4 Natural Language Processing Career Paths

A career in natural language processing (NLP) is a path to a growing field that leverages AI and machine learning models, enabling computers to understand and respond to human speech. At a glance, here's what you can expect from a career in natural language processing:

• NLP professionals earn competitive salaries, ranging from $97,000 to $189,000 [2,4].

• Careers in the field include NLP engineers, NLP research scientists, and AI product manager.

• To enter the field, you'll likely need to earn at least a bachelor's degree and build the right skills.

In this article, you'll explore four natural language processing career paths, how to get started in the field, and what you can expect to earn in each one. Afterward, if you want to start buidling NLP skills youself, consider enrolling in DeepLearning.AI's Natural Language Proncessing.

What is the natural language processing career path?

You may notice that many NLP job descriptions list similar skills, like programming, software development, and linguistics. NLP technology and the fields that support it are evolving as customer-facing products that use NLP are starting to become more common. Many roles in NLP will allow you to design and build NLP models. 

You can also find jobs on NLP projects where your job title may not include natural language processing. For example, you may work on NLP projects as a data scientist, software developer, machine learning engineer, or research engineer. 

NLP career paths vary based on the role you play within the team, the development of NLP models, and the goals of your work. For example, you may work as an NLP software engineer creating a model to help companies understand the emotions behind text data like social media posts, or you may work as an NLP data scientist to help companies make sense of the data the model returns. 

4 natural language processing career paths

Your natural language processing career path will depend on your goals and skills. Four potential career paths include engineering, research science, computational linguistics, and AI product management. Within these fields, you’ll find entry-level jobs, and as you gain experience or advanced education, you will likely find jobs that require more responsibility. 

*All salary data comes from Glassdoor as of November 2025 and includes additional pay such as bonuses, commission, or profit-sharing.

1. NLP engineering

Natural language processing engineers design and build artificial intelligence models to understand and respond to human language.

In this role, you'll select training data and train AI models to understand patterns in language, then test and fine-tune the model as needed. You'll build NLP models to solve problems or integrate these models into software or other development projects. Common industries that employ NLP engineers include retail, finance, business, entertainment, marketing, health care, and more. 

To start a career in NLP engineering, you'll likely need to earn a bachelor’s degree, although more advanced positions may prefer that you earn a master’s degree. You may be able to find an entry-level job with an associate degree and related experience or certification in NLP. You can start earning experience as a junior NLP engineer before moving into roles like NLP engineer, NLP software engineer, or machine learning engineer. 

After gaining experience in the field, earning an advanced degree, or developing your skills, you may qualify for a more senior or leadership role in engineering, such as senior NLP engineer, NLP team lead, or head of machine learning. 

Median total pay: $113,000 [1]

2. Natural language processing research science

Natural language processing research scientists design and build NLP models and systems, focusing on developing new models and advancing NLP technology.

In this role, you'll design and execute experiments to study different aspects of the potential uses of natural language processing. Common examples include creating models that scale to your client's needs or serve a specific purpose, like improving chatbots, search engines, or how NLP models analyze a document. You'll also likely report your findings to your company or leadership team, and you may also publish your findings for the greater scientific community. 

To start a career in NLP research science, you'll need to earn a bachelor’s degree, although many positions will prefer that you have an advanced degree, such as a master’s. You will need a solid understanding of computer science, mathematics, physics, and electrical engineering principles.  You can also pursue certifications or other credentials to help demonstrate your skills. 

You can start gaining experience as a research assistant. As you gain experience, you can move into NLP research scientist roles. Later in your career, you may choose to advance to a more senior role, such as a senior NLP data scientist. 

Median total salary: $97,000 [2]

3. Computational linguistics

Computational linguists utilize their understanding of natural language principles to aid in the development of NLP applications and models. In this role, you may work on projects such as machine translations, text analysis, search engine creation or development, or other projects that allow a computer to understand and manipulate human language. 

You’ll need to complete your education before becoming a computational linguist. Many professionals in this role hold a bachelor’s degree, although a master’s degree is common. If you don’t have a programming background, you might begin gaining experience as you develop your skills in an entry-level position, such as speech data analyst or linguistic quality manager. 

After earning experience in the field and developing your skills and education, you may qualify for senior or leadership roles, including senior computational linguist. 

Median total salary: $132,000 [3]

4. AI product manager

AI product managers work on projects that feature AI technology, such as NLP models, or use AI to improve and enhance existing projects. In this role, you'll likely conduct research to determine your customers or clients’ needs and then collaborate with other teams to design and build the product. 

To start a career as a product manager, you will need a background in business or product management. It’s common for professionals in this field to hold a bachelor’s degree. However, the career role of an AI product manager is relatively new, and you may also transition to this role from a software background. You may gain relevant experience in careers such as software development or software product management before refining your skills to become an AI product manager. 

Once you gain experience, add to your skills, and enhance your education, you may qualify for leadership roles, such as senior product manager or director of product. 

Median total salary: $189,000 [4]

Exploring a new career path?

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Explore natural language processing and AI resources on Coursera.

Check out the following natural language processing and AI resources to keep learning more.

• Take the Quiz: Which AI Course Should You Take? Find Out in 1 Minute

• Watch on YouTube: Understanding Chatbots: Types, Uses & Future of AI Communication or Technical Foundations of Generative AI | GANs, Transformers & Business Applications

• Learn essential AI and NLP terms: Artificial Intelligence Glossary: Learn AI Vocabulary

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