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Principal AI Engineer salary: median $212,500 a year

Principal AI Engineer listings that state pay run from $183,000 to $244,500 for the middle half, based on 26 current job listings. 69 principal ai engineer roles are open now.

Principal AI Engineer pay range

From 26 open listings that state pay. Annual, in US dollars.

Lower quarter
$183,000
Median
$212,500
Upper quarter
$244,500

Do AI skills change principal ai engineer pay?

For Data & Analytics roles in general, as of November 9, 2026. This is the function’s figure, not one for principal ai engineer alone: one title rarely has enough listings on both sides.

Among Data & Analytics listings, those that ask for an AI skill advertise +43.6% (about $60.5k) compared with similar listings that do not, matched on level and industry.

Listings that ask for an AI skill
$207,500
median, from 2,325 paid listings
Listings that never mention AI
$135,000
median, from 343 paid listings

Advertised pay only: the midpoint of the range an employer posted, on live U.S. postings read from the full text. “Asks for an AI skill” means the posting names a specific AI skill; “no AI” means it never mentions AI. A difference in what is advertised is not a promise of what you would be paid, and it does not show that learning a skill causes a raise.

See the AI-skill pay table for every function · Check your own pay against these listings

More pay data: Data & Analytics pay by level, skills that pay more and pay by employer size.

Open principal ai engineer jobs

Verified against the employer’s own career site within the last week.

Showing the newest 15 of about 69 verified open jobs here. Search all jobs

All 69 principal ai engineer jobs

Data & Analytics jobs in the rankings

Rankings about data & analytics jobs

Data & Analytics jobs · Top Data & Analytics employers · All rankings

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Principal AI Engineer salary questions

How much does a principal ai engineer make?
Among 26 open principal ai engineer listings that state pay, the median is $212,500 a year, and half of listings fall between $183,000 and $244,500.
Where does this principal ai engineer pay data come from?
From current job listings on employers’ own career sites that state a pay range. Hourly pay is converted at 2,080 hours a year, and a listing’s midpoint is used. Listed pay is what employers advertise, not what people are paid.

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