Entry-level machine learning engineer jobs

ML engineering mostly starts at two or more years of experience, so the entry points are worth knowing by name. Dedicated new-grad reqs are open at Pinterest (2027 University Grad MLE for master’s and PhD students, opened October 1), Google (Software Engineer, AI/ML, PhD, Early Career, 2027 Start, across ten US cities), NVIDIA (44 New College Grad reqs, including Applied ML Engineer for AI for VLSI Design), Waymo (a PhD new-grad perception req) and Apple (an ICT2 ML engineer req at $129,300–$194,700 whose only degree bar is a bachelor’s). The labs run residencies and fellowships: Anthropic Fellows (next cohort expected January 2027, $3,850 a week plus compute), Apple’s annual AIML Residency and the OpenAI Residency (the 2026 cohort is closed and no 2027 cohort is announced). Amazon, Microsoft, NVIDIA, Waymo (55 Summer 2027 intern reqs), Pinterest and Meta run ML internships, and Netflix’s only early-career route is a single PhD-only Winter 2027 internship. Reddit hires experienced engineers only.

11 of 12 ranked programs match · Last verified October 11, 2026 · See the full ML Engineer List →

OpenAI research engineers build and scale the training and post-training systems behind frontier models, mostly inside Research teams on a dual research engineer / research scientist track, while a separate Applied AI Engineering org builds products and deployments on top. Hiring is rolling through Ashby with one evergreen generic req plus team reqs, and the loop stresses coding and a technical deep dive.

Base salary

$250k–$445k

Locations

SF · Seattle

Work setup

Hybrid, 3 days a week in office — nine of the 20 reqs state a ‘hybrid work model of 3 days in the office per week’ with relocation help; the generic Research Engineer req is silent

Experience

The generic Research Engineer req states no years or degree. MLE, API Multicloud asks for 3+ years and a master’s or PhD or equivalent; MLE, Monetization asks for a master’s or PhD. The entry path is the Residency (any background); no new-grad or intern track.

Worth knowing: On October 11, 2026 OpenAI’s Ashby feed lists 815 open postings — Go To Market 146, Scaling 113, Applied AI 111, Research 62 — and the top posted Research Engineer base is $850K, on the RE/RS Foundations (Search) req.

20 US individual-contributor reqs titled Research Engineer, RE/RS or Machine Learning Engineer open on OpenAI’s Ashby board (815 postings) as of Oct 11, 2026 — 19 in San Francisco and one in Seattle — across Post-training (6), Research and Codex (3), Applied AI Engineering MLE (3), Foundations, Agents, Reasoning, Chip Design, API and Devices, plus one MLE manager req

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full OpenAI ML Engineer page →

Anthropic research engineers sit inside research teams — pretraining, post-training, RL, interpretability, alignment — in a blended research and engineering role that values code quality and pairing. Hiring is rolling through Greenhouse and mostly in office, and the only early-career route is the paid Fellows program.

Base salary

$350k–$500k

Locations

SF · NYC · Seattle

Work setup

Mostly in office — 22 of 26 reqs are tagged On-Site and four Hybrid (travel required); policy is at least 25% of time in an office, more for some roles, and the FAQ says some staff come in one week a month

Experience

A bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience on all 26 reqs; years of experience ‘will correlate with the internal job level’ and none are stated; credentials and publications are not required. The entry path is Fellows (any experience level; US, UK or Canada work authorization; no visa sponsorship); no new-grad or intern track.

Worth knowing: Anthropic Fellows (req updated September 30, 2026) pays $3,850 a week for four months plus about $15k a month of compute, and says over 80% of fellows in an earlier cohort produced papers.

26 US individual-contributor reqs titled Research Engineer or ML Engineer open on Anthropic’s Greenhouse board (645 postings) as of Oct 11, 2026, three of them Staff-level — all list San Francisco, 19 New York, 11 Seattle, and three are remote-friendly with travel — inside an AI Research & Engineering department of 67 reqs

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Anthropic ML Engineer page →Anthropic interview guide →

Google ML engineers are hired as software engineers with an AI/ML focus, building ranking, generative AI and infrastructure systems in Cloud AI, Search, Ads and YouTube, while DeepMind research engineers work on Gemini and agents. Hiring is rolling through a structured six-to-eight-week process with a hiring committee.

Base salary

$147k–$210k

Locations

Mountain View · Sunnyvale · NYC · Kirkland · SF · Seattle

Work setup

Hybrid, about 3 office days a week per Google’s norm; reqs state no days and most say interviews are in person ‘in most instances’

Experience

SWE III (L4) AI/ML: a bachelor’s or equivalent, 2 years of Python or C++ and 1 year of ML; Senior (L5): 5 years of programming and 3 years of ML, with a master’s or PhD only preferred. DeepMind Research Software Engineer: a bachelor’s and 5 years in industry (2 in ML or software). Entry path: the PhD-only early-career req and Student Researcher.

Worth knowing: On October 11, 2026 Google DeepMind has 94 open roles (71 in the US) on the main google.com careers board, and the PhD Early Career AI/Machine Learning 2027 Start req (listed August 24, 2026) spans ten US cities.

