The skills that pay the most

Across 904 disclosed-salary designer listings (baseline median: $162k), adding ml to the job description correlates with a $43k salary bump — 27% above listings without it.

Ranked by dollar premium (median salary of listings mentioning the skill minus median of listings without it). Minimum 20 mentions required to qualify.

1.
ml
+$43k
$204k median with · $161k without · 27% premium
n = 34 listings
Fluidstack, FOX Tech, Jack & Jill, Maven Clinic
2.
craft
+$40k
$183k median with · $142k without · 28% premium
n = 369 listings
DoorDash, Discord, Brex, Chipotle Mexican Grill
3.
agents
+$38k
$198k median with · $160k without · 24% premium
n = 61 listings
TikTok, Assort Health, Smarter Technologies, Superhuman
4.
llm
+$33k
$195k median with · $162k without · 20% premium
n = 24 listings
Albi, FOX Tech, Weights & Biases, PayPal
5.
ai
+$30k
$175k median with · $145k without · 21% premium
n = 509 listings
Deloitte, DoorDash, Brex, Ibotta
6.
experimentation
+$27k
$187k median with · $160k without · 17% premium
n = 72 listings
Chipotle Mexican Grill, Discord, Netflix, Etsy
7.
strategy
+$25k
$178k median with · $153k without · 17% premium
n = 405 listings
Deloitte, Brex, Ibotta, Chipotle Mexican Grill
8.
ambiguity
+$25k
$182k median with · $157k without · 16% premium
n = 143 listings
Spotify, Samba TV, Renesas Electronics, Assort Health
9.
mentoring
+$23k
$183k median with · $160k without · 14% premium
n = 67 listings
Netflix, Airtable, Albi, DICK'S Sporting Goods
10.
interaction
+$23k
$175k median with · $153k without · 15% premium
n = 412 listings
Deloitte, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Fastly, Samba TV
One caveat: skill keywords correlate with seniority. A senior role asking for “strategy” pays more partly because it's senior, not purely because of the keyword. The figures above are raw correlations across all roles — treat them as directional, not causal. A more rigorous version would control for role + seniority; that's the next iteration.