Salaries in the US tech sector are soaring as leading startups fiercely compete for top talent. At OpenAI, technical specialists can make as much as $530,000 annually, while Anthropic’s research engineers can earn up to $690,000.

The figures come from Business Insider, which cites data in federal filings that companies must submit to the US Department of Labor when hiring foreign workers through the H-1B visa program. This program, run via a lottery system, allows 85,000 specialized workers to be recruited each year.

It’s worth noting that these numbers reflect only base salaries. They do not include stock options, signing bonuses, or other perks — extras that can easily double or even triple total compensation packages.

Abridge

• Старший інженер-програміст: $235 000
• Інженер-програміст: $240 000

Anthropic

• Finance and Strategy: $230,000
• Member of Technical Staff: $300,000–$405,000
• Member of Technical Staff (Manager): $690,000
• HR Partner: $285,000
• Recruiter: $170,000
• Head of Regulatory Operations: $210,000
• Research Engineer: $340,000–$690,000
• Research Operations Manager: $230,000
• Startup Account Executive: $126,000

Anysphere (developer of Cursor)

• Product Designer: $250,000

Cohere

• Member of Technical Staff: $240,000

Glean

• Head of Technical Data Analytics: $230,000
• Software Engineer: $190,000–$260,000
• Machine Learning Software Engineer: $210,000
• Engineering Team Lead: $250,000

Grammarly

• AI Engineer: $223,000
• Analytical Linguist: $164,800
• Analytics Engineer: $250,000
• Data Scientist: $170,000
• Head of Data Platform Engineering: $315,000
• Machine Learning Software Engineer: $318,000
• Marketing Manager: $225,000
• Software Engineer: $180,000–$302,100
• Product Designer: $110,000–$230,000
• Product Manager: $200,000
• Data Platform Software Engineer: $196,000
• Financial Infrastructure Systems Engineer: $280,000
• Technical Accounting Manager: $201,600
• User Experience Researcher: $221,520

Mistral AI

• AI Scientist: $280,000–$350,000

(A company representative noted that while some employees do receive such amounts, the more accurate salary range for US positions is $150,000–$450,000.)

OpenAI

• Member of Communications Staff: $216,000
• Member of Data Science Staff: $245,000–$385,000
• Member of Design Staff: $245,000
• Member of Finance Staff: $265,000
• Member of Go-to-Market Staff: $220,000–$280,000
• Member of Intelligence and Analytics Team: $320,000–$382,500
• Member of Software Team: $270,000–$340,000
• Member of Support and Community Staff: $235,000
• Member of Technical Staff (Hardware Engineer): $360,000
• Member of Technical Staff: $210,000–$530,000
• Member of Technical Staff (Research Engineer): $210,000–$440,000
• Member of Technical Staff (Research Scientist): $245,000–$440,000
• Member of Technical Staff (Security Engineer): $310,000
• Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer): $200,000–$440,000

(According to an OpenAI recruiter, more up-to-date salary ranges are listed on the company’s careers page. For example, research engineers earn $295,000–$530,000, while software engineers make $255,000–$590,000.)

Perplexity

• Member of Technical Staff: $206,315–$290,000

Poolside

• Director of Efficiency: $230,000

Safe Superintelligence Inc.

• Member of Technical Staff: $150,000–$500,000

Synthesia

• Customer Success Manager: $120,000

A Synthesia representative noted that the London-founded company is hiring for its New York office, as more than half of its revenue comes from the US market.

Thinking Machines Lab

• Member of Technical Staff: $450,000–$500,000
• Co-founder / Machine Learning Scientist: $450,000