If you search “highest paying jobs 2026” or “best paid positions 2026”, you will get trophy lists. People teams are not collecting trophies. They are opening roles, setting pay, and deciding whether a band will hold a paediatric surgeon, a treasurer, or a machine learning hire. The useful question is narrower: where does the money actually sit in 2026, which source produced the number, and what should a people team do with it.
This page is a sourced field guide, not a scored ranking. US figures that carry a federal mean come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics for May 2025 (the latest US federal wage survey in wide 2026 circulation), as reported by The Hill. BLS wages include tips and commissions and exclude overtime and most bonuses. Other cells use a named guide: U.S. News career rankings, Indeed’s 2026 best-jobs work (via CNBC, Axios, and Yahoo), Robert Half’s 2026 Salary Guide press release, Randstad’s 2026 high-paying jobs page, and international ranges from EBS. Sprintzeal is listed as a source we read; we do not invent figures from it. If a number is not on a named page below, it is not here.
Methodology stays in the open. Countries report mean or median, base or total compensation, and different specialty splits. A US occupational average is not a large-company package. A specialist staffing average is not a government mean. We keep those methods apart instead of inventing one league table. Kumo claims are limited to hiring and pay verbs already on /platform and /platform/capabilities: open a role, publish a role, add a candidate, extend an offer, hire, change compensation, onboard, and run payroll, with confirm gates on sensitive steps. We do not invent accuracy percentages, customer counts, or prices.
How to read the ten families
The ten role families stay in the same reading order as the draft this page rewrites. Order is a table of contents, not a rank. Medicine still dominates US federal means. Finance leadership can look richer on a specialist list than a CEO does on BLS. AI and data roles show up because Indeed and Robert Half put them in the 2026 conversation, not because we scored them.
- US mean, when it exists. BLS May 2025 occupational mean, as reported by The Hill. One occupation, one mean.
- Global range, only with a named source. EBS publishes representative USD ranges for several of these families. We quote those ranges as EBS, not as a world average we computed.
- Specialist figures. Randstad 2026 averages for treasurer, controller, general counsel, patent attorney, tax attorney, and engineering manager. Robert Half 2026 is used for the published starting-salary trend on AI, machine learning, and data science (4.1 percent), not as a substitute BLS mean.
Comparison at a glance
Every cell is a paraphrase of a named source, or it says the source does not give that number. This is not a scorecard.
| Role family | US mean (BLS May 2025, where it exists) | Global range (named source only) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Physician and surgical specialists | Paediatric surgeons $502,050; cardiologists $454,940; radiologists $381,530; orthopaedic surgeons $373,570; general surgeons $364,360; anaesthesiologists $360,570 | $180,000–$500,000 (EBS, surgeons and medical specialists) | Nurse anaesthetists $248,320 (BLS May 2025). Highest paid non-physician healthcare mean in the verified set. |
| Orthodontists and oral and maxillofacial surgeons | Oral and maxillofacial surgeons $346,490 | No named global range in the sources below | U.S. News lists orthodontists among 2026 best-paying careers. We do not invent an orthodontist mean. |
| Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers | $288,650 | No named global range in the sources below | Highest BLS mean outside healthcare, per The Hill. |
| Chief executives | $269,630 | $250,000 to $1 million+ (EBS) | Occupational average across 204,350 jobs. Not a large-company total package. |
| CTOs and senior technology executives | Closest BLS bucket: computer and information systems managers $192,160 | $220,000–$600,000 (EBS, CTO) | BLS has no CTO title. Robert Half projects 4.1% starting-salary gains for AI, ML, and data science roles. |
| Investment bankers and portfolio managers | Closest BLS bucket: financial managers $186,910 | $200,000–$450,000 excluding bonuses (EBS) | BLS financial-manager mean is broader than investment banking. |
| Lawyers, corporate counsel, general counsel | Lawyers $185,840 | $160,000–$300,000 for corporate and M&A (EBS) | Randstad 2026: general counsel $203,165; patent attorney $171,792; tax attorney $157,560. |
| Data scientists, ML engineers, AI architects | No BLS mean in the verified set | Data scientists / ML $150,000–$300,000; AI architects $180,000–$350,000 (EBS) | Indeed 2026 (CNBC, Yahoo): data scientist estimated median about $115,079. EBS reports 36% year-on-year demand growth for the data-scientist / ML family. |
| Natural sciences and engineering managers | Natural sciences managers $180,250; architectural and engineering managers $181,540 | Petroleum engineers $130,000–$220,000 (EBS) | Randstad 2026 engineering manager average $169,578. Different method from BLS. |
| Corporate finance leadership | No matching BLS occupational mean in the verified set | No named global range in the sources below | Randstad 2026: corporate treasurer $286,851; controller $243,339. Specialist averages, not BLS means. |
1. Physician and surgical specialists
Medicine still holds the top of the US federal wage table. The Hill’s write-up of BLS May 2025 means puts paediatric surgeons at $502,050, cardiologists at $454,940, radiologists at $381,530, orthopaedic surgeons at $373,570, surgeons (the general occupational title) at $364,360, and anaesthesiologists at $360,570. Those figures sit well above the $69,770 average wage across all occupations that The Hill quotes from the same release.
