Market Analysis of 146 AI Governance Job Postings

Key Findings

• Most roles are mid-level: 85% of AI governance positions target professionals with 5+ years of experience
• Median salary is $158,750: The middle 80% of roles pay between $156K and $219K annually
• Certifications appear in 12% of posts: CIPP, CISSP and CIPM lead requests
• Service firms dominate hiring: Professional Services (51%), Technology (15%) and Financial Services (9%) lead postings
• California leads the market: 14% of U.S. roles are posted in California, followed by New York (8%) and Texas (7%)
• Technical degrees strongly preferred: Only 40% of junior roles skip degree requirements, dropping to 19% at senior levels

The Role of an AI Governance Professional

These patterns align with what we see across AI recruitment, where organizations balance regulatory compliance with technical implementation.

We categorized each role by seniority and found the market heavily favors mid-level professionals—they account for more than four-fifths of all postings.

We then extracted experience requirements (95% of roles mentioned a specific number) and calculated the average minimum at each level of seniority. Finally, we analyzed job titles to identify the most common naming conventions at each level.

• Junior (3% of roles)
  • Minimum experience: 3 years
  • Common titles: Privacy & AI Governance Analyst, AI Governance Project Manager, Sr. Data Governance Engineer (AI)
• Mid-Level (85% of roles)
  • Minimum experience: 5 years
  • Common titles: AI Governance Manager, AI Governance & Security Architect, Senior Legal Counsel Privacy Data & AI Governance
• Senior (12% of roles)
  • Minimum experience: 11 years
  • Common titles: Sr. Director AI Data Strategy & Governance, Staff VP AI Technology Governance & Enablement, Director Artificial Intelligence Ethics and Governance

Most AI governance jobs are mid-level

What Do AI Governance Jobs Involve?

So what is an AI governance professional actually responsible for day-to-day? We analyzed the language across all 146 job posts to extract the core responsibilities at each level. What emerged is a clear progression of expectations from execution to strategy:

Junior-Level Roles:

• Execute privacy assessments and information rights processes for AI systems
• Manage governance project workstreams including control implementation
• Design technical guardrails for AI models in cloud environments

Mid-Level Roles:

• Build governance frameworks aligned with regulatory requirements
• Lead enterprise risk identification and mitigation across AI lifecycles
• Drive stakeholder alignment and change management for governance adoption

Senior-Level Roles:

• Define enterprise AI governance strategy that scales across business units
• Oversee independent risk assessment and reporting to executive leadership
• Produce thought leadership advancing organizational governance maturity

Key takeaway: Junior professionals execute controls, mid-level leaders build frameworks, senior executives define strategy. Each step up means more organizational influence over how AI operates at scale.

Who’s Hiring for AI Governance?

Professional Services firms lead with 51% of AI governance postings, followed by Technology at 15%. This concentration makes sense—most AI governance professionals either advise enterprise clients through consulting engagements or build internal compliance systems for tech companies navigating complex regulatory landscapes.

Financial Services rounds out the top three at 9%, with IT Services (8%) and Consumer & Retail (6%) completing the top five. The financial sector’s presence reflects heightened regulatory scrutiny in industries where AI decisions carry material consequences.

Professional services firms lead AI governance hiring

Large companies with 10,001+ employees account for 72% of postings—well above the economy’s wider workforce distribution of ~30%. Organizations with 1,001-10,000 employees add another 15%, meaning roughly eight out of ten AI governance roles are at companies with over 1,000 employees.

This concentration suggests AI governance is primarily an enterprise-scale function. The complexity of managing AI risk at scale, combined with regulatory pressure in larger organizations, creates demand that smaller companies rarely match.

Large enterprises dominate AI governance hiring

Where Are AI Governance Jobs Located?

California, New York and Texas lead AI governance hiring

California leads the market with 14% of all AI governance postings. New York follows at 8%, Texas at 7%, Ohio at 6%, and Georgia rounds out the top five at 5%.

The geographic spread reflects major business hubs rather than overwhelming concentration. Remote roles account for just 13% of postings despite the role’s strategic nature, suggesting most organizations prefer AI governance professionals to work on-site or hybrid where they can access sensitive systems and collaborate directly with leadership.

States worth watching include North Carolina, Illinois, Florida, Wisconsin and Washington—each capturing roughly 3-5% of the market and representing growing regional tech ecosystems with maturing AI governance needs.

AI governance jobs are less concentrated than other AI specializations

Key takeaway: California offers the most AI governance opportunities by volume, but the market is less concentrated than other AI specializations. New York, Texas, Ohio and Georgia provide meaningful alternatives, especially in financial services and consulting.

Requirements for AI Governance Jobs

We analyzed the minimum requirements of each job post and found that most AI governance jobs (66%) require some form of degree. The pattern tightens moderately as you move up the career ladder.

