Top 10 Companies Hiring AI Engineers in Austria in 2026

Table of Contents

• Why Top 10 Lists Matter When Choosing an AI Employer
• Erste Group / Erste Digital
• A1 Telekom Austria
• AVL List GmbH
• Siemens Österreich
• OMV AG
• ÖBB Austrian Federal Railways
• voestalpine AG
• Red Bull GmbH
• Raiffeisen Bank International
• Infineon Technologies Austria
• Turning This Top 10 into Your Map
• Frequently Asked Questions

Erste Group / Erste Digital

Right on Vienna’s Donaukanal, Erste Digital acts as the “digital heart” of Erste Group, one of Central and Eastern Europe’s largest banks. For an AI engineer, this is where customer-scale LLMs, high-availability fraud models, and strict banking regulation collide in a single codebase.

What you build with AI

Most roles sit close to production systems that serve millions across CEE. Typical work includes:

• Agentic AI customer support with LLM-based assistants integrated into legacy core-banking platforms.
• Fraud detection and credit scoring models screening transactions for 16M+ customers in real time.
• Privacy-first analytics using synthetic data generators like Vienna-born MOSTLY AI to train models without exposing raw customer records.

A recent posting for a student AI engineering role on the Erste Group career portal shows how even junior positions contribute to production data pipelines and model tuning.

Tech stack and collaboration style

The dedicated Data & AI division brings together 200+ experts in data science, ML engineering, governance, and risk. Typical stack elements include:

• Python, SQL, and R for modeling, experimentation, and analysis.
• Google Cloud Vertex AI and Databricks for end-to-end ML pipelines and feature stores.
• Tight integration with risk, compliance, and legal to satisfy banking regulators across multiple countries.

Cross-functional squads - product owners, ML engineers, data engineers, and domain specialists - work in sprints where incremental model improvements can shift portfolio risk or call-centre load within weeks. Recruiters like Hays Austria’s data-science practice frequently cite banking as one of the most mature environments for applied ML in the country.

Salaries and who this is for

Typical gross annual ranges in Austria:

• Junior: €50k-€60k
• Mid-level: €65k-€80k
• Senior: €85k-€110k
• Lead: €120k+

Erste Digital is a strong match if you want LLMs and traditional ML at true bank scale, clear career paths, and Vienna’s ecosystem on your doorstep - from TU Wien lectures to evening meetups - while learning how governance, model risk, and privacy work in the real world.

A1 Telekom Austria

Across the Danube from Vienna’s historic centre, A1 Telekom Austria runs one of Central Europe’s most data-rich infrastructures: 26M+ customer relationships across 7 countries in the A1 Telekom Austria Group. For AI engineers, it’s a chance to work where network telemetry, recommender systems, and conversational AI all converge under real production load.

What you build with AI

Many A1 roles live at the intersection of big data and applied ML. Typical projects include:

• Next-Best-Action engines that coordinate offers and interventions across app, web, call centre, and shops.
• Network anomaly detection on massive time-series logs to predict outages before customers notice.
• Autonomous support agents using LLMs via Azure OpenAI Service for multilingual customer support across CEE.

The scale is reflected in job boards: Glassdoor currently lists over 200 AI-related roles across Austria, with a significant share tied to telecom and cloud-heavy employers like A1 (nationwide AI job searches on Glassdoor).

Tech stack and delivery model

A1’s central Data & AI hub in Vienna supports all group markets with a stack built around:

• Python, PySpark, and SQL for modeling and feature engineering.
• Event-driven architectures and services like Aiven for OpenSearch within the observability/search layer.
• Azure as the primary cloud platform, with growing MLOps investment for LLM and classical ML deployments.

Teams are product-focused: your churn model, tariff recommender, or call-centre bot is judged by how quickly it moves KPIs. Consulting overviews such as Digis’s ranking of Vienna AI consultancies consistently cite telco as one of the most AI-intensive verticals in the region.

