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AI Hiring Index: October 2026

8,775 AI, ML and data roles were open in October 2026, at 191 companies. The typical role that lists a salary pays $212k a year, and 27% of roles are remote. This is the baseline edition, so month-on-month changes start with the next one.

8,775
open roles
2,300
new in September
191
companies hiring
$212k
typical salary

Open roles by specialism

  1. AI/LLM Engineer1,091
  2. Machine Learning Engineer429
  3. AI Product Manager403
  4. MLOps / Infrastructure362
  5. Robotics303
  6. Research Scientist279
  7. Data Scientist273
  8. AI-Powered Marketing211
  9. Data Engineer206
  10. AI-Powered Sales196
  11. Analytics Engineer156
  12. Computer Vision140
  13. AI Growth & Revenue Ops49
  14. Prompt / Eval Engineer45
  15. AI Safety & Alignment43
  16. NLP22
  17. AI Designer15

Most wanted skills

Open roles naming each skill. Skills repeated on nearly every listing at a company are left out, since that is usually its standard company text.

  1. Python3,983
  2. LLMs2,090
  3. Agents1,785
  4. C++1,424
  5. AWS1,326
  6. SQL1,310
  7. Kubernetes1,213
  8. GCP969
  9. Azure846
  10. TypeScript842
  11. Java796
  12. Rust658
  13. Generative AI647
  14. PyTorch641
  15. JavaScript603

Companies with the most open roles

  1. Anduril1,574
  2. OpenAI485
  3. Anthropic221
  4. Shield AI207
  5. Databricks201
  6. Snowflake200
  7. Waymo178
  8. Okta169
  9. Zoox144
  10. Graphcore142
  11. Celonis139
  12. Cloudflare128
  13. Reddit115
  14. Skydio108
  15. Braze106

Open roles by country

  1. United States5,687
  2. United Kingdom508
  3. India422
  4. Canada304
  5. Germany200
  6. Singapore136
  7. Australia118
  8. Ireland96
  9. France88
  10. Japan80

Typical salary by specialism

Median of roles that list a salary, in USD a year.

  1. AI Safety & Alignment$398k
  2. Research Scientist$280k
  3. NLP$251k
  4. MLOps / Infrastructure$250k
  5. Machine Learning Engineer$238k
  6. Prompt / Eval Engineer$238k
  7. Data Scientist$233k
  8. AI/LLM Engineer$231k
  9. Computer Vision$230k
  10. Data Engineer$223k
  11. AI Product Manager$223k
  12. Robotics$219k
  13. AI Designer$199k
  14. Analytics Engineer$184k

Typical salary by level

Median of roles that list a salary, in USD a year.

  1. Exec$274k
  2. Principal$258k
  3. Staff$251k
  4. Lead$224k
  5. Senior$195k
  6. Entry$130k
  7. Intern$120k

How this is measured

Once a month we count every live role on AIJobsGrid, taken directly from employer job boards. This measures the openings we track, not all AI hiring, and a rise can also come from adding more companies. Salaries cover 5,736 technical roles that list pay, converted to USD at ECB reference rates.

Use this data

You are welcome to quote these figures. Please credit and link to the source: AIJobsGrid AI Hiring Index, October 2026, https://aijobsgrid.com/ai-hiring-index

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