Cognizant is actively hiring for 20 AI and machine learning positions across AI/ML Engineer (18), Data Scientist (1), and AI Architect (1) roles. Posted salary ranges span $99K - $400K, with 75% of listings disclosing compensation. The median posted ceiling sits at $140K. Positions are based in Hartford, CT, US, Durham, NC, US, McLean, VA, US. The most frequently requested skills across these postings are Azure, Python, Aws, Docker, Rag. Senior-level roles account for 60% of openings.
Skills & Technologies
Locations
Hartford, CT, US, Durham, NC, US, McLean, VA, US, Minneapolis, MN, US, Washington, DC, US
Hiring by Role Category
Open Positions (20)
SDET - Conversational AI
Quality Engineer (AI Automation)
Quality Engineer (AI & Test Automation)
SR Gen AI developer-
Sr. Gen AI/ML Lead/Developer
Senior AI/ML Lead/ Developer (Remote)
Senior AI Security Architect
GenAI Sr. Developer and Lead
Lead ML Engineer
.NET Architect (AWS & GenAI)
Senior Data Scientist ( Onsite)
Senior Consulting Manager, Lead AI DevOps Engineer
AI Business Strategist, Sales Enablement - Senior Manager
Agentic AI Commerce Solutioner
AI Lead Business Analyst/Project Lead
Senior AI Engineer (Agentic AI/Azure/AWS) - Remote
Chief Strategy Officer – AI Platforms (AIP)
GenAI Architect – AI Assurance & Quality Engineering
AI Engineering Operations Lead
What Cognizant's hiring tells you
20 open AI roles across 3 role types puts this company in the scaling phase: past the initial proof of concept, building out a real team. Expect more structure than a startup but less bureaucracy than a major. Good fit for engineers who want ownership without building from zero. Posted compensation range ($99K - $400K) suggests transparent and competitive pay practices.
The skill mix here leans toward Azure in AI/ML Engineer roles. That is a clue about what Cognizant is building: teams hire for the work in front of them, not the work they wish they were doing.
Questions worth asking in the Cognizant interview loop
The signals above come from public job postings. The signals you actually need come from the conversation. A few questions calibrated to this company's tier:
- What problem did the first AI hire solve, and how has scope grown since?
- Where does AI sit in the engineering org, and who owns the budget?
- What is the on-call expectation for AI systems? (If unclear, that means it has not happened yet.)
Cognizant AI and ML Hiring
Cognizant has 20 active AI and ML roles in our dataset. Open positions span AI/ML Engineer, Data Scientist, AI Architect. Compensation ranges from $99K - $400K across disclosed roles. Roles are based in Hartford, CT, US, Durham, NC, US, McLean, VA, US, Minneapolis, MN, US.
Salary Benchmarks
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. AI/ML Engineer roles pay a median of $215,000 across the market. Data Scientist roles pay a median of $192,450 across the market. AI Architect roles pay a median of $237,300 across the market. Top-quartile AI compensation starts at $267,900.
Skills Cognizant Looks For
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Beyond the core stack, employers increasingly want experience with experiment tracking tools (MLflow, Weights & Biases), feature stores, and vector databases. Fine-tuning experience is valuable but less common than you'd think from reading Twitter. Most production LLM work is RAG and prompt engineering, not fine-tuning. If you have both, you're in a strong position.
AI Role Categories
AI/ML Engineer
AI/ML Engineers build and deploy machine learning models in production. They work across the full ML lifecycle: data pipelines, model training, evaluation, and serving infrastructure. The role has evolved significantly over the past two years. Where ML Engineers once spent most of their time on model architecture, the job now tilts heavily toward inference optimization, cost management, and integrating LLM capabilities into existing systems. Companies want engineers who can ship production systems, and the experimenter-only role is fading fast.
Python and PyTorch dominate the requirements. Most roles expect experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure) and familiarity with ML frameworks like TensorFlow or JAX. RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation) has become a top-3 skill requirement as companies integrate LLMs into their products. Docker and Kubernetes show up in about a third of postings, reflecting the production focus of the role.
Market compensation for AI/ML Engineer roles: $215,000 median across 5,661 positions with disclosed pay.
