The Galileo AU AI Talent Index · Issue 1 · Q3 2026
Five headline numbers, demand by role family and what the market pays, from Galileo Search live tracking of advertised Australian AI roles (6 to 23 July 2026) and the Galileo P1 salary dataset. Every figure carries its date, tier and source. Next edition: October 2026.
Galileo Search live tracking of advertised Australian AI roles, 6 to 23 July 2026, deduplicated by company and role, plus the Galileo P1 salary dataset. Snapshot frozen 23 July 2026.
The five headline numbers
Each number is a sentence you can quote: figure, date and source, nothing that cannot be backed.
01
9 in 10
Across the 896 ads classified into AI role families in Galileo Search live tracking of advertised Australian AI roles, 14% disclosed pay as of 23 July 2026, falling to 7.7% for AI leadership ads and 10% for AI governance ads. Roughly a third of Australian job ads overall carry salary information (SEEK marketplace data). The AI talent market is the most salary-opaque corner of Australian hiring.
The full pay-transparency analysisGalileo Search live tracking of advertised Australian AI roles, 23 July 2026
02
1,588
Galileo Search live tracking captured 1,588 advertised Australian AI roles between 6 to 23 July 2026, deduplicated by company and role. 337 roles across the five classified AI families were sighted live in the week to 23 July 2026; engineering and data/ML together account for about 62% of that live volume, while the leadership layer stays thin and contested.
Galileo Search live tracking of advertised Australian AI roles, 6 to 23 July 2026
03
9 to 17%
Agency share runs 9 to 17% by role family in Galileo Search's July 2026 analysis of 496 advertised Australian AI roles, and no single agency holds more than a handful of mandates in any AI specialty. Companies are self-serving a market they describe as their hardest to assess.
Galileo Search ad-level taxonomy, 496 advertised AU AI roles, July 2026
04
1 in 5
In a single month, structured monitoring of public hiring announcements captured 34 Australian hiring managers announcing AI hires directly to their LinkedIn networks, Head of AI and governance roles among them, many never appearing on a job board.
Public post monitoring, 116 posts triaged, July 2026
05
72%
72% of AI leadership ads in Galileo Search's July 2026 taxonomy carry a title used by no other employer, and 104 live AI roles carried no AI term in the title at all. Search by title and you miss a third of the market.
Galileo Search ad-level taxonomy, 496 advertised AU AI roles, July 2026
Demand by family · 6 to 23 July 2026
1,588 advertised AU AI roles tracked and deduplicated; 337 classified-family roles sighted live in the week to 23 July 2026.
| Role family | Tracked since 6 Jul | Live, week to 23 Jul | New, past fortnight | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI Engineers (incl. data/ML) | 556 | 208 | 187 | The volume engine of Australian AI hiring, about 62% of classified live volume. Multi-hat 'first build' specs concentrate in the 100 to 2,000 employee mid-market. |
| AI Architects | 79 | 48 | 42 | The strongest contract lane of any AI family. Agentic, Copilot and Bedrock specialisations command the premium. |
| AI Leadership | 142 | 50 | 46 | Thin and contested. Banks now import AI chiefs from overseas at $350K to $500K+ total packages, APRA-regulated enterprise tier (public reporting, 2026). |
| AI Governance | 110 | 31 | 32 | The building wave. APRA's 30 April letter set AI expectations for every bank, insurer and super fund; the 2H 2026 governance hiring wave is compliance-driven and budget-protected. |
The volume engine of Australian AI hiring, about 62% of classified live volume. Multi-hat 'first build' specs concentrate in the 100 to 2,000 employee mid-market.
The strongest contract lane of any AI family. Agentic, Copilot and Bedrock specialisations command the premium.
Thin and contested. Banks now import AI chiefs from overseas at $350K to $500K+ total packages, APRA-regulated enterprise tier (public reporting, 2026).
The building wave. APRA's 30 April letter set AI expectations for every bank, insurer and super fund; the 2H 2026 governance hiring wave is compliance-driven and budget-protected.
Galileo Search live tracking of advertised Australian AI roles, 6 to 23 July 2026, deduplicated by company and role, classified by role family on ad content rather than titles. The tracker also carries an unclassified intake queue not shown here; family rows understate rather than overstate.
AI hiring has left the tech sector: this fortnight's tracker includes an AFL club (Carlton) hiring an AI Enablement Lead, the Clean Energy Finance Corporation hiring an Associate Director of AI governance, and a new AI security team being built at SEEK.
What the market pays
Eight benchmark tiers from the Galileo P1 salary dataset, every one labelled with seniority, city, company size and basis. Each row links to its live tool page for the full city, size and seniority breakdown.
| Role | Tier | Base salary (Syd, Large) | Package median | Contract day rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI EngineerBenchmark live | Mid · Sydney · Large | $119K to $161K (median $140K) | $156.8K | $785 to $1,061 |
| AI EngineerBenchmark live | Senior · Sydney · Large | $144.5K to $195.5K (median $170K) | $190.4K | $952 to $1,288 |
| Generative AI EngineerBenchmark live | Senior · Sydney · Large | $157.3K to $212.8K (median $185K) | $207.2K | $1,180 to $1,596 |
| Forward-Deployed AI EngineerBenchmark live | Senior · Sydney · Large | $187K to $253K (median $220K) | $246.4K | $1,105 to $1,495 |
| AI Solutions ArchitectBenchmark live | Senior · Sydney · Large | $170K to $230K (median $200K) | $224K | $1,237 to $1,673 |
| AI Governance LeadBenchmark live | Principal · Sydney · Large | $170K to $230K (median $200K) | $224K | $850 to $1,150 |
| Head of AIBenchmark live | Principal · Sydney · Large | $221K to $299K (median $260K) | $291.2K | $1,306 to $1,766interim / fractional |
| Chief AI Officer (CAIO)Benchmark live | Principal · Sydney · Large | $323K to $437K (median $380K) | $425.6K | $1,908 to $2,582interim / fractional |
All figures are Sydney, Large company tier, at the stated seniority, from the Galileo P1 salary dataset (24,024 data points), snapshot 23 July 2026. Base = base salary excl super; package = median total package incl super, permanent; day rates are contract rates at the same tier. Company size moves every band: an APRA-regulated enterprise pays differently to a 40-person startup for the same title, and the live tool holds all seven company-size tiers, six cities and seven seniority levels.
The leadership layer
Australia's experienced AI leadership pool, people who have genuinely run an enterprise AI program end to end, numbers in the low hundreds nationally (Galileo Search market observation, July 2026). Against that pool: 50 AI leadership roles sighted live in the week to 23 July 2026, 142 tracked since 6 July, and a mandated AI accountable officer in every Commonwealth agency.
The arithmetic does not work, which is why CBA and ANZ both imported their AI chiefs from overseas banks this year (public reporting, 2026). Companies hiring their first Head of AI are competing in the thinnest senior market in Australian tech, and mostly without specialist help: agency share in AI leadership runs at about 9% (Galileo Search ad-level taxonomy, July 2026).
Method
Quarterly cadence
The Index is published quarterly, each edition a frozen, verifiable snapshot. This edition was frozen on 23 July 2026; the dated permalink for this issue is /ai-talent-index/2026-q3. Citing a figure: please attribute it to the Galileo Search AU AI Talent Index, Q3 2026, and link this page. Journalists can request the underlying cuts at info@galileosearch.com.au.
Benchmark any AI seat by city, company size and seniority on the live tool, or bring us the brief and we will pressure-test it against the market before you go out with it.