For junior roles, 60% require a degree (all bachelor’s level). The remaining 40% don’t specify formal education requirements.

Mid-level positions show similar patterns: 79% require a bachelor’s degree and 7% specify a master’s.

Senior roles have the strictest requirements: 75% require a bachelor’s degree and 6% require a master’s degree.

Degree fields of study that are typically requested of AI governance professionals include:

• Computer Science (29%)
• Data Science (22%)
• Information Systems (7%)
• Engineering (6%)
• Law (6%)
• Business (4%)
• Statistics (3%)
• Risk Management (3%)
• Business Administration (3%)
• Cybersecurity (3%)

Degree requirements increase as your AI governance career progresses

Requested Qualifications in AI Governance Job Posts

AI governance professionals must excel at risk assessment, stakeholder management and team leadership. Risk assessment appeared in nearly half of listings, while mentoring and stakeholder engagement each surfaced in about two fifths of postings. 

These skills reflect the role’s dual nature—technical risk evaluation combined with transformation & change management across the organization.

Deep regulatory knowledge matters equally. Familiarity with frameworks like NIST AI Risk Management Framework, ISO/IEC 42001, EU AI Act and GDPR are table stakes. 

Technical skills include hands-on experience with tools like Microsoft Purview, Python and cloud AI platforms.

Just 12% of postings request specific certifications, but when they do, these credentials lead:

• Certified Information Privacy Professional (CIPP)
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP)
• Certified Information Privacy Manager (CIPM)
• Certified Data Management Professional (CDMP)
• Artificial Intelligence Governance Professional (AIGP)
• Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC)
• Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA)
• Project Management Professional (PMP)

Key takeaway: The certification landscape reflects the role’s hybrid nature—privacy and security credentials paired with governance-specific qualifications and project execution frameworks. Communication skills separate strong candidates from merely technical ones.

What do AI Governance Jobs Pay?

Nearly two-thirds (65%) of the AI governance roles we analyzed included an advertised salary.

There was significant breadth in the ranges employers posted, so we normalized the data by selecting the midpoint for our analysis. From our experience, this is generally a much more indicative number for an employer’s target offer—especially in the current market where initial ranges often run wide.

Across the entire dataset of salaries, we found the median salary for AI governance positions to be $158,750. The middle 80% of salaries (10th to 90th percentile) ranged from $155,600 to $218,550.

Almost three quarters of AI governance salaries fall within $150k to $175k

Breaking AI governance salaries down by seniority reveals dramatic progression. Junior roles start at a median $130,000, with mid-level positions jumping 22% to $158,750. The real premium appears at senior levels—a 72% leap to $273,032 median.

What’s notable is the overlap between tiers: junior ceiling ($140,400) and senior floor ($153,500) sit close together, reflecting how specialized expertise in high-demand areas can compress traditional seniority bands. Senior roles show the widest range—$153,500 to $292,750—indicating significant variability based on scope, industry and strategic importance.

Mid-level roles cluster tightly around $158,750 across all percentiles except the 90th, suggesting more standardized compensation at this career stage. The market appears to have converged on a clear value proposition for experienced governance professionals building frameworks.

Senior AI governance professionals are in the top 3% of U.S. earners

Key takeaway: AI governance positions pay exceptionally well. The median senior-level salary of $273,032 puts these roles in the top 3% of all earners in the United States. Even mid-level professionals earning the median $158,750 land in the top 10%.

Final Thoughts

For Candidates: Build hands-on experience with privacy frameworks and risk assessment early—CIPP or CISSP credentials accelerate credibility. For mid-level roles, demonstrating you’ve built governance frameworks that scaled across business units separates candidates. At senior levels, experience defining enterprise AI strategy and producing thought leadership matters more than technical depth alone.

For Employers: The tight salary clustering around $158,750 for mid-level roles reflects market maturity—fall significantly below that and expect longer time-to-fill. The strongest signal for senior candidates is experience with regulatory navigation and executive reporting, not just policy documentation. Remote flexibility remains surprisingly limited in this field, suggesting governance requires substantial in-person collaboration.

Methodology

We analyzed 146 AI governance job postings collected from LinkedIn, Indeed and Glassdoor between November 2024 and January 2025. The dataset was limited to full-time roles posted in the United States that explicitly mentioned “AI governance” or close variations in the job title.

Duplicate postings were removed using job title, company name and location matching. Seniority levels were determined by analyzing job titles alongside minimum experience requirements stated in each posting. When experience ranges were provided, the lower bound was used for consistency.

Salary data was extracted from the 65% of postings that included compensation ranges. We used the midpoint of each range for analysis, as this most closely reflects employer target offers in practice.

Industry classifications were assigned based on company descriptions and verified against LinkedIn company data where available. Geographic analysis was conducted at the state level using the primary job location listed in each posting.