RE / RS – Foundations, Search
$380k – $850k / year
1 year ago
OpenAI salaries
What OpenAI advertises, from 781 pay ranges in its own job posts over the last 12 months (632 on roles open now). These are base salaries as published: no equity, bonus or self-reported numbers.
By role
| Role | Median range | Typical spread | Posts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software Engineer | $266k – $445k | $230k – $445k | 114 |
| Mid-level | $266k – $445k | 110 | |
| Staff & Principal | $266k – $405k | 3 | |
| AI & ML Engineer | $266k – $385k | $230k – $500k | 95 |
| Mid-level | $266k – $423k | 89 | |
| Manager | $302k – $335k | 5 | |
| DevOps & SRE | $248k – $385k | $230k – $445k | 36 |
| Program Manager | $212k – $285k | $207k – $445k | 28 |
| Security Engineer | $266k – $445k | $230k – $445k | 26 |
| Mid-level | $266k – $445k | 21 | |
| Staff & Principal | $401k – $510k | 3 | |
| Full Stack Engineer | $266k – $405k | $266k – $445k | 23 |
| Implementation Consultant | $185k – $300k | $185k – $325k | 19 |
| Customer Support | $216k – $260k | $180k – $310k | 19 |
| Finance & FP&A | $234k – $260k | $216k – $295k | 18 |
| Data Scientist | $293k – $385k | $230k – $515k | 17 |
| Legal Counsel | $273k – $335k | $239k – $366k | 16 |
| Mid-level | $239k – $280k | 9 | |
| Senior | $330k – $366k | 6 | |
| Engineering Manager | $401k – $445k | $400k – $500k | 15 |
| Business Operations | $252k – $280k | $221k – $335k | 15 |
| Sales Manager | $194k – $265k | $189k – $350k | 14 |
| Accounting | $216k – $240k | $162k – $240k | 13 |
| Mid-level | $216k – $240k | 7 | |
| Manager | $162k – $180k | 5 | |
| Brand & Communications | $287k – $318k | $216k – $330k | 13 |
| Mid-level | $240k – $318k | 9 | |
| Director & VP | $287k – $318k | 3 | |
| Partnerships | $221k – $273k | $216k – $420k | 11 |
| Mid-level | $216k – $273k | 8 | |
| Director & VP | $380k – $420k | 3 | |
| Product Manager | $325k – $385k | $293k – $490k | 11 |
| Mobile Engineer | $230k – $385k | $185k – $405k | 7 |
| Marketing Manager | $239k – $318k | $227k – $325k | 7 |
| Product Designer | $245k – $310k | $245k – $310k | 7 |
| Trust & Safety | $246k – $445k | $207k – $445k | 6 |
| Product Marketing Manager | $223k – $248k | $221k – $315k | 6 |
| Backend Engineer | $280k – $385k | $207k – $445k | 6 |
| Demand Generation | $213k – $259k | $198k – $325k | 6 |
| Data Engineer | $295k – $385k | $235k – $445k | 5 |
| Recruiter | $172k – $240k | $172k – $240k | 5 |
| HR & People Operations | $187k – $260k | $180k – $260k | 5 |
| Solutions Engineer | $234k – $260k | $234k – $318k | 3 |
| Revenue Operations | $207k – $295k | $207k – $385k | 3 |
| QA Engineer | $207k – $290k | $207k – $365k | 3 |
| Customer Success Manager | $176k – $234k | $176k – $234k | 3 |
| Content & SEO | $220k – $245k | $220k – $370k | 3 |
Roles with fewer than 3 published ranges are left out. Level rows appear when a role has ranges at more than one level. “Incl. commission” marks roles whose ranges mostly quote on-target earnings rather than base salary.
By team
| Team | Median range | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| Product | $293k – $385k | 13 |
| Engineering | $266k – $405k | 387 |
| Data | $266k – $385k | 40 |
| Customer Success | $250k – $310k | 41 |
| Design | $245k – $310k | 11 |
| Marketing | $239k – $305k | 56 |
| Other | $223k – $320k | 35 |
| Sales | $239k – $295k | 47 |
| Operations | $216k – $285k | 79 |
| Finance & Legal | $234k – $260k | 59 |
| People | $203k – $240k | 13 |
Where and how it’s published
| United States | $252k – $352k | 781 |
| Canada | CA$200k – CA$290k | 5 |
| United Kingdom | £194k – £280k | 3 |
| Singapore | S$171k – S$345k | 3 |
| Remote roles | $230k – $385k | 30 |
| On-site or hybrid | $252k – $350k | 751 |
- 99% of its 637 open US jobs publish a range (several US states require one).
- 5% of its 170 open jobs outside the US do.
- A typical range’s top is 1.3× its bottom. That’s fairly narrow, so the range is a good guide to an offer.
How OpenAI compares
Software Engineer: OpenAI’s median midpoint is 48% higher than the SaaS median
| Company | Median range | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | $266k – $445k | 114 |
| Anthropic | $320k – $485k | 62 |
| Harvey | $220k – $320k | 38 |
| Sierra | $180k – $390k | 19 |
| Decagon | $200k – $400k | 15 |
| All SaaS companies we track | $194k – $285k | 796 |
AI & ML Engineer: OpenAI’s median midpoint is 19% higher than the SaaS median
| Company | Median range | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | $266k – $385k | 95 |
| Anthropic | $320k – $485k | 77 |
| Scale AI | $216k – $270k | 25 |
| Decagon | $200k – $400k | 8 |
| Harvey | $193k – $325k | 7 |
| All SaaS companies we track | $230k – $315k | 430 |
DevOps & SRE: OpenAI’s median midpoint is 39% higher than the SaaS median
| Company | Median range | Posts |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | $248k – $385k | 36 |
| Anthropic | $285k – $325k | 19 |
| Harvey | $200k – $290k | 15 |
| Otter.ai | $185k – $230k | 7 |
| Sierra | $230k – $390k | 5 |
| All SaaS companies we track | $190k – $266k | 219 |
Companies in the same industry are listed first. Each needs 3 or more published ranges for the role.
Best-paid open roles at OpenAI
All open jobs →Researcher, Training
$300k – $600k / year
1 year ago
Research Engineer, Retrieval & Search, Applied Engineering
$293k – $585k / year
3 years ago
Software Engineer, Inference – Multi Modal
$295k – $555k / year
1 year ago
Machine Learning Engineer, Monetization AI/ML
$381k – $555k / year
3 weeks ago
Engineering Manager, MLE
$500k – $555k / year
4 months ago
3P Systems Architect
$342k – $555k / year
1 month ago
Software Engineer, Data Acquisition
$295k – $536k / year
3 years ago
Full-Stack SWE, Data Acquisition (Foundations)
$295k – $536k / year
2 years ago
Engineering Manager, Core Experimentation
$510k – $536k / year
3 months ago
Questions about pay at OpenAI
How much does OpenAI pay?
Across 781 pay ranges in its job posts over the last year, OpenAI’s median published range is $252k – $352k (United States). Pay varies by role and level; see the tables above.
Where does this data come from?
Only from pay ranges OpenAI publishes in its own job posts, read hourly from its hiring system and kept for 12 months after a job closes. No surveys or self-reported salaries.
Does it include equity, bonus or commission?
Usually not. Published ranges are mostly base salary. Sales roles often add commission, and many companies add equity, so total pay is higher. Self-reported sites show total compensation, which is why their figures differ.
Why don’t all jobs show a salary?
Pay-transparency laws require ranges in job posts in US states such as California, New York, Colorado and Washington, but not in most other countries yet, so coverage outside the US is lower.