NLP Research Scientist.
Raleigh.
$137,000
median salary, 3% below the national average
$94,000 to $181,000. Last updated August 2026.
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Data points to own the conversation.
The median NLP Research Scientist salary in Raleigh is $137,000, 3% below the national average. Entry level starts near $94,000. Experienced professionals push past $181,000. Raleigh sits at the heart of the Research Triangle, one of America's premier tech and life sciences corridors. That spread is your negotiation window. These figures are Orbyt estimates, computed rather than measured, and must not be cited as Bureau of Labor Statistics figures; the published BLS wage for the occupation this role maps to is shown separately on this page.
Salary range.
Where do you fall?
Orbyt estimate for NLP Research Scientist in Raleigh, modelled from national occupation wages adjusted for local cost of living. The published government benchmark for this occupation is below.
Government benchmark for this occupation
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median annual wage of $128,370 for Computer and Information Research Scientists (SOC 15-1221) in the Raleigh-Cary, NC metropolitan area, based on 280 employed workers (May 2025 release).
10th percentile
$128,370
25th percentile
$128,370
Median
$128,370
75th percentile
$162,910
90th percentile
$182,000
Workers surveyed
280
BLS publishes wages by occupation code, not by job title, so this figure covers every role mapped to Computer and Information Research Scientists (SOC 15-1221) rather than NLP Research Scientist specifically. The Raleighrange at the top of this page is Orbyt’s role-level estimate, which is a different thing and is labelled as such.
View the BLS source for SOC 15-1221Salary by experience.
The gap between entry and lead level is typically $123,000. Where you land depends on years of experience and what you bring to the table.
Entry (0-2 yrs)
$89,000
to $110,000
Mid (3-5 yrs)
$116,000
to $144,000
Senior (6-9 yrs)
$151,000
to $178,000
Lead (10+ yrs)
$171,000
to $212,000
Total compensation.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity, bonus, and signing can add $56,000 to the total package.
Base
$137,000
Equity
$34,000
Bonus
$14,000
Signing
$8,000
Estimated total: $193,000
How Raleigh compares.
Raleigh, NC
$137,000
Cost of living: 1% below average
National Average
$141,000
Raleigh is $4,000 below
NLP Research Scientist salary by city.
Salary by role in Raleigh.
What you should know.
If you are interviewing for NLP Research Scientist roles in Raleigh, here is what you are walking into. Raleigh sits at the heart of the Research Triangle, one of America's premier tech and life sciences corridors. Cisco, Red Hat, Epic Games, and numerous biotech firms drive strong demand for engineering, research, and product roles. The combination of top tier universities and moderate living costs creates an exceptionally favorable salary to expense ratio. Demand for NLP expertise has surged with the growth of large language models, pushing salaries upward by 15 to 30% since 2024. Experience with transformer architectures and pretraining pipelines is especially valued. Researchers who have shipped production language systems earn premiums over pure academics.
Entry-level NLP scientists earn $145,000 to $175,000 after completing a PhD. Mid-career scientists with 3 to 5 years reach $195,000 to $240,000. Staff-level scientists leading research programs earn $260,000 to $350,000, and distinguished scientists can exceed $450,000 in base pay. In Raleigh, cost of living sits near the national average, so the numbers you see are roughly what you keep.
Base salary is not the full picture. Equity packages at LLM-focused companies can represent 30 to 60% of total compensation. Annual bonuses typically range from 15 to 30%, with additional signing bonuses of $30,000 to $80,000 common at competitive firms. And on the tax side: north Carolina's flat 4.5% income tax keeps the burden low. Raleigh has no city income tax, and the Triangle's affordable housing amplifies your take home purchasing power. When someone quotes you $137,000, ask what the total package looks like. The gap between base and total comp is where real money hides.
On negotiation: Cite Research Triangle talent competition in your negotiation. Employers here compete directly with each other and with remote offers, creating favorable leverage for candidates. The range for NLP Research Scientists in Raleigh runs from $94,000 to $181,000. That is not a narrow window. Where you land inside it depends almost entirely on whether you negotiate and how well you prepare.
Sources: BLS OES, H-1B LCA (DOL). COL: BEA Regional Price Parities (2025). Data verified by Justin Bartak, Founder & Chief AI Officer. Last verified July 1, 2026. Full methodology
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