Updated 2026-08 · 195,714 salary data points
AI & data engineer daily rates — live benchmark
What you pay per day for senior AI, ML, and data engineers across six markets. Eastern Europe runs 40–60% below US rates for the same seniority.
| Role | USA | Canada | UK | Germany | Poland | Romania | bulgaria |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Engineer | €1,209 €957–€1527 | €359 €281–€462 | €728 €575–€921 | €656 €571–€774 | €452 €388–€604 | €409 €351–€546 | (insufficient data yet) |
| AI Research Scientist | €1,144 €933–€1403 | €517 €415–€643 | €393 €332–€464 | €502 €401–€585 | (insufficient data yet) | (insufficient data yet) | (insufficient data yet) |
| AI Solutions Architect | €1,149 €957–€1379 | €556 €466–€665 | €639 €515–€794 | (insufficient data yet) | (insufficient data yet) | (insufficient data yet) | (insufficient data yet) |
| Data Architect | €951 €763–€1188 | €560 €477–€657 | €625 €506–€769 | €521 €428–€593 | €394 €280–€537 | €358 €254–€488 | (insufficient data yet) |
| Data Engineer | €803 €663–€976 | €489 €423–€566 | €522 €439–€622 | €528 €461–€573 | €174 €132–€206 | €419 €347–€479 | €242 €168–€303 |
| Data Scientist | €872 €748–€1018 | €458 €394–€531 | €495 €412–€597 | €487 €429–€540 | €612 €306–€871 | €556 €278–€792 | €192 €173–€259 |
| ML Engineer | €1,054 €862–€1292 | €651 €558–€760 | €768 €649–€908 | €689 €587–€774 | €653 €559–€750 | €594 €508–€682 | €247 €184–€355 |
| MLOps Engineer | €1,052 €881–€1256 | €553 €473–€646 | €648 €513–€819 | €831 €656–€1005 | (insufficient data yet) | (insufficient data yet) | (insufficient data yet) |
| NLP Engineer | €1,148 €920–€1431 | €655 €559–€763 | €753 €626–€904 | €502 €401–€510 | €194 €165–€209 | €176 €150–€190 | (insufficient data yet) |
| Python Developer | €415 €310–€580 | €445 €371–€534 | €481 €389–€597 | €448 €396–€505 | €494 €402–€657 | €449 €365–€597 | €81 €67–€91 |
Daily rates per engineer, shown low–median–high (€/day). Estimated from Glassdoor engineer salaries plus average industry margins — indicative only.
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How these rates are calculated
- Salary base: Market salary data aggregated monthly from public sources (Glassdoor estimates) by role, market, and seniority.
- Daily rate: The gross daily cost of that salary plus the average industry margin for the role family — the rate a buyer would pay.
- Frequency: Refreshed the first week of every month. The current dataset reflects 2026-08.
- Quality gate: A cell is published only when the underlying sample is large enough to be reliable.
These are market rates — not a quote
The table shows indicative day rates per engineer. Your actual cost depends on team size, seniority mix, stack, and engagement length. Book a scoping call and get a team composition with a real rate band.
Frequently asked questions
How are the daily rates calculated?
We take market salary data for each role, market, and seniority, convert it to a gross daily cost, and add the average industry margin for that role family. The result is the indicative daily rate a buyer would pay to engage that engineer.
How is the data collected?
Salary data is aggregated monthly from public market sources (Glassdoor salary estimates) by role, market, and seniority. We then apply average industry margins to produce the daily rate, publishing a cell only when the underlying sample is large enough to be reliable.
What markets are covered?
USA, UK, Germany, Canada, Romania, and Poland. We focus on markets where we have enough postings to produce reliable data.
How often is the data updated?
The crawler runs the first week of every month. New data is published to the site as soon as the monthly run completes and passes validation.
What does “insufficient data” mean?
A cell reads “(insufficient data yet)” when we captured fewer than three distinct job postings for that role, market, and seniority combination in the current month. We prefer to show no data rather than a misleading average from one or two postings.
What is the hourly rate for a data engineer?
Divide the daily rate by 8 for an indicative hourly rate — a senior data engineer benchmarked at €480/day works out to roughly €60/hour. We publish and bill by the day because AI and data work is scheduled in days, and hourly billing adds administration on both sides without changing the total.
How does a contractor day rate compare to the cost of an employee?
A day rate is the full cost to you. An employee salary is not. Add employer social contributions, holiday and sick pay, equipment, recruitment fees and non-billable days, and the loaded cost of a permanent engineer typically runs 25–45% above base salary. Compare the day rate against that loaded figure divided by roughly 220 working days, not against the salary itself.
Are these rates what I pay, or what the engineer earns?
These are buyer-facing rates: what you would pay to engage that engineer, inclusive of employment cost and margin. No separate agency fee, onboarding charge or bench cost on top. See how the engagement model works.