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Salaries.

Research Engineer salary

77 posted ranges at 18 companies · median $348k · H-1B median $222k (215 filings)

On Titles

By level

Median of posted rangesMiddle halfH-1B median

LevelPostedH-1B
MidH-1B onlyNo ranges$203k3 filings
Senior9 posted$300k$200k to $350k$232k12 filings
Staff10 posted$313k$250k to $375kFew2 filings
Principal3 posted$338k$275k to $400kFew1 filing
Not stated55 posted$425k$350k to $500k$222k193 filings

By company

CompanyPosted
Anthropic25 posted ranges$600k$350k to $850k
OpenAI13 posted ranges$440k$380k to $500k
Turing6 posted ranges$313k$250k to $375k
Decagon6 posted ranges$300k$200k to $400k
Mercor4 posted ranges$340k$180k to $500k
Character.AI3 posted ranges$313k$225k to $400k
Scale AI3 posted ranges$280k$249k to $311k
Together AI3 posted ranges$245k$200k to $290k
Elastic3 posted ranges$172k$133k to $211k
Duolingo2 posted ranges$221k to $331k2 postings
1X2 posted ranges$225k to $275k2 postings
Inflection AI1 posted range$400k to $550kone posting
Harvey1 posted range$231k to $340kone posting
Snowflake1 posted range$236k to $330kone posting
Starburst1 posted range$215k to $270kone posting
Baseten1 posted range$200k to $275kone posting
Benchling1 posted range$136k to $265kone posting
Samsara1 posted range$158k to $239kone posting

Posted ranges

77 postings

PostingRange
Research Engineer, Chip Design RL (Reinforcement Learning) (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Code RL (Reinforcement Learning) (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Computer Use (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Discovery (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $850k
Research Engineer, Domain Scaling (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $850k
Research Engineer, Knowledge Team (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $850k
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning) (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity) (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Model Evaluations (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Pretraining Scaling (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $850k
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, Pre-training (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $850k
Research Engineer, RL Engineering (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Takeoff Intel (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $850k
Research Engineer, Universes (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Visual Knowledge Work (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $850k
Staff Research Engineer, Discovery Team (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicStaffSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $850k
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicStaffSan Francisco Bay Area$500kto $850k
Research Engineer, Retrieval & Search, Applied Engineering (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$293kto $585k
Research Engineer, Interpretability (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$315kto $560k
Principal Research Engineer, Model Training & Post-Training (the posting, opens in a new tab)Inflection AIPrincipalSan Francisco Bay Area$400kto $550k
ML/Research Engineer, Safeguards (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $500k
Research Engineer, Life Sciences (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $500k
Research Engineer, Production Model Post-Training (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $500k
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Tokens (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $500k
Research Engineer / Scientist, Alignment (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$350kto $500k
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training) (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$380kto $500k
Research Engineer, Codex (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$380kto $500k
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Memory (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$380kto $500k
Research Engineer / Research Scientist - Personal AGI, Personalization (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$380kto $500k
Research Engineer/Research Scientist - Personal AGI, North Stars (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$380kto $500k
Research Engineer/Research Scientist- Personal AGI, Model Experience (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$380kto $500k
Research Engineer / Research Scientist, Health (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$380kto $500k
Research Engineer, AI for Chip Design (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$380kto $500k
Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-Training (the posting, opens in a new tab)MercorNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$180kto $500k
Research Engineer, Real Environments (the posting, opens in a new tab)MercorNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$160kto $500k
Research Engineer - Benchmarking (the posting, opens in a new tab)MercorNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$180kto $500k
Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-Training (the posting, opens in a new tab)MercorNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $500k
Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $445k
Research Engineer/Research Scientist, RL/Reasoning (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$295kto $445k
Research Engineer / Research Scientist / AI Systems Engineer, RSI (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$295kto $445k
Research Engineer, Cybersecurity RL (Reinforcement Learning) (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$300kto $405k
Applied AI, Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)AnthropicNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$300kto $400k
Senior Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)DecagonSeniorSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $400k
Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)DecagonNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $400k
Senior Research Engineer, Audio and Speech (the posting, opens in a new tab)DecagonSeniorSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $400k
Research Engineer, Safety (the posting, opens in a new tab)DecagonNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $400k
Research Engineer, Audio and Speech (the posting, opens in a new tab)DecagonNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $400k
Senior Research Engineer, Safety (the posting, opens in a new tab)DecagonSeniorSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $400k
Research Engineer, Post-Training (All Industry Levels) (the posting, opens in a new tab)Character.AINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$225kto $400k
Principal Research Engineer, Post-Training (the posting, opens in a new tab)Character.AIPrincipalSan Francisco Bay Area$275kto $400k
Research Engineer, AI Safety & Alignment (the posting, opens in a new tab)Character.AINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$225kto $400k
Staff Research Engineer, Enterprise Knowledge (the posting, opens in a new tab)TuringStaffSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $400k
Staff Research Engineer, Frontier Data (the posting, opens in a new tab)TuringStaffSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $400k
Staff Research Engineer, SWE (the posting, opens in a new tab)TuringStaffSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $400k
Research Engineer, Frontier Evals & Environments (the posting, opens in a new tab)OpenAINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$295kto $380k
Staff/Senior Machine Learning Research Engineer, Intelligent Systems (the posting, opens in a new tab)Scale AIStaffSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $350k
Senior Research Engineer, Enterprise Knowledge (the posting, opens in a new tab)TuringSeniorSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $350k
Senior Research Engineer, Frontier Data (the posting, opens in a new tab)TuringSeniorSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $350k
Senior Research Engineer, SWE (the posting, opens in a new tab)TuringSeniorSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $350k
Research Engineer, Post-Training (the posting, opens in a new tab)HarveyNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$231kto $340k
Staff AI Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)DuolingoStaffNew York City$221kto $331k
Staff AI Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)DuolingoStaffPittsburgh$221kto $331k
Senior/Staff System Research Engineer - LLM Inference Optimization (the posting, opens in a new tab)SnowflakeStaffSeattle area$236kto $330k
Senior/Staff Machine Learning Research Engineer, General Agents, Enterprise GenAI (the posting, opens in a new tab)Scale AIStaffSan Francisco Bay Area$249kto $311k
Systems Research Engineer, GPU Programming (the posting, opens in a new tab)Together AINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $300k
Open Call - Research Engineer / Scientist (the posting, opens in a new tab)1XNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$250kto $300k
Research Engineer, Large-Scale Training (the posting, opens in a new tab)Together AINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $290k
Research Engineer, Post-Training Inference (the posting, opens in a new tab)Together AINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $290k
Post-Training Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)BasetenNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $275k
Applied AI Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)StarburstNot statedElsewhere in the US$215kto $270k
Research Engineer, Model Evaluation and Improvement (the posting, opens in a new tab)BenchlingNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$136kto $265k
GenAI Security - Principal Security Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)ElasticPrincipalElsewhere in the US$160kto $253k
Tactile Sensing Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)1XNot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$200kto $250k
Senior AI Security Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)SamsaraSeniorRemote (US)$158kto $239k
ML Research Engineer, ML Systems (the posting, opens in a new tab)Scale AINot statedSan Francisco Bay Area$190kto $237k
Senior Security Research Engineer (the posting, opens in a new tab)ElasticSeniorElsewhere in the US$133kto $211k
Senior Security Research Engineer, SONAR (Security Operations and Novel Adversary Research) (the posting, opens in a new tab)ElasticSeniorElsewhere in the US$133kto $211k
About

