# Machine learning engineer salary: AI Talent Pay Benchmark

> The AI Talent Pay Benchmark carries 2 published figures read from 2 sources' own pages, from 120,230 to 140,300 USD, read 12 October 2026.

AI Implementation Cost · https://aiimplementationcost.com/datasets/ai-talent-pay-benchmark/ · computed 2026-10-18

**Range of the published figures:** 120,230 to 140,300 USD (range 120,230 to 140,300 USD; 2 published figures; 2 of 6 sources read publish one).

2 of the 6 named sources read in full publish a figure; 4 publish none, read 12 October 2026.

## By occupation

| Breakdown | Median | Range | Sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| occupation computer and information research scientists | 140,300 USD | 140,300 to 140,300 USD | 1 |
| occupation data scientists | 120,230 USD | 120,230 to 120,230 USD | 1 |

## Every figure, with its source

One row per source: the figure the source's own page publishes, the page, and the day it was read.

| Source | Figure | Breakdown | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| [Computer and Information Research Scientists : Occupational Outlook Handboo](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-and-information-research-scientists.htm) | 140,300 USD | computer and information research scientists | 2026-10-12 |
| [Data Scientists : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/data-scientists.htm) | 120,230 USD | data scientists | 2026-10-12 |

## The sentence each figure was read from (2)

- [Computer and Information Research Scientists : Occupational Outlook Handboo](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-and-information-research-scientists.htm), read 2026-10-12: "2025 Median Pay $140,300 per year"
- [Data Scientists : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/data-scientists.htm), read 2026-10-12: "2025 Median Pay $120,230 per year"

## Read in full, publishes no figure

- [Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Tables : U.S. Bureau of](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes152051.htm), read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Tables : U.S. Bureau of](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151221.htm), read 2026-10-12: read in full and no accepted figure on the page
- [Table 1. National employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm), read 2026-09-12: every candidate on the page was refused
- [Employee earnings in the UK - Office for National Statistics](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/latest), read 2026-09-12: every candidate on the page was refused

## Methodology

Every row is a verbatim sentence read from the named source's own page through our fetch service on the date shown, hash-pinned to the stored read (the sha of the page's visible text; the raw page is mirrored to R2). 2 of the 6 named sources that could be read published a usable figure; 4 published none and are recorded as not published, never filled in; 0 could not be read (blocked, dead or unreachable) and count nowhere. The headline figures (median, minimum, maximum, quartiles) are over ONE figure per source in USD (a source's median where its page yielded several accepted sentences), so N counts sources, never sentences; 27 candidate sentence(s) were refused by a reviewer with the reason recorded. The fuller derivation this dataset is chartered to grow into (not yet what the figures above are; they are each source's own published figure as read): the statistical agency's median and percentile wage for each AI-adjacent occupation, loaded to a fully-burdened annual employer cost, and multiplied by the team shape each project type in the index implies, giving a BUILD-IT-YOURSELF cost that can be set beside the agency's published price for the same scope - the comparison the buyer is actually making and which neither the agency nor the agency's competitor publishes

## Sources

- [Computer and Information Research Scientists : Occupational Outlook Handboo](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/computer-and-information-research-scientists.htm) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Data Scientists : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta](https://www.bls.gov/ooh/math/data-scientists.htm) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Tables : U.S. Bureau of](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes152051.htm) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) Tables : U.S. Bureau of](https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes151221.htm) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Table 1. National employment and wage data from the Occupational Employment](https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.t01.htm) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)
- [Employee earnings in the UK - Office for National Statistics](https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/earningsandworkinghours/bulletins/annualsurveyofhoursandearnings/latest) (the publisher's own terms; quoted for reporting and comment)

## Cite or embed

- The AI Talent Pay Benchmark carries 2 published figures read from 2 sources' own pages, from 120,230 to 140,300 USD, read 12 October 2026.
- 2 of the 6 named sources read in full publish a figure; 4 publish none, read 12 October 2026.
- AI Talent Pay Benchmark, occupation computer and information research scientists: median 140,300 USD across 1 source, read 12 October 2026.
- AI Talent Pay Benchmark, occupation data scientists: median 120,230 USD across 1 source, read 12 October 2026.

Cite as: "aiimplementationcost.com AI Talent Pay Benchmark", updated 2026-10-18, https://aiimplementationcost.com/datasets/ai-talent-pay-benchmark/.

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