Skills › genai
OpenAI API jobs: demand and pay (October 2026)
1,144 open data & AI postings at 581 companies mention OpenAI API, or 8.7% of all data & AI postings we track (as of October 18, 2026).
8.7%share of data & AI postings
581companies hiring
$212Kmedian pay, US (n=397)
—week over week (needs more history)
OpenAI API pay by level
| Level (from title) | Median pay | Postings with pay (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Intern | — | 1 |
| Entry / junior | — | 1 |
| Mid (II) | — | 4 |
| Senior | $192K | 83 |
| Staff / lead | $225K | 67 |
| Principal | $238K | 15 |
| Manager | $244K | 15 |
| Director+ | $235K | 21 |
| Level not stated | $209K | 190 |
Median of the published range midpoint, US postings in USD, annualized. Shown only when n ≥ 10; “—” means fewer.
Roles that ask for OpenAI API
| Role | Postings | % of that role |
|---|---|---|
| AI Engineer | 637 | 16.9% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 121 | 6.1% |
| Data & AI leadership | 87 | 8.2% |
| Data Scientist | 75 | 4.9% |
| Data Architect | 61 | 15.4% |
| AI Research Scientist | 48 | 11.0% |
| Data Engineer | 46 | 2.6% |
| Data Analyst | 42 | 3.7% |
| Analytics Engineer | 14 | 3.8% |
| Data Governance & Quality | 7 | 3.2% |
| Database Engineer / DBA | 3 | 1.0% |
| BI Developer / Analyst | 3 | 2.0% |
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How it's measured: a posting counts if its title or description matches the OpenAI API patterns in our taxonomy. Postings by the vendor itself are excluded. See the methodology.