Inference salaries
Live salary data from first-party Inference / Serving postings (USD/yr). No surveys — pay ranges employers actually publish.
$300kmedian
$130klow
$34500khigh
194data points
Roles with published pay
Software Engineer, Cloud Agents
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–385k/yr
Software Engineer, Foundations Search
OpenAI · San Francisco
$380k–555k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent Infrastructure
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–385k/yr
Manager, Partner AI Deployment Engineering - AWS
OpenAI · San Francisco
$251k–335k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent (Brazilian Portuguese speaking)
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$180k–390k/yr
Senior Software Engineer
LanceDB · HQ
$180k–250k/yr
Software Engineer- BIS (Baseten Inference Stack)
Baseten · San Francisco
$180k–360k/yr
Software Engineer, GenAI
Abridge · SF Office
$255k–300k/yr
Agentic Risk Analyst
OpenAI · San Francisco
$288k–425k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, Agents
Harvey · New York
$231k–340k/yr
AI Deployment Engineer, Cyber
OpenAI · San Francisco
$234k–260k/yr
Inference Technical Lead, On-Device Transformers
OpenAI · San Francisco
$445k/yr
Applied AI Engineer
Cognition · San Francisco
$180k–225k/yr
AI Deployment Engineer, Startups
OpenAI · San Francisco
$198k–280k/yr
Forward Deployed Security Engineer
OpenAI · Washington, DC
$293k–385k/yr
Software Engineer, Agents
Mercor · San Francisco or NYC
$130k–500k/yr
Software Engineer - Infrastructure
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Senior Data Intelligence Engineer
Deepgram · USA | Remote
$165k–230k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (AI Infrastructure Engineer)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$220k–405k/yr
Research Engineer / Research Scientist- Personal AGI (Post Training)
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–555k/yr
IC Agentic Engineering Manager - Stargate
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–385k/yr
Engineering Manager, Fraud & Compliance
Mercor · San Francisco
$250k–400k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent
Sierra · Toronto
$180k–390k/yr
Software Engineer, ML Systems & Training Architecture
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–380k/yr
Research Engineer, AI Safety & Alignment
Character.AI · Redwood City, CA
$225k–400k/yr
Software Engineer, Agents
Harvey · New York
$161k–242k/yr
Software Engineer, Model Inference
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–555k/yr
Software Engineer, Applied AI
Mercor · San Francisco
$130k–500k/yr
Full Stack Software Engineer, Codex
OpenAI · San Francisco
$255k–405k/yr
Full Stack Software Engineer, ChatGPT ImageGen
OpenAI · San Francisco
$185k–385k/yr
Agent Development Manager
Decagon · Toronto
$130k–180k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Agents
Harvey · New York
$193k–290k/yr
Research Engineer/Scientist - Human Alignment, Consumer Devices
OpenAI · San Francisco
$380k–445k/yr
Software Engineer, Data Infrastructure - Research
OpenAI · San Francisco
$250k–380k/yr
Engineering Manager - Forward Deployed Engineering (LLM)
Baseten · San Francisco
$260k–380k/yr
Software Engineer, Inference - Multi Modal
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–555k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Applied AI)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$220k–405k/yr
Senior/Staff Software Engineer, Search & Retrieval Infrastructure
Pinecone · US Remote
$190k–270k/yr
Research Engineer, Codex
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–445k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, Voice Agent
Decagon · San Francisco
$200k–400k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (AI Researcher)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$220k–485k/yr
Machine Learning Scientist (All Levels)
Abridge · SF Office
$205k–300k/yr
Forward Deployed Engineer, Deepgram for Restaurants
Deepgram · New York City, NY
$197k–246k/yr
Training: ML Framework Engineer
OpenAI · San Francisco
$205k–445k/yr
Product Engineer, GTM Growth Engineering
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–385k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Agent Orchestration
Decagon · San Francisco
$200k–400k/yr
Research Engineer, Applied AI Engineering
OpenAI · San Francisco
$250k–555k/yr
Software Engineer, Voice
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$230k–390k/yr
Software Engineer, RL Training Infra
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–445k/yr
Software Engineer, Workload Enablement
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–385k/yr
AI Deployment Engineer, Startups
OpenAI · New York City
$198k–280k/yr
Multimodal LLM Researcher (MLLM)
Pika · Palo Alto HQ
$185k–400k/yr
Software Engineer, Fleet Infrastructure
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–490k/yr
Post-Training Research Engineer
Baseten · San Francisco
$200k–275k/yr
Staff Research Engineer
Decagon · New York City
$200k–400k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (Forward Deployed Engineer, Applied AI)
Perplexity · New York City
$205k–335k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent (Korean Speaking)
Sierra · Singapore
$295k–495k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Core Infrastructure
Decagon · San Francisco
$200k–400k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, Agent Orchestration
Decagon · New York City
$200k–400k/yr
Applied AI Inference Engineer
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Performance & Systems Engineer, Codex
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–445k/yr
Senior Research Engineer
Decagon · New York City
$200k–400k/yr
Customer Engineer
Modal · New York
$150k–220k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent (Cantonese Speaking)
Sierra · Singapore
$295k–495k/yr
Simulation Applications Engineer
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–385k/yr
Machine Learning Scientist
