Machine learning engineer salary in Austin, TX
Employers in the Austin metro offered machine learning engineers a median of $142,900 a year on approved H-1B applications. That is 19.9% below the US median for machine learning engineers, and 2.7% above offers to software engineers in Austin.
Median offer
$142,900
US median offer: $178,350
The middle half
$124,323 – $172,625
25th to 75th percentile
After cost of living
$145,720
Austin prices: 1.9% below US average
Open machine learning engineer jobs
45
In Austin, from 25 companies
Pay range
The top 10% of machine learning engineer offers in Austin were above $197,218 a year. The bottom 10% were below $101,471.
10th percentile $101,471, 25th $124,323, 75th $172,625, 90th $197,218.
10th percentile $113,000, 25th $142,105, 75th $220,000, 90th $264,514.
10th percentile $96,110, 25th $104,000, 75th $168,730, 90th $209,890.
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.
How far the pay goes in Austin
Prices in Austin are 1.9% below the US average, which makes the median offer worth $145,720 in US-average dollars. Housing is the exception. It costs 20.4% more than the US average.
Black line: US average = 100. Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2024.
Machine learning engineers and other engineering jobs in Austin
Median salary offered on approved H-1B applications in the Austin metro, for every engineering job type with at least 30 applications.
| Job | Applications | Median offer |
|---|---|---|
| Engineering managers | 369 | $170,000 |
| Machine learning engineers | 70 | $142,900 |
| All software engineers | 4,754 | $139,152 |
| Site reliability engineers | 67 | $134,368 |
| Cloud engineers | 46 | $130,750 |
| Data engineers | 349 | $130,200 |
| AI engineers | 54 | $127,893 |
| Frontend engineers | 39 | $122,931 |
| Support engineers | 86 | $117,458 |
| DevOps engineers | 101 | $114,754 |
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 70 H-1B applications for machine learning engineers in the Austin metro, from 44 employers. Level II offers were the most common.
Applications
70
Employers
44
Most experienced (Level IV)
25.7%
Applications by wage level
- Level I (entry): 4
- Level II: 30
- Level III: 17
- Level IV (most experienced): 18
- Not stated: 1
These are salaries offered on approved applications, not salaries paid. Each application lists only its main work site.
45 open machine learning engineer jobs in Austin right now
From 25 companies. 3 were posted in the past week.
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 Bastrop, Caldwell, Hays, Travis or Williamson county.
- Software engineer pay: US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (published May 15, 2026), Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos metro.
- Cost of living: US Bureau of Economic Analysis, Regional Price Parities, 2024.
- Open jobs: counted on hiredaemon as this page loads.