What AI and tech jobs pay in Australia's cities and New Zealand (2026)

A software engineer in Australia earns a median base salary of about A91,400, and in New Zealand about NZ84,600, on Payscale's figures read on 29 October 2026. Across Australia's cities the gap is smaller than people expect for junior and mid-level roles and wide at the top. Sydney and Melbourne pay a software engineer almost exactly the same (A95,400 and A95,200), Brisbane and Perth about A89,700, Adelaide A85,100. A senior software engineer is A150,100 in Sydney and A135,100 in Melbourne, a A15,000 gap. Data analysts are paid about the same everywhere: A79,800 to A$83,100 in all five cities.

These are base salaries reported by employees to Payscale, not job-ad ranges or what our students earn. We kept only roles with at least ten salary profiles that Payscale had updated in 2025 or 2026, and the full set is published with the article.

How did we read the figures?

For each of ten roles we opened Payscale's Australia page, then its page for each city, and read the median and the middle half of base salary (the 25th to 75th percentile). The same for New Zealand at national level. Each figure carries the number of salary profiles behind it, because a median from 10 people means less than one from 250. Where a city had fewer than ten profiles for a role, or Payscale had not updated the page since 2024, the cell is empty. Canberra had only one role that passed, so it is left out.

Payscale's figures are base pay. They leave out super, bonuses and equity, which matter most at senior levels and in Sydney's banks and tech companies.

What does each role pay in Australia's cities?

Median base salary a year, in Australian dollars. The number in brackets is the salary profiles behind it.

Each city has its own page with the ranges, local courses and what the city is known for: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. The country page is AI courses in Australia.

Does Sydney pay more than Melbourne?

At senior level, yes; below it, barely. A software engineer's median is A95,400 in Sydney and A95,200 in Melbourne, from about 250 profiles each, and data analysts and data scientists are within A2,100 of each other. The gap opens with seniority: a senior software engineer is A150,100 in Sydney against A135,100 in Melbourne. Melbourne is ahead for data engineers (A114,700 against A108,000) and solutions architects (A162,600 against A$157,300), though those rest on 50 to 70 profiles, so treat a few thousand dollars either way as noise.

Do Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide pay much less?

Less, but not by as much as the cost of a Sydney rent would suggest. A software engineer in Brisbane or Perth has a median of A89,700, about 6% under Sydney; in Adelaide A85,100, about 11% under. Data analysts barely move: Perth's A82,600 is within A500 of Sydney's. The gaps are larger for senior and specialist roles, where Sydney and Melbourne have more of the large employers: Perth's senior software engineers are on A122,300 and Adelaide's on A119,500.

What do the same roles pay in New Zealand?

Median base salary a year, in New Zealand dollars, from Payscale's New Zealand pages.

Payscale's New Zealand page for machine learning engineers had not been updated since 2024, so it is left out. At the 15 October 2026 rate the site uses (A1 = NZ1.25), a New Zealand software engineer's NZ84,600 is about A67,900, roughly a quarter under the Australian median. That gap is one reason so many New Zealand engineers work for Australian companies, on site or remotely. The New Zealand page is AI courses in New Zealand, and what it costs to learn AI in New Zealand covers the courses.

Which roles pay the most?

In both countries the best-paid roles are the ones that sit between engineering and the customer: solutions architect first (A152,200 in Australia, NZ140,500 in New Zealand), then senior software engineer. Among the hands-on roles, DevOps and data engineering pay more than data science in Australia, and data analysis pays least everywhere. A machine learning engineer has a median of A$100,000 across Australia, level with data scientists, though from only 45 profiles.

What the figures do not tell you

They are medians of what people chose to report, so they lag the market by months and lean towards people who look up salaries. They are base pay only. And a title covers a wide range: "software engineer" spans graduates and people ten years in, which is why the middle half for a Sydney software engineer runs from A79,400 to A114,200. For a job decision, read them alongside the job ads in your city. For a course decision, they tell you which roles are worth aiming at; they do not tell you what any course will get you, and nothing here is what Square1 Ai students earn, because the first cohorts have not graduated.