Suno · Boston
$160k–280k/yr
Backend Software Engineer - Active Learning Team
Deepgram · USA | Remote
$150k–220k/yr
Software Engineer - Training Product
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Director of Customer Engineering, Agent Builder
Decagon · San Francisco
$250k–320k/yr
AI Deployment Engineer, Messenger Integrations
OpenAI · San Francisco
$197k–292k/yr
Software engineer, agents
Writer · New York City, NY
$112k–218k/yr
Software Engineer, AI Data & Evaluation
Mercor · San Francisco
$130k–500k/yr
Research Engineer, Machine Learning Systems
Deepgram · USA | Remote
$150k–250k/yr
Software Engineer, Security
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$200k–330k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Agents
Decagon · New York City
$200k–400k/yr
Agent Post-Training Research
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–445k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent
Sierra · Singapore
$295k–495k/yr
Researcher, Training
OpenAI · San Francisco
$360k–440k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, Acceleration)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$250k–405k/yr
Software Engineer, Site Reliability (SRE)
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$230k–390k/yr
Software Engineer, Model Performance Systems
Baseten · San Francisco
$160k–200k/yr
AI Solutions Engineer
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer
Character.AI · Redwood City, CA
$150k–350k/yr
Research Staff, LLMs
Deepgram · USA | Remote
$150k–250k/yr
Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-Training
Mercor · San Francisco
$130k–500k/yr
Software Engineer, Accelerators
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–380k/yr
Full Stack Software Engineer, ChatGPT Finances
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–325k/yr
Applied AI Engineer, Codex Core Agent
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–385k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Agent Orchestration
Decagon · New York City
$200k–400k/yr
Engineering Manager (API Platform)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$300k–405k/yr
Software Engineer, Codex Core Agents
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–385k/yr
Software Engineer, API Multicloud
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–385k/yr
Backend Software Engineer - Engine Team (Voice Agent)
Deepgram · USA | Remote
$150k–220k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent Builder
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$230k–390k/yr
RE/RS, Data Understanding - Foundations
OpenAI · San Francisco
$350k–555k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Backend
Harvey · San Francisco
$193k–290k/yr
Forward Deployed Engineer - ML
Modal · New York
$180k–250k/yr
Security Engineer, Agent Security
OpenAI · San Francisco
$234k–385k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (AI Software Engineer, Multimodal)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$220k–405k/yr
Software Engineer, Voice Agents / AI - Deepgram for Restaurants
Deepgram · San Francisco, CA
$154k–307k/yr
Software engineer, generative AI
Writer · San Francisco, CA
$112k–304k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent Data Platform
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$230k–390k/yr
Software Engineer - Deepgram for Restaurants
Deepgram · San Francisco, CA
$154k–307k/yr
Member of Technical Staff, Forward Deployed
Vapi · San Francisco
$200k–280k/yr
Member of Technical Staff - ML Training Systems
Modal · New York
$150k–350k/yr
Agent Engineer, TLM
Sierra · New York, NY
$280k–410k/yr
Support Operations Engineer
Harvey · Remote
$104k–156k/yr
ML Ops Infrastructure Engineer
Deepgram · USA | Remote
$160k–220k/yr
Member of Technical Staff, Backend
Vapi · San Francisco
$200k–280k/yr
Product Engineer - Dedicated Inference
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Member of Technical Staff, Core Backend
Vapi · San Francisco
$180k–265k/yr
Forward Deployed Engineer - Systems
Modal · New York
$180k–240k/yr
AI Systems Engineer, Codex Agents
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–385k/yr
Software Engineer, Intelligence
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$230k–390k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (AI Software Engineer, Agents)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$220k–405k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, AI Platform
Harvey · New York
$231k–340k/yr
Software Engineer, Productivity - Inference Runtime
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–385k/yr
Tokens-as-a-Service (Taas) Software Engineer
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–385k/yr
Senior Forward-Deployed Engineer, Federal
Deepgram · Washington D.C.
$160k–200k/yr
Full Stack Software Engineer, Codex Cloud Apps
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–325k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Core Infrastructure
Decagon · New York City
$200k–400k/yr
Member of Technical Staff - Product (Backend)
Modal · New York
$150k–300k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent - Healthcare
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$180k–390k/yr
Engineering Manager, Active Learning
Deepgram · USA | Remote
$180k–220k/yr
Member of Technical Staff, Document Understanding
LlamaIndex · San Francisco
$180k–250k/yr
Engineering Manager, Multimodal (API)
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–385k/yr
Applied AI Inference - Forward Deployed Engineer
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Software Engineer, Inference - Performance Optimization
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–555k/yr
Senior Research Engineer
Decagon · San Francisco
$200k–400k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, AI Platform
Harvey · New York
$220k–300k/yr
Researcher, Agent Post-Training, API & Power-Users
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–445k/yr
Senior Solutions Engineer, Federal
Deepgram · Washington D.C.