Data Scientist
Data Scientists extract insights and build predictive models from data. In the AI era, many roles now include LLM-powered analytics, automated reporting, and integration with generative AI tools. The role has evolved from 'the person who runs SQL queries' to 'the person who builds AI-powered data products.'
Python, SQL, and statistical modeling are the foundation. Increasingly, roles want experience with LLMs for data analysis, automated insight generation, and building AI-powered data products. Familiarity with cloud data platforms (Snowflake, BigQuery, Databricks) and ML frameworks (scikit-learn, PyTorch) covers most job requirements.
Market compensation for Data Scientist roles: $192,450 median across 678 positions with disclosed pay.
The AI Job Market Today
The AI job market spans 4,109 open positions across 15 role categories. The largest categories by volume: AI/ML Engineer (2,893), Data Scientist (308), AI Software Engineer (293). These three account for the majority of open positions, though smaller categories often have higher per-role compensation because of specialized skill requirements.
The seniority mix tells a story about where AI teams are in their maturity. Entry-level roles (120) are outnumbered by mid-level (1,975) and senior (1,609) positions, reflecting that most companies are past the 'build a team from scratch' phase and need experienced engineers who can ship production systems. Leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level) total 405 positions, representing the bottleneck between technical execution and organizational strategy.
Remote work availability sits at 16% of all AI roles (642 positions), with 3,444 requiring on-site or hybrid attendance. The remote share has stabilized after the post-pandemic correction. Senior and specialized roles (Research Scientist, ML Architect) are more likely to be remote-eligible than entry-level positions, partly because experienced hires have more negotiating power and partly because these roles require less hands-on mentorship.
AI compensation is structured in clear tiers. The market median sits at $215,000. Top-quartile roles start at $267,900, and the 90th percentile reaches $322,980. These figures include base salary with disclosed compensation. Total compensation (including equity, bonuses, and sign-on) runs 20-40% higher at companies that offer those components.
Category matters for compensation. AI Safety roles lead at $275,000 median, while AI Consultant roles sit at $148,848. The spread between highest and lowest-paying categories reflects the premium on specialized technical skills versus broader analytical roles.
The most in-demand skills across all AI postings: Python (2,102 postings), Aws (1,190 postings), Azure (917 postings), Rag (897 postings), Gcp (673 postings), Prompt Engineering (582 postings), Pytorch (581 postings), Kubernetes (538 postings). Python dominates, appearing in the vast majority of role descriptions regardless of category. Cloud platform experience (AWS, GCP, Azure) is the second most common requirement. The newer entrants to the top skills list (RAG, vector databases, LLM APIs) reflect the shift from traditional ML toward generative AI applications.
AI Hiring Overview
The AI job market has 4,109 open positions tracked in our dataset. By seniority: 120 entry-level, 1,975 mid-level, 1,609 senior, and 405 leadership roles (Director, VP, C-Level). Remote roles make up 16% of the market (642 positions). The remaining 3,444 roles require on-site or hybrid attendance.
The market median for AI roles is $215,000. Top-quartile compensation starts at $267,900. The 90th percentile reaches $322,980. Highest-paying categories: AI Safety ($275,000 median, 33 roles); Research Engineer ($272,100 median, 204 roles); AI Engineering Manager ($250,000 median, 19 roles).
Demand for AI/ML Engineers has been strong and consistent. Unlike some AI roles that spike with hype cycles, ML engineering is a foundational need. Every company deploying AI models needs people who can keep them running, and the gap between research prototypes and production systems keeps growing.
What to Expect in Interviews
Expect system design questions around ML pipelines: how you'd build a training pipeline for a specific use case, handle data drift, or design A/B testing infrastructure for model deployments. Coding rounds typically involve Python, with emphasis on data manipulation (pandas, numpy) and algorithm implementation. Take-home assignments often ask you to build an end-to-end ML pipeline from raw data to deployed model.
When evaluating opportunities: Companies that are serious about AI/ML hiring tend to post specific infrastructure details in the job description: the frameworks they use, their model serving stack, their data pipeline tools. Vague postings that just say 'ML experience required' without specifics are often companies that haven't figured out what they need yet.
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Related Resources
Get Weekly AI Career Intelligence
Salary data, skills demand, and market signals from 16,000+ AI job postings. Every Monday.