AI Software Engineer Skills and Job Description (October 2026)

Python is asked for by 43% of AI Software Engineer employers, the most common requirement across 300 live postings read in October 2026. Then AWS, Kubernetes, Java.

Median posted pay is $161,600, most postings between $127,500 and $201,850 — from 243 postings that disclosed it, across 71 companies.

Posted pay is up 0.3% since 2026-09-27 ($161,113 → $161,600).

Check your résumé against these →

These are ranges employers published in their own job postings — not salaries people typed into a form years ago.

What AI Software Engineer postings actually ask for

Ranked by how many of the 300 posting descriptions mention them.

Python 43%
AWS 34%
Kubernetes 27%
Java 26%
Azure 26%
CI/CD 22%
SQL 21%
Terraform 20%
LLM 20%
Docker 19%
Go 17%
Machine Learning 17%
TypeScript 16%
React 16%
Version Control 16%
Distributed Systems 16%
GCP 13%
Data Engineering 13%
Postgres 12%
Jira 12%
Data Science 12%
Prompt Engineering 11%
Cloud Platforms 11%
Security Clearance 10%

Would your background clear the bar?

These are the requirements AI Software Engineer postings list. Paste one of those postings and your résumé — FitToHire checks you against every requirement and shows the evidence behind each verdict.

15 companies in this sample have AI Software Engineer postings open right now.

Check your fit →

Who is hiring AI Software Engineers

15 companies with open postings in this sample.

Apple
$244,850 10
Deloitte
$241,800 74
Pomelo Care
$240,000 3
NVIDIA
$239,250 9
Visionist, INC
$205,000 3
HERCULES
$200,000 18
Microsoft
$190,400 17
IonQ
$190,000 3
Amazon Web Services
$183,650 5
Uber
$180,500 7

Also hiring: Smart Apply Test Company, General Dynamics Information Technology, Anduril, EY, Lockheed Martin, KLA, Dexmate, CesiumAstro.

What AI Software Engineers earn

10th $78K 25th $128K median $162K 75th $202K 90th $242K
$60K $303K

Each bar is a pay band. Height is how many of the 71 employers who published a salary fall in it, counted once each.

Pay bands in numbers
Employer median pay by band
Pay band Employers
$59,500–$83,850 9
$83,850–$108,200 4
$108,200–$132,550 6
$132,550–$156,900 14
$156,900–$181,250 11
$181,250–$205,600 11
$205,600–$229,950 6
$229,950–$254,300 5
$254,300–$278,650 0
$278,650–$303,000 5
Total 71

AI Software Engineer vs adjacent roles

Roles people compare this one against, taken from what they search.

  • software engineer
  • data scientist
  • software engineering
  • ml engineer
  • ai software developer
  • ai engineer

Remote vs onsite pay

Median of remote-eligible postings against the rest.

Remote-eligible
$180,500
Onsite
$183,650

65 remote-eligible postings against 182 onsite. Onsite pays 1.7% more in this sample.

Pay by experience level

Level is taken from the posting title, so only postings that state one are counted.

Mid
$135,300 47
Senior
$241,800 82
Lead / Manager
$193,000 21
Principal / Staff
$200,000 34

Pay by location

Metros with at least three salaried postings.

US
$200,000 17
San Francisco, CA
$200,000 15
Santa Clara, CA
$196,750 13
Redmond, WA
$190,400 13
McLean, VA
$153,750 9
New York, NY
$190,000 9
Seattle, WA
$180,500 8
Cupertino, CA
$234,375 8
Remote, US
$153,374 6
Milpitas, CA
$145,300 5
Boston, MA
$147,500 4
Reston, VA
$190,400 4

Where this data comes from

  • 300 live postings analysed
  • 243 (81%) published a salary range
  • 75 (25%) were remote-eligible
  • 90 distinct employers
  • Requirements read from 300 full posting descriptions
  • Each employer gets one vote in the median, so a company running a large hiring campaign cannot move it
  • Ranges are converted to annual figures; hourly and contract postings are normalised before comparison

How the requirements were read

Requirements are not keyword counts. Each posting is read by our extraction engine, which works out what the employer is actually asking for and separates a requirement from a section heading or a line of boilerplate. Two postings asking for the same thing in different words are counted once, because our skills graph knows which phrasings mean the same thing and which imply others.

The share beside each requirement is the percentage of distinct EMPLOYERS in that sample who asked for it, counted one vote per company so a firm posting the same role many times cannot inflate its own requirements. Measured, not estimated, and read from the posting text rather than counted as keywords.

Because every reading is dated, the movement figures above are real month-over-month change. Sites built on self-reported salaries cannot produce that number: their data has no posting date.