AI engineer salary in Seattle, WA
Employers in the Seattle metro offered AI engineers a median of $206,679 a year on approved H-1B applications. That is 45.7% above the US median for AI engineers, and 19.7% above offers to software engineers in Seattle.
Median offer
$206,679
US median offer: $141,866
The middle half
$157,715 – $234,092
25th to 75th percentile
After cost of living
$185,970
Seattle prices: 11.1% above US average
Open AI engineer jobs
69
In Seattle, from 39 companies
Pay range
The top 10% of AI engineer offers in Seattle were above $350,000 a year. The bottom 10% were below $141,814.
10th percentile $141,814, 25th $157,715, 75th $234,092, 90th $350,000.
10th percentile $91,416, 25th $111,578, 75th $185,000, 90th $226,138.
10th percentile $99,190, 25th $132,800, 75th $211,860, 90th $257,960.
Line: 10th to 90th percentile. Box: the middle half (25th to 75th). Dark mark: the median. AI engineers: salaries offered on H-1B applications. All software engineers: salaries paid, from the BLS.
How far the pay goes in Seattle
Prices in Seattle are 11.1% above the US average, which makes the median offer worth $185,970 in US-average dollars. Housing costs 51.3% more than the US average.
Black line: US average = 100. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024.
AI engineers and other engineering jobs in Seattle
Median salary offered on approved H-1B applications in the Seattle metro, for every engineering job type with at least 30 applications.
| Job | Applications | Median offer |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering managers | 762 | $216,600 |
| AI engineers | 76 | $206,679 |
| Machine learning engineers | 271 | $195,000 |
| Infrastructure engineers | 54 | $180,710 |
| Frontend engineers | 132 | $180,655 |
| Cloud engineers | 53 | $174,000 |
| Site reliability engineers | 92 | $173,300 |
| All software engineers | 13,312 | $172,600 |
| Data engineers | 630 | $156,451 |
| DevOps engineers | 58 | $145,000 |
| Support engineers | 135 | $120,000 |
All software engineers: every application filed under the BLS software developer job code, whatever its title. Backend and full-stack engineers: left out, since a plain "Software Engineer" title counts as both.
Experience level of these offers
From October 2025 to June 2026, the Department of Labor approved 76 H-1B applications for AI engineers in the Seattle metro, from 44 employers. Level IV offers were the most common.
Applications
76
Employers
44
Most experienced (Level IV)
42.1%
Applications by wage level
- Level I (entry): 8
- Level II: 21
- Level III: 11
- Level IV (most experienced): 32
- Not stated: 4
These are salaries offered on approved applications, not salaries paid. Each application lists only its main work site.
69 open AI engineer jobs in Seattle right now
From 39 companies. 4 were posted in the past week.
What counts as an AI engineer
The BLS has no AI engineer category, so these figures come from job titles. An H-1B application or a job on hiredaemon counts as an AI engineer job when its title names AI work, such as "AI Engineer", "Generative AI Developer" or "LLM Engineer". Machine learning engineers are counted separately.
Sources and notes
- AI engineer offers: US Department of Labor, H-1B application data, October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Approved H-1B applications whose job title names AI work and whose work site is in King, Pierce or Snohomish county.
- Software engineer pay: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (published May 15, 2026), Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue metro.
- Cost of living: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Open jobs: counted on hiredaemon as this page loads.