Tech companies are willing to pay top dollar—up to $1 million or more—to recruit talented software engineers with experience in generative artificial intelligence.
Employees who know how to work with large language models and semiconductor chips – which is the technology behind popular apps like ChatGPT – are becoming a rarity in the job market, executives say.
These lucrative deals from AI startups, which include attractive stock acquisition schedules, come as big tech companies like Google, Meta and Amazon continue massive layoffs despite rising profits.
Databricks, a data storage and artificial intelligence company, told the Wall Street Journal that finding run-of-the-mill engineers is not a challenge, but finding engineers with enhanced AI skills is.
The average annual salary for AI engineers is around $280,000, while non-AI engineers can expect a salary close to $190,000, according to data from professional services platform Levels.fyi.
Naveen Rao, vice president of generative AI at Databricks, says there may only be a couple hundred people qualified to take on the challenges that come with AI engineering.
Arthur Mensch, co-founder and CEO of Mistral AI, attends the AI Safety Summit in Bletchley Park, near Milton Keynes, Britain, on November 2, 2023.
Naveen Rao, vice president of generative AI at Databricks, said the real challenge is picking potential staff from an estimated talent pool of “a couple hundred” who have actually trained large language models and can reliably solve problems on a bespoke basis. Let them surge. .
He told the WSJ: ‘There is a secular shift in the talents we look for.
“We have an excess of people on one hand and a shortage on the other.”
Databricks is in line with AI salary estimates, as even an entry-level software engineer hired there can expect to earn $224,000 in total, including base salary, stock options, and bonuses, Levels.fyi data reveals.
For a senior engineer, Databricks offers total compensation of around $964,000.
Rao said that for new employees specializing in AI, compensation packages can reach a whopping $1 million or more.
Levels.fyi co-founder Zuhayeer Musa also told the Wall Street Journal that OpenAI’s compensation packages are more than double compared to similar jobs at Meta.
Six candidates for positions at OpenAI told Levels.fyi that the average salary was $925,000 a year, including bonuses and company equity. The total median salary for 344 machine learning and artificial intelligence engineers at Meta was $400,000.
The Journal also noted that companies in different sectors are giving spontaneous salary increases to prevent talented AI professionals from fleeing to startups.
Scott Chetham, CEO of AI-powered Faro Health, explained that he offered a job to a candidate employed at a large consulting firm. The candidate’s company responded by slightly doubling her salary to retain her and her coveted AI talent.
The beginnings of the modern AI boom began as early as 2015, when CEO Sam Altman and Elon Musk founded OpenAI. When the company launched ChatGPT in November 2022, it quickly became a household name and reached 100 million active users in January 2023.
This rapid growth, while great for these companies, requires talented workers who know what they are doing. Some employees who have been stationed at major technology companies know this and are giving up their higher base salaries in the hope that betting now on AI will pay off big in the coming years.
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman (left) attends a session of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos on January 18, 2024. Justin Kinsey (right) is the president of SBT.
Justin Kinsey, president of semiconductor company SBT, told the Wall Street Journal that he recently recruited a candidate from Microsoft.
In the process, this person allegedly turned down more than $1 million in bonuses and Microsoft stock, while also taking a $100,000 cut in his base salary to join Kinsey’s startup.
He made the move because he believes he will make $40 million from SBT shares alone in five to seven years.
Another way for tech employees to succeed in the world of AI is to go out on their own, as former Google employee Arthur Mensch did.
Mensch founded Mistral AI in April 2023 and less than a year later, the company has been valued at $2 billion.
However, poaching comes in both directions. AI startups are trying to attract engineers from Big Tech, but Big Tech is also trying to bring in small, successful AI teams.
For example, Apple acquired Darwin AI in mid-March. The iPhone maker has hired several Darwin employees to join its own AI division to possibly help with the implementation of generative AI in the upcoming iOS 18, Bloomberg reported.