// ZDNET — INTELLIGENZA ARTIFICIALE
Want an AI job? Deployment engineers are earning executive-level pay – up to $1.45M a year
AI has ushered in new jobs, and some of them are paying handsomely, according to a new study.
AI engineers are making well over six figures in salary — and plenty more in bonuses and equity, according to data from a new report by executive search firm Christian & Timbers.
Enterprises now pay “elite” AI deployment engineers between $586,000 and $1.45 million annually in total compensation, with senior leaders in the field earning up to $2.25 million, according to the report. This figure approaches the median compensation of executive officers of public companies, the authors note.
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Christian & Timbers is an AI executive search and leadership advisory firm, recruiting CEOs, board members, technology executives, and AI engineers for enterprises. The new report draws on more than 550 interviews with engineers, deployment leaders, and executives conducted from January through June 2026, along with closed and current open offers. The compensation bands are Christian & Timbers’ estimates and represent ranges rather than statistical averages.
“Enterprise CEOs are under pressure to deliver returns for their AI investments. The most important decision is how to build the team that delivers on that goal,” said Jeff Christian, founder and CEO of Christian & Timbers, in a press release.
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The report noted that the staggering salary range includes base salary, bonus, and annualized equity. Christian & Timbers said it defines an “elite” forward deployment engineer (FDE) as “a senior AI-native deployment builder, typically with 7 to 15 years of experience, including at least two years building and deploying agentic automated workflows that deliver measurable ROI with a documented enterprise impact of $10M or more,” who has also led a team of other forward deployment engineers.
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The large salary ranges reflect increasing enterprise investments in AI talent and employee development. Microsoft, AWS, and OpenAI have announced more than $7.5 billion in corporate and partner investment in AI deployment over the past six months, Christian & Timbers noted in the release.