Federal filings provide a window into how much OpenAI pays for key roles.
The filings only reveal base salaries and do not include stock awards or bonuses.
Research scientists sit as the highest-paid employees, with some base salaries reaching as high as $685,000.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said last month that the AI firm would slow down hiring to avoid the wave of layoffs seen across the tech industry. However, new federal filings show that the company is still expanding its workforce, and offering some of the highest salaries in the market. The company’s newest big-name hire- OpenClaw creator Peter Steinberger- is yet another sign that the battle for top AI talent is far from over.
The federal filings also provide a window into how much OpenAI pays for key roles. But, the filings only reveal base salaries and do not include stock awards or bonuses. Here’s a closer look of base salaries at OpenAI across different roles, based on H-1B data from the past four quarters (via Business Insider).
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AI researcher salaries
- Member of Intelligence & Investigations Staff: $320,000 to $382,500
- Member of Technical Staff (AI Systems Engineer): $245,000 to $460,000
- Member of Technical Staff (Research & AI Systems): $310,000 to $460,000
- Member of Technical Staff (Research Engineer): $210,000 to $460,000
- Member of Technical Staff (Research Scientist): $245,000 to $685,000
Research scientists sit as the highest-paid employees, with some base salaries reaching as high as $685,000.
Engineer and data scientist salaries
- Member of Data Science Staff: $188,885 to $405,000
- Member of Technical Staff (Data Science): $255,000 to $490,000
- Member of Technical Staff (Hardware Engineer): $250,000 to $555,000
- Member of Technical Staff (Security Engineer): $310,000 to $325,000
- Member of Technical Staff (Software Developer): $325,000
- Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer): $170,000 to $490,000
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Product, program, and design staff salaries
- Member of Design Staff: $245,000 to $310,000
- Member of Product Staff (Product Management): $210,000 to $325,000
- Member of Program Staff: $150,000 to $355,000
- Non-engineering technical roles also command strong salaries, especially in product management.
Sales and operations staff salaries
- Member of Finance Staff: $240,000 to $260,000
- Member of Go To Market Staff: $180,000 to $290,000
- Member of Go To Market Staff (Customer Success): $165,000 to $240,000
- Member of Go To Market Staff (Forward Deployed Engineer): $220,000
- Member of Go To Market Staff (Support Engineer): $235,000
- Member of Support and Community Staff: $180,000 to $235,000
