AI engineer job description: template and real figures
A template for hiring an AI engineer, with what employers in today’s 624 open postings for this work ask for and offer. Copy it, fill in the brackets, then post the job free.
- Open postings today
- 624
- Experience asked, median
- 5 years
- Postings that state pay
- 46%
- Median advertised pay
- $229K
- Open to remote work
- 21%
AI Engineer [Company] · [City, or Remote and the countries it is open to] · [Full-time] About us [Two sentences: what the company does, for whom, and one number that shows where it is now.] About the role Our AI Engineer builds products on top of language models: chat assistants, agents, search over documents. You will report to [manager’s title] and work with [team]. What you will do - [The most important result of the first year, with a number] - Prompt design: [what this means in your team] - Retrieval: [what this means in your team] - Evaluation: [what this means in your team] - Cost control: [what this means in your team] - [One more duty that is specific to this job] What we are looking for - [5]+ years of experience as an AI engineer - Experience with LLM - Experience with AI - Experience with Python - Experience with RAG - [One or two must-haves that are specific to this job] Pay and benefits - Pay range: $[lowest] – $[highest] a year, [plus equity or bonus if any] - Parental leave - Equity - Relocation support - [Paid time off, health cover and the rest of your benefits] How to apply [What to send, the interview steps and how long they take. Name the date you will reply by.]
What today’s AI engineer postings say
| Experience asked | Median 5 years; the middle half ask 3–6 years (287 postings name a number) |
|---|---|
| Pay advertised | $190K – $275K for the middle half; median $229K (250 postings with a yearly US-dollar range) |
| Skills named most | LLM (73%), AI (70%), Python (63%), RAG (30%) |
| Benefits named most | Parental leave (26%), Equity (16%), Relocation support (10%) |
| Most common level | Lead (23% of postings) |
| Titles employers use | AI Engineer, Applied AI Engineer, Senior AI Engineer, Senior Applied AI Engineer, Applied AI Engineer, Codex, Staff AI Engineer |
Counted from the 624 open postings for this work on Nov 14, 2026, read from employers’ own careers pages. Recounted on every update.
Questions about hiring an AI engineer
- What should an AI engineer job description include?
- What the person will achieve in the first year, the duties, the must-have experience, the pay range and how the hiring steps work. For this work, today’s postings name LLM, AI, Python most often.
- Should an AI engineer job posting show the salary?
- Yes, if you can: 46% of today’s 624 open AI engineer postings here do. A range filters out people who would turn the offer down, and several US states and EU countries now require it.
- How many years of experience should I ask for?
- The median in today’s AI engineer postings is 5 years. Ask for what the work needs: every extra year you require shrinks the pool of applicants.
Everything about AI engineer work
See also: 624 open AI engineer jobs · AI engineer pay · how to hire an AI engineer · all job description templates