Research Engineer compensation
Research Engineer Salary at AI Startups (2026)
The Research Engineer salary range at AI startups runs from $125,840 to $500,000, with a median of $300,000 — based on 76 disclosed salaries from postings on Fast AI Jobs. These are aggregate figures only; we never publish an individual company's offer.
$125,840Minimum
$300,000Median
$500,000Maximum
Sample size: based on 76 disclosed salaries.
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Median Research Engineer salary by funding stage
| Funding stage | Median salary | Sample size |
|---|---|---|
| Seed | $412,500 | 9 |
| Series G+ | $350,000 | 28 |
| Series D | $300,000 | 12 |
| Series E | $300,000 | 6 |
| Series C | $206,000 | 8 |
| Series A | $205,000 | 10 |
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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 76 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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