It's a damn good time to be working at a startup as an AI engineer.
Since December of last year, the upper end of the salary range for AI engineers is up 8.8% at companies worth less than $100M.
8.8% in 6 months...so potentially 17% or so by the end of 2025? That is basically unheard of growth for salaries in small startup companies.
The middle part of the salary range is up 3% of the same time period (quite strong growth) while the average startup salary has grown less than 2%.
Obviously this rapid change is being driven by the ever-increasing competition for great AI talent, both at tiny startups and Big Tech giants.
(also kinda undercuts the idea that learning software engineering is somehow a bad idea now...don't believe that one for a second).
Beyond the AI boom, however, our State of Startup Compensation report for H1 2025 was full of mixed messages.
1. Fewest new hires in January of any year since 2019. Getting hired at a startup is as difficult now as it has been in probably a decade.
2. Eng and Sales have held up okay, while Operations hiring has been the most severely impacted.
3. Salaries are eeking out some gains on an average basis this year while equity packages remain 50%(!) below their peaks in 2022.
4. More startup employees are getting longer to exercise their stock options. About 25% of grants today come with post-termination exercise periods longer than 90 days.
Way more in the full report, comment below for a direct link!
#startups #salaries #AIengineers #founders
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