AI Research Engineer jobs in 2026 — required skills, demand trends, and top hiring cities
As of 2026-05-23, Skillenai has indexed 149 job postings with the title “AI Research Engineer” over the past 90 days. The skill mentioned most often is Reinforcement learning, with demand up 43% vs the prior 4 weeks.
Last updated · 90d ending 2026-05-23
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Frequently asked questions about AI Research Engineer jobs
+How many AI Research Engineer jobs are being posted in 2026?
Skillenai has indexed 149 job postings with the title “AI Research Engineer” over the 90 days ending 2026-05-23, with demand up 43% vs the prior 4 weeks.
+What skills do AI Research Engineer jobs require?
Across AI Research Engineer postings indexed by Skillenai over the 90 days ending 2026-05-23, the skills mentioned most often are Reinforcement learning, Python, PyTorch, machine learning, TensorFlow.
+Which cities are hiring the most AI Research Engineer?
As of 2026-05-23, AI Research Engineer postings indexed by Skillenai are concentrated in San Francisco, London, New York City, Milpitas, Mountain View.
+Is AI Research Engineer a good career path right now?
Skillenai indexes 149 AI Research Engineer postings over the 90 days ending 2026-05-23, with demand up 43% vs the prior 4 weeks. The skill mentioned most often in AI Research Engineer postings is Reinforcement learning, so building it gives the strongest signal that an applicant matches the role.
+How can I track new AI Research Engineer job postings as they’re indexed?
Skillenai sends a daily email digest of new AI Research Engineer postings indexed across the open web. Subscribe from your account dashboard after creating a free Skillenai account.
Weekly AI Research Engineer postings — last 90 days
Skills most often required for AI Research Engineer
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Reinforcement learning | 56 | 16.4% |
| Python | 50 | 14.6% |
| PyTorch | 42 | 12.3% |
| machine learning | 35 | 10.2% |
| TensorFlow | 27 | 7.9% |
| deep learning | 22 | 6.4% |
| JAX | 21 | 6.1% |
| fine-tuning | 15 | 4.4% |
| computer vision | 12 | 3.5% |
| C++ | 12 | 3.5% |
| LLMs | 11 | 3.2% |
| Generative AI | 11 | 3.2% |
| model evaluation | 10 | 2.9% |
| distributed training | 9 | 2.6% |
| Large language models (LLMs) | 9 | 2.6% |
Top metros hiring AI Research Engineer
| Name | Postings | Share |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | 10 | 22.2% |
| London | 7 | 15.6% |
| New York City | 7 | 15.6% |
| Milpitas | 4 | 8.9% |
| Mountain View | 4 | 8.9% |
| Uk | 4 | 8.9% |
| Manhattan | 3 | 6.7% |
| Pittsburgh | 3 | 6.7% |
| Tokyo | 3 | 6.7% |
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How this was computed
Counts derive from the Skillenai jobs index over the 90 days ending 2026-05-23, matching postings whose canonical role is “AI Research Engineer”. Pages refresh weekly (or daily for the top-50 most-posted roles).
- role
- AI Research Engineer
- source
- Skillenai jobs index, deduplicated daily
- data_as_of
- 2026-05-23
- window_days
- 90
The demand, skills, and geo numbers on this page come from the same Skillenai labor market index that powers our API. Use it for compensation benchmarking, hiring-competition analysis, and skill-adoption tracking.
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