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Scale AI Salary

Scale AI Salary

Scale AI pays a median of $231K ($203K–$255K) across 135 public job postings (2025–2026).

💰 $203K–$255K salary range

Median: $231K  ·  Based on 135 public Scale AI job postings  ·  Updated August 9, 2026


This Scale AI salary benchmark is built from public job postings — no private placement data. Figures reflect base salary only (equity is separate) and are refreshed as new postings are collected.

📊 Salary breakdown

Scale AI · pay benchmark · updated August 9, 2026
$231K
inc. eng · sales · ops
All-role median
$203K–$255K
Typical range
$567K view JD
Highest base · VP, Research
135
Open roles
~5 yrs
Typical exp.
+33
101 last 90d
New last 30d
ⓘ Base salary only — 97% of roles mention equity · options
IC salary by seniority
Junior
$121K (5)
Mid
$203K (22)
Senior
$243K (43)
Staff
$278K (25)
Management pay by function
Research
$327K (2)
Enterprise Engineering
$261K (4)
Enterprise Product
$251K (2)
Public Sector
$208K (9)
Gen AI Operations
$176K (2)
Salary by department · median & top base
enterprise engineering
$284K · $360K top (21)
physical ai engineering
$256K · $378K top (5)
gen ai engineering
$243K · $315K top (5)
research
$243K · $567K top (10)
enterprise sales
$233K · $312K top (10)
public sector engineering
$233K · $373K top (21)
gen ai product
$231K · $257K top (5)
horizontals epd
$223K · $315K top (6)
Pay by location
San Francisco $236K (85)New York $233K (25)Austin $215K (3)
Highest-paying skills
Embeddings $270KPyTorch $267KFine-Tuning $250KNode.js $245KJavaScript $244KTypeScript $243KKubernetes $243KMachine Learning $243K

Highest-paying open roles at Scale AI

Scale AI salary by department

  • enterprise engineering: $284K median · $360K top base — Senior Staff Frontier Agents Engineer (view JD) (21 roles)
  • physical ai engineering: $256K median · $378K top base — Director of Engineering, Physical AI (view JD) (5 roles)
  • gen ai engineering: $243K median · $315K top base — Staff Software Engineer, Full Stack - Gen AI (view JD) (5 roles)
  • research: $243K median · $567K top base — VP, Research (view JD) (10 roles)
  • enterprise sales: $233K median · $312K top base — GTM Architect (view JD) (10 roles)
  • public sector engineering: $233K median · $373K top base — Principal Architect (view JD) (21 roles)
  • gen ai product: $231K median · $257K top base — Senior AI Product Manager, Code (view JD) (5 roles)
  • horizontals epd: $223K median · $315K top base — Staff Software Engineer, Data Platform (view JD) (6 roles)

Scale AI salary by seniority

  • Junior: $121K median · $311K top base — DevOps Engineer, Infrastructure & Security (view JD) (5)
  • Mid: $203K median · $342K top base — Infrastructure Security Engineer, Public Sector (view JD) (22)
  • Senior: $243K median · $363K top base — Manager, Research Scientist (view JD) (43)
  • Staff: $278K median · $373K top base — Principal Architect (view JD) (25)

Scale AI salary — lead & management

  • Lead: $203K median · $362K top base — Tech Lead, ARC Team (view JD) (9)
  • Manager: $211K median · $363K top base — Tech Lead Manager- MLRE, ML Systems (view JD) (24)
  • Director: $253K median · $567K top base — VP, Research (view JD) (7)

Scale AI salary by location

  • San Francisco: $236K median · $567K top base — VP, Research (view JD) (85 roles)
  • New York: $233K median · $345K top base — Forward Deployed Product Manager, Public Sector (view JD) (25 roles)
  • Austin: $215K median · $293K top base — Forward Deployed Software Engineer, Public Sector (view JD) (3 roles)

Remote work at Scale AI

4% of Scale AI's disclosed-pay roles are remote-friendly.

What Scale AI looks for

Most-required skills across these postings: Python (38) · AWS (27) · GCP (24) · Azure (22) · Kubernetes (20) · Terraform (12) · OpenAI (9) · TypeScript (9) · Docker (9) · Product Roadmap (9).

Benefits & perks at Scale AI

Commonly listed: dental (130) · vision (130) · 401k (130) · pto (130) · gym (1) · hsa-fsa (1).

About Scale AI

Scale AI is Series F stage · 1,001–5,000 employees · founded 2016 · HQ San Francisco, California. This context shapes pay: later-stage, well-funded companies tend to anchor base salary higher.

Experience & background at Scale AI

Roles typically ask for around 5 years of experience (up to 12+ for the most senior). Most postings don't state a degree requirement; of the 9 that do, Master's and PhD and Bachelor's and Associate's are most common.

Posted pay vs. total compensation

The figures on this page are the midpoint of each posting's advertised salary range (which, for commission roles, includes on-target earnings). Equity is a separate — and often large — component of total compensation, especially at high-growth and AI-native companies; 97% of these postings reference equity (options). Equity is not included in the medians above.

Scale AI total compensation signals

Beyond the posted-range midpoint, postings indicate: 4% include commission; common structures: salaried, hourly. Bonus, commission, and equity vary by role and are not included in the base medians above.

Scale AI hiring activity

Scale AI has 135 open roles right now, and this benchmark draws on 135 public job postings with disclosed pay. 33 of these roles were first seen in the last 30 days (101 in the last 90). Mostly full-time, with 12 contract roles in the mix.

💼 Similar companies hiring

Compare Scale AI's pay with companies in the same space:

CompanyMedian payvs Scale AIStage
OpenAI$308K↑ +33%Late Stage
Anthropic$293K↑ +26%Series H
Glean$210K↓ -9%Series F
David AI$208K↓ -10%Late Stage
Fluidstack$197K↓ -15%Series D
Zoox$216K↓ -7%Series B

💸 Companies that pay more than Scale AI

xAI · Wayve · Decagon · Periodic Labs · Runway Ml

🏙 Top-paying tech companies in San Francisco

Goodfire · Hightouch · Wispr Flow · Tools for Humanity · Giga ML · Console

📚 Salary guides & rankings

Top-Paying Tech Companies for Engineers (2026) · Highest-Paying Cities for Software Engineers · Highest-Paying Engineering Roles

Browse all company salary pages →

Explore more salary data

All AI/ML salaries →  ·  Browse all tech salaries →

Common questions

What does Scale AI pay?
The median pay is $231K, with a typical range of $203K–$255K, based on 135 public job postings (2025–2026). Base only — equity is separate.

What is the highest-paying job at Scale AI?
One of the highest-paying open roles is VP, Research, at $454K–$567K base.

Which team pays the most at Scale AI?
The enterprise engineering team, at a $284K median.

Where does this data come from?
Public job postings on company career pages and public job boards — no private placement or client data.

Methodology

Posted-range midpoints (USD) aggregated from 135 public Scale AI job postings (2025–2026). Range = 25th–75th percentile; median = 50th percentile. Roles, departments, skills, and experience are parsed from the postings. Base salary only — equity excluded. Last refreshed August 9, 2026.

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