Machine Learning Engineer Salary in the USA

Last updated by Nitin Grover on Aug 30, 2024 at 06:09 PM | Reading time: 7 minutes

Salaries of machine learning engineers in the USA serve as a good indicator of continuously growing demand for their skills and expertise. Along with years of experience, the city in which the ML engineer works, and the company for which he works are important parameters business enterprises use to compute the salary of machine learning engineers.

Entry-level ML engineers start at a base salary of $100,000 per annum. With experience, they can attain a position of principal machine engineer with an annual base salary close to $300K per annum.

In addition to the base salary, many top-tier companies also reward machine learning engineers with annual cash bonus or annual stock bonus, or both to their employees.

Career aspirants in machine learning can opt for a machine learning course offered by Interview Kickstart, a global leader in career upleveling. The course is designed and taught by hiring managers and tech leads at top IT companies in the world.

In addition to machine learning, career aspirants can pursue courses in data science, applied Gen AI and MLOps to name a few.‍

‍‍Machine Learning Engineer Salary: Career Path‍

According to future business insights, the global market of machine learning as well as related fields like MLOps engineering and machine learning research science are expected to be worth $152.28 billion by 2028. Any person who likes automation of loves to play with data or statistics can pursue a career path in machine learning. ‍

Machine learning engineers start their careers at entry-level with an experience of less than one year. Their career progresses to principal machine learning engineer, who has an experience of more than 15 years.

‍Salary trajectory of machine Learning engineer under various stages of their career:‍

‍‍Entry Level Machine Learning Engineer Salary (Experience:0-3 Years)

Average Base Salary: $104,000 per annum
Cash Bonus: $12,000 per annum
Stock Bonus: $20,000 per annum
(Source: Glassdoor)

Mid-Level Machine Learning Engineer Salary (Experience: 4-6 Years)

As the career of a machine learning engineer progresses, so do the responsibilities and salaries.
Average Base Salary: $165,685 per annum
Stock Bonus: $48,000 per annum
Cash Bonus: $20,000 per annum
(Source: Glassdoor)‍

Senior Machine Learning Engineer Salary (Experience: 7-9 Years)‍

Average Base Salary: $212,000 per annum
Stock Bonus: $480,000 per annum
Cash Bonus: $75,000 per annum
(Source: Glassdoor)

‍Principal Machine Learning Engineer Salary (Experience: 10-15 Years and above)‍

After 10-15 years, a Machine Learning Engineer attains the topmost position in the organization with the maximum career growth.

Average Base Salary: $253,000 per annum
Highest Base Salary: $275,800 per annum
Stock Bonus: $480,000 per annum
Cash Bonus: $75,000 per annum
(Source: Glassdoor)

Machine Learning Engineer Salary: In Comparison with Other Similar Roles

‍How do the average base salaries of Machine Learning Engineer compare to the salaries in similar roles:


Job Role	Average Pay (per annum)
Software Engineer - Machine Learning	$165,760
Machine Learning Research Scientist	$162,250
Research Engineer	$117,991
Machine Learning Scientist	$153,113

(Source: Glassdoor)

‍Machine Learning Engineer Salary: FAANG and Top Tier Companies

‍As compared to other companies, the salaries of Machine Learning Engineers are usually compensated better in FAANG (Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google) as well as other top-tier companies.


Company Name	Average Base Pay (per annum)
Meta (Facebook)	$276,262
Apple	$275,467
Amazon	$222,559
Netflix	$186,848
Google	$284,275
Adobe	$226,139
Spotify	$226,160
X	$257,691
Snap	$256,859
Microsoft	$218,868

‍(Source: Glassdoor)

‍US Cities Paying the Highest Machine Learning Engineer Salary


City (State)	Average Base Pay (per annum)
New York, NY	$206,965
Santa Clara County, California	$197,316
San Francisco Bay Area, California	$192,444
Cupertino, California	$180,675
San Diego, California	$157,126
St. Louis, Missourie	$138,898
San Jose Island, Texas	$176,429
Richardson, Texas	$130,871
Austin, Texas	$187,683
Dallas, Texas	$143,107

(Source: Glassdoor)

Machine learning is indeed one of the fastest growing careers in the U.S. and around the world. With time, the domain will become more organized so will be the salary structure for skilled resources in the domain.

‍FAQs: Machine Learning Engineer Salary

1. Which job profile pays more Artificial Intelligence or Machine Learning?
According to Glassdoor, as on March 19, 2024, an AI engineer gets an average base pay of $127,986 per annum, an AI researcher, $108,932 per annum and a machine learning engineer - $126,397 per annum.

2. How much does a PhD in Machine Learning earn in the USA?
The average salary of a PhD in machine learning in the USA is $159K per annum.

3. Which job is better paid, data scientist or machine learning engineer?
As per latest data insights from PayScale, machine learning engineers are paid slightly better than data scientists in the USA. Whereas the average base pay of a data scientist is $85K and $134K, the average base pay of a machine learning engineer is $93K and $149K.

4. How much time does it take to become a machine learning engineer?
‍In most cases, a machine learning engineering course will take six months to complete. However, it may take years to master the right skills for a specific job role.

5. Why are machine learning engineers paid high salaries?
Machine learning engineers are in high demand because of increasing adoption of artificial intelligence and associated technologies such as machine learning in a lot of industries around the world.

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Nitin Grover

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What is OpenAI? Everything You Need to Know

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