EBS’s 2026 global list places surgeons and medical specialists at $180,000–$500,000, depending on country and subspecialty. That is a published range from one international guide, not a currency conversion we ran. Employment counts on the US side are small at the tip (The Hill reports 1,190 paediatric surgeons) and much larger for general surgeons (49,380). A people team hiring one paediatric surgeon is not hiring a market. It is hiring a scarce licence.
Nurse anaesthetists, at a BLS May 2025 mean of $248,320, are the highest-paid non-physician healthcare role in the verified federal set. They belong in the same conversation as physician specialists when you are building clinical pay architecture, even though they are not physicians.
For a people team, the work is not to reprint a league table. It is to open the role with an honest description, screen the file against that role, and put pay through a confirm gate. Kumo reads a CV against the job you opened. It does not set a surgeon’s theatre rate.
2. Orthodontists and oral and maxillofacial surgeons
Oral and maxillofacial surgeons average $346,490 on the same BLS May 2025 release (The Hill). That is a surgical mean, not a dental-office rumour. U.S. News includes orthodontists on its 2026 best-paying jobs ranking. We link that ranking. We do not invent an orthodontist wage that U.S. News did not give us as a figure we could lift cleanly.
These roles sit next to physicians in training time and in how carefully a band has to be written. A people team still opens the role, publishes it, and hires against a licence and a procedure list. The agent colleague can read the CV against that job. The human still confirms the offer.
3. Airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers
Commercial airline pilots, copilots, and flight engineers carry a BLS May 2025 mean of $288,650. The Hill reports that as the highest-paying occupation outside healthcare, with about 103,560 jobs. We keep the figure because the named source supports it.
Hours, type rating, and seniority move a pilot’s actual pay more than a national mean can show. The mean is still the right public anchor for a people team that needs a federal number, not a forum screenshot. None of the international pages below published a clean global pilot range we could quote, so the global cell stays empty.
4. Chief executives
The BLS May 2025 occupational average for chief executives is $269,630, across an estimated 204,350 jobs (The Hill). That average includes small-company heads and large-company chiefs in one occupational bucket. It is not the total package at a listed firm.
EBS publishes a global CEO range of $250,000 to $1 million and above. That spread is the honest picture: seniority, sector, and equity move the number more than the job title does. People teams who treat “CEO” as one band will lose the hire or overpay the wrong one.
Hold this number next to the treasurer and controller figures in section 10. A specialist staffing average for a scarce finance title can sit above a government occupational average for “chief executive.” That is a method clash, not a discovery that every treasurer out-earns every CEO.
5. CTOs and senior technology executives
EBS reports CTOs at $220,000–$600,000 globally. BLS does not publish a CTO title. The closest federal mean in The Hill’s non-healthcare table is computer and information systems managers at $192,160. Use the BLS figure for the occupational bucket. Use EBS for the CTO label. Do not average them into a fake midpoint.
Robert Half’s 29 September 2025 release for the 2026 Salary Guide says roles in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science are projected to see starting-salary gains of 4.1 percent, the highest of the specialised-skill groups it lists. That is a projected increase in starting pay for those families, not a 4 percent premium glued on top of every technologist’s current salary. The same release says 84 percent of hiring managers will offer higher salaries to candidates with in-demand skills. We quote the press release. We do not invent a CTO band from it.
6. Investment bankers and portfolio managers
BLS financial managers sit at a May 2025 mean of $186,910 (The Hill). That occupation is broader than investment banking. EBS publishes $200,000–$450,000 for investment bankers and portfolio managers, and it states that the range excludes bonuses. Variable pay is where these roles often leave the average behind.
A people team writing an offer here is usually writing base plus bonus, sometimes plus deferred. The public means are a floor for conversation, not a total-comp model. Qualify every figure with the method that produced it before you put it in a band.
7. Lawyers, corporate counsel, and general counsel
US lawyers average $185,840 on BLS May 2025 (The Hill). EBS places corporate lawyers, including international and M&A work, at $160,000–$300,000. Those two numbers can both be true: one is a national occupational mean, the other is a published global range for a commercial slice of the profession.
Randstad’s 2026 high-paying jobs page reports specialist averages of $203,165 for general counsel, $171,792 for patent attorneys, and $157,560 for tax attorneys. Senior GC pay on that page is given as a range from about $201,018 to $278,324. Those are Randstad figures, not Robert Half and not BLS. The draft that preceded this page had mixed the labels. The numbers stay. The source is corrected.