Salaries and fit

Approximate annual gross ranges:

• Junior: €45k-€55k
• Mid-level: €60k-€75k
• Senior: €80k-€105k
• Lead: €110k+

A1 is a strong option if you’re excited by high-throughput systems, want your models to touch millions of users, and prefer Vienna’s urban mix of meetups, TU Wien ties, and easy CEE travel.

AVL List GmbH

Down in Graz, far from Vienna’s Ringstraße but firmly on every automotive OEM’s radar, AVL List GmbH has turned AI into an everyday engineering tool. If you want your code to interact with real vehicles, test benches, and powertrains, this is one of Austria’s most concrete ways to do it.

What you build with AI

AVL’s projects sit at the core of the shift toward autonomous and electrified mobility. As an AI engineer, you’re likely to work on:

• Computer vision for ADAS, detecting lanes, vehicles, and pedestrians in challenging conditions.
• Reinforcement learning control policies trained in simulation and transferred to real test vehicles (Sim2Real).
• Predictive diagnostics that learn from billions of sensor readings to flag failures before they hit the road.

According to PitchBook’s profile of AVL, the company acts as a global engineering partner to major OEMs, which means your models can end up embedded in customer projects across Europe, Asia, and North America.

Stack and collaboration style

You’ll mostly work in Python with TensorFlow/PyTorch for deep learning, and C++ where low latency or embedded deployment is required. Teams regularly use NVIDIA DRIVE and specialised simulators to iterate on autonomous-driving functions long before anything touches asphalt.

AI specialists are embedded in autonomous driving, powertrain, and testing departments. Daily stand-ups might include mechanical engineers, control theorists, and safety experts; whiteboards often mix loss curves with torque curves. The Austrian Business Agency’s AI success stories frequently point to mobility and automotive as showcase domains, and AVL is one of the clearest reasons why.

Salaries and who thrives here

Expected gross annual ranges in Graz:

• Junior: €48k-€58k
• Mid-level: €60k-€75k
• Senior: €80k-€100k
• Lead: €110k+

AVL fits engineers who enjoy physics-heavy ML, simulation environments, and the responsibility of safety-critical systems. Graz offers a dense student and research scene via TU Graz and a manageable train ride to Vienna, but your day-to-day focus is firmly on vehicles, not dashboards.

Siemens Österreich

In Austria’s industrial backbone, Siemens Österreich sits at the junction of software and heavy engineering. From metro lines and power grids to factory automation, its mission is to make machine learning robust enough for environments where downtime costs millions and safety is regulated down to the screw. Overviews of the top IT and engineering employers in Austria routinely list Siemens among the country’s most important digitalisation players, and AI now runs through much of that work.

Where AI shows up in your work

Most AI engineers land in Digital Industries or the Siemens Advanta consulting arm, tackling problems such as:

• Industrial foundation models that learn from CAD, PLC code, and sensor time series to simulate and optimise factory layouts or production lines.
• Edge AI for automation, deploying models on Industrial Edge devices directly next to machines, often synchronised with digital twins built in NVIDIA Omniverse.
• PLC code generation and verification, using LLMs to assist automation engineers in writing, refactoring, and checking control logic.

Stack, teams, and lifecycle

The tech stack mixes classic software and operational technology:

• Python for modeling, C++ (and sometimes Rust) for performance-critical components.
• Containerised deployments into OT environments with strict safety and latency constraints.
• Close coupling of cloud platforms with field hardware, echoing the “data-to-device” patterns highlighted in industrial AI engineering case studies.

Teams are deeply interdisciplinary: automation engineers, safety specialists, and AI engineers working on systems that may run unchanged for 10+ years in a plant or substation.

Salaries and who this suits

Indicative gross annual ranges in Austria:

• Junior: €50k-€60k
• Mid-level: €65k-€85k
• Senior: €90k-€115k
• Lead: €125k+

Siemens Österreich is a strong fit if you enjoy deep engineering, want to bridge IT and OT, and like the idea of your models quietly running in factories and rail systems from Vienna and Graz to the wider CEE region.

