How Much Do Research Scientist Jobs Pay in the USA? (November 2026)

How pay has moved

Median base salary by month, from our monthly salary snapshots.

Highest-paying employers

1. #1

   O

   OpenAI

   17 salaried listings in the USA

   $425,000

   median
   Research Scientist / Research Engineer - Foundations, Search$380k – $850k·San FranciscoResearch Scientist / Research Engineer, Search - Knowledge Graphs$380k – $850k·San FranciscoResearch Scientist / Research Engineer, Search Integrity$380k – $850k·San FranciscoResearch Engineer / Research Scientist, Human Flourishing$380k – $500k·San FranciscoResearch Engineer, AI for Chip Design$380k – $500k·San Francisco
   All OpenAI roles →
2. #2

   AI

   Arc Institute

   2 salaried listings in the USA

   $400,000

   median
   Director, Machine Learning, Alzheimer's Disease Initiative$380k – $420k·Palo Alto, CADirector, Machine Learning, Virtual Cell Initiative$380k – $420k·Palo Alto, CA
   All Arc Institute roles →
3. #3

   D

   Datadog

   3 salaried listings in the USA

   $360,000

   median
   AI Research Scientist - Datadog AI Research (DAIR)$320k – $400k·New York, New York, USAStaff Research Scientist - Foundation & World Models $320k – $400k·New York, New York, USAStaff Research Scientist - Post-Training for Agents$320k – $400k·New York, New York, USA
   All Datadog roles →
4. #4

   A

   Anthropic

   17 salaried listings in the USA

   $352,500

   median
   Research Engineer / Research Scientist, RL Frontiers$500k – $850k·San Francisco, CAResearch Engineer / Scientist, Pre-training$500k – $850k·RemoteResearch Engineer, Chip Design RL$500k – $850k·San Francisco, CAResearch Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning) $500k – $850k·San Francisco, CAResearch Scientist, Multi-Agent$500k – $850k·San Francisco, CA
   All Anthropic roles →
5. #5

   M

   Mercor

   5 salaried listings in the USA

   $340,000

   median
   Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-Training$250k – $500k·San FranciscoResearch Scientist, APEX Benchmarks$200k – $500k·San FranciscoResearch Engineer – Benchmarking$180k – $500k·San FranciscoResearch Engineer Intern - Environments, Data and Post-Training$0k – $0k·San FranciscoResearch Engineer, Intern – Benchmarking$0k – $0k·San Francisco
   All Mercor roles →

Employers ranked by median advertised base among those with at least two salaried listings in the USA; each one’s best-paying open roles are listed beneath it.