AI solutions architect salary: what the pay data shows

The employers we checked that publish pay for AI solutions architect roles list US ranges from $143,000 to $380,000, and the figures do not measure the same thing. Two employers label their range as base salary: $143,000 to $239,000 across the AWS and CoreWeave postings we read⁠^1,2,31Amazon Web Services (Amazon Jobs), Sr. AI/ML Specialist Solutions Architect, GFS Specialist Solutions Architecture Team2Amazon Web Services (Amazon Jobs), Senior Worldwide Specialist Solutions Architect - GenAI, Data & AI GTM3CoreWeave (Greenhouse job board), Account Solution Architect. Two publish on-target earnings (OTE), which include sales-linked variable pay: $170,000 to $300,000 at Glean and Together AI⁠^4,54Glean, Resident Solutions Architect5Together AI, Solutions Architect. Anthropic and Databricks leave it open⁠^6,76Anthropic, Applied AI Architect, Enterprise Tech7Databricks, Specialist Solutions Architect - AI/ML. H-1B filings for the exact title span $60,620 to $300,000⁠¹⁰10H1BData.info (index of U.S. Department of Labor LCA disclosure data), AI Solutions Architect's H1B Salary 2026.

The federal occupational wage survey does not break out this title: the Bureau of Labor Statistics lists no occupation called solutions architect in its computer occupations group⁠¹²12U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, May 2025 Occupation Profiles. So this page uses the two kinds of evidence that do name the title: pay ranges employers publish in job postings, and the wage rates employers state on H-1B Labor Condition Applications (LCAs). Both have limits, listed below.

What do employers publish for AI solutions architect roles?

The table covers nine postings from six employers, all loaded on October 23, 2026: AWS, CoreWeave, Glean, Together AI, Databricks and Anthropic. Anthropic titles its three postings Applied AI Architect, calls the Commercial role a Commercial Solutions Architect in its description, and accepts solutions architect experience in all three⁠^8,9,68Anthropic, Applied AI Architect, Commercial9Anthropic, Applied AI Architect, Startups. AWS and Databricks use Specialist Solutions Architect for their AI roles. This is a convenience sample, not a random draw of the market.

A posted range is the employer's expectation on the day it posts. New York's pay transparency guidance describes it as the minimum and maximum the employer believes to be accurate at that time⁠¹⁵15New York State Department of Labor, Pay Transparency. It is not what a given hire receives: CoreWeave and Databricks both say actual pay depends on the candidate⁠^3,7. Databricks adds that it anticipates using the full width of its range⁠⁷.

Why do the ranges differ so much?

• Pay structure. A base figure, an OTE figure and an unlabeled figure cannot be set side by side. The table keeps them apart for that reason.
• Location. One AWS posting lists New York at $169,000 to $228,600 and Dallas at $153,600 to $207,800, about 10 percent higher in New York at both ends⁠¹. Another lists East Palo Alto, California at $176,600 to $239,000 against $153,600 to $207,800 in five other cities, about 15 percent higher⁠².
• Role and experience asked. Anthropic lists the same $240,000 floor for its 3+ year and 5+ year postings and a higher ceiling for the 5+ year one: $380,000 against $315,000⁠^8,9,6. The postings also cover different teams (enterprise customers, startups, commercial accounts), so experience is one difference among several, and Anthropic says only that the years required correlate with internal job level⁠⁶. Across employers the experience asked runs from 3+ years at Anthropic to 8+ at AWS, and it does not line up neatly with pay⁠^8,2.
• Employer type. Our sample is Anthropic (AI systems), AWS (cloud), CoreWeave and Together AI (AI clouds), Databricks (data and AI platform) and Glean (a Work AI platform), all of which sell AI or cloud products. It has no bank, insurer or consultancy hiring architects for its own use, so we cannot say how pay there compares.

Is the posted number base pay or total pay?

Not every posting says, and that matters more than the dollar amounts. Of the six employers, two label their range as base salary, two label it OTE and two leave it open. AWS adds sign-on payments and restricted stock units to the package without stating amounts⁠^1,2. CoreWeave lists a discretionary bonus and equity awards on top of base, also without amounts⁠³.

Glean and Together AI publish OTE, so their figures already include a variable target⁠^4,5. Databricks says its range is the expected salary for non-commissionable roles or OTE for commissionable ones, and does not say which applies to this role⁠⁷. Anthropic's postings give a range labeled annual salary. Each carries a note that for sales roles the range is OTE, meaning base plus the sales commission or bonus target. The Commercial and Enterprise Tech postings call the role pre-sales, and none of the three says whether the role counts as a sales role⁠^8,9,6.

