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Python jobs: demand and pay (October 2026)
8,612 open data & AI postings at 2,580 companies mention Python, or 65.5% of all data & AI postings we track (as of October 18, 2026).
65.5%share of data & AI postings
2,580companies hiring
$193Kmedian pay, US (n=2856)
—week over week (needs more history)
Python pay by level
| Level (from title) | Median pay | Postings with pay (n) |
|---|---|---|
| Intern | $123K | 15 |
| Entry / junior | $117K | 26 |
| Mid (II) | $155K | 61 |
| Senior | $190K | 869 |
| Staff / lead | $234K | 509 |
| Principal | $225K | 101 |
| Manager | $195K | 107 |
| Director+ | $228K | 82 |
| Level not stated | $175K | 1086 |
Median of the published range midpoint, US postings in USD, annualized. Shown only when n ≥ 10; “—” means fewer.
Roles that ask for Python
| Role | Postings | % of that role |
|---|---|---|
| AI Engineer | 2,240 | 59.3% |
| Machine Learning Engineer | 1,564 | 79.1% |
| Data Engineer | 1,437 | 80.8% |
| Data Scientist | 1,315 | 85.6% |
| Data Analyst | 690 | 61.1% |
| Data & AI leadership | 370 | 34.8% |
| AI Research Scientist | 281 | 64.4% |
| Analytics Engineer | 264 | 71.4% |
| Data Architect | 216 | 54.4% |
| Database Engineer / DBA | 122 | 40.1% |
| Data Governance & Quality | 57 | 25.8% |
| BI Developer / Analyst | 56 | 37.3% |
The weekly Data Skills Index
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How it's measured: a posting counts if its title or description matches the Python patterns in our taxonomy. Postings by the vendor itself are excluded. See the methodology.