Machine learning engineer salary in the US
Employers across the US offered machine learning engineers a median of $178,350 a year on approved H-1B applications. That is 23.1% above offers to all software engineers.
Median offer
$178,350
All software engineer offers: $144,928
The middle half
$142,105 – $220,000
25th to 75th percentile
H-1B applications
2,801
From 921 employers
Open machine learning engineer jobs
1,152
In the US, from over 500 companies
Pay range
The top 10% of machine learning engineer offers across the US were above $264,514 a year. The bottom 10% were below $113,000.
10th percentile $113,000, 25th $142,105, 75th $220,000, 90th $264,514.
10th percentile $82,460, 25th $105,210, 75th $171,980, 90th $214,670.
Line: 10th to 90th percentile. Box: the middle half (25th to 75th). Dark mark: the median. Machine learning engineers: salaries offered on H-1B applications. All software engineers: salaries paid, from the BLS.
Machine learning engineer offers by city
Median salary offered to machine learning engineers on approved H-1B applications in each metro area with at least 30 of them.
| City | Applications | Median offer |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco, CA | 439 | $200,000 |
| San Jose, CA | 924 | $200,000 |
| Seattle, WA | 271 | $195,000 |
| New York, NY | 269 | $169,541 |
| Los Angeles, CA | 52 | $159,099 |
| San Diego, CA | 37 | $158,400 |
| Boston, MA | 102 | $156,558 |
| Washington, DC | 30 | $154,460 |
| Austin, TX | 70 | $142,900 |
| Chicago, IL | 49 | $135,000 |
| Dallas, TX | 103 | $124,800 |
| Atlanta, GA | 51 | $121,463 |
Machine learning engineers and other engineering jobs in the US
Median salary offered on approved H-1B applications across the US, for every engineering job type with at least 30 applications.
| Job | Applications | Median offer |
|---|---|---|
| Machine learning engineers | 2,801 | $178,350 |
| Engineering managers | 9,838 | $162,951 |
| Forward deployed engineers | 280 | $160,000 |
| Infrastructure engineers | 895 | $159,594 |
| Site reliability engineers | 1,122 | $146,758 |
| All software engineers | 118,728 | $144,928 |
| AI engineers | 1,688 | $141,866 |
| Platform engineers | 411 | $140,046 |
| Android engineers | 411 | $135,699 |
| iOS engineers | 351 | $134,550 |
| Frontend engineers | 945 | $130,000 |
| Cloud engineers | 1,357 | $129,055 |
| Data engineers | 8,762 | $123,974 |
| Support engineers | 1,577 | $117,749 |
| DevOps engineers | 2,192 | $115,731 |
All software engineers: every application filed under the BLS software developer job code, whatever its title. Backend and full-stack engineers: left out, since a plain "Software Engineer" title counts as both.
Experience level of these offers
From October 2025 to June 2026, the Department of Labor approved 2,801 H-1B applications for machine learning engineers across the US, from 921 employers. Level II offers were the most common.
Applications
2,801
Employers
921
Most experienced (Level IV)
21.5%
Applications by wage level
- Level I (entry): 328
- Level II: 910
- Level III: 607
- Level IV (most experienced): 602
- Not stated: 354
These are salaries offered on approved applications, not salaries paid. Each application lists only its main work site.
1,152 open machine learning engineer jobs in the US right now
From over 500 companies. 66 were posted in the past week.
Machine learning engineer salaries by city: San Francisco, San Jose, New York, Seattle, Austin, Boston, Los Angeles
What counts as a machine learning engineer
The BLS has no machine learning engineer category, so these figures come from job titles. An H-1B application or a job on hiredaemon counts as a machine learning engineer job when its title names machine learning work, such as "Machine Learning Engineer", "ML Engineer" or "MLOps Engineer". AI engineers are counted separately.
Sources and notes
- Machine learning engineer offers: US Department of Labor, H-1B application data, October 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026. Approved H-1B applications whose job title names machine learning work and whose work site is in the US.
- Software engineer pay: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (published May 15, 2026), whole US.
- Open jobs: counted on hiredaemon as this page loads.