Machine Learning Engineer salary: $250K median
From 558 open roles that publish a yearly US-dollar range. Advertised ranges, not verified pay.
$250Kmedian advertised salary
$214K – $288Kmiddle half of roles
$259Kaverage advertised salary
558roles counted
Machine Learning Engineer salary by level
Lead roles advertise a median of $280K, 21% more than senior roles ($232K). The level comes from the job title; titles without a level word are counted separately.
| Level | Median salary | Middle half | Roles |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior | $232K | $204K–$255K | 153 |
| Lead and above | $280K | $254K–$310K | 188 |
| No level in title | $240K | $200K–$300K | 209 |
Machine Learning Engineer salary by location
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸New York | $264K | 87 |
| 🇺🇸San Francisco Bay Area | $261K | 327 |
| 🇺🇸California | $260K | 362 |
| 🇺🇸United States | $253K | 532 |
| 🇺🇸Pittsburgh | $245K | 18 |
| 🇺🇸Seattle | $212K | 30 |
Top-paying companies
| Name | Median salary | Roles counted |
|---|---|---|
| Anthropic | $382K | 16 |
| Wayve | $366K | 11 |
| Roblox | $316K | 14 |
| OpenAI | $313K | 32 |
| Perplexity | $312K | 3 |
| Discord | $306K | 4 |
| Suno | $301K | 3 |
| Figure | $300K | 7 |
| Zoox | $295K | 21 |
| $290K | 20 | |
| Hims & Hers | $281K | 4 |
| Ramp | $278K | 3 |
| Duolingo | $276K | 3 |
| $276K | 22 | |
| Plaid | $272K | 7 |
| Sigma | $271K | 4 |
| Waymo | $270K | 47 |
| OKX | $268K | 5 |
| Hume AI | $265K | 3 |
| Motional | $261K | 4 |
| Chime | $258K | 4 |
| Scale AI | $256K | 12 |
| xAI | $255K | 5 |
| Adyen | $252K | 3 |
| Agility Robotics | $252K | 3 |
Highest-paying open Machine Learning Engineer roles
All machine learning engineer jobs- Engineering Manager, GPU (ML Accelerator)Anthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY | Seattle, WA$500K - $850KMachine Learning
- Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)Anthropic · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA | New York City, NY$500K - $850KRustPythonC++
- Machine Learning Engineer, Monetization AI/MLOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$381K - $555KMachine LearningLLMPyTorch
- Engineering Manager, MLEOpenAI · 🇺🇸San Francisco$500K - $555KMachine LearningLLMPyTorch
- Director, Machine Learning Engineering, Ads MeasurementPinterest · 🇺🇸San Francisco, CA, US; Palo Alto, CA, US; Seattle, WA, US$315K - $551KLeadMachine LearningAI
- Director, Machine Learning Engineering, Ads QualityPinterest · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA, US; San Francisco, CA, US$315K - $551KLeadMachine LearningAI
- Sr. Machine Learning Engineer, AnonymizationMercor · 🇺🇸San Francisco$180K - $500KSeniorPythonPostgreSQLMachine Learning
- Senior Staff / Principal Machine Learning Engineer - Autonomy BehaviorsZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$340K - $492KLeadPythonC++Machine Learning
- Member of Technical Staff (AI Researcher)Perplexity · 🇺🇸San Francisco$220K - $485KPythonC++Machine Learning
- Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Data Curation & Dataset StrategyWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$390K - $460KLeadPythonMachine LearningAI
- Distinguished Engineer, Machine Learning - DiscoveryRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$419K - $458KMachine LearningLLMAI
- Distinguished Engineer, Machine Learning - EconomyRoblox · 🇺🇸San Mateo, CA, United States$397K - $456KMachine LearningLLMAI
- Principal Machine Learning Engineer (AI/Platform)- League of LegendsRiot Games · 🇺🇸Los Angeles, USA$292K - $438KLeadMachine LearningKubernetesAI
- Staff / Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Inference - USAInworld AI · 🇺🇸Mountain View, California, USA$270K - $430KLeadRustPythonC++
- Engineering Director, AI EngineeringHex · 🇺🇸San Francisco$300K - $425KLeadPythonTypeScriptReact
- Machine Learning Scientist/EngineerWayve · 🇺🇸Sunnyvale, California USA$311K - $420KMachine LearningPyTorchAI
- Applied ResearcherRiver AI Inc. · 🇺🇸Palo Alto, CA$200K - $420KMachine LearningPyTorch
- Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, GenAI PlatformReddit · 🇺🇸Remote - United States$292K - $410KRemoteLeadGoPythonTerraform
- Senior Staff Machine Learning Systems Engineer, Ads ML PlatformReddit · 🇺🇸Remote - United States$292K - $410KRemoteLeadMachine LearningKafkaAirflow
- Staff / Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer - Collision Avoidance SystemZoox · 🇺🇸Foster City, CA$291K - $409KLeadPythonC++Machine Learning
Questions about Machine Learning Engineer pay
- What is the average Machine Learning Engineer salary?
- $259K a year on average and $250K at the median, across 558 open Machine Learning Engineer postings at tech companies that state pay (November 2026). The median is the better guide: a few very high offers pull the average up.
- What is the typical range?
- The middle half of the postings offer $214K to $288K a year. A quarter offer less and a quarter offer more.
- Which companies advertise the highest Machine Learning Engineer pay?
- Anthropic ($382K), Wayve ($366K), Roblox ($316K), by the median of their open postings that state pay (three postings or more).
- Where do these figures come from?
- From the pay ranges employers print in their own job postings, read from their careers pages every hour. The midpoint of each range is counted. These are advertised ranges for open roles, mostly in the United States and in US dollars, not what people are actually paid.
Writing about this? A sentence you can quote
The median advertised salary for Machine Learning Engineer roles at tech companies is $250K a year, and the middle half of postings offer $214K to $288K. Counted from 558 open job postings that state pay, November 2026. Source: Hiring Right Now, https://jobseveryhour.com/salaries/machine-learning-engineer/
Free to use with the link.