$160k–200k/yr
Software Engineer - Voice AI (Inference Runtime)
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Analytics & Automation Lead, User Safety & Risk Operations
OpenAI · San Francisco
$302k–335k/yr
Technical Deployment Lead, Forward Deployed Engineering (FDE) - NYC
OpenAI · New York City
$198k–294k/yr
Engineering Manager, MLE
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–385k/yr
Engineering Manager, Agent Orchestration
Decagon · San Francisco
$280k–430k/yr
TL, Research Inference
OpenAI · San Francisco
$380k–555k/yr
Research Engineer/Research Scientist - Personal AGI, North Stars
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–555k/yr
Software Engineer, Applied ML (Discovery, Recommendation & Search)
Character.AI · Redwood City, CA
$200k–300k/yr
Software engineer, connectors & MCP
Writer · San Francisco, CA
$155k–304k/yr
Offensive Security Engineer, Agent Products
OpenAI · San Francisco
$278k–490k/yr
Agent Engineer - NY
Vapi · New York
$160k–180k/yr
Senior Research Engineer, Voice + Speech
Decagon · New York City
$200k–400k/yr
Software Engineer, Inference
Pika · Palo Alto HQ
$185k–250k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (Software Engineer, API Platform)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$220k–405k/yr
Agent Strategist - NYC
Vapi · New York
$130k–160k/yr
Software Engineer, Gen AI Platform
Abridge · SF Office
$221k–300k/yr
Software Engineer - Enterprise Platform
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Engineering Manager, Runtime Fabric
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Solution Architect (AI/LLM Inference)
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Engineering Manager, Distillation & Detection Platform
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–385k/yr
Cloud Platform Engineer
Baseten · San Francisco Office
$165k–330k/yr
Staff Research Engineer
Decagon · San Francisco
$200k–400k/yr
Member of Technical Staff, Product
Vapi · San Francisco
$180k–280k/yr
Defense / Edge Tech Lead
Deepgram · USA | Remote
$185k–245k/yr
Software Engineer, Agent
Sierra · Tokyo
$22000k–47000k/yr
Engineering Manager - Model Performance
Baseten · San Francisco
$260k–380k/yr
Senior AI Support Engineer (US)
Dust · San Francisco
$150k–200k/yr
Software Engineer - Model Products
Baseten · San Francisco
$180k–360k/yr
Research Engineer - Speech & Realtime Models
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–445k/yr
Software Engineer - Model Performance
Baseten · San Francisco
$180k–360k/yr
AI Deployment Engineer, Public Sector - Federal Civilian
OpenAI · Washington, DC
$137k–250k/yr
Member of Technical Staff, QA
Vapi · San Francisco
$180k–280k/yr
Software Engineer, Agents
Harvey · San Francisco
$161k–242k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, Agent Orchestration
Decagon · San Francisco
$200k–400k/yr
Engineering Manager (TLM, Agents)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$300k–405k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, Full Stack - NYC
Harvey · New York
$260k–310k/yr
Member of Technical Staff - ML Performance
Modal · New York
$200k–350k/yr
Software Engineer - AI Enablement
Baseten · San Francisco
$165k–330k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Backend/Infra
Pika · Palo Alto HQ
$185k–300k/yr
Full Stack Software Engineer, Agent Enablement
OpenAI · San Francisco
$255k–405k/yr
Senior+ Software Engineer - Research Platform, Consumer Devices
OpenAI · San Francisco
$293k–325k/yr
ChatGPT Performance Engineer
OpenAI · San Francisco
$325k–405k/yr
Research Engineer, Post-Training (All Industry Levels)
Character.AI · Redwood City or New York City
$225k–400k/yr
Engineering Manager, Model Inference
Abridge · SF Office
$220k–270k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Full Stack - NYC
Harvey · New York
$200k–260k/yr
Software Engineer, Product
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$230k–390k/yr
AI Deployment Engineer
OpenAI · New York City
$197k–278k/yr
Software Engineer, Developer Productivity
OpenAI · San Francisco
$210k–490k/yr
Principal Research Engineer, Post-Training
Character.AI · Redwood City, CA
$275k–400k/yr
Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer- Model Inference
Abridge · SF Office
$221k–260k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, Backend
Harvey · San Francisco
$231k–340k/yr
Inference Engineer, Robotics
OpenAI · San Francisco
$380k/yr
Researcher, Alignment Training
OpenAI · San Francisco
$250k–445k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, AI Platform
Harvey · San Francisco
$231k–340k/yr
Trust Engineer
Harvey · San Francisco
$220k–330k/yr
Senior Software Engineer, Agents
Harvey · San Francisco
$193k–290k/yr
Support Engineer
Sierra · San Francisco, CA
$250k–275k/yr
Software Engineer, Inference – AMD GPU Enablement
OpenAI · San Francisco
$295k–555k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, Infrastructure
Decagon · San Francisco
$200k–400k/yr
Software Engineer, Research - Human Data
OpenAI · San Francisco
$230k–385k/yr
Staff Software Engineer, Agents
Harvey · San Francisco
$231k–340k/yr
Member of Technical Staff (AI Inference Engineer)
Perplexity · San Francisco
$220k–485k/yr