At least 90 US ML and AI-titled engineering reqs listed on Oct 11, 2026 — 57 non-Staff (18 Software Engineer III AI/ML, 25 Senior SWE AI/ML, 8 DeepMind Research Engineer-type, 6 other) and 32 Staff+ — mainly in Mountain View, Sunnyvale, New York and Kirkland, counted across three careers-site crawls; Google DeepMind alone lists 94 open roles (71 US) on the same board

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Google ML Engineer page →Google interview guide →

Apple ML engineers ship models into Siri, Search, Health, Camera and Apple Intelligence, from on-device runtimes to cloud foundation-model services. Hiring is rolling and req by req with level and pay posted, plus an annual AIML Residency for advanced-degree graduates.

Base salary

$150k–$278k

Locations

Cupertino · Seattle · Sunnyvale · Santa Clara · Austin

Work setup

Hybrid, in office about 3 days a week; none of the 130 ML req records carries a remote flag

Experience

Core reqs span ICT3–ICT4 with varying bars — 3+ years, a BS plus 3 years, or a degree plus 2+ years or a PhD. Entry path: an ICT2 Machine Learning Engineer req (October 9, 2026) needs only a bachelor’s, and the Residency targets master’s graduates and recent PhDs.

Worth knowing: On October 9, 2026 Apple posted an ICT2 Machine Learning Engineer – Agentic AI req (Sunnyvale, $129,300–$194,700) whose only degree bar is a bachelor’s, with production agentic-systems experience as the minimum.

111 distinct US reqs titled Machine Learning Engineer on jobs.apple.com as of Oct 11, 2026, 64 of them non-senior (40 at ICT3), led by Cupertino, Seattle, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara — counted by paging Apple’s search endpoint and deduplicating by position

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Apple ML Engineer page →Apple interview guide →

Meta ML engineers build ranking, recommendation, search and integrity models and the systems that train and serve them, plus a Superintelligence Labs track for frontier-model work. Hiring is rolling and level-banded, with one title posted at several pay bands, and the loop runs up to six rounds with an AI assistant in the coding interviews.

Base salary

$154k–$217k

Locations

Menlo Park · Bellevue · NYC · Seattle · Sunnyvale

Work setup

Hybrid, 3 days a week in office for office-assigned staff; one req lists Remote, US

Experience

The mid-level RecSys req (June 2, 2026): a bachelor’s or equivalent, 2+ years of programming and 1+ years of ML, RecSys or LLMs; a July 8, 2026 req wants 3+ years of engineering. Entry path: one ML req and the Superintelligence Labs Research Engineer, Robotics req (August 28, 2026) accept a degree still in progress at the lowest pay band.

Worth knowing: Meta’s hiring page (read October 11, 2026) says many technical interviews now include a built-in AI assistant offering Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and Meta models, and candidates are expected to use it.

At least 11 US ML and AI engineering reqs verified open on Oct 11, 2026 (seven posted in 2026) — five Software Engineer, Machine Learning (two RecSys, one Search), two technical-leadership ML, one Systems ML, one AI Research Engineer and two Meta Superintelligence Labs Research Engineer reqs — in Menlo Park, Sunnyvale, Bellevue, Seattle and New York; a floor rather than a census, because Meta’s search blocks automated access and reqs were checked one by one against the 1,137-req jobsearch sitemap

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Meta ML Engineer page →Meta interview guide →

NVIDIA ML and deep learning engineers build and optimize models and software for LLM safety, autonomous driving, chip design and GPU performance. Hiring is rolling per req with phone screens and a required onsite round, and the new-grad and internship pipeline is one of the deepest on this list.

Base salary

$124k–$242k

Locations

Santa Clara · Austin · Westford · Hillsboro · Durham · Seattle

Work setup

Hybrid — the core reqs carry the #LI-Hybrid tag, days per week are not published, and some reqs also list California-remote locations

Experience

MLE, AI Safety (Level 2–3): an MS or PhD in CS or EE or equivalent and 2+ years deploying ML in production. AI Developer Technology Engineer: an MS or equivalent plus 1+ year. Senior reqs ask for 6–12+ years. Entry path: the Applied ML Engineer, AI for VLSI Design – New College Grad 2026 req (MS or PhD) and the internships.

Worth knowing: NVIDIA’s FY2026 10-K (year ended January 25, 2026) reports about 42,000 employees, 31,000 of them in R&D — and on October 11, 2026 it listed 1,405 US postings, including 44 New College Grad and 43 intern reqs.

22 US reqs in ML-engineering title families on NVIDIA’s Workday board (1,405 US postings) as of Oct 11, 2026 — seven Machine Learning Engineer, two Deep Learning Engineer, four AI Developer Technology and nine Applied AI or AI Engineer — of which three post a Level 2 entry band (MLE AI Safety, AI Developer Technology Engineer, a New College Grad Applied ML Engineer) and the rest start at Level 3–4 or higher; Santa Clara dominates, with Westford, Austin, Hillsboro, Durham and Seattle

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full NVIDIA ML Engineer page →

Amazon ML engineers ship models for ads, Prime Video, Music, AWS and the AGI teams, while Applied Scientists own model research and experiments on a separate ladder. Hiring is rolling and posted per team, and the loop weighs Leadership Principles as