Originally published on AI Tech Connect.
The headline numbers for 2026 The most attention-grabbing figure in Levels.fyi's Q3 2025 AI Engineer Compensation Trends report is the Staff-level specialist premium: AI engineers at this seniority band earn 18.7% more than comparable non-AI engineers at the same level (Q3 2025 data — the most recent cohort available). That figure was 15.8% in 2024, which means the gap has widened by nearly three percentage points in under two years. The direction of travel is clear even if the precise magnitude will shift as the dataset grows. The overall US AI/ML engineering market has stabilised after a turbulent 18 months. Per Levels.fyi data, the average US AI/ML engineer total compensation is now approximately $245,000, with the median sitting in a $260,000–$269,000 range as figures through early…
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