AI Engineering Roles · San Francisco, CA
AI Engineering Roles salary in San Francisco.
321 roles tracked. Median $179,550. 35% above national.
$45,900
Low
$179,550
Median
$468,450
High
San Francisco is the epicenter of venture capital and startup innovation, consistently producing the highest tech salaries in the nation. The city's concentration of AI labs, SaaS companies, and fintech firms creates intense competition for talent. Despite remote work trends, SF still commands the steepest salary premiums for engineering and product roles.
California's top marginal state income tax rate is 13.3%, the highest in the U.S. San Francisco has no additional city income tax, but overall tax burden remains steep.
Leverage competing offers aggressively. SF employers expect candidates to shop around, and matching or beating a rival offer is standard practice here.
AI Engineering Roles ranked by pay in San Francisco.
RoleLowMedianHigh
Machine Learning Director$306,450$360,450$468,450AI Protein Structure Specialist$232,200$297,000$386,100AI Technical Lead$243,000$283,500$341,550ML Technical Lead$243,000$283,500$341,550Staff AI Engineer$243,000$283,500$341,550Principal AI Engineer$243,000$283,500$341,550Staff AI Agent Engineer$243,000$283,500$341,550Principal AI Agent Engineer$243,000$283,500$341,550Staff AI Agent Architect$243,000$283,500$341,550Principal AI Agent Architect$243,000$283,500$341,550Staff AI Compiler Engineer$243,000$283,500$341,550Principal AI Compiler Engineer$243,000$283,500$341,550Lead Radiology AI Engineer$243,000$283,500$341,550Lead KYC/AML Engineer$243,000$283,500$341,550Lead Contract AI Developer$243,000$283,500$341,550Staff ML Engineer$229,500$282,150$364,500Principal ML Engineer$229,500$282,150$364,500Staff NLP Engineer$229,500$282,150$364,500Principal NLP Engineer$229,500$282,150$364,500Staff LLM Engineer$229,500$282,150$364,500Principal LLM Engineer$229,500$282,150$364,500EV Battery AI Optimization Engineer$216,000$276,750$360,450AI Business Development Manager$182,250$264,600$357,750Route Optimization AI Specialist$199,800$256,500$333,450Humanoid Robotics Engineer$189,000$253,800$334,800Senior AI Chip Designer$225,450$249,750$279,450AI Inventory Optimization Specialist$189,000$243,000$315,900AI Data Labeling Manager$174,150$230,850$301,050AI Transformation Officer$174,150$230,850$301,050AI Environment Manager$174,150$230,850$301,050Model Registry Manager$174,150$230,850$301,050Engineering Manager, AI$174,150$230,850$301,050Prompt Operations Manager$174,150$230,850$301,050AI Agent Operations Manager$174,150$230,850$301,050AI Manager$174,150$230,850$301,050Machine Learning Manager$174,150$230,850$301,050AI Transformation Lead$193,050$229,500$286,200AI Operations Lead$175,500$229,500$297,000AI Adoption Lead$193,050$229,500$286,200AI Change Management Lead$193,050$229,500$286,200Senior AI Engineer$198,450$228,150$264,600Senior AI Agent Engineer$198,450$228,150$264,600Senior AI Agent Architect$198,450$228,150$264,600Senior AI Compiler Engineer$198,450$228,150$264,600Senior Radiology AI Engineer$198,450$228,150$264,600Senior KYC/AML Engineer$198,450$228,150$264,600Senior Contract AI Developer$198,450$228,150$264,600Senior AI Developer$198,450$228,150$264,600Senior ML Systems Engineer$198,450$228,150$264,600AI Learning Experience Designer$174,150$222,750$290,250No-Code AI Specialist$174,150$222,750$290,250Senior ML Engineer$174,150$210,600$256,500Senior NLP Engineer$174,150$210,600$256,500Senior LLM Engineer$174,150$210,600$256,500Senior Azure AI Engineer$174,150$210,600$256,500Senior GCP ML Engineer$174,150$210,600$256,500AI Hardware/Chip Design Engineer$148,500$209,250$256,500AI Hardware Engineer$148,500$209,250$256,500AI Chip Designer$148,500$209,250$256,500AI Semiconductor Test Engineer$148,500$209,250$256,500AI Chipset Designer$148,500$209,250$256,500AI Chip Architect$148,500$209,250$256,500AI Accelerator Engineer$148,500$209,250$256,500AI Auditor$155,250$202,500$263,250AI Recruitment Specialist$152,550$195,750$255,150AI Transparency Lead$160,650$195,750$248,400AI Trust and Safety Lead$160,650$195,750$248,400AI Reasoning Specialist$130,950$190,350$252,450AI Agent Designer$147,150$189,000$245,700AI Vendor Manager$139,050$189,000$244,350AI Data Engineer$140,400$183,600$236,250Data Architect (AI/ML)$140,400$183,600$236,250AI Analytics Engineer$140,400$183,600$236,250Data Pipeline Engineer (ML)$140,400$183,600$236,250AI Data Quality Engineer$140,400$183,600$236,250Knowledge Graph Engineer$140,400$183,600$236,250Responsible AI Lead$152,550$183,600$230,850Machine Learning Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900ML Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900NLP Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Computer Vision Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900LLM Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900LLM Fine-Tuning Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Solutions Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900Generative AI Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900Robotics AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Agent Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900Edge AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Agentic Orchestrator$133,650$179,550$234,900Full Stack AI Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Systems Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Application Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Backend Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Frontend Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Embedded AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Firmware Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI API Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Microservices Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Integration Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Real-Time AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Compiler Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Model Distillation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900ML Pipeline Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Speech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Chatbot Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Localization Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900LiDAR AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Robotic Process Automation Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900Motion Planning AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Manipulation AI Specialist$133,650$179,550$234,900Robot Perception Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Agent Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Workflow