OpenAI salaries

OpenAI advertised pay for 14 roles across 320 job postings on its own job board. The highest midpoint is Research Scientist at $418,750. These are advertised base-pay bands, not salaries anyone was confirmed to be paid, and they exclude equity, which some of these postings say is offered on top.

What OpenAI advertises, by role

Ranked by midpoint. Each range is what the company advertised for the role in its own job postings.

Role	Midpoint	Advertised range
Research Scientist	$418,750	$198,000–$585,000
Software Engineering Manager	$355,000	$293,000–$490,000
Product Manager	$339,000	$230,000–$490,000
Software Engineer	$317,500	$145,800–$555,000
Data Scientist	$315,000	$230,000–$515,000
Lawyer	$313,500	$248,000–$347,000
Information Security Analyst	$309,700	$230,000–$490,000
Data Engineer	$309,000	$230,000–$385,000
DevOps Engineer	$307,500	$141,000–$490,000
Product Designer	$277,500	$200,000–$385,000
Machine Learning Engineer	$273,250	$197,000–$555,000
Technical Program Manager	$255,500	$162,000–$445,000
Marketing Manager	$236,250	$144,000–$318,000
Recruiter	$217,000	$136,800–$240,000

OpenAI pay by location

Roles where OpenAI's advertised range differs by metro — a San Francisco or New York posting against the same role elsewhere. Only metros with at least two postings, and only roles that actually diverge, are shown.

Software Engineering Manager

Metro	Midpoint	Advertised range
SF Bay Area	$339,000	$293,000–$490,000
Seattle	$410,250	$325,000–$490,000

Software Engineer

Metro	Midpoint	Advertised range
SF Bay Area	$325,500	$145,800–$555,000
New York	$327,500	$153,000–$490,000
Seattle	$313,250	$145,800–$490,000
Washington, DC	$270,000	$145,800–$385,000

Data Scientist

Metro	Midpoint	Advertised range
SF Bay Area	$315,000	$230,000–$515,000
New York	$362,750	$230,000–$515,000
Seattle	$308,250	$230,000–$385,000

Information Security Analyst

Metro	Midpoint	Advertised range
SF Bay Area	$324,350	$230,000–$490,000
New York	$324,350	$230,000–$490,000
Seattle	$339,000	$230,000–$490,000
Washington, DC	$363,000	$230,000–$490,000

Machine Learning Engineer

Metro	Midpoint	Advertised range
SF Bay Area	$307,500	$197,000–$555,000
New York	$239,000	$197,000–$385,000
Seattle	$272,500	$197,000–$385,000

Technical Program Manager

Metro	Midpoint	Advertised range
SF Bay Area	$260,750	$165,400–$445,000
Seattle	$255,500	$165,400–$285,000
Washington, DC	$230,600	$162,000–$310,000

Recruiter

Metro	Midpoint	Advertised range
SF Bay Area	$217,000	$136,800–$240,000
New York	$197,200	$136,800–$240,000
Seattle	$197,200	$136,800–$240,000

Read this before quoting a number. These are the ranges the company itself advertised in its job postings, which US pay-transparency law requires it to publish. They are not salaries anyone was confirmed to be paid, and they are not survey percentiles.

Low is the lowest floor seen across every posting and high is the highest ceiling, so one company's whole spread — junior to staff, and every city it pays differently in — sits between those two numbers. Midpoint is the median of each posting band's own midpoint.

Base pay only. Equity, bonus and benefits are excluded, and at the companies where equity is most of the offer that makes these figures a floor rather than a total. Figures are US postings in US dollars; postings in other currencies were dropped rather than converted at a rate we would have had to invent.

Knowing the range is half of negotiating it

The other half is saying it out loud without flinching. ChannelPulse plays the interviewer, asks the compensation question the way a recruiter does, and scores how you answered.

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