Writes the code that makes research run: training runs, experiments, infrastructure.

By city

CityPosted
San Francisco Bay Area69 posted ranges$370k$295k to $500k
Elsewhere in the US4 posted ranges$189k$146k to $232k
Seattle area1 posted range$236k to $330kone posting
New York City1 posted range$221k to $331kone posting
Pittsburgh1 posted range$221k to $331kone posting
Remote (US)1 posted range$158k to $239kone posting

H-1B by prevailing-wage level

The level the employer chose on the filing: I is entry, IV is fully competent. FY2025 Q4 to FY2026 Q3.

Level I: $194k (38) · Level II: $214k (88) · Level III: $240k (40) · Level IV: $242k (40)

H-1B median by quarter

Fiscal quarterFilingsMedian
FY2025 Q120$221k
FY2025 Q256$200k
FY2025 Q355$203k
FY2025 Q428$235k
FY2026 Q115$230k
FY2026 Q253$209k
FY2026 Q3119$220k

Posted median by week

Week ofRangesMedian
Sep 2177$348k

Recent changes

DatePosting
Sep 24Research Engineer, Model Evaluation and ImprovementBenchlingResearch EngineerPosted at $136k to $265k
Sep 24Applied AI Research EngineerStarburstResearch EngineerPosted at $215k to $270k
Sep 24Open Call - Research Engineer / Scientist1XResearch EngineerPosted at $250k to $300k
Sep 24Tactile Sensing Research Engineer1XResearch EngineerPosted at $200k to $250k
Sep 24Research EngineerHeyGenResearch EngineerPosted with no range
Sep 24Staff Research Engineer, SWETuringResearch EngineerPosted at $250k to $400k
Sep 24Staff Research Engineer, Frontier DataTuringResearch EngineerPosted at $250k to $400k
Sep 24Staff Research Engineer, Enterprise KnowledgeTuringResearch EngineerPosted at $250k to $400k
Sep 24Senior Research Engineer, SWETuringResearch EngineerPosted at $250k to $350k
Sep 24Senior Research Engineer, Frontier DataTuringResearch EngineerPosted at $250k to $350k
Sep 24Senior Research Engineer, Enterprise KnowledgeTuringResearch EngineerPosted at $250k to $350k
Sep 24Web Crawling - Research EngineerThinking Machines LabResearch EngineerPosted with no range
Sep 24Research Engineer, Infrastructure, KernelsThinking Machines LabResearch EngineerPosted with no range
Sep 24Research Engineer, Infrastructure, Training SystemsThinking Machines LabResearch EngineerPosted with no range
Sep 24Research Engineer, Infrastructure, InferenceThinking Machines LabResearch EngineerPosted with no range
Sep 24Research Engineer, Infrastructure, NumericsThinking Machines LabResearch EngineerPosted with no range

Related titles: Member of Technical Staff, Research Scientist, Applied Scientist, AI Safety Researcher

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