How much can you earn in an artificial intelligence (AI) job?
This is an important question as companies around the world rush to integrate AI and machine learning into their technology stacks. Not surprisingly for those who keep an eye on tech salaries, some of the biggest companies in the tech industry offer some of the highest salaries in AI. For example, a recent job posting for a machine learning product manager at Netflix lists a salary range of $300,000 to $900,000.
This obviously varies considerably, and the final salary amount will depend on a number of factors, including the candidate’s skills and previous experience. Netflix is also known for paying unusually high salaries, but it’s important to note that they expect superior performance from their employees in return.
Other AI and machine learning jobs at Netflix could pay up to $750,000. “As researchers, we innovate using machine learning in many areas to prototype, design, implement, evaluate, and commercialize models and algorithms, both through offline experimentation and online A/B testing,” the Netflix research site states.
Of course, Netflix isn’t the only tech company paying high salaries to AI professionals. Amazon, Upwork, Match Group (which created the dating app Hinge), and Google all pay hefty six-figure salaries, according to a recent breakdown. Financial firms like Goldman Sachs and retail giants like Walmart are also willing to pay top dollar for someone who masters machine learning frameworks and large-scale language model (LLM) training.
High rewards for AI skills are nothing new. Back in 2017, back in 2017, Tom Eck, then IBM’s CTO of industrial platforms, told an audience at Markets Media’s summer trading event in New York that top AI researchers were “earning the same salary as NFL quarterbacks, and that speaks to demand and perceived value.” Companies like Google were paying AI researchers so much that they could retire early.
The difference is that AI and machine learning are becoming increasingly mainstream. Theoretically, the result would be a proliferation of high-paying jobs that require AI skills. If you’re interested in becoming a machine learning and AI engineer, you’ll need to learn a basic set of programming languages, frameworks, and abstractions, and you’ll need to constantly update your knowledge as the industry evolves. But if you can master it all, you can reap a very high reward.
