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Meta may be spending hundreds of millions of dollars to lure top AI talent from rivals. But how much is it paying its broader workforce of software engineers, product managers, and UX researchers?
Thanks to data from federal filings, we now have a window into the company’s salary ranges during a heated moment in Silicon Valley’s talent wars.
Software engineers at Meta can make up to $480,000. Machine learning roles go as high as $440,000. Even product designers and researchers routinely top $200,000.
The numbers come from filings that companies must submit to the Department of Labor when hiring foreign workers through the H-1B visa program, which allows them to bring in 85,000 specialized workers annually through a lottery system. Because tech companies typically guard their compensation details closely, these government-mandated disclosures provide a peek into actual pay scales.
The numbers reflect only annual salaries, excluding the stock options, signing bonuses, and other perks that can often double or triple total compensation packages.
The data comes amid intense competition for AI talent in Silicon Valley. Meta is reportedly offering some AI researchers compensation packages worth up to $300 million over four years as it builds out a new Superintelligence lab.A spokesperson for Meta declined to comment.
The frenzy extends beyond tech giants. Thinking Machines Lab, the secretive AI startup founded by former OpenAI chief technology officer Mira Murati, is paying technical staff base salaries of up to $500,000 before the company has launched a single product, Business Insider reported earlier this week.
The battle has gotten personal. After Meta lured away seven OpenAI researchers, including Trapit Bansal, co-creator of the company’s o1 reasoning model, OpenAI’s chief research officer, Mark Chen, said in an internal memo that it felt like “someone has broken into our home.”
Here’s what Meta is paying across key roles, based on H-1B filings from the first quarter of 2025.
Artificial intelligence: The highest-paid research engineer at Meta makes up to $440,000.
Meta
- AI Research Scientist: $179,481 to $232,000
- Artificial Intelligence Product Marketing Manager: $220,000
- Machine Learning Engineer: $165,000 to $440,000
- Machine Learning Infrastructure Engineer: $239,723
- Machine Learning Research Scientist: $232,000
- Research Engineer: $154,840 to $400,000
- Senior Machine Learning Engineer: $232,017 to $232,266
Data: A data scientist at Meta earns as much as $270,000.
Getty Images
- Data Analyst: $168,000 to $204,000
- Data Analytics Manager: $223,202
- Data Engineer: $125,068 to $270,000
- Data Engineering Manager: $224,028 to $275,282
- Data Science Manager: $248,920 to $301,619
- Database Engineer: $181,000 to $240,002
- Data Science Director: $320,000
- Data Scientist: $122,760 to $270,000
- Senior Data Engineer: $189,066 to $209,720
- Senior Data Scientist: $204,541 to $227,559
- Senior Manager, Data & Analytics: $280,000
Engineering: Meta software engineers take home up to $480,000 in base salary.
MTStock Studio/Getty Images
- ASIC Engineer: $165,568 to $299,880
- Business Engineer: $137,000 to $228,538
- Design Engineer: $185,000 to $256,270
- Electrical Engineer: $164,000 to $255,000
- Embedded Software Engineer: $169,313 to $262,822
- Engineering Director: $352,310 to $353,042
- Engineering Manager: $246,536 to $288,767
- Front End Engineer: $177,747 to $233,495
- Hardware Engineer: $176,000 to $240,000
- Network Engineer: $115,000 to $239,237
- Quality Assurance Engineer: $189,213 to $244,000
- Security Engineer: $145,000 to $258,524
- Senior Software Engineer: $194,467 to $302,134
- Software Engineer: $120,000 to $480,000
- Software Engineering Manager: $219,978 to $328,000
Product and program management: A product manager at Meta is paid up to $314,159.
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
- Privacy Program Manager: $181,139 to $234,461
- Product Designer: $159,000 to $283,693
- Product Design Director: $321,538
- Product Design Manager: $267,540 to $279,594
- Product Growth Analyst: $142,000 to $206,000
- Product Management Director: $356,512
- Product Manager: $161,606 to $314,159
- Senior Product Designer: $199,932
- Senior Product Manager: $224,323
- Technical Program Manager: $164,131 to $274,596
Research: The highest-paid user experience researcher pockets up to $350,000.
Meta
- Applied Research Scientist: $214,032 to $232,000
- Hardware Specialized Research Scientist: $214,311
- Perception Research Scientist: $249,369
- Research Scientist: $167,000 to $321,101
- Research Scientist Manager: $258,524
- Senior Research Scientist: $214,032
- User Experience Researcher: $170,000 to $350,000
- UX Research Scientist Manager: $302,134
- UX Researcher: $195,000 to $292,160
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