Automation Specialist$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Simulation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Embodied AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Neuro AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900On-Device AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Wearables Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Spatial Computing AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Personal Assistant Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Workflow Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Fairness Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900LLM Operations Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Digital Twin Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900Developer Advocate, AI$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Accessibility Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Incident Commander$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Data Marketplace Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Knowledge Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Telecom Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Computer Vision Applications Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900NLP Applications Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Model Compression Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Search Ranking Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Embedded Systems Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Agent Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Systems Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900ML Solutions Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900Generative AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Evaluation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900TinyML Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900GovTech ML Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Workflow Automation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Prompt Operations Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Spatial Computing Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Tutor Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900Consulting ML Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Telecom ML Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Model Serving Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Training Data Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Founding ML Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Diagnostics Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Digital Therapeutics AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900MarTech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900SaaS AI Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900Adaptive Learning AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900InsurTech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Underwriting Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AgTech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI NPC Designer$133,650$179,550$234,900Telecom AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900HRTech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900GovTech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Building Design Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900FoodTech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Space Tech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Digital Health AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Spatial AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900LLM Ops Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Model Registry Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Carbon Capture AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900Chatbot Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI CRM Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Customer Support Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Email Marketing Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Pricing Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Revenue Optimization Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Accounting Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Payroll Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Audit Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Expense Management Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Credit Scoring Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Lending Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Document Review Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Property Valuation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Fleet Management Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Warehouse Optimization Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Demand Forecasting Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Quality Control Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Predictive Maintenance Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Digital Twin Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Assessment Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Recommendation Engine Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Vehicle Diagnostics Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Traffic Systems Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Network Planning Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Spectrum Optimization Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Claims Adjudication Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Visual Search Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Store Analytics Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Demand Planning Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Coaching Systems Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Recipe Recommendation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Talent Matching Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Workforce Planning Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Generative AI Solutions Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Agent Solutions Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Agent Integration Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Enterprise AI Agent Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Workflow Designer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Process Automation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Freelance AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900OpenAI API Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900Agentic AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Copilot Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Assistant Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Chatbot Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Search Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Benchmarking Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Document Understanding Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Code Generation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Reasoning Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Planning Systems Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Benchmark Developer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Data Pipeline Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Experiment Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Responsible AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI 3D Generation Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Text-to-Speech AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900Speech-to-Text AI Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Dubbing Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900ML Systems Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900ML Systems Architect$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Monitoring Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Incident Response Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Compiler Optimization Engineer$133,650$179,550$234,900AI Cloud Architect$132,300$175,500$229,500AI Customer Success Engineer$136,350$175,500$228,150Senior Magento Developer$135,000$172,800$224,100AI Training Manager$122,850$171,450$237,600AI Incident Response Analyst$117,450$168,750$222,750AI Privacy Engineer$117,450$168,750$222,750AI Enablement & Literacy Lead$135,000$166,050$216,000AI/GenAI Sales Engineer$116,100$164,700$222,750AI Sales Engineer$116,100$164,700$222,750Solutions Engineer, AI$116,100$164,700$222,750AI Solutions Engineer$116,100$164,700$222,750AI Pre-Sales Engineer$116,100$164,700$222,750AI Customer Engineer$116,100$164,700$222,750AI Field Engineer$116,100$164,700$222,750AI Demo Engineer$116,100$164,700$222,750Robotics Engineer$109,350$159,300$213,300AI Trainer / RLHF Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Training Data Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700Deep Learning Engineer$105,300$152,550$218,700AI/ML Data Analyst$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Business Intelligence Analyst$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Bias & Fairness Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Agricultural Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Model Evaluator$105,300$152,550$218,700Intelligence AI Analyst$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Trainer$105,300$152,550$218,700LLM Fine-Tuning Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700LLM Evaluator$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Ad Optimization Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Claims Processing Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Contract Analysis Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Crop Analysis Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700Network AI Optimization Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Analyst$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Consultant$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Specialist$105,300$152,550$218,700Machine Learning Analyst$105,300$152,550$218,700Machine Learning Consultant$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Model Trainer$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Data Curator$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Feature Engineer$105,300$152,550$218,700AI A/B Testing Engineer$105,300$152,550$218,700Time Series ML Engineer$105,300$152,550$218,700Graph ML Engineer$105,300$152,550$218,700Bayesian ML Engineer$105,300$152,550$218,700AI Localization Specialist$108,000$145,800$189,000AI Quality Assurance Engineer$102,600$139,050$183,600AI Testing Engineer$102,600$139,050$183,600Junior AI Engineer$118,800$139,050$160,650Junior AI Agent Engineer$118,800$139,050$160,650Junior AI Agent Architect$118,800$139,050$160,650Junior AI Compiler Engineer$118,800$139,050$160,650AI Agent QA Engineer$102,600$139,050$183,600AI Solutions Consultant$98,550$136,350$186,300AI Transformation Consultant$98,550$136,350$186,300AI Value Realization Analyst$98,550$136,350$186,300AI Roadmap Strategist$98,550$136,350$186,300AI Venture Analyst$101,250$136,350$184,950AI Workforce Planner$98,550$136,350$186,300AI Business Analyst$98,550$136,350$186,300AI Change Manager$98,550$136,350$186,300AI Adoption Manager$98,550$136,350$186,300AI Cost Analyst$101,250$136,350$184,950AI FinOps Engineer$101,250$136,350$184,950Magento Developer$105,300$135,000$175,500AI Documentation Engineer$87,750$124,200$140,400AI Transportation Planner$86,400$113,400$145,800Junior ML Engineer$91,800$112,050$133,650Junior NLP Engineer$91,800$112,050$133,650Junior LLM Engineer$91,800$112,050$133,650AI Partnership Manager$78,300$109,350$153,900AI Ecosystem Manager$78,300$109,350$153,900AI Geospatial Analyst$82,350$105,300$139,050AI Regulation Specialist$75,600$105,300$147,150AI Marketing Technologist$71,550$103,950$147,150AI Market Intelligence Analyst$71,550$103,950$147,150AI Pricing Analyst$71,550$103,950$147,150AI Procurement Analyst$75,600$102,600$139,050Technical Recruiter, AI$71,550$98,550$136,350AI Annotation Lead$66,150$74,250$85,050AI Customer Support Specialist$47,250$58,050$68,850AI Trainer / Data Annotator$45,900$54,000$64,800Salaries adjusted for San Francisco cost of living (+35% 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 San Francisco, CA is $179,550. The full range runs from $45,900 at the entry level for the lowest-paying tracked role up to $468,450 at the top of the highest-paying tracked role. San Francisco sits 35% above the national average for cost-adjusted compensation.
Machine Learning Director is the highest-paying ai engineering role in San Francisco, with a median base salary of $360,450 when adjusted for local cost of living. Total compensation including equity and bonuses runs significantly higher at top-tier employers.
Yes. San Francisco is one of the active markets for AI talent in 2026. San Francisco is the epicenter of venture capital and startup innovation, consistently producing the highest tech salaries in the nation. AI Engineering Roles specifically benefit from local employer demand and the broader AI hiring boom that has pushed compensation up year over year.
San Francisco pays roughly 35% 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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