Scale AI FDE Salary
Forward Deployed Engineer compensation at Scale AI, from disclosed postings and cited public data.
Scale AI's own posted pay bands put the median base near $241K. Figures below are base salary only and carry their source and date; equity and bonus, common at AI labs and startups, push total compensation higher.
Scale AI FDE Salary (Posted Pay Bands)
These are Scale AI's own legally-posted base-salary bands, harvested from its job board and cited in the final column. Base salary only; most of these roles also offer equity. Confidence: HIGH.
| Level | Base | Total Comp | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Forward Deployed Engineer (San Francisco, CA) | $179K – $224K | – | Scale AI careers (posted pay band) (2026-09) |
| Frontier Agents Engineer (San Francisco, CA) | $180K – $225K | – | Scale AI careers (posted pay band) (2026-09) |
| Forward Deployed Software Engineer (Austin, TX) | $184K – $293K | – | Scale AI careers (posted pay band) (2026-09) |
| Senior Frontier Agents Engineer (San Francisco, CA) | $216K – $270K | – | Scale AI careers (posted pay band) (2026-09) |
| Staff Frontier Agents Engineer (San Francisco, CA) | $252K – $315K | – | Scale AI careers (posted pay band) (2026-09) |
| Sr. Director (New York, NY) | $285K – $356K | – | Scale AI careers (posted pay band) (2026-09) |
Bands are base salary only and exclude equity and bonus; most of these roles also offer equity. Figures are the employer's own legally-posted pay ranges.
Harvested from Scale AI's own job board: 6 US Forward Deployed / Applied AI Engineer posting(s) carrying a pay-transparency base band. Each row links to the live posting.
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