Side-by-side distribution
Counsel
$214,750
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 51.8%
- Live roles
- 1,286
ML Engineer
$205,841
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 42.4%
- Live roles
- 1,747
Highest-paying jobs
Legal Counsel (corporate / commercial, 3-5 PQE), hybrid/remote
Director, Corporate Counsel
Legal Counsel
General Counsel
Antitrust and Competition Associate / Special Counsel
REIT Special Counsel / Senior Associate
Real Estate Associate / Special Counsel (Lender-Side Focus)
Real Estate Senior Associate / Special Counsel ("Dirt" Focus)
Estate & Tax Planning Legal Counsel
Estate & Tax Planning Legal Counsel
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud Risk
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Machine Learning Engineer, Integrity
Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Ads Delivery
Machine Learning Engineer, Speech LLM Training - San Francisco
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Search
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| TM Tyson & Mendes LLP | $175,000 | 39 |
Fivetran
|
$214,096 | 23 |
Axiom Talent Platform
|
$214,750 | 20 |
Alliance Defending Freedom
|
$159,583 | 12 |
Barnes & Thornburg LLP
|
$275,000 | 10 |
Crusoe
|
$235,000 | 9 |
Clearway Energy
|
$215,000 | 9 |
Harvey
|
$237,500 | 8 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Reddit
|
$276,000 | 18 |
|
Pinterest
|
$260,867 | 18 |
Motional
|
$185,500 | 17 |
Roblox
|
$297,743 | 14 |
Airbnb
|
$274,500 | 14 |
Torc Robotics
|
$249,000 | 10 |
Nuro
|
$242,540 | 10 |
Applied Intuition
|
$173,500 | 10 |
Counsel salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $228,275 | 124 |
| New York | $222,092 | 166 |
| Seattle | $220,000 | 26 |
| Boston | $219,875 | 12 |
| Los Angeles | $214,750 | 29 |
| Atlanta | $214,750 | 12 |
| Denver | $214,096 | 46 |
| Chicago | $214,050 | 19 |
| Austin | $195,000 | 17 |
| Dublin | $189,072 | 4 |
ML Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $240,000 | 169 |
| Austin | $230,000 | 12 |
| New York | $225,000 | 104 |
| Seattle | $212,444 | 41 |
| Los Angeles | $205,000 | 11 |
| Boston | $200,000 | 42 |
| Toronto | $191,250 | 28 |
| Paris | $185,000 | 6 |
| Denver | $175,000 | 5 |
| Atlanta | $174,825 | 8 |
Counsel vs ML Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Counsel is $214,750 per year (typically $178,500–$250,000), versus $205,841 for ML Engineer ($175,000–$250,750). That puts Counsel about 4% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Counsel and ML Engineer are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.