OMV AG

Inside OMV’s Vienna headquarters, the company’s Digital Office has quietly become one of the most ambitious AI hubs in the country. As an integrated energy group, OMV gives AI engineers rare leverage over both traditional oil & gas operations and the energy transition. Public overviews of Austria’s AI push, such as Matthäus Schweisgut’s analysis of how Austria is “cracking the AI code”, routinely cite large industrial players like OMV as key investors in applied AI.

Where your models go to work

OMV’s Digital Office in Vienna is tracking more than 140 AI ideas across the group. As an AI engineer, you’re likely to work on:

• Predictive maintenance for refineries: time-series models over pumps, compressors, and reactors to avoid unplanned shutdowns.
• GenAI copilots for employees: internal assistants that can parse technical manuals, safety procedures, and project documentation.
• CO₂ storage decision tools: ML models supporting site selection and injection strategies for carbon sequestration projects.

These initiatives build on significant R&D funding; OMV has committed multi-million-dollar research partnerships, including around 6M USD at Stanford, to explore next-generation energy technologies.

Stack, data, and collaboration

Day-to-day, you’ll mostly work with Python and SQL on Azure, using dedicated MLOps platforms for GenAI alongside proprietary geophysical and seismic-analysis tools. Projects are inherently cross-disciplinary: data scientists collaborate with geoscientists, chemical engineers, and operations teams who run assets from refineries to CO₂ storage pilots. The broader shift toward industrial AI in Europe is mirrored by initiatives like the planned AI Factory Austria (AI:AT), which also highlights energy and heavy industry as signature use cases.

Salaries and who thrives here

Indicative gross annual ranges in Austria:

• Junior: €52k-€65k
• Mid-level: €70k-€90k
• Senior: €95k-€120k
• Lead: €130k+

OMV is a strong match if you’re drawn to large-scale physical systems, climate-relevant projects, and the complexity of mixing sensor data, subsurface models, and GenAI workflows - while staying anchored in Vienna’s research and startup ecosystem.

ÖBB Austrian Federal Railways

When ÖBB speaks about turning the Austrian rail network into a digital twin, it’s not a buzzword - they are digitising how trains, tracks, stations, and maintenance interact across the entire country. For AI engineers in Vienna, that means working on logistics, spatial data, and sustainability problems where every percentage point of optimisation translates into fewer emissions and smoother journeys.

What you build with AI

Most AI roles sit inside ÖBB Train Tech or Infrastructure units and focus on:

• Network-scale digital twins that combine GIS layers, timetables, rolling-stock data, and infrastructure constraints to simulate scenarios before they touch the real network.
• Occupancy forecasting to predict seat utilisation per line or wagon, feeding into pricing, capacity planning, and climate targets.
• Automated inspection with vision models analysing images from inspection trains and drones to detect track or asset defects early.

LinkedIn regularly lists 100+ open roles for ÖBB in Vienna alone, many with data and analytics components, which reflects how deeply digitalisation is woven into operations.

Stack, data, and collaboration style

Day-to-day work typically involves Python, SQL, big-data platforms such as Databricks, and specialised GIS and simulation tools for spatio-temporal modelling. Training and deploying these models often relies on local GPU capacity; providers like Timewarp’s Austria-based GPU cloud help keep sensitive infrastructure data within national borders. The broader rise of Industrial AI in Vienna - highlighted by corporate AI programs catalogued on AI training platforms for Vienna teams - is very visible inside ÖBB.

Salaries and who this suits

Approximate gross annual ranges for AI engineers at ÖBB:

• Junior: €48k-€58k
• Mid-level: €60k-€75k
• Senior: €80k-€100k
• Lead: €110k+

If you care about public transport, climate goals, and models that shape a national system rather than a single app funnel, ÖBB offers long-term stability, complex data, and the chance to see your work roll into Wien Hauptbahnhof every day.

voestalpine AG

In Linz, voestalpine’s blast furnaces and rolling mills form the backdrop to one of Europe’s most advanced “intelligent steel” programs. For AI engineers, that means deploying models directly into plants where minutes of downtime can cost six figures and every optimisation helps cut both costs and emissions.

