SEGD Salary + Employment Report
The first salary and employment benchmark for experiential design.
What Is Experiential Design Work Worth? We Finally Have the Data.
The first comprehensive salary and employment benchmark developed specifically for the experiential design profession.
What should an experiential designer earn? How do salaries compare across disciplines, experience levels, firm sizes, and regions? What does career advancement look like, and how can firms make more informed decisions about compensation, hiring, and retention?
For the first time, our profession has a shared framework to help answer these questions.
Built from 424 practitioner survey responses and 633 SEGD Job Bank postings from 2020–2026, the 2026 SEGD Salary & Employment Report offers an unprecedented look at the people, roles, compensation, and employment trends shaping experiential design.
Whether you’re building your career or building a team, this is data you can put to work.
Finally, Compensation Data That Reflects What We Actually Do
Experiential design doesn’t fit neatly into traditional graphic design or architecture salary benchmarks.
Our work spans wayfinding, placemaking, exhibition and experience design, branded environments, and more. Our roles are multidisciplinary, our titles are inconsistent, and the responsibilities behind those titles vary widely from one organization to another.
Until now, we’ve lacked a common reference point for understanding what this work is worth.
The 2026 SEGD Salary & Employment Report changes that.
Rather than comparing job titles alone, it introduces a five-tier leveling framework based on actual responsibilities, creating a more meaningful way to understand compensation and career progression across our profession.
Free Member Preview—Coming Soon
2026 SEGD Salary & Employment Report: Member Preview
FREE | Exclusive to SEGD Members
A snapshot of the profession, available as part of your SEGD membership.
Explore three key trends shaping experiential design, insights into early-career professionals, and the challenges of comparing job titles and responsibilities across our multidisciplinary field.
What’s included:
- Three major employment trends shaping experiential design
- Insights into early-career practitioners
- An exploration of job titles and role comparisons across disciplines
Not a member? Join SEGD to access this edition and other member benefits.
Stay tuned—the member preview will launch on November 2, 2026
Full Edition
2026 Salary & Employment Report: Compensation, Careers, and the Shape of the Experiential Design Workforce
The complete research, analysis, and compensation benchmarks for professionals, employers, and organizations working in experiential design.
What’s included:
- Five-tier role leveling framework based on responsibility
- Salary bands and medians by experience level
- Compensation comparisons across disciplines, firm sizes, and regions
- Benefits, compensation satisfaction, and salary negotiation findings
- Six years of SEGD Job Bank hiring trends
- Insights into hiring, retention, and pay transparency
- Career development and workforce planning insights
Whether you’re negotiating your next salary, establishing pay ranges for your team, or making strategic decisions about hiring and retention, the Full Edition gives you the deeper data to inform those decisions.
Early Access: Member-Only Pricing
- Individual Member Pricing | Limited to 4 Membership Type(s): $250
- Studio Member Pricing | Limited to 12 Membership Type(s). $500
Built by Our Community, for Our Community
424 Practitioner Survey Responses
633 SEGD Job Bank Postings
6 Years of Employment Data
5 Levels of Professional Responsibility
This report was made possible by the experiential design professionals who shared their compensation, experiences, and perspectives.
Together, we’ve created something our field has needed for a long time: a shared foundation for more informed conversations about compensation, professional growth, and the value of experiential design.
Better Data. Better Decisions. A Stronger Profession.
A more transparent, informed, and equitable profession begins with understanding where we stand today.
Whether you’re preparing for your next salary conversation, building a compensation structure, or planning the future of your practice, the 2026 SEGD Salary & Employment Report offers a new perspective on the profession and the people shaping it.