Staff Data Engineer salary (October 2026)
The median published US pay for Staff Data Engineer postings is $190K, from 75 postings with a pay range, as of October 24, 2026. That is +12% against the $169K median for Data Engineer postings at all levels (n=528); 14% of Data Engineer postings with pay are at this level. Among the 5 roles with enough staff / lead pay data, it ranks 5th, and sits -19% against the $235K median for every data & AI posting at this level. The step up from senior ($178K) is +7%.
Data Engineer pay by level
| Level (from title) | Median pay (US) | n with pay | vs this page |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid (II) | — | 12 | — |
| Senior | $178K | 178 | -7% |
| Staff / lead | $190K | 75 | — |
| Principal | — | 11 | — |
| Level not stated | $152K | 234 | -20% |
Based on 510 postings with pay. A dash means fewer than 30 list pay.
Staff / lead pay across data & AI roles
| # | Role | Median pay (US) | n with pay | vs this page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Machine Learning Engineer | $264K | 195 | +39% |
| 2 | AI Research Scientist | $246K | 40 | +30% |
| 3 | AI Engineer | $237K | 238 | +25% |
| 4 | Data Scientist | $220K | 108 | +16% |
| 5 | Data Engineer | $190K | 75 | — |
| — | Data Analyst | — | 26 | — |
| — | Analytics Engineer | — | 16 | — |
| — | Data Governance & Quality | — | 14 | — |
Based on 712 postings with pay. A dash means fewer than 30 list pay.
How it is measured: median of the published pay range midpoint, US postings in USD, annualized (hourly × 2,080). Level comes from title words only. Medians are shown when n ≥ 30; “—” means fewer than 30 postings with pay. Data: CSV · JSON. See the methodology. Back to Data Engineer or all roles.