8. Data scientists, machine learning engineers, and AI architects
Indeed’s 2026 best-jobs work, as reported by CNBC and Yahoo, places data scientists among the ten roles it scores for pay, demand, wage growth, and postings. The estimated median annual salary on that list is about $115,079. That is a median on Indeed’s method, not a BLS mean, and not a floor for every ML architect.
EBS publishes $150,000–$300,000 for data scientists and machine learning engineers, and $180,000–$350,000 for AI architects. It also reports 36 percent year-on-year demand growth for the data scientist / ML family. We use 36 percent because that is the figure on the named page. We do not keep an unsourced 30 percent.
Axios and CNBC both frame Indeed’s 2026 list as healthcare-heavy, with data science as the tech role that still clears the cut. Robert Half’s 4.1 percent starting-salary gain for AI, ML, and data science sits in the same year. None of that is a scored “best job” badge from Kumo. It is three named sources describing demand and pay with different instruments.
9. Natural sciences and engineering managers
BLS May 2025 means, via The Hill: natural sciences managers $180,250; architectural and engineering managers $181,540. Randstad’s 2026 page puts engineering managers at an average of $169,578, with a senior range on that page from $165,900 to $224,965. Again, government occupational mean versus specialist average. Print both. Do not pick a winner.
EBS does not publish a manager band we could lift for this family. It does publish petroleum engineers at $130,000–$220,000. That is a related technical range from a named global guide, not a substitute for the manager means above.
10. Corporate finance leadership
Randstad’s 2026 high-paying jobs page leads with corporate treasurer at an average of $286,851 and controller at $243,339. Senior treasurer pay on that page is given as $312,581 to $432,880. Those figures sit above the BLS chief-executive occupational mean of $269,630.
That comparison is the methodology trap. BLS is counting a wide occupational class. Randstad is publishing specialist averages for two finance titles it is hiring against. Robert Half’s 2026 Salary Guide, on the official press release, does not publish those treasurer and controller dollar figures. The press release is about specialised-skill gains, negotiation confidence, and total rewards. If you need Robert Half starting bands, use Robert Half’s guide. If you quote $286,851, you are quoting Randstad.
For a people team, the job is to write the treasurer or controller band from the method you actually trust, then run the hire and the pay change through a confirm. Mixing a BLS CEO mean into that band as if it were a peer title will distort the offer.
What this means for a people team
Kumo does not set surgeon pay. It does not invent a CEO package and it does not replace a compensation committee. What it does, on verbs already published on the capabilities catalogue, is the operating work around those roles.
The agent colleague reads a CV against the job you opened, not a keyword cloud. It can open a role, publish a role, add a candidate, extend an offer, hire (which creates the employee record and pay settings), change compensation, onboard, and run payroll. Sensitive steps wait for a confirm. That is hiring and pay as work, not a chatbot reciting The Hill.
If you are hiring a radiologist, a general counsel, or a treasurer, the expensive mistake is a sloppy file read and a band copied from the wrong method. The cheap mistake is treating an agent as a search box. Read agentic HR versus chatbot if you need that distinction in one page. Then look at how Agent 2.0 works and the People OS on /platform.
When you want to see the colleague on a live hire, book a demo. Thirty minutes. Your roles. Not a trophy list.
What we skipped. Invented ranks and composite scores. Global ranges without a named page. A 30 percent demand figure we could not source (EBS reports 36 percent for data scientists / ML). Robert Half dollar bands that do not appear on the listed press release. Kumo prices, accuracy percentages, and customer counts. Any claim that Kumo sets clinical or executive pay.
If you only remember one line
People teams that hire and pay these roles use a People OS with an agent colleague, not a chatbot. The money is in medicine, scarce licences, and a few executive and finance titles. The work is to read the file against the job, write the band from a named method, and confirm the sensitive step. Book a demo when you want that colleague on the hire, or start from the agentic HR employee.
Sources
- BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025: bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.nr0.htm
- The Hill on the same release: thehill.com, highest-paying jobs
- U.S. News best-paying jobs: careers.usnews.com/best-jobs/rankings/best-paying-jobs; 100 best jobs: the-100-best-jobs
- Indeed 2026 via CNBC: cnbc.com, 13 January 2026
- Indeed 2026 via Axios: axios.com, 13 January 2026
- Indeed 2026 via Yahoo / Moneywise: finance.yahoo.com
- Randstad 2026 high-paying jobs: randstadusa.com
- Robert Half 2026 Salary Guide press release: press.roberthalf.com, 29 September 2025
- EBS highest paying jobs in the world: ebsedu.org
- Sprintzeal highest paying jobs: sprintzeal.com
- Kumo: /agentic-hr-employee, /cv-screening, /intelligence, /platform, /platform/capabilities, /llms.txt