Loading the job postings and counting them…
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AI Career Compass · role
Builds, trains and ships machine learning models. Ranking, recommendation, perception, forecasting and language models alike; not only training foundation models.
Measured In our tracked sample, machine learning engineers make up 149 of the 1,694 AI postings, about 9%.1
Measured The skills these postings ask for most are machine learning, asked for in 108 of 149, then Python, in 65, and PyTorch, in 60.123
Written by an AI analyst (claude-opus-5-5) and checked by code against the numbers it cites.
What these postings say the work involves, counted from their lists of duties. A posting can list several.
Out of these 149 postings. “Asked for” adds required, one of several options, and listed; preferred is counted apart.
Programming, data, maths and statistics, and domain knowledge
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Python | 65 of 149 | 13 | 8 | 44 | 8 |
| Software engineering practice | 40 of 149 | 11 | 1 | 28 | 8 |
| C++ | 27 of 149 | 0 | 9 | 18 | 10 |
| Statistics and probability | 17 of 149 | 3 | 0 | 14 | 5 |
| Algorithms and data structures | 9 of 149 | 3 | 0 | 6 | 3 |
| SQL | 7 of 149 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 7 |
| Science (biology, chemistry, physics) | 7 of 149 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 1 |
| Java | 6 of 149 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 |
Modelling, training, retrieval, agents, evaluation and other methods
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Machine learning | 108 of 149 | 28 | 0 | 80 | 14 |
| PyTorch | 60 of 149 | 8 | 32 | 20 | 7 |
| TensorFlow | 41 of 149 | 4 | 24 | 13 | 5 |
| Deep learning | 39 of 149 | 7 | 0 | 32 | 11 |
| Large language models | 33 of 149 | 6 | 3 | 24 | 30 |
| JAX | 31 of 149 | 1 | 18 | 12 | 2 |
| Fine-tuning and post-training | 22 of 149 | 5 | 4 | 13 | 17 |
| Experiments and A/B tests | 19 of 149 | 6 | 1 | 12 | 4 |
Deployment, infrastructure, reliability, security, monitoring and cost
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MLOps and ML platforms | 26 of 149 | 13 | 0 | 13 | 9 |
| Data pipelines (Spark, Airflow, Kafka) | 25 of 149 | 9 | 0 | 16 | 13 |
| Distributed systems | 25 of 149 | 4 | 1 | 20 | 4 |
| Performance and latency | 20 of 149 | 5 | 0 | 15 | 8 |
| Backend services and APIs | 20 of 149 | 3 | 1 | 16 | 0 |
| System design and architecture | 18 of 149 | 3 | 0 | 15 | 1 |
| Monitoring and observability | 16 of 149 | 4 | 1 | 11 | 6 |
| Reliability and incident response | 15 of 149 | 2 | 0 | 13 | 5 |
Publishing and leading research
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Research publications | 9 of 149 | 0 | 0 | 9 | 20 |
| Open-source contributions | 6 of 149 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 5 |
| Leading research | 2 of 149 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
Customers, communication, product thinking and leadership
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Communication | 28 of 149 | 8 | 0 | 20 | 1 |
| Leading and mentoring | 17 of 149 | 8 | 0 | 9 | 5 |
| Product thinking | 7 of 149 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 1 |
| Technical writing | 4 of 149 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| Working with customers | 2 of 149 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
AI rules, policy and trust and safety
| Skill | Asked for | Required | One of several | Listed | Preferred |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AI governance and regulation | 5 of 149 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| Trust and safety | 1 of 149 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Risk and compliance | 0 of 149 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
Measured Large language models are listed as a preferred skill, a plus rather than a requirement, in 30 of 149 postings we track.1
Measured Fine-tuning and post-training, meaning more training after a model's first training, are listed as preferred in 17 of 149 postings we track.1
Employers list these as preferred. That they ask does not show that these skills decide who is hired.
The systems these postings expect people to build, run or work within.
Only what the postings state. Most do not say everything, so each number has its own count of postings.
77 of 149 postings state a minimum; the median is 5 years.
49 of 149 postings state a degree; 25 of them accept equivalent experience instead.
7 more postings list a PhD as preferred.
27 postings are remote. Of these, 27 name where you must live or work from, 0 do not say, and 0 say anywhere.
What employers advertise, grouped only when the ranges are comparable. Not a prediction of what you would earn.
Measured For base pay in full-time US jobs, the median of advertised range midpoints is 288,064 USD per year, from 18 comparable pay disclosures in the 149 postings we track, and half of these midpoints lie between 250,625 and 378,875 USD.1234
106 of 149 postings (71%) advertise a pay range. Employers that publish ranges may differ from those that do not, and some places require it by law, so these ranges do not describe all pay.
| Group of alike ranges | Postings | Median of range midpoints | Middle half of midpoints |
|---|---|---|---|
| USD, a year, base pay, United States, full-time7 employers | 18 | $288,064 | $250,625 to $378,875 |
This is advertised pay, not what anyone earns. We pool ranges only when currency, pay period, pay type, country and employment type are the same, and only with at least 10 of them. Nothing is converted. 88 other ranges could not be pooled (period not stated, several countries, or too few alike).
Advice built from what these 149 postings ask for. Tick what you can already do; we suggest up to three steps and one portfolio project, each with the requirement behind it and a way to show the result.
Measured The 149 postings come from a single reading on 6 October 2026, the day our tracking began, so we cannot show a trend yet.1
Measured These postings come from 30 employers that publish their jobs through public feeds, not from the whole job market, and the three with the most postings have 72 of the 149.12
Measured Only 34 of the 149 postings were first published in the 30 days before our data cutoff, and 17 are more than a year old, so many open listings are not new.12
How everything is counted: our method. All roles: AI Career Compass.