AI engineer salary in Washington, DC
Employers in the Washington metro offered AI engineers a median of $126,750 a year on approved H-1B applications. That is 10.7% below the US median for AI engineers, and 5.1% below offers to software engineers in Washington.
Median offer
$126,750
US median offer: $141,866
The middle half
$109,111 – $163,850
25th to 75th percentile
After cost of living
$116,410
Washington prices: 8.9% above US average
Open AI engineer jobs
28
In Washington, DC, from 13 companies
Pay range
The top 10% of AI engineer offers in Washington were above $188,000 a year. The bottom 10% were below $98,004.
10th percentile $98,004, 25th $109,111, 75th $163,850, 90th $188,000.
10th percentile $91,416, 25th $111,578, 75th $185,000, 90th $226,138.
10th percentile $96,450, 25th $123,720, 75th $176,230, 90th $213,660.
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 Washington
Prices in Washington are 8.9% above the US average, which makes the median offer worth $116,410 in US-average dollars. Housing costs 51.1% more than the US average.
Black line: US average = 100. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024.
AI engineers and other engineering jobs in Washington
Median salary offered on approved H-1B applications in the Washington metro, for every engineering job type with at least 30 applications.
| Job | Applications | Median offer |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering managers | 206 | $178,400 |
| Machine learning engineers | 30 | $154,460 |
| All software engineers | 3,135 | $133,593 |
| AI engineers | 46 | $126,750 |
| Cloud engineers | 44 | $126,090 |
| Data engineers | 248 | $126,090 |
| DevOps engineers | 126 | $126,090 |
| Frontend engineers | 40 | $126,090 |
| Support engineers | 96 | $108,020 |
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 46 H-1B applications for AI engineers in the Washington metro, from 37 employers. Level II offers were the most common.
Applications
46
Employers
37
Most experienced (Level IV)
10.9%
Applications by wage level
- Level I (entry): 13
- Level II: 20
- Level III: 5
- Level IV (most experienced): 5
- Not stated: 3
These are salaries offered on approved applications, not salaries paid. Each application lists only its main work site.
28 open AI engineer jobs in Washington, DC right now
From 13 companies. 3 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 one of the metro area's 23 counties.
- Software engineer pay: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (published May 15, 2026), Washington-Arlington-Alexandria metro.
- Cost of living: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Open jobs: counted on hiredaemon as this page loads.