Data engineer salary in Chicago, IL
Employers in the Chicago metro offered data engineers a median of $120,000 a year on approved H-1B applications. That is 3.2% below the US median for data engineers, and 8.2% below offers to software engineers in Chicago.
Median offer
$120,000
US median offer: $123,974
The middle half
$97,380 – $146,205
25th to 75th percentile
After cost of living
$115,840
Chicago prices: 3.6% above US average
Open data engineer jobs
31
In Chicago, from 23 companies
Pay range
The top 10% of data engineer offers in Chicago were above $166,549 a year. The bottom 10% were below $91,322.
10th percentile $91,322, 25th $97,380, 75th $146,205, 90th $166,549.
10th percentile $90,000, 25th $102,211, 75th $150,758, 90th $181,175.
10th percentile $83,820, 25th $104,530, 75th $167,650, 90th $203,410.
Line: 10th to 90th percentile. Box: the middle half (25th to 75th). Dark mark: the median. Data engineers: salaries offered on H-1B applications. All software engineers: salaries paid, from the BLS.
How far the pay goes in Chicago
Prices in Chicago are 3.6% above the US average, which makes the median offer worth $115,840 in US-average dollars. Housing costs 12.0% more than the US average.
Black line: US average = 100. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024.
Data engineers and other engineering jobs in Chicago
Median salary offered on approved H-1B applications in the Chicago metro, for every engineering job type with at least 30 applications.
| Job | Applications | Median offer |
|---|---|---|
| Machine learning engineers | 49 | $135,000 |
| Engineering managers | 389 | $132,434 |
| AI engineers | 47 | $131,000 |
| Site reliability engineers | 32 | $130,707 |
| All software engineers | 3,401 | $130,707 |
| Cloud engineers | 43 | $123,429 |
| Data engineers | 337 | $120,000 |
| DevOps engineers | 102 | $108,077 |
| Support engineers | 33 | $108,077 |
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 337 H-1B applications for data engineers in the Chicago metro, from 211 employers. Level II offers were the most common.
Applications
337
Employers
211
Most experienced (Level IV)
18.7%
Applications by wage level
- Level I (entry): 38
- Level II: 137
- Level III: 78
- Level IV (most experienced): 63
- Not stated: 21
These are salaries offered on approved applications, not salaries paid. Each application lists only its main work site.
31 open data engineer jobs in Chicago right now
From 23 companies. 2 were posted in the past week.
What counts as a data engineer
The BLS has no data engineer category, so these figures come from job titles. An H-1B application or a job on hiredaemon counts as a data engineer job when its title names data engineering, such as "Data Engineer", "Analytics Engineer" or "ETL Developer". Data scientists and data analysts are not counted.
Sources and notes
- Data 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 data engineering and whose work site is in one of the metro area's 13 counties.
- Software engineer pay: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (published May 15, 2026), Chicago-Naperville-Elgin metro.
- Cost of living: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Open jobs: counted on hiredaemon as this page loads.