What you build with AI

Your work typically lands in three core domains:

• Predictive maintenance for rail infrastructure, especially railway points and related systems, to prevent failures long before they disrupt traffic.
• Defect detection in steel strips using computer vision on high-resolution imagery to spot surface flaws in cold-rolled products.
• CO₂-optimised production and process optimisation models that support the company’s flagship Greentec Steel decarbonisation initiative.

The broader Linz ecosystem reinforces this focus on industrial AI: local job boards such as DEVjobs.at’s listings for data scientists in Linz show consistent demand for ML skills in manufacturing and engineering, not just classic software firms.

How you build it

voestalpine’s stack centres on Python, with occasional R for statistical analysis, and Azure Machine Learning for training and deployment. Models interface tightly with process-control tech like Siemens SIMATIC PCS 7, so you’re never far from PLCs and sensor streams. A central Digital Transformation team in Linz coordinates standards and platforms, while “smart factory” specialists sit directly on production sites, making frequent plant visits part of normal sprint cycles.

This positions voestalpine alongside Austria’s high-growth AI players featured in overviews like Seedtable’s scan of AI companies in Austria: instead of pure software products, you’re applying ML to heavy industry at continental scale.

Salaries and who this suits

Typical gross annual ranges:

• Junior: €50k-€60k
• Mid-level: €65k-€80k
• Senior: €85k-€105k
• Lead: €115k+

voestalpine is ideal if you’re excited by manufacturing, computer vision, and optimisation - and don’t mind swapping co-working spaces for safety shoes and hard hats as your models quietly reshape how Europe’s steel is made.

Red Bull GmbH

Just outside Salzburg, in Fuschl am See, Red Bull’s lakeside campus runs a global operation that spans energy drinks, media, and elite sports. For AI engineers, it’s one of the few Austrian employers where high-throughput data systems, streaming video, and telemetry from Formula 1 cars and air races all intersect.

What you build with AI

Most AI roles sit in the Global IT hub and support three major streams of work:

• Personalisation for Red Bull TV, building recommender systems that decide which events, documentaries, or clips surface to fans across devices.
• Global supply chain optimisation for a product sold in 170+ countries, from demand forecasting to routing and inventory models.
• Athlete performance analytics, turning raw telemetry and video from motorsport, air races, and other disciplines into actionable insights for teams.

The commercial stakes are high: analysis of platforms like Amazon suggests that recommender engines can drive up to 35% of revenue, which is why global brands invest so heavily in personalisation at scale, as outlined in this breakdown of how Amazon’s recommendation system powers its business.

Stack and team structure

Red Bull’s data teams typically work with Python, Apache Spark, SQL, PyTorch, and Databricks for MLOps, deploying a significant part of their workloads on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) for telemetry-heavy use cases. AI engineers are grouped into product-focused pods that support the Media House, global logistics, or Racing units, with short feedback loops: if a recommendation model tweaks fan engagement or a forecasting model reduces stock-outs, you see it quickly in the metrics.

Salaries and who this is for

Compensation reflects the mix of global brand and Austrian base: juniors usually land around €55k-€65k, mid-level roles at €70k-€85k, seniors at €90k-€115k, and leads at €120k+ gross per year. This setup suits engineers who enjoy consumer-scale data, visible impact on media and sports, and a culture that expects experiments in recommendation, pricing, or performance analytics to translate quickly into on-track or on-screen results.

Raiffeisen Bank International

In Vienna’s financial district, Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) runs one of the region’s most focused banking AI programs. Its dedicated Group AI Lab supports a network of CEE subsidiaries, making it a natural home if you want to work on cross-border financial systems rather than a single domestic market.

What you build with AI

The lab’s mandate is to explore genuinely agentic AI in banking. As an engineer you might help design:

• MAIA, the Multilingual Assistant, an AI copilot that supports staff and, increasingly, customers across multiple CEE languages.
• Streaming fraud-prevention models that score transactions in real time and adapt to new patterns of abuse.
• AI-driven advisory tools that surface recommendations and risk insights for relationship managers handling complex corporate clients.

Analyses like Caroline Review’s look at AI-powered jobs of the future consistently highlight banking as one of the most aggressive adopters of applied ML, and RBI’s AI Lab is exactly that edge within Austria.

