Data Engineer compensation
Data Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The Data Engineer salary range at AI startups runs from $113,000 to $309,000, with a median of $188,750 — based on 32 disclosed salaries from postings on Fast AI Jobs. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$113,000Minimum
$188,750Median
$309,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 32 disclosed salaries.
01
Median Data Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Series C | $181,000 | 16 |
| Series G+ | $129,500 | 6 |
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 32 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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