Hiring AI engineers only in New York puts ad tech companies in competition with big tech’s ads businesses at the top of the pay market. A broader search lowers costs and widens the talent pool, but the savings only hold up if the team is set up to work across time zones.
Lots of opportunities for SiiRA original data here, if available, namely rate differences by region (i.e. NY versus LatAm, Eastern Europe, India) for ML and data roles.
The median AI/ML engineer in the United States earns $189,500 in total compensation, according to Stack Overflow. In the United Kingdom, the median is $149,756. In France it’s $73,089, and in India $17,436. New York adds a premium on top of the US figure. Federal data puts the median data scientist in the New York metro area at $135,980, compared with $120,230 nationally. For media and ad tech companies concentrated in New York, a local-only search means paying at the top of the market against the companies most able to outbid them. Searching in other markets brings costs down. The teams that actually keep those savings plan for working hours, compliance and retention from the start.
Key findings
The median AI/ML engineer earns $189,500 in the US, compared with $149,756 in the UK, $73,089 in France and $17,436 in India, per Stack Overflow’s 2025 survey.
Data engineers earn a median of $150,000 in the US, compared with $92,812 in Germany and $27,898 in India.
The median data scientist in the New York metro area earns $135,980, compared with $120,230 nationally, per BLS data.
Across all occupations, the New York metro’s average hourly wage is $41.50, compared with $33.54 nationally.
Developers rank autonomy and trust first and competitive pay second among the factors that drive their job satisfaction.
Why New York is the most expensive place to compete
Much of the ad tech industry is concentrated in New York, along with the agencies, publishers and media companies it serves. That concentration helps with client relationships and makes AI and data hiring harder. The Bureau of Labor Statistics puts the New York metro’s average wage across all occupations about 24% above the national average. For technical roles, the gap compounds with the cost of competing for specialized talent.
The competition is the bigger problem. As we covered in our look at hiring for agentic ad buying(link once live), Microsoft, Amazon, Google and TikTok are among the US employers with the most open AI roles, and each runs a large ads business that needs the same mix of ML and auction expertise. An independent ad tech company recruiting in New York is often bidding against those companies for the same candidates, and it usually can’t match their equity.
What a wider search changes
The pay differences are large. Stack Overflow’s survey shows the median data engineer earning $150,000 in the US, $102,106 in the UK, $92,812 in Germany and $27,898 in India. For AI/ML engineers, the spread runs from $189,500 in the US to $73,089 in France and $17,436 in India.
Those numbers need some context before anyone builds a budget around them.
Medians mix experience levels. The survey includes everyone from new graduates to senior engineers, and respondents in some countries skew younger. Senior AI talent abroad costs much more than the national median.
Specialized skills cost more everywhere. The UK’s AI/ML median is close to the US data engineer median, which shows how much demand has pushed up pay for AI skills even outside the US.
Salary isn’t the whole cost. Employer taxes and benefits, legal structure, equipment, travel and management time all add to the total.
Even with those adjustments, a team that searches beyond New York can usually hire strong engineers for meaningfully less, and can reach candidates who would never appear in a local search. AI skills are now the hardest to hire worldwide, and shortage rates vary widely by country. Where a company searches affects how fast it can hire.
Time zones decide what works where
The biggest practical difference between regions is how much of the working day overlaps with New York.
Latin America. São Paulo and Buenos Aires are one to two hours ahead of New York, depending on the season. Bogotá and Mexico City are one to two hours behind. A full day of overlap means engineers there can work as part of a New York team in real time.
Europe. Lisbon is five hours ahead, and Warsaw and Kraków six. That leaves roughly three hours of shared afternoon in Europe and morning in New York. It works for engineers who own well-defined parts of a system.
India. Bangalore is nine and a half to ten and a half hours ahead, with little natural overlap. Work there runs best when it’s handed off cleanly or when coverage across time zones is an advantage, such as monitoring or on-call.
For ad tech teams, this maps onto the work. Bidding and pacing models, campaign launches and incident response often need people available during US market hours, which favors nearshore hubs. Data pipeline builds, model training and evaluation can run asynchronously, which suits Europe or India. Many teams end up using more than one region for different kinds of work.
The savings depend on retention
A lower salary only saves money if the engineer stays. Engineers abroad with in-demand AI skills get recruited by US companies too. A team that pays the local median for scarce skills is likely to lose people within a year.
Stack Overflow’s survey points to what keeps engineers. Developers ranked autonomy and trust as the top factor in job satisfaction, followed by competitive pay and the chance to solve real-world problems. Several practices follow from that.
Pay at the top of the local market, not at a discount to it. The gap with New York is still large.
Give engineers abroad real ownership, not leftover tickets. Engineers who own a system tend to stay longer.
Build a career path, including promotion to senior and lead roles in their own location.
Budget for time together. A few in-person weeks a year build the working relationships that remote collaboration depends on.
Get the structure right
Most teams start with contractors abroad because it’s fastest. As we covered in our look at the risks of hiring engineers abroad(fastest way to hire/riskiest— link once live), that arrangement becomes risky when contractors work like full-time employees with no end date. A team that plans to build a lasting hub should plan for an employer of record or a local entity once the work becomes ongoing. Companies with larger operations sometimes go further and build dedicated global capability centers.
Decide what stays in the States
Teams that use global talent well decide deliberately which work stays local.
Keep local the roles that need close contact with agencies, clients and partners, such as solutions engineering, along with leadership and the people who set technical direction.
Build hubs for core engineering where overlap and talent depth fit the work. Nearshore hubs suit real-time systems, and Europe or India suit work that runs asynchronously.
Concentrate rather than scatter. A few engineers in each of a dozen countries is harder to manage, support and keep compliant than a team in two or three places.
Set pay bands by market and review them every year, because demand for AI skills is pushing up pay in every region.
A New York address makes it easier to sell to the ad industry. It doesn’t have to set the price of every engineer on the team.
Frequently asked questions
How much do AI and ML engineers earn in New York? The US median for AI/ML engineers is $189,500 in total compensation, per Stack Overflow’s 2025 survey, and New York pays more than the national average. BLS puts the New York metro median for data scientists at $135,980, compared with $120,230 nationally.
How much do AI engineers earn outside the US? Stack Overflow’s 2025 medians for AI/ML engineers are $149,756 in the UK, $73,089 in France and $17,436 in India. Senior engineers with specialized AI skills earn well above those medians.
Where can ad tech companies hire AI and data engineers outside the US? Latin America, Europe and India all have strong ML and data talent. Latin America offers the most working-hour overlap with New York, Europe offers a few shared hours, and India suits work that can run asynchronously.
Which international time zones work best with a New York team? Latin American hubs such as São Paulo, Buenos Aires, Bogotá and Mexico City are within about two hours of New York. Warsaw and Lisbon overlap for about three hours. Bangalore has little natural overlap.
Is hiring engineers abroad actually cheaper? Usually, but by less than headline salaries suggest. Employer costs, legal structure, travel, management time and paying at the top of the local market all reduce the gap. Retention determines whether the savings last.
How do we keep engineers abroad from leaving? Pay at the top of the local market, give them real ownership of systems, build local career paths, and budget for regular in-person time.
What legal structure should we use to hire engineers abroad? Contractor agreements work for time-bound projects. Ongoing roles usually call for an employer of record or a local entity, especially once a team in one country grows.
Should all AI engineering move out of New York? No. Roles that need close contact with clients and partners, along with technical leadership, usually belong in New York. Core engineering can be built in hubs chosen for overlap, talent depth and cost.