Stack and team structure

The Group AI Lab, split between Vienna and Bratislava, brings together around 60 specialists in data science, ML engineering, and AI ethics. The core stack includes:

• Python and SQL for experimentation and data modelling.
• Spark and AWS-based infrastructure for large-scale pipelines.
• Tools like Feedzai for AutoML-driven fraud detection.

Regulation and ethics are not afterthoughts: model design reviews regularly cover explainability, bias, and compliance. Market scans of top AI companies operating in Austria often note that financial institutions are among the most advanced in formal AI governance.

Salaries and who this fits

Typical gross annual ranges for AI roles at RBI are:

• Junior: €50k-€62k
• Mid-level: €65k-€82k
• Senior: €85k-€110k
• Lead: €120k+

RBI is a strong match if you enjoy NLP and LLM systems, want to work on financial ML that matters to regulators as much as customers, and like collaborating across CEE markets from a Vienna base.

Infineon Technologies Austria

Across Villach, Klagenfurt, and Graz, Infineon Technologies Austria turns semiconductors into a proving ground for applied AI. Instead of only running models in the cloud, you’re helping to shape the chips and fabs that power everything from electric vehicles to data centres, making it one of Austria’s most technically demanding AI employers.

What you build with AI

Typical projects span both product and manufacturing:

• AI for chip design, using ML to explore vast design spaces, optimise layouts, and predict electrical or thermal performance before tape-out.
• Defect classification on wafers, where computer vision models scan high-resolution images for microscopic anomalies that affect yield.
• GenAI for engineering workflows, building copilots that navigate datasheets, application notes, and design rules for hardware teams.

Analyses of the global AI market, such as Wellows’ overview of high-growth AI startups, highlight how hardware and energy infrastructure are becoming central to the AI stack; Infineon sits squarely in that “picks and shovels” layer.

Stack, data, and collaboration style

Day-to-day you’ll code mainly in Python, with PyTorch for generative and vision models, plus Django or Node.js where AI meets internal tools. Large training runs typically use Microsoft Azure, following cloud-native patterns similar to those in the AWS Generative AI stack reference - but adapted to Infineon’s security and on-prem integration needs.

Teams are tightly integrated with R&D: AI engineers sit alongside physicists, circuit designers, and process engineers. Feedback cycles can be long (fabricating and testing new silicon takes time), yet the payoff is tangible: your models influence real devices and high-value production steps.

Salaries and who this suits

Indicative gross annual ranges in Austria:

• Junior: €50k-€62k
• Mid-level: €65k-€80k
• Senior: €85k-€110k
• Lead: €120k+

Infineon is a strong fit if you enjoy physics-informed ML, computer vision, and the idea of your work living not just in dashboards, but in the chips inside cars, power systems, and IoT devices built across Europe.

Turning This Top 10 into Your Map

Back at Naschmarkt, your “Top 10 Foods” printout has done its job: it stopped you wandering in circles and pointed you toward a few good stalls. That’s what this employer list is for as well - not to crown a single winner, but to give you a structured first pass through Austria’s very different AI “flavours.”

Use the overview below as a quick map. Start from what you’re hungry for right now - not what a generic ranking says you should want.

From there, refine your own “taste profile.” The AI Engineer role has become the fastest-growing title in many markets, as recruiters at TheDriveGroup’s analysis of AI hiring point out, so you can afford to be deliberate about what you optimise for: learning curve, tech stack, or lifestyle in Vienna versus Linz or Graz.

Also keep an eye on how Austrian offers stack up against other regions. Comparisons like Interexy’s breakdown of AI developer rates by region show that Central European roles are increasingly competitive, especially when adjusted for cost of living - something Vienna, in particular, scores well on.

Most importantly, treat this Top 10 as a walking route, not a script. Circle the stalls that excite you, cross out what doesn’t, and add your own discoveries from meetups at TU Wien, AIT collaborations, or Vienna’s startup scene. In the end, you’ll choose your “stall” the same way you do at Naschmarkt: by what smells right for you, right now.

Frequently Asked Questions