Salary Benchmarks
All figures AUD base salary, excluding superannuation. Sydney market rates, 2026, compiled from published Australian salary guides and public market data. Roles without a published 2026 band are benchmarked per search — ask us.
| Role | Senior | Lead / Principal |
|---|---|---|
| Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE) | $180k–240k | $230k–280k |
| AI / ML Engineer | $180k–220k | $200k–250k |
| Data Engineer | $160k–190k | $190k–250k |
| Data Scientist | $110k–190k (avg $150k) | — |
| Software Engineer | $160k–190k | $190k–220k |
| Cyber Security Engineer | $170k–200k | $200k–230k |
| Cloud / Platform Engineer | $170k–210k | $190k–230k |
Methodology
Compiled in August 2026 from published Australian salary guides and public market data, including recruiter-published 2026 engineering salary guides, Robert Half's 2026 Australia Salary Guide, and Morgan McKinley's 2026 Sydney data. Sydney base salaries excluding superannuation. Melbourne typically runs 8–12% below Sydney at senior level, and Sydney pays around 9% above the national average.
Key Trends for 2026
- AI and ML engineering pays 12–18% above like-for-like software engineering, with the gap widening at principal level
- Frontier AI scale-ups often exceed senior AI bands by 30–50%, mostly through equity
- Data engineering and cyber security salaries have flattened after several years of sharp rises
- Only around a dozen roles are advertised under the exact FDE title in Australia (August 2026) — most FDE-capable talent sits under other titles
- Australia faces a projected shortfall of ~60,000 AI professionals by 2027 (Bain & Company)