Data Engineer compensation
Data Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The median Data Engineer salary at AI startups is $180,000, based on 89 disclosed job postings ($80,000–$320,000 range). Updated October 2026. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$80,000Minimum
$180,000Median
$320,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 89 disclosed salaries.
01
Median Data Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Series G+ | $242,500 | 10 |
| Debt | $198,750 | 8 |
| Series B | $185,000 | 11 |
| Series C | $180,000 | 11 |
| Series A | $174,813 | 6 |
| Series D | $173,300 | 12 |
| Series E | $164,639 | 15 |
| Growth | $152,500 | 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 89 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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