Ryz Engineer Rates Index 2027: what engineers cost, by role

Short answer: In the US, a machine learning engineer's median total pay is 143% of the typical software engineer's, an engineering manager's is 182%, and an AI engineer's is 78% (Levels.fyi, October 2026; software engineer median $198,000 = 100). A senior US engineer's base salary implies about $23,700 a month in employer cost once benefits are added. Ryz prices senior engineers at $10,000 to $15,000 per engineer per month and mid-level engineers at $7,000 to $10,000, quoted per team.

The Ryz Engineer Rates Index is a quarterly reference for engineering leaders planning 2027 budgets. It brings together public US pay data, the US employer cost of a hire, how much public pay data exists for Latin America (very little for AI roles), and the price we publish. Every market figure shows its source, measure and sample size, and we publish a cell only when at least 30 people stand behind it. This first edition uses data read in October 2026.

Key findings

1. Engineering managers and machine learning engineers top the index. Index values: engineering manager 182 ($360,000, n=3,166), machine learning engineer 143 ($282,950, n=1,067), product manager 117 ($230,723, n=4,994). Source: Levels.fyi, US, all levels.
2. "AI engineer" scores 78, well below "machine learning engineer" at 143. The two titles are reported by different mixes of employers and levels, so the gap says more about who uses each title than about the work. A buyer pricing AI work should look at the skills, not the title.
3. A senior US engineer costs about $23,700 a month before equity. That is the $195,000 median senior base salary (Levels.fyi, n=22,084) divided by 0.685, the wage share of total compensation for professional workers (BLS ECEC, June 2026), then divided by 12.
4. Public pay data for AI engineers in Latin America is nearly empty. Across Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile, Levels.fyi holds 1,015 back-end engineer pay reports but 73 for machine learning engineers, 28 for AI engineers and 8 for MLOps engineers. Only one AI-related cell in the region, Brazil machine learning engineers (n=33), clears our 30-report bar.
5. For every public machine learning pay report in the region there are 14 back-end reports. Thin public data on AI roles fits what we see in hiring: engineers who have shipped AI to production are the hard part of the market to price and to find.
6. Ryz publishes its price. $7,000 to $10,000 per month for mid-level engineers (comparable to Amazon L5), $10,000 to $15,000 for senior engineers (comparable to Amazon L6), and $15,000 and up for leads, quoted per team.

The index: US pay by role

Index value = role median total compensation ÷ the US software engineer median ($198,000, n=47,784) × 100. Total compensation is base plus stock plus bonus, self-reported, all levels combined.

Source: Levels.fyi, United States, read October 22, 2026. Mobile, iOS, Android and MLOps cells hold 39 to 69 reports and are directional.

What a US hire costs an employer

Pay is what an engineer receives; employer cost adds paid leave, insurance, retirement and legally required payments. BLS finds wages are 68.5% of total compensation for private-industry management, professional and related workers, so dividing a base wage by 0.685 estimates base plus benefits. These BLS medians cover all employers and all levels, so they run below the Levels.fyi figures above.

Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025 (base wages); BLS ECEC, June 2026 (wage share). Equity, bonus, recruiting, equipment and management time are not included, so real costs are higher. The cost-to-hire guide covers those.

Latin America: what public data covers, and what it misses

Latin America is a deep source of senior engineers on US business hours, and public pay data is solid for general software roles. For AI roles, it thins out fast.

Source: Levels.fyi, self-reported pay submissions in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile, read October 2–3, 2026. Country-by-role pay medians, where at least 30 people report, are in our Latin America engineering talent report, and country detail is on the Latin American developer salaries page.

A public index points the same way. The Latin American AI Index (ILIA 2025) from ECLAC finds advanced AI training in the region is still insufficient and concentrated in a few countries, and that the region's AI talent gap with the world average has widened since 2022 as specialists leave.

Availability: what we see in interviews

We interview tens of thousands of engineers a year, and only the top 1% join Ryz. Once you say go, engineers can typically start in under 2 weeks; some teams take 3–6 weeks depending on the project and your start date. Most Ryz engineers ship code in their first week on a client team. Our vetting process explains how candidates are screened.

What a team costs at Ryz prices

Team cost is team size × monthly rate × months. Two examples at the published bands:

• An AI pod of four (three senior engineers and one mid-level engineer): 3 × $10,000–$15,000 + 1 × $7,000–$10,000 = $37,000 to $55,000 a month, or $222,000 to $330,000 over six months.
• Two senior back-end engineers added to an existing team: 2 × $10,000–$15,000 = $20,000 to $30,000 a month.

Quotes are scoped per team, and you get a plan, a price and the names of the people before you start. Ryz engineers work on your team, reporting to your leads. Run your own numbers in the team cost calculator or the AI development cost calculator, or see AI pod teams.

Methodology

• Index: US median total compensation by title from Levels.fyi (self-reported base, stock and bonus, all levels), read October 22, 2026 from each public page's structured data, divided by the US software engineer median. Next update: January 2027, then quarterly.
• Employer cost: BLS OEWS May 2025 median base wage by occupation, divided by the BLS ECEC June 2026 wage share (0.685).
• Latin America: Levels.fyi country pages for each title in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Chile, read October 2–3, 2026. This page counts pay reports by title; it does not publish Latin American pay medians.
• Ryz prices: our published bands, the same ones on every rates page. No client data and no candidate rate data are used.
• Caveats: self-reported data leans toward large employers with equity plans; title mixes differ by employer; stock is reported at grant value per year.

Use this data

Download the data (CSV). The charts and the data file are licensed CC BY 4.0. Credit "Ryz Engineer Rates Index, Ryz Labs, October 2026" with a link to this page, and cite Levels.fyi and BLS for the original figures. For interviews or a custom cut, email info@ryzlabs.com.

Related

• Engineer rates by role
• AI engineer rates
• Machine learning engineer rates
• LLM engineer rates
• Cost to hire a software developer

FAQ

What is the Ryz Engineer Rates Index?

A quarterly index of US engineering pay by role, where the US software engineer median ($198,000 in October 2026) equals 100, published with US employer-cost estimates, a count of public Latin American pay data by role, and Ryz's own price bands.

How much does an AI engineer cost in 2026?

In the US, the AI engineer title has a $155,000 median total pay (n=339) and the machine learning engineer title $282,950 (n=1,067), on Levels.fyi. At Ryz, senior engineers who build AI systems are $10,000 to $15,000 per engineer per month, quoted per team.

Why is there so little pay data for AI engineers in Latin America?

Few engineers in the region hold AI titles yet, and fewer report pay publicly. Levels.fyi holds 73 machine learning engineer and 28 AI engineer reports across five countries, against 1,015 for back-end engineers.

What does a senior software engineer cost per month in the US?

About $23,700 a month in base pay plus benefits at the $195,000 median senior base salary, before equity, bonus and recruiting.

How often is the index updated?

Quarterly. The next edition is planned for January 2027, with the same method so values can be compared.

Questions we didn't answer? Email info@ryzlabs.com.