Machine learning engineers turn models into working products, from training and evaluation to serving them at scale. This family leans more on research backgrounds than most, and advanced degrees are mentioned unusually often.
We analyzed 176 U.S. job descriptions from 79 employers for Machine Learning Engineering roles. The most requested skills were Python (70%), Machine learning (65%) and LLMs (44%).
1,737open U.S. roles tracked
5 yearstypical experience asked for
$238,500median advertised pay, from 447 roles that state it
Languages
Python70%
C++27%
Java20%
SQL19%
AI & machine learning
Machine learning65%
LLMs44%
PyTorch31%
Generative AI30%
TensorFlow24%
Deep learning23%
NLP14%
MLOps14%
Computer vision13%
Cloud & infrastructure
AWS32%
CI/CD26%
Google Cloud22%
Azure21%
Kubernetes17%
Distributed systems16%
Docker14%
Microservices11%
Product & design
Prototyping23%
Data
Spark18%
Statistics16%
Kafka10%
Updated November 7, 2026, using job descriptions collected since October 8, 2026. Shares show how many of the sampled descriptions mention a skill, so a low share can still be a firm requirement in the roles that list it. We sample a limited number of descriptions per employer so that no single company dominates, and we only report figures backed by several employers. Advertised pay comes from a different group of roles than H1B filings, so the two are not directly comparable.
