Free Access No Registration Updated: 2026-06-01

Machine Learning Engineer Career Market Report 2026

OverviewSalarySkillsCareer PathAI ImpactResume Guide

2,430 active jobs. 919 companies. Median salary $162K. Data from Greenhouse, Lever, Workday, Ashby, SmartRecruiters, Workable, and 14 additional ATS sources. Last computed: 2026-06-01.

2,430
Active Job Openings
919
Companies Hiring
$162K
Median Salary (US)
83%
With Salary Data

About This Report

MLE is a senior-heavy market where 82% of level-specified postings require Senior or above.

Greenhouse Lever Workday Ashby SmartRecruiters Workable + 14 more ATS sources

Salary: Extracted via NLP. Only USD $5K-$3M included. Skills: Named entity recognition, noise-filtered (generic soft skills excluded). Experience: Inferred from title + description. Coverage: 83% of positions include salary data.

Key Findings

Median salary: $162K in the US

Middle 50% of salaries range from $129K to $243K.

Remote roles pay 7% above the US national median

Remote-first employers competing nationally for talent. The premium reflects company quality (remote-first firms tend to be well-funded), not a work-mode bonus.

AI/LLM is the most-demanded skill at 83%

Python demand rose +9.4pp — fastest-growing skill

Adobe leads hiring with 48 open positions

Biggest salary jump: Staff → Director (+$42K, +21%)

Salary increase: +$42K · Sample: Staff → Director

AI automation risk: low (score 30/100)

Score: 30/100 · AI/LLM demand: 147% of postings

Week-over-week changes reflect dataset expansion, not market surge

Recent growth in tracked postings is from adding new data sources, not a one-week hiring boom. Interpret trend data with this in mind.

Salary by Experience Level

LevelJobsP25MedianP90
Senior170$138K$159K$208K
Staff145$172K$200K$296K
Mid-Level50$101K$139K$200K
Junior27$78K$125K$200K
Manager16$178K$189K$336K
Lead12$125K$172K$210K
Director4$234K$242K$267K

What jumps out

Staff → Director: +$42K (21%) — the biggest single-step increase. The salary curve is back-loaded: the largest raises come at transitions where scope changes from executing tasks to owning outcomes, or from owning outcomes to shaping architecture across teams.

Salary by Country

CountryJobsMedianCurrency
United States284$166KUSD
Remote105$177KUSD
Costa Rica22$152KUSD
Canada16$152KUSD
United Kingdom3$115KGBP

Work Mode

ModeShare
On-Site4.8%
Remote23.4%
Hybrid4.7%

~80% of postings do not specify work mode. Figures show only positions where it is explicitly stated.

Top Skills in Demand

AI/LLM
83%
Python
64%
PyTorch
46%
AWS
33%
TensorFlow
33%
MLOps
21%
GCP
21%
CI/CD
20%
Azure
20%
Kubernetes
19%
Docker
19%
SQL
16%

Skills on the Rise

Python ↑+9.4ppAI/LLM ↑+9.0ppAirflow ↑+8.9ppRobotics ↑+8.4ppLangChain ↑+7.7pp

Top Companies Hiring

CompanyOpeningsShare
Adobe482.0%
Waymo391.6%
Generalmotors331.4%
Spotify301.2%
Toloka Ai251.0%
Unity3D200.8%
Capitalone190.8%
Caylent180.7%

Top Countries by Job Volume

CountryJobs
United States915
Remote278
India145
United Kingdom112
Canada66
Costa Rica38
France33
Germany32

Education Requirements

LevelSharePositions
Associate Degree50.0%1,013
Master's Degree16.8%340
PhD / Doctorate10.4%210
Bachelor's Degree5.0%102
MBA0.1%2

Certifications

All certifications below 1% threshold. Certifications carry minimal weight in this profession's hiring decisions.

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