Side-by-side distribution
Data Scientist
$167,725
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 41.9%
- Live roles
- 2,926
ML Engineer
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.1%
- Live roles
- 3,043
Highest-paying jobs
Data Scientist, Ads Demand
Data Scientist, Cybersecurity
Data Scientist, FinEng
Data Scientist, SMB Ads Growth
Data Scientist, B2B Strategy & Intelligence
Product Data Scientist - Youth, Families and Learning
Staff Data Scientist - Growth & Marketing ($400k - $500k)
Research Scientist - Environments, Data and Post-Training
Senior / Staff Data Scientist, Applied AI
Data Scientist
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
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 ($400k - $600k salary)
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning
Machine Learning Engineer, Monetization AI/ML
Staff Backline Engineer – ML/AI
Machine Learning Engineer, Implicit Signals
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,800 | 115 |
Leidos
|
$151,475 | 21 |
|
OpenAI
|
$339,000 | 17 |
Roche
|
$229,800 | 17 |
Accenture Federal Services
|
$166,850 | 16 |
RELX
|
$127,050 | 15 |
Faire
|
$250,750 | 14 |
Lyft
|
$159,627 | 14 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
General Motors
|
$205,400 | 29 |
|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$162,000 | 27 |
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 Scientist salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $220,000 | 219 |
| Seattle | $205,025 | 72 |
| New York | $198,000 | 200 |
| Singapore | $187,200 | 3 |
| Boston | $174,375 | 42 |
| Austin | $167,500 | 21 |
| Denver | $166,725 | 14 |
| Los Angeles | $162,100 | 30 |
| Chicago | $153,950 | 48 |
| Atlanta | $145,720 | 15 |
ML Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles | $251,400 | 25 |
| Singapore | $244,400 | 4 |
| San Francisco | $238,250 | 198 |
| New York | $220,000 | 145 |
| Seattle | $219,000 | 70 |
| Boston | $215,050 | 35 |
| London | $207,031 | 16 |
| Austin | $203,000 | 33 |
| Denver | $194,100 | 19 |
| Atlanta | $189,038 | 12 |
Data Scientist vs ML Engineer: which pays more?
The median for Data Scientist is $167,725 per year (typically $131,738–$214,875), versus $200,000 for ML Engineer ($158,625–$244,563). That puts ML Engineer about 19% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Data Scientist 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.