Salary by level
How ml engineer compensation scales from entry to principal across the standard L3–L7 individual-contributor ladder and the parallel engineering-management track. Bands are anchored to San Francisco and shown in USD by default; use the currency switcher to change the display.
Entry (L3)
$118,000
median, base-heavy
Senior (L5)
$344,000
median total comp
Principal (L7)
$726,000
median total comp
The ladder
Machine-learning engineering is the highest-paid IC track in the bands below, and the level spread is extreme. An entry ML engineer fine-tunes and ships models others designed; a senior owns the full lifecycle from data to serving for a production system; a principal sets the modelling and infrastructure strategy for an org. The pay reflects how scarce and revenue-critical that skill set has become.
The senior-to-staff band for ML engineers carries the widest equity component of any role here, because top labs and product companies compete aggressively for the small pool of engineers who can take a model from research to reliable production at scale. A staff ML offer at a frontier lab can carry equity that dwarfs the base salary entirely.
Frontier AI labs often flatten the ladder into a single 'member of technical staff' title with a very wide band, which is why the company translation table for ML roles looks different from traditional ladders. In those companies the level is implicit in the offer rather than stamped on the title.
IC track
Total-compensation bands for the individual-contributor ladder in San Francisco. The midpoint is the typical offer for a calibrated candidate; the range spans company tier and negotiation outcomes. Senior and above fold in bonus and equity.
| Level | IC title | Experience | Total comp range | Midpoint | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L3 | Entry / New grad | 0-2 yrs | $97,000$147,000 | $118,000 | Base |
| L4 | Mid-level | 2-5 yrs | $149,000$227,000 | $182,000 | Base |
| L5 | Senior | 5-8 yrs | $282,000$429,000 | $344,000 | Total comp |
| L6 | Staff | 8-12 yrs | $369,000$563,000 | $451,000 | Total comp |
| L7 | Principal | 12+ yrs | $624,000$979,000 | $726,000 | Total comp |
Bands derived from Levels.fyi 2025 + US BLS OES May 2024 (SOC 15-1299.09) (2025) percentile data for San Francisco, mapped onto the standard ladder using documented seniority multipliers.
A number only means something once you know the level it should map to. Compare a ml engineer offer against these bands and the wider market with the free tools below.
Management track
ML engineering managers are paid on the parallel track, but the IC ceiling is unusually high in this field, so many of the best-paid ML people stay IC all the way to principal. The management track only pulls clearly ahead on pay at the director level.
| Level | Title | IC equivalent | Total comp range | Midpoint |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | Engineering Manager | L5/L6 | $360,000$549,000 | $439,000 |
| M2 | Senior Manager | L6/L7 | $624,000$979,000 | $726,000 |
| M3 | Director | L7+ | $761,000$1,194,000 | $886,000 |
Translations
Every employer numbers its ladder differently, but the rungs line up. Here is how the standard L3–L7 ladder translates to the schemes you are most likely to meet when interviewing for ml engineer roles.
| Company | Entry → Principal |
|---|---|
| L3 / L4 / L5 / L6 / L7 | |
| Meta | E3 / E4 / E5 / E6 / E7 |
| OpenAI | Member of Technical Staff (flat) |
| Anthropic | MTS / Senior MTS / Staff |
Level translations are approximate. Companies calibrate scope differently, so the same code can mean slightly different things across employers.
Each level band starts from the published percentile data for ml engineer roles in San Francisco. The four documented seniority tiers (junior, mid, senior, staff) are mapped onto the standard L3–L7 ladder: junior anchors L3, mid anchors L4, the senior tier spans L5 and L6 because in real ladders it is the widest band and covers two promotion steps, and the staff tier anchors L7. The low and high ends of each band come from the tier's 25th and 75th percentiles; the midpoint is the tier median.
Senior, staff, and principal bands are reported as total compensation, folding in bonus and equity, because that is how those levels are paid in practice. Entry and mid bands are base-heavy. The management track is anchored to the same tiers with the documented manager premium applied at the senior-manager and director levels.
Reference data only. Real offers vary by employer, level calibration, team, and negotiation, and frontier-lab pay can sit well above these bands. Nothing here is financial advice. Primary sources: Levels.fyi 2025 + US BLS OES May 2024 (SOC 15-1299.09) (2025).
The same L3–L7 breakdown for adjacent roles, so you can compare how pay ladders differ across the field.
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