Salary intelligence
9 out of 10 Australian AI job ads hide the pay. We track live postings and placements, so both sides can negotiate on evidence. Updated July 2026.
Source: July 2026 scrape of 496 live Australian LinkedIn postings across five role families, triangulated against the Galileo rate card, the Galileo P1 salary dataset (22,000+ data points), published salary guides and Galileo Search placement data.
Fifteen seats, permanent and contract
Permanent figures are total package including super for Sydney at large-company scale unless the band says otherwise. Every row carries provenance and a confidence note, because a band you cannot interrogate is just a guess with formatting.
| Role | Permanent package (Syd, Large) | Base band, market scrape | Contract day rate | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Head of AI / Director of AI | $230k to $290k (package incl super + bonus) | Headline band is the scrape figure | $1,680 to $2,280interim | Verified against two published guides plus our own advertised range. Director of AI AU average sits at $236k. Day-rate work at this level is interim and fractional, priced from the Galileo P1 dataset rather than an advertised contract market. |
| Chief AI Officer | $262K to $518K | See confidence note | $1,500 to $3,200interim | Verified against a published Sydney guide. Enterprise seats only; not a mid-market band. |
| AI Transformation / Adoption Lead | $120k to $180k+ | Headline band is the scrape figure | $1,560 to $2,110interim | Directional. Built from the minority of leadership postings that disclose pay in our July 2026 scrape; most transformation and adoption ads hide salary. |
| Gen AI Engineer | $176K to $225K | $155k to $200k | $1,000 to $1,600 | Verified against a published guide. Quote $160k to $200k for LLM-capable seniors; lead, staff and founding seats run $200k to $270k in disclosed postings. |
| AI Solutions Architect | $190K to $264K | $165k to $200k | $1,100 to $1,900 | Verified across two independent published sources. The deepest contract market of any AI seat. |
| AI Governance Manager | $180K to $272K | $140k to $180k | $1,000 to $1,700 | Verified permanent band; day-rate data is thin because the dedicated talent pool barely exists yet. 30 of 32 governance ads in our scrape hid salary. |
| AI Product Manager | $165K to $267K | $150k to $185k | $1,000 to $1,600 | Verified against a published guide. Rarely contracted; adoption and use-case pipelines are multi-year. |
| ML Engineer (senior) | $170k to $195k | Headline band is the scrape figure | $900 to $1,220 | Verified senior band. Published all-levels averages run far lower because the samples are junior-heavy; do not use them to price a senior. |
Verified against two published guides plus our own advertised range. Director of AI AU average sits at $236k. Day-rate work at this level is interim and fractional, priced from the Galileo P1 dataset rather than an advertised contract market.
Verified against a published Sydney guide. Enterprise seats only; not a mid-market band.
Directional. Built from the minority of leadership postings that disclose pay in our July 2026 scrape; most transformation and adoption ads hide salary.
Verified against a published guide. Quote $160k to $200k for LLM-capable seniors; lead, staff and founding seats run $200k to $270k in disclosed postings.
Verified across two independent published sources. The deepest contract market of any AI seat.
Verified permanent band; day-rate data is thin because the dedicated talent pool barely exists yet. 30 of 32 governance ads in our scrape hid salary.
Verified against a published guide. Rarely contracted; adoption and use-case pipelines are multi-year.
Verified senior band. Published all-levels averages run far lower because the samples are junior-heavy; do not use them to price a senior.
Total package incl. super. Sydney, large company, principal and senior manager level. Galileo rate card, reconciled against the P1 dataset. July 2026. Head of AI, AI Transformation and senior ML Engineer bands are scrape-verified market bands; each confidence note says how they were built. Leadership day rates are interim and fractional engagement rates (Head of AI and AI Transformation bands from the Galileo P1 dataset), because advertised day-rate markets for those seats are thin. Bands reflect the Sydney market, which leads every AI family we track; Melbourne typically runs 5 to 10% under Sydney for the same seat.
The twelve-seat rate card
The salary table above prices all fifteen seats; this rate card is the twelve marketplace roles we place and contract. Day rates for contract engagements, permanent packages for Sydney at large-company scale, and pillar tags showing where each seat sits.
| # | Role | Pillar | Day rate (AUD) | Mid monthly | Permanent (Syd / Large) | Responsibility |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chief AI Officer | Strategy | $1,500 to $3,200 | $51,700 | $262K to $518K | Board paper, ROI thesis, ethics charter |
| 2 | AI Product Manager | Strategy | $1,000 to $1,600 | $28,600 | $165K to $267K | Use case backlog, plugin roadmap, value tracking |
| 3 | AI Solutions Architect | Platforms | $1,100 to $1,900 | $33,000 | $190K to $264K | Architecture diagrams, MCP topology, integration patterns |
| 4 | AI Business Analyst | Business | $900 to $1,300 | $24,200 | $179K to $237K | Workflow maps, plugin scope docs, acceptance criteria |
| 5 | Gen AI Engineer | Platforms | $1,000 to $1,600 | $28,600 | $176K to $225K | End-to-end platform builds, microservices to internal SaaS, plugins and scripts |
| 6 | AI Integration Engineer | Platforms | $900 to $1,500 | $26,400 | $152K to $219K | SAP / Salesforce / ServiceNow MCPs, legacy connectors, enterprise auth |
Board paper, ROI thesis, ethics charter
Use case backlog, plugin roadmap, value tracking
Architecture diagrams, MCP topology, integration patterns
Workflow maps, plugin scope docs, acceptance criteria
End-to-end platform builds, microservices to internal SaaS, plugins and scripts
SAP / Salesforce / ServiceNow MCPs, legacy connectors, enterprise auth
Permanent figures are total package (base plus super) for Sydney, Large company type, principal and senior-manager level.
