Side-by-side distribution
ML Engineer
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 34.1%
- Live roles
- 3,043
MLOps
$172,500
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 24.5%
- Live roles
- 200
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
Highest-paying jobs
Staff Machine Learning Operations Engineer
Machine Learning Engineer/Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Devops, AI for Drug Discovery
Principal Machine Learning Operations Engineer
Lead ML Engineer - Advance AI (applied ML, LLM's, ML Ops)
Senior / Staff ML Ops Engineer
Lead Software Platform Engineer, MLOps
Staff MLOps Engineer
Software Engineer - ML Ops (R37)
Senior Staff ML Ops Engineer
Matterport - Senior ML Ops Engineer
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 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Weekday AI
|
$202,800 | 2 |
|
Target
|
$197,000 | 2 |
Workday
|
$150,400 | 2 |
RELX
|
$140,450 | 2 |
|
Booz Allen Hamilton
|
$126,300 | 2 |
|
Garner Health
|
$324,500 | 1 |
|
AiDASH, Inc.
|
$250,000 | 1 |
|
TetraScience
|
$235,000 | 1 |
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 |
MLOps salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $188,225 | 6 |
| New York | $186,350 | 6 |
| Seattle | $172,500 | 3 |
| Boston | $162,500 | 3 |
| Toronto | $139,307 | 3 |
ML Engineer vs MLOps: which pays more?
The median for ML Engineer is $200,000 per year (typically $158,625–$244,563), versus $172,500 for MLOps ($139,500–$196,000). That puts ML Engineer about 16% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so ML Engineer and MLOps 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.