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APIs / REST jobs: demand and pay (October 2026)
4,053 open data & AI postings at 1,554 companies mention APIs / REST, or 30.8% of all data & AI postings we track (as of October 18, 2026).
30.8%share of data & AI postings
1,554companies hiring
$196Kmedian pay, US (n=1220)
—week over week (needs more history)
APIs / REST pay by level
| Level (from title) | Median pay | Postings with pay (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Intern | — | 3 |
| Entry / junior | — | 4 |
| Mid (II) | $150K | 19 |
| Senior | $193K | 331 |
| Staff / lead | $225K | 194 |
| Principal | $220K | 55 |
| Manager | $215K | 47 |
| Director+ | $210K | 49 |
| Level not stated | $177K | 518 |
Median of the published range midpoint, US postings in USD, annualized. Shown only when n ≥ 10; “—” means fewer.
Roles that ask for APIs / REST
| Role | Postings | % of that role |
|---|---|---|
| AI Engineer | 2,090 | 55.3% |
| Data Engineer | 572 | 32.2% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 441 | 22.3% |
| Data & AI leadership | 221 | 20.8% |
| Data Scientist | 204 | 13.3% |
| Data Architect | 192 | 48.4% |
| Data Analyst | 140 | 12.4% |
| Analytics Engineer | 89 | 24.1% |
| AI Research Scientist | 37 | 8.5% |
| BI Developer / Analyst | 26 | 17.3% |
| Data Governance & Quality | 25 | 11.3% |
| Database Engineer / DBA | 16 | 5.3% |
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How it's measured: a posting counts if its title or description matches the APIs / REST patterns in our taxonomy. Postings by the vendor itself are excluded. See the methodology.