CUDA salary: $255K median
From 147 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$255Kmedian advertised salary
$212K – $302Kmiddle half of roles
$262Kaverage advertised salary
147roles counted
CUDA salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $285K, 29% more than senior roles ($221K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $221K | $212K–$255K | 38 |
| Lead and above | $285K | $270K–$322K | 44 |
| No level in title | $257K | $201K–$310K | 64 |
CUDA salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸California | $270K | 125 |
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $265K | 104 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $257K | 144 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $212K | 15 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $445K | 3 |
| OpenAI | $369K | 5 |
| Perplexity | $352K | 3 |
| Wayve | $316K | 5 |
| River AI Inc. | $310K | 6 |
| Zoox | $302K | 12 |
| Figure | $300K | 3 |
| Lambda | $290K | 3 |
| Motional | $285K | 3 |
| Waymo | $280K | 7 |
| Crusoe | $275K | 5 |
| Nuro | $273K | 7 |
| Baseten | $270K | 3 |
| xAI | $255K | 5 |
| Together AI | $245K | 10 |
| Samsung Research America | $244K | 4 |
| Muon Space | $214K | 4 |
| CoreWeave | $212K | 9 |
| SambaNova | $191K | 4 |
| SpaceX | $179K | 6 |
Highest-paying open CUDA roles
All CUDA jobs- Research Engineer, Code RL (Reinforcement Learning)Anthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY$500K - $850KPythonLLMPyTorch
- Research Engineer, InterpretabilityAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA$315K - $560KRustGoPython
- Software Engineer, Collective CommunicationOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$380K - $500KC++CUDA
- Training Performance EngineerOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$295K - $500KRustPythonC++
- Director, PerceptionZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$410K - $492KLeadMachine LearningCUDAComputer Vision
- Member of Technical Staff (AI Inference Engineer)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $485KRustPythonLLM
- Member of Technical Staff (AI Researcher)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $485KPythonC++Machine Learning
- Staff Software Engineer - ComputeLambda · Bellevue Office$314K - $465KLeadRustGoPython
- Senior Staff/Principal Software Engineer - GPU System Software, Onboard ExecutionZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$339K - $455KLeadC++LinuxCUDA
- Staff / Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Inference - USAInworld AI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California, USA$270K - $430KLeadRustPythonC++
- Compiler Engineer, HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$200K - $420KC++PyTorchCUDA
- Kernel Engineer (Custom Silicon), HardwareRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA; Austin, TX$200K - $420KC++CUDA
- AI Research Scientist - Datadog AI Research (DAIR)Datadog · 🇺🇸New York, New York, USA; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA$320K - $400KMachine LearningLLMPyTorch
- Helix AI Engineer, PerceptionFigure · 🇺🇸San Jose, CA$200K - $400KAICUDAComputer Vision
- Helix AI Engineer, Training PerformanceFigure · 🇺🇸San Jose, CA$200K - $400KPythonC++PyTorch
- AI Infrastructure EngineerMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$200K - $400KPythonC++GCP
- Principal Software Engineer, GPU ComputeRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$345K - $399KLeadGoKubernetesCUDA
- Research Scientist / Engineer – Training InfrastructureLuma AI · 🇺🇸Redwood City, CA$195K - $395KPyTorchLinuxCUDA
- Staff ML Performance Engineer, Performance ArchitectureWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$370K - $395KLeadPythonMachine LearningCUDA
- Principal Software Engineer, Onboard InfrastructureNuro · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California (HQ)$258K - $387KLeadC++Machine LearningLinux
Questions about CUDA pay
- What is the average CUDA salary?
- $262K a year on average and $255K at the median, across 147 open CUDA postings at tech companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $212K to $302K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest CUDA pay?
- Anthropic ($445K), OpenAI ($369K), Perplexity ($352K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for CUDA roles at tech companies is $255K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $212K to $302K. Counted from 147 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/cuda/
Free to use with the link.