Compensation Intelligence

UK AI Salary Benchmarks

Salary percentiles derived from live job postings with stated compensation. All figures are gross annual salary in GBP. Updated each pipeline run.

£70k

Market Median

all roles · all seniorities

£43k–£93k

P25 – P75

Market Distribution

£70k

Median UK AI/ML salary — all roles, all seniorities

£43k

25th percentile

£93k

75th percentile

£43k£70k£93k

Lower quartileMedianUpper quartile

Salary by Experience Level

UK AI/ML · Gross annual · GBP

Junior

0–2 yrs

£33k

live median

£27k£35k

Grad schemes & apprenticeships included

Mid-Level

2–5 yrs

£78k

estimated median

£65k£95k

Owns features independently

Senior

5–8 yrs

£73k

live median

£54k£85k

Technical leadership & mentoring

Principal / Staff

8+ yrs

£85k

live median

£54k£105k

Org-wide impact, IC track

Salary by Role

ML Engineer

£65k£90k£130k

Data Scientist

£55k£75k£110k

AI Research Scientist

£70k£95k£140k

MLOps / Platform Engineer

£65k£88k£125k

NLP Engineer

£60k£85k£120k

Data Engineer

£55k£78k£110k

Computer Vision Engineer

£62k£88k£125k

P25

Median

P75

Regional Salary Index

London

Highest concentration of AI roles

£70k

100% of London

Cambridge

Strong research & biotech sector

£67k

95% of London

Oxford

Academic + deep tech spin-outs

£64k

92% of London

Manchester

Growing Northern Powerhouse hub

£57k

82% of London

Edinburgh

Strong in fintech & NLP research

£56k

80% of London

Bristol

Robotics & autonomous systems

£58k

83% of London

Remote (UK)

Varies widely by company HQ

£63k

90% of London

Regional index relative to London median. Based on live posting data + ONS regional pay data.

Remote vs On-Site Premium

Fully Remote

Anchored to company HQ location

£64k

92% of benchmark

Hybrid (2–3 days)

Standard in most UK AI roles today

£70k

100% of benchmark

Fully On-site

London roles may compensate more

£68k

97% of benchmark

Hybrid commands a slight premium as employers compete for talent willing to commute.