Maintenance Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Digital Twin Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Assessment Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Recommendation Engine Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Vehicle Diagnostics Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Traffic Systems Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Network Planning Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Spectrum Optimization Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Claims Adjudication Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Visual Search Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Store Analytics Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Demand Planning Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Coaching Systems Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Recipe Recommendation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Talent Matching Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Workforce Planning Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Generative AI Solutions Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Agent Solutions Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Agent Integration Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Enterprise AI Agent Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Workflow Designer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Process Automation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Freelance AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260OpenAI API Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260Agentic AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Copilot Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Assistant Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Chatbot Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Search Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Benchmarking Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Document Understanding Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Code Generation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Reasoning Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Planning Systems Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Benchmark Developer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Data Pipeline Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Experiment Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Responsible AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI 3D Generation Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Text-to-Speech AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260Speech-to-Text AI Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Dubbing Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260ML Systems Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260ML Systems Architect$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Monitoring Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Incident Response Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Compiler Optimization Engineer$98,010$131,670$172,260AI Cloud Architect$97,020$128,700$168,300AI Customer Success Engineer$99,990$128,700$167,310Senior Magento Developer$99,000$126,720$164,340AI Training Manager$90,090$125,730$174,240AI Incident Response Analyst$86,130$123,750$163,350AI Privacy Engineer$86,130$123,750$163,350AI Enablement & Literacy Lead$99,000$121,770$158,400AI/GenAI Sales Engineer$85,140$120,780$163,350AI Sales Engineer$85,140$120,780$163,350Solutions Engineer, AI$85,140$120,780$163,350AI Solutions Engineer$85,140$120,780$163,350AI Pre-Sales Engineer$85,140$120,780$163,350AI Customer Engineer$85,140$120,780$163,350AI Field Engineer$85,140$120,780$163,350AI Demo Engineer$85,140$120,780$163,350Robotics Engineer$80,190$116,820$156,420AI Trainer / RLHF Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Training Data Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380Deep Learning Engineer$77,220$111,870$160,380AI/ML Data Analyst$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Business Intelligence Analyst$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Bias & Fairness Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Agricultural Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Model Evaluator$77,220$111,870$160,380Intelligence AI Analyst$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Trainer$77,220$111,870$160,380LLM Fine-Tuning Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380LLM Evaluator$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Ad Optimization Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Claims Processing Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Contract Analysis Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Crop Analysis Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380Network AI Optimization Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Analyst$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Consultant$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Specialist$77,220$111,870$160,380Machine Learning Analyst$77,220$111,870$160,380Machine Learning Consultant$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Model Trainer$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Data Curator$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Feature Engineer$77,220$111,870$160,380AI A/B Testing Engineer$77,220$111,870$160,380Time Series ML Engineer$77,220$111,870$160,380Graph ML Engineer$77,220$111,870$160,380Bayesian ML Engineer$77,220$111,870$160,380AI Localization Specialist$79,200$106,920$138,600AI Quality Assurance Engineer$75,240$101,970$134,640AI Testing Engineer$75,240$101,970$134,640Junior AI Engineer$87,120$101,970$117,810Junior AI Agent Engineer$87,120$101,970$117,810Junior AI Agent Architect$87,120$101,970$117,810Junior AI Compiler Engineer$87,120$101,970$117,810AI Agent QA Engineer$75,240$101,970$134,640AI Solutions Consultant$72,270$99,990$136,620AI Transformation Consultant$72,270$99,990$136,620AI Value Realization Analyst$72,270$99,990$136,620AI Roadmap Strategist$72,270$99,990$136,620AI Venture Analyst$74,250$99,990$135,630AI Workforce Planner$72,270$99,990$136,620AI Business Analyst$72,270$99,990$136,620AI Change Manager$72,270$99,990$136,620AI Adoption Manager$72,270$99,990$136,620AI Cost Analyst$74,250$99,990$135,630AI FinOps Engineer$74,250$99,990$135,630Magento Developer$77,220$99,000$128,700AI Documentation Engineer$64,350$91,080$102,960AI Transportation Planner$63,360$83,160$106,920Junior ML Engineer$67,320$82,170$98,010Junior NLP Engineer$67,320$82,170$98,010Junior LLM Engineer$67,320$82,170$98,010AI Partnership Manager$57,420$80,190$112,860AI Ecosystem Manager$57,420$80,190$112,860AI Geospatial Analyst$60,390$77,220$101,970AI Regulation Specialist$55,440$77,220$107,910AI Marketing Technologist$52,470$76,230$107,910AI Market Intelligence Analyst$52,470$76,230$107,910AI Pricing Analyst$52,470$76,230$107,910AI Procurement Analyst$55,440$75,240$101,970Technical Recruiter, AI$52,470$72,270$99,990AI Annotation Lead$48,510$54,450$62,370AI Customer Support Specialist$34,650$42,570$50,490AI Trainer / Data Annotator$33,660$39,600$47,520Salaries adjusted for Raleigh cost of living (-1% 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 Raleigh, NC is $131,670. The full range runs from $33,660 at the entry level for the lowest-paying tracked role up to $343,530 at the top of the highest-paying tracked role. Raleigh sits 1% below the national average for cost-adjusted compensation.
Machine Learning Director is the highest-paying ai engineering role in Raleigh, with a median base salary of $264,330 when adjusted for local cost of living. Total compensation including equity and bonuses runs significantly higher at top-tier employers.
Yes. Raleigh is one of the active markets for AI talent in 2026. Raleigh sits at the heart of the Research Triangle, one of America's premier tech and life sciences corridors. AI Engineering Roles specifically benefit from local employer demand and the broader AI hiring boom that has pushed compensation up year over year.
Raleigh pays roughly 1% 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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