Data Engineer salary: $208K median

Lead roles advertise a median of $245K, 23% more than senior roles ($200K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.

• AEngineering Manager, Research Data PlatformAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY$405K - $850KMachine LearningBigQueryClickHouse4mo
• AStaff+ Research Engineer, RL Data PlatformAnthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY$500K - $850KLeadPythonTypeScriptReact2mo
• OData Engineering Manager, Growth & RevenueOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$459K - $536KPythonSQLScala2mo
• PPrincipal Engineer, Big Data PlatformPinterest · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, US; Remote, US$243K - $500KRemoteLeadGoPythonJava2mo
• CSenior Staff Data EngineerCohere · 🇨🇦Toronto$275K - $450KLeadTerraformAirflowdbt3w
• OData Engineer, Hardware & Consumer DevicesOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$295K - $445K6w
• PMember of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Data Platform)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $405KGoPythonTypeScript5mo
• AEngineering Director, Agentic AI Data PlatformAirwallex · 🇺🇸US - San Francisco$300K - $400KLeadPythonSQLPostgreSQL9d
• MAnalytics EngineerMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$250K - $400KPythonSQLdbt2w
• SEngineering Manager, Data PlatformSentry · 🇺🇸San Francisco, California$220K - $400KRustPythonClickHouse1d
• RSenior Engineering Manager, Ads Data PlatformRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$345K - $399KSenior2mo
• GManager, Engineering (Data Platform)Garner Health · 🇺🇸New York City, New York$310K - $385KPythonTerraformKafka2mo
• CDirector, Data EngineeringChime · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, USA$269K - $373KLeadLLM2d
• WTech Lead Manager, Data EngineerWaymo · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California, USA$298K - $368KLeadPythonJavaC++5mo
• PManager II, Engineering- Analytics Engineering, Core Data SciencePinterest · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, US; Remote, US$177K - $365KRemotePythonSQL6w
• BStaff Data Engineer, Advanced Insights & ModelingBlock · 🇺🇸Bay Area, CA, United States of America$240K - $359KLeadPythonSQLMachine Learning2d
• WPrincipal Data Engineer, Data Quality & Datasets PipelinesWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$290K - $340KLeadPython3w
• HSenior Staff Data Engineer - Data & ML PlatformHinge Health · 🇺🇸San Francisco-HQ$240K - $335KLeadPythonSQLMachine Learning5mo
• NEngineering Manager, Data Platform FoundationsNotion · 🇺🇸San Francisco, California$281K - $334KKafka7w
• PMember of Data Staff (Analytics Engineer)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$175K - $330KLeadPythonSQLdbt5w

What is the average Data Engineer salary?

$224K a year on average and $208K at the median, across 183 open Data Engineer 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 $184K to $250K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.

Which companies advertise the highest Data Engineer pay?

OpenAI ($368K), Anthropic ($362K), Waymo ($280K), 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.