Feature
As AI transforms everything from cybersecurity to creativity, if you understand this emerging technology, you may be wondering are if there new career opportunities for you to work in a fascinating, disruptive and futuristic field. Hiring for technical talent with AI skills increased by 323% in the last eight years, according to a study by Microsoft and LinkedIn. And it shows no sign of slowing down. In fact, leaders are now hunting for non-technical talent with AI skills. Many leaders (66%) said they wouldn’t hire someone who doesn’t have AI skills and a higher percentage (71%) said they prefer experienced candidates with AI skills to those without them — no matter how experienced. Jobs that tap into AI skills are all over the map. Here, we look at some of the top jobs and salaries in the AI market.
1. General AI Engineer
You’ll need a wide range of technical skills to earn this position, where you’ll be tasked with designing the software that allows machines to automate predictive models and work with data scientists to curate data and feed it into those models. You’ll likely also act as a bridge between software engineering and data science. If you have an appropriate technical degree, experience working as a programmer and know your way around Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud, adding some AI skills to your toolkit could help you land a cross-functional role building AI tools and models.
A general AI engineer can earn between $115,000 and $213,000 a year, according to Glassdoor. And there are thousands of jobs in this area. Companies like IBM, Microsoft, Intel, Google and Apple list hundreds of roles with this title. But smaller companies, non-tech industries and startups are also hiring for this role.
2. AI Consultant
Helping people tap into the power of AI to make their business more efficient, competitive or smarter is currently a growth market. This is a great option if you aren’t the most technical person on the team but are tech and business savvy enough to have a broad understanding of both AI and a specific industry that is hoping to implement it.
You’ll need strong critical thinking skills for this and an advanced degree or appropriate experience. If you have an advanced degree in AI or machine learning (ML), you’ll be uniquely positioned for this role, but people with practical experience are also in demand.
Salaries average $135,000 but can go up to over $224,000, according to Glassdoor. There are thousands of jobs in this field in industries from banking to law and education. You’ll need about seven or more years of related experience and enough AI knowledge to help businesses successfully implement an AI implementation that can help them automate work, save time or increase the productivity of their teams.
3. Principal AI Engineer
To successfully land a position as a principal AI engineer, you’ll need to be capable of working independently to design and develop scalable solutions using AI tools. You’ll research and test algorithms and predictive models and use big data computation and storage tools to build prototypes and data sets. You don’t have to work at a tech company to fill this role, since a wide range of companies are building AI into their products. Everyone from toy makers to car dealers and health care organizations are hiring this skill. This position requires you to program AI software and collaborate with AI scientists, designers and developers as well as other team members to develop goals and features for the company’s AI development efforts.
A masters in a STEM subject, about a decade of experience working in technology and hands-on experience in AI will help you land this role, and you’ll need to keep your skills and knowledge around AI developments sharp and current. Salaries start at $115,000 and go up to $190,817, according to Salary.com, and the median salary is $152,817.
4. Senior Data Engineer, Artificial Intelligence
With 10 years or so of experience and an appropriate technical degree, you may consider a position as a senior data engineer working in artificial intelligence. You’ll need advanced knowledge of the tools, cloud platforms, languages and engineering practices to take on this role, where you’ll be tasked with solving complex problems and building complex solutions for managing, accessing and cleaning data.
In this role, you’ll work closely with AI and machine learning engineers to design and build AI data solutions that deliver business intelligence (BI) at the speed of AI. The average salary for a high-level data engineer ranges from $92,599 to $121,944, according to Salary.com, but individual jobs, with an AI specialization, go higher, with some reaching over $227,000 a year.
5. Artificial Intelligence Researcher
Ready to live at the cutting edge of the cutting edge? A job as an artificial intelligence researcher will have you solving real problems with state-of-the-art artificial intelligence. You’ll likely lead a team of brilliant AI experts, conduct potentially world-changing research and analyze the findings of that research, so you can turn it into actionable insight. You’ll need to understand AI, ML, the algorithms that go into these advanced technologies and computer science. An advanced degree in deep learning, natural language processing (NLP) or related fields will help. And you’ll need practical experience as an AI engineer, software engineer or robotics engineer.
Salary ranges are hard to pin down at the cutting edge but could be anywhere from $133,600 to $256,800, according to one job post. Another leadership role in AI research is offering over $300,000 to the researcher capable of this role.
6. AI Product Manager
A product manager working in AI isn’t much different from any product manager, except that you’ll be shepherding AI-specific products from conception to completion. You’ll need to understand the industry and trends in AI, develop ideas that tap the power of AI to solve needs, manage a product road map, understand project management best practices and communicate the needs and the statuses of the product plan and progress to the team.
You’ll need to be more technical than your average technical project manager and able to speak to AI developers and data scientists. Salaries for this role start at $138,000 and go up to $238,00, with the median of $180,000, according to Glassdoor.
7. AI Ethics Specialist
When developing artificial intelligence, using it ethically and building it so that it behaves ethically is an art and a science. AI ethics specialists keep an eye on this important factor for a team of developers who are creating models, products and AI-driven projects.
This role requires a deep understanding of the technology and its potential as well as its potential for harm. A background in law, ethics, engineering and related fields will be necessary, as you develop guidelines and policies to govern the creation and use of AI. The average salary of an AI ethics job at $121,000 a year, according to ZipRecruiter. But these can vary widely, depending on the industry. The salary for one AI ethics manager job starts at $266,000.
8. Artificial Intelligence Cybersecurity
As hackers increasingly use AI to attack networks, cybersecurity professionals are fighting back with AI. Having a knowledge of both cybersecurity and AI puts you in the position to implement automated responses to cyberattacks and secure networks with artificial intelligence.
AI cybersecurity jobs average $132,962, according to ZipRecruiter, but at Indeed, individual job posts list much higher salaries — topping out at well over $200,000 — for this combination of skills. If you already work in cybersecurity, adding AI skills to your toolkit can help you pivot into a role using AI. If you work in AI, develop skills around cybersecurity risks and threats if you want to consider a move into the in-demand role of a cybersecurity professional using artificial intelligence.
9. Artificial Intelligence Prompt Engineer
If you have mastered the art of writing prompts that deliver the results you’re looking for from an AI, you should know that a job as a prompt engineer can pay over $300,000 a year. Other reports, like this one from ZipRecruiter, put the average salary at $62,977. Confusing? The determining factor will likely be what sort of prompts you engineer.
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In this role, you’ll be writing the natural language text that asks a generative AI to perform a specific task. Whether you’re designing prompts for testing and building generative AI platforms or building out customer communications for chatbots will determine where you fit in the prompt engineering field. This job requires that you think creatively and understand how the AI thinks. A degree in computer science will help with this but real-world experience and critical thinking skills may be enough.
10. AI Scientist
AI and science are at a crossroads. If you’re a medical researcher, scientist or other biotechnologist and have knowledge of AI, there’s a world of opportunity developing AI models for drug discovery. But health care is not the only science being transformed by AI. Financial services, audio science, computer systems, energy and many more scientific industries are exploring ways AI can speed up research and discovery and act as a source of inspiration and ideas.
Salaries for an AI scientist start at $110,000 and go up to $205,000, with an average of $146,000, according to Glassdoor. You’ll need a plethora of skills and degrees to move into this fascinating area. A knowledge of the science is foremost. But adding AI skills to that toolkit will transform the work you do in your field of science.
