AI Research salary in Palo Alto
Employer-stated pay · updated Oct 2, 2026
Live AI research jobs in Palo Alto All AI research ranges BostonCambridgeMountain ViewNew YorkSan FranciscoSan Jose
AI Research pay in Palo Alto is measured from 5 postings where the employer stated pay. The best-evidenced figure is senior, where 5 postings put the middle half between $215,000 and $228,700, with a median of $216,550.
Against the 8 other measured markets for AI research at senior, this sits below 5 of them; San Francisco leads at $250,750.
The one range here rests on fewer than 10 postings, so read it as a strong hint rather than a benchmark; the sample column shows exactly what backs each number.
19 AI research roles are open in Palo Alto right now, 9 listing pay.
| Level | Market range | Median | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $215,000 – $228,700 | $216,550 | 5hint |
Entry is junior titles. Mid is mid-level and manager titles. Senior is senior titles. Lead is director, VP and above. Rows marked hint rest on fewer than 10 postings: read them as a hint, not a benchmark.
Ranges span the 25th to 75th percentile of employer-stated base pay for the level. Median is the 50th percentile. Sample is the number of postings measured.
Open AI research roles in Palo Alto · 9 with stated pay
Pay marked e is our estimate. Everything else is the employer's own figure.
this job's payour estimatewhere most pay sits here, $150,000–$300,000scale $90,000–$420,000
Staff AI Scientist Uniphore · Palo Alto $192,500–$240,600 5w ago 
Senior/Staff Applied AI Researcher, Growth Quince · Palo Alto $213,000–$285,000 6w ago 
Research Engineer, Domain Scaling Normal Computing Corporation · New York $200,000–$400,000 2mo ago Research Engineer, Algorithms Normal Computing Corporation · New York $200,000–$400,000 2mo ago Senior Applied Scientist, Efficient LLM Inference & Model Optimization Nebius · Palo Alto $195,200–$262,200 3mo ago 
Data Scientist - Agentic AI Systems - IFS Loops IFS · Palo Alto $140,000–$150,000 3mo ago 
Early Career Research Engineer Parallel Web Systems · Palo Alto $150,000–$300,000 9mo ago Senior Applied Researcher & Lead - 3D Reconstruction & Deep Learning Geomagical Labs · Remote · US $180,000–$250,000 1y ago 
Research Engineer, Synthetic Data cursor · Palo Alto $135,000–$232,000e 5w ago Research Scientist - Salesforce AI Research Salesforce · Palo Alto In listing 8w ago Software Engineer, Pretraining Data cursor · Palo Alto $135,000–$232,000e 8w ago 
Founding AI Research Scientist - Optexity (USA) Pear VC · Palo Alto $135,000–$232,000e 2mo ago 
Member of Technical Staff, LLM Post-Training, Applied Sanas · Palo Alto $215,000–$228,700e 2mo ago Vice President, Robot Learning HIKINEX · Palo Alto $236,725–$324,900e 3mo ago 
AI Benchmark & Datasets Engineer / Researcher Pathway · Remote · US $135,000–$232,000e 7mo ago 
Research Engineer Nace AI · Palo Alto $135,000–$232,000e 7mo ago Data Scientist - AI/ML Stanfordmedicine (SHC External Career Site) · Palo Alto $135,000–$232,000e 7mo ago Machine Learning Researcher / Engineer (Foundation Models) Pathway · Remote · US $135,000–$232,000e 11mo ago