A cautious reading: treat the AWS and CoreWeave figures as base-pay ranges, the Glean and Together AI figures as targets that include pay tied to performance, and the Anthropic and Databricks figures as unresolved until a recruiter says which they are.

How does variable sales pay change the total?

OTE is base salary plus the commission or bonus target, as Anthropic's postings define it⁠⁶. What a person actually earns depends on performance against that target, so realized pay can land below or above the posted figure. In the postings we read, the architects at Together AI, Anthropic and CoreWeave work alongside sales teams: Together AI's role runs demos and proofs of concept and supports sales, Anthropic's three postings and CoreWeave's have the architect partner with account executives, and CoreWeave labels its range base salary⁠^5,8,9,6,3.

None of the nine postings splits its range into base and variable parts, so we cannot tell how much of Glean's $170,000 to $240,000 or Together AI's $250,000 to $300,000 is guaranteed. We do not estimate it. New York's guidance says employers must state clearly if a position is commission-based⁠¹⁵. Whatever the state, ask before you compare offers:

1. What is the base salary, separate from any variable target?
2. How is the variable part earned: an individual quota, team results or a discretionary bonus?
3. What share of the team reached target in the last full year?
4. Is the equity stock units or options, on what vesting schedule, and is the grant set at hire?
5. Is there a sign-on payment, and does it carry a repayment term?

What do H-1B filings show for the title?

An employer that applies to hire an H-1B worker files a Labor Condition Application with the Department of Labor, stating the job title and the wage it will pay⁠¹⁶16U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, Public Disclosure File: LCA (H-1B, H-1B1 and E-3), Form ETA-9035, record layout, FY 2026 (October 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026). The Department publishes the resulting records in quarterly releases, and the latest file we saw covers determinations issued from October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026⁠¹¹11U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Foreign Labor Certification, Performance Data. The record layout describes the wage fields as the wage paid to nonimmigrant workers at the first worksite, with a rate and a unit and no separate field for bonus or equity⁠¹⁶. The Department describes the case information as data employers submitted in their applications, not responses to the BLS wage survey⁠¹¹.

We checked a public index of those records for the exact title AI Solutions Architect⁠¹⁰. The index says it covers Department of Labor data through June 2026. It lists 11 records submitted in 2026, from 10 employers in seven states, with one wage figure per record, which the index labels base salary. The figures run from $60,620 to $300,000, with a median of $120,007. Two of the records come from one employer with the same wage ($88,000), submit date and start date, and we count both; if they are one case entered twice, the median of the remaining 10 would be about $131,000.

Read this as a description of 11 records, not as the pay of AI solutions architects. The employer writes the title⁠¹⁶. Only employers sponsoring H-1B workers appear. The index we used shows no case status, and the Department's files include withdrawn and denied cases⁠¹⁶. The three records under $100,000 sit below every minimum in the posting table, which may mean the title covers a wider range of jobs than our posting sample does. The data cannot tell us what those jobs involve.

How does this compare with federal pay data?

BLS reports May 2025 median annual wages of $134,050 for computer network architects and $134,040 for software developers, quality assurance analysts and testers combined, with software developers alone at $135,980⁠^13,1413U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Computer Network Architects14U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers. Neither is a solutions architect category. BLS says network architects typically have five years or more of related work experience⁠¹³.

The comparison has limits. BLS wages are straight-time gross pay. They include base rates, commissions and production bonuses and exclude non-production bonuses and stock bonuses⁠¹⁷17U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, Frequently Asked Questions, so they are neither base pay nor total compensation. Every minimum in our posting table is above $135,980, but six employers that sell AI, cloud or data products are not the whole labor market. For how software pay compares with AI engineering pay, see AI engineer vs software engineer salary. For consulting-style architect work, such as Glean's Resident Solutions Architect role, which advises enterprise and strategic customers on taking advanced AI workflows into production⁠⁴, see AI consultant salary.

What do we not know?

• No source we loaded reports how many people hold this title or what they earn in it. Postings and filings are intentions to pay, not payroll records.
• We quote no salary-site figures. Self-reported and modeled estimates are built differently from the sources above, and we did not examine their sample sizes.
• Titles are not standardized. Employers say Applied AI Architect, Specialist Solutions Architect, Resident Solutions Architect and Account Solution Architect for jobs that overlap but are not identical.
• Postings change. Treat every posting and H-1B figure as a snapshot of October 23, 2026.

For a person weighing offers, the useful order is structure first, then size. Compare base with base and OTE with OTE, use the experience column to place yourself, and treat any range as the start of a conversation, not the end of one.