How Much Do Research Scientist Jobs Pay in Seattle? (September 2026)
As of September 2026, the median Research Scientist salary in Seattle is $216,900 a year. Most roles pay between $179,650 and $320,245 (the 10th–90th percentile), drawn from 24 live salaried listings across 13 companies. All figures are converted to annual US dollars so different sources compare like-for-like.
How pay has moved
Median base salary by the month each role was posted, across current live listings. A monthly snapshot builds a firmer long-run trend over time.
Highest-paying employers
- All Anthropic roles →
- Staff Research Scientist - Physical AI / MultimodalityStaff Research Scientist, AI Agents & LLMsAI Research Scientist, New Grad – Agents & Reinforcement LearningAll Snowflake roles →
- All UiPath roles →
- All Allen Institute roles →
- Senior Agentic AI Research ScientistSenior Computer Vision and Machine Learning Research ScientistSenior Machine Learning ScientistAll Prepared roles →
Employers ranked by median advertised base among those with at least two salaried listings in Seattle; each one’s best-paying open roles are listed beneath it.
Methodology: Research Scientist listings in Seattle 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.