How Much Do AI Engineer Jobs Pay in San Francisco? (November 2026)
As of November 2026, the median AI Engineer salary in San Francisco is $246,150 a year. Most roles pay between $180,000 and $340,000 (the 10th–90th percentile), drawn from 217 live salaried listings across 82 companies. All figures are converted to annual US dollars so different sources compare like-for-like.
How pay has moved
Median base salary by month, from our monthly salary snapshots.
Highest-paying employers
- Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)Research Engineer, Code RL (Reinforcement Learning)Research Engineer, Computer UseResearch Engineer, Model EvaluationsResearch Engineer, RL EngineeringAll Anthropic roles →
- Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-TrainingResearch Engineer, Real EnvironmentsData Science InternAll Mercor roles →
- Research EngineerResearch Engineer, Audio and SpeechResearch Engineer, SafetySenior Research EngineerSenior Research Engineer, SafetyAll Decagon roles →
- All Snorkel AI roles →
- All Ramp roles →
Employers ranked by median advertised base among those with at least two salaried listings in San Francisco; each one’s best-paying open roles are listed beneath it.
Methodology: AI Engineer listings in San Francisco with a published salary, updated daily. Figures come from roles that are open right now. Ranges and single figures are converted to an annual US-dollar midpoint; hourly rates are annualised and out-of-band values dropped. Salary data is self-reported by employers and covers the roles that disclose pay — treat it as a directional guide, not a guarantee.