Side-by-side distribution
Data Engineer
$160,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 29.3%
- Live roles
- 5,587
ML Engineer
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34%
- Live roles
- 3,053
Highest-paying jobs
Staff+ Research Engineer, RL Data Platform
Pre-training Data Infrastructure Engineer
Staff / Principal Data Engineer
Software Engineer - Data Aquisition (systems)
Software Engineer, Data Acquisition
Research Engineer - Environments, Data and Post-Training
Software Engineer, Search Systems - Code Data
Software Engineer, Frontier Data Products
Data Engineer
Data Platform Engineer
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Machine Learning Engineer ($400k - $600k salary)
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning
Machine Learning Engineer, Monetization AI/ML
Staff Backline Engineer – ML/AI
Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Ad Serving
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Speechify
|
$170,000 | 144 |
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 81 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$149,800 | 28 |
CACI
|
$139,950 | 25 |
Olsson
|
$120,000 | 21 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 19 |
Northrop Grumman
|
$127,350 | 18 |
Blue Origin
|
$188,162 | 17 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$162,000 | 30 |
General Motors
|
$203,000 | 26 |
|
CACI
|
$152,650 | 20 |
Reddit
|
$276,000 | 17 |
Pinterest
|
$246,638 | 17 |
Nuro
|
$242,540 | 16 |
DoorDash USA
|
$251,400 | 15 |
Torc Robotics
|
$195,050 | 15 |
Data Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $211,000 | 192 |
| Seattle | $196,700 | 69 |
| New York | $192,736 | 213 |
| Los Angeles | $180,350 | 33 |
| Boston | $173,750 | 53 |
| Singapore | $165,000 | 5 |
| Austin | $161,450 | 51 |
| Chicago | $154,600 | 90 |
| Denver | $153,300 | 56 |
| Atlanta | $153,300 | 35 |
ML Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Singapore | $244,400 | 4 |
| Los Angeles | $240,700 | 26 |
| San Francisco | $237,500 | 195 |
| New York | $220,000 | 147 |
| Seattle | $219,000 | 70 |
| Boston | $215,050 | 35 |
| London | $205,322 | 17 |
| Austin | $199,500 | 32 |
| Denver | $194,100 | 18 |
| Atlanta | $183,975 | 11 |
Data Engineer vs ML Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Data Engineer is $160,000 per year (typically $127,394–$198,009), versus $200,000 for ML Engineer ($158,100–$244,325). That puts ML Engineer about 25% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Data Engineer 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.