Side-by-side distribution
ML Engineer
$205,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 42.3%
- Live roles
- 1,743
Robotics
$200,000
median · per year, annualized USD
- Disclosing
- 44.1%
- Live roles
- 381
Highest-paying jobs
Senior Software Engineer, Machine Learning (Audio)
Machine Learning Engineer - Fraud Risk
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (Reinforcement Learning)
Research Engineer, Machine Learning (RL Velocity)
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, Ad Serving
Highest-paying jobs
Lead Safety Engineer, Robotics
Firmware Engineer, Robotics
Machine Learning Engineer, Distributed Data Systems - Robotics
Software Engineer, Distributed Data Systems - Robotics
Inference Engineer, Robotics
Electrical Engineer, Robotics
Staff Robotics Engineer / Tech Lead – Whole-Body Control & Robot Learning
Software Engineer: Robotics Controls
Software Engineer: ML Robotics Systems
Staff Robotics Software Engineer, Air Vehicle Autonomy
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
Reddit
|
$276,000 | 18 |
|
Pinterest
|
$260,867 | 17 |
Motional
|
$185,500 | 17 |
Roblox
|
$297,743 | 14 |
Airbnb
|
$274,500 | 14 |
Torc Robotics
|
$249,000 | 11 |
Nuro
|
$242,540 | 10 |
Applied Intuition
|
$173,500 | 10 |
Top companies hiring
| Company | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
|
Anduril Industries
|
$222,000 | 53 |
Field Ai
|
$185,000 | 9 |
|
OpenAI
|
$370,000 | 7 |
| SA Skild AI | $200,000 | 7 |
Neuralink
|
$155,750 | 6 |
DoorDash USA
|
$207,500 | 5 |
Intrinsic
|
$174,050 | 5 |
Agility Robotics
|
$215,750 | 4 |
ML Engineer salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco | $240,000 | 166 |
| Austin | $235,000 | 11 |
| New York | $225,000 | 101 |
| Seattle | $212,444 | 39 |
| Los Angeles | $205,000 | 11 |
| Boston | $200,000 | 42 |
| Toronto | $195,000 | 29 |
| Paris | $185,000 | 6 |
| Atlanta | $174,825 | 8 |
| Chicago | $173,875 | 12 |
Robotics salary by location
| Location | Median | Roles |
|---|---|---|
| Boston | $222,000 | 13 |
| New York | $214,750 | 4 |
| Seattle | $214,750 | 6 |
| Austin | $212,000 | 9 |
| San Francisco | $206,000 | 36 |
| Denver | $150,000 | 3 |
| Los Angeles | $131,250 | 6 |
ML Engineer vs Robotics: which pays more?
The median for ML Engineer is $205,000 per year (typically $173,500–$250,000), versus $200,000 for Robotics ($170,000–$222,000). That puts ML Engineer about 3% ahead at the median.
Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so ML Engineer and Robotics 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.