Backend Engineer compensation
Backend Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The median Backend Engineer salary at AI startups is $190,000, based on 84 disclosed job postings ($52,000–$259,000 range). Updated October 2026. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$52,000Minimum
$190,000Median
$259,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 84 disclosed salaries.
01
Median Backend Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Series C | $200,000 | 11 |
| Growth | $198,000 | 11 |
| Series B | $195,000 | 12 |
| Series D | $190,000 | 7 |
| Series A | $163,750 | 14 |
| Series E | $162,167 | 22 |
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 84 disclosed salaries. We publish aggregate ranges only, never a single company's salary, so the numbers stay representative rather than anecdotal.
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