Backend Engineer compensation
Backend Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The median Backend Engineer salary at AI startups is $185,000, based on 81 disclosed job postings ($65,000–$260,000 range). Updated July 2026. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$65,000Minimum
$185,000Median
$260,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 81 disclosed salaries.
01
Median Backend Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Growth | $205,500 | 5 |
| Series C | $201,750 | 12 |
| Series D | $190,000 | 10 |
| Series B | $180,000 | 15 |
| Series A | $167,500 | 7 |
| Series E | $129,128 | 26 |
02
How we calculate this
Roughly a quarter of AI-startup postings disclose pay. We extract the USD range from those that do, normalize each to a midpoint, and aggregate across distinct postings (deduplicated by posting ID). The minimum, median, and maximum above are based on 81 disclosed salaries. We publish aggregate ranges only, never a single company's salary, so the numbers stay representative rather than anecdotal.
Browse open Backend Engineer jobs