Machine learning engineer career path at tech companies · 323 roles · 90 days to Oct 16, 2026
Updated
In short
Of the 323 machine learning engineer roles at tech companies in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, 99 are senior, more than at any other level. The median stated pay for senior roles is $211.5k a year. Deep Learning rises most. Among the roles whose requirements we could read, it is required in 9 of 61 (15%) mid-level roles and 30 of 99 (30%) senior roles. Data scientist roles share 8 of the 13 required skills listed for machine learning engineer roles; no other role shares more.
Levels in order
Each level counts its own roles. A median shows only where 50 or more of that level’s roles state pay, and each is taken over a different set of roles.
| Level | Roles | Median stated pay | At least half ask for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Junior machine learning engineer | 24 roles | Not shown | 2+ years, 16 of 22 |
| Mid-level machine learning engineer | 61 roles | Not shown | 3+ years, 56 of 60 (93%) |
| Senior machine learning engineer | 99 roles | $211.5k a year | 5+ years, 65 of 83 (78%) |
| Staff machine learning engineer | 60 roles | Not shown | 8+ years, 31 of 51 (61%) |
| Principal machine learning engineer | 24 roles | Not shown | 10+ years, 12 of 18 |
| Lead machine learning engineer | 11 roles | Not shown | 5+ years, 7 of 9 |
Lead titles say who leads a team, not a step above principal, so lead is listed last and not compared with the level before it.
What rises at the next level
Required skills asked for in a larger share of roles at the next level, by 5 points or more. Each count is out of that level’s roles whose requirements we could read.
Mid-level to senior
Out of 61 mid-level and 99 senior roles whose requirements we read.
| Skill | Mid-level | Senior |
|---|---|---|
| Deep Learning | 9 of 61 (15%) | 30 of 99 (30%) |
| Python | 47 of 61 (77%) | 85 of 99 (86%) |
| Machine Learning | 42 of 61 (69%) | 76 of 99 (77%) |
In the senior top 15, not in the mid-level top 15: MLOps, CI/CD, SQL, Statistics, Docker
Senior to staff
Out of 99 senior and 60 staff roles whose requirements we read.
No required skill grows by that much at staff: the lists stay close.
In the staff top 15, not in the senior top 15: Information Retrieval, Experimentation, Generative AI, ML Infrastructure
Not compared, fewer than 50 roles read at one of the two levels: junior to mid-level and staff to principal.
Roles closest to machine learning engineer, by shared skills
Compared over each role’s most-required skills, umbrella labels such as “Programming” left out. The more skills two roles share, the shorter the move between them.
Data scientist416 roles
8 shared: Python, Machine Learning, PyTorch, LLMs, AI, Statistics, Experimentation, SQL
Median stated pay: $190k a year
Research scientist122 roles
8 shared: Python, Machine Learning, PyTorch, Deep Learning, LLMs, AI, Statistics, Experimentation
Median stated pay: $242.5k a year
AI engineer220 roles
6 shared: Python, Machine Learning, LLMs, AI, AWS, CI/CD
Median stated pay: $198.8k a year
Forward deployed engineer170 roles
5 shared: Python, Machine Learning, LLMs, AI, AWS
Median stated pay: $198.9k a year
More on machine learning engineer roles
How we count: 323 roles from 224 employers in the 90 days to Oct 16, 2026, each role counted once however many boards post it. Methodology