Contract lane
Contract is a narrow, specific lane in Australian AI hiring, not the core. These are the seats with genuine contract demand, plus interim rates for fractional leadership engagements.
| Seat | Day rate (AUD) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| AI Solutions Architect | $1,100 to $1,900 | Architecture is front-loaded, so contract-first is the common pattern. The deepest contract market of any AI seat. |
| Gen AI Engineer | $1,000 to $1,600 | Build-sprint seats; the data and analytics engineering band starts at $850. |
| ML Engineer (senior) | $900 to $1,220 | Contract demand spikes during model-build sprints, then drops to run-state. Sydney senior band from the P1 dataset. |
| AI Governance Manager | $1,000 to $1,700 | Framework stand-up runs 3 to 6 months, then converts to permanent in regulated sectors. |
| Head of AI / Director of AI (interim) | $1,680 to $2,280 | Interim and fractional engagements priced from the P1 dataset; the advertised day-rate market for this seat is thin. |
| AI Transformation / Adoption Lead (interim) | $1,560 to $2,110 | Interim transformation engagements priced from the P1 dataset; most demand for this seat is permanent. |
Architecture is front-loaded, so contract-first is the common pattern. The deepest contract market of any AI seat.
Build-sprint seats; the data and analytics engineering band starts at $850.
Contract demand spikes during model-build sprints, then drops to run-state. Sydney senior band from the P1 dataset.
Framework stand-up runs 3 to 6 months, then converts to permanent in regulated sectors.
Interim and fractional engagements priced from the P1 dataset; the advertised day-rate market for this seat is thin.
Interim transformation engagements priced from the P1 dataset; most demand for this seat is permanent.
Contract day rate. Sydney, large company, principal and senior manager level. Galileo rate card, reconciled against the P1 dataset. July 2026. Head of AI and AI Transformation day bands are interim and fractional engagement rates, Sydney at large-company scale, from the Galileo P1 salary dataset.
Demand snapshot, July 2026
July 2026 scrape of 496 live Australian LinkedIn postings
The largest family
251 postings (~190 unique vacancies) across AI/GenAI engineers, ML/MLOps engineers and AI architects. Around 85% permanent, and juniors are near-unplaceable: only 2 of 142 AI-engineer ads accept 0 to 2 years.
The fastest-rising niche
32 postings, 79% of the direct-employer ads from financial services and insurance. Nearly every ad accepts adjacent risk backgrounds because the dedicated talent pool barely exists yet. 30 of 32 ads hid salary.
Steady and senior
53 postings (~39 unique vacancies) across enablement, adoption, transformation and Head of AI seats. 90.6% permanent, Sydney and Melbourne dominated, and 45% ask for 10+ years of experience.
The dataset behind this guide
Every band on this page has a seat-by-seat, city-by-city view behind it. The panel below shows Head of AI median packages by city, straight from the dataset; the full breakdowns are free in the live tool at salary.galileosearch.com.au.
Proprietary data, published free
The live salary tool holds 22,000+ data points across 74 AI roles, 6 cities, 7 company types and 7 seniority levels. Permanent packages and contract day rates. Free, no sign-up, no paywall.
Head of AI / Director of AI · median package by city
Median total package incl. super, principal level, large company. Galileo P1 salary dataset, July 2026. Every seniority, company size and city breakdown lives in the tool.
Team shape by company size
Twelve seats never land at once. The matrix shows which roles apply at each company size, so you can sequence the hires instead of guessing the org chart.
| Role | Startup | Scaleup | Midmarket | Large | Enterprise | APRA | Gov |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Chief AI Officer | • | • | • | ||||
AI Product Manager | • | ||||||
AI Solutions Architect | • | • | |||||
AI Business Analyst | |||||||
Gen AI Engineer | |||||||
AI Integration Engineer | • | ||||||
| Total roles | 3 | 7 | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 12 |
Methodology
Quick answers
A Head of AI or Director of AI in Australia typically earns $230k to $290k as a package including super and bonus, with top of market at $300k to $350k. An enterprise Chief AI Officer runs $350k to $500k+ in total remuneration, weighted to bonus and long-term incentives.
Mid-level AI engineers earn around $130k to $160k, seniors $150k to $200k, and lead, staff or founding engineers $200k to $270k. Contract rates for senior LLM and MLOps engineers run $1,200 to $1,600 per day.
Sydney leads Australian AI hiring on both volume and pay: it posts the most roles in every AI family we track. Melbourne typically runs 5 to 10% under Sydney for the same seat, a directional estimate from published city bands.
We refresh the guide as the market moves and log every change on the page. The current edition is July 2026, built from 496 live Australian postings cross-checked against published salary guides and our own placement data.
Changelog
Last updated: 2026-07-08
Hiring managers: we will benchmark your role against live market evidence before you write the ad. Candidates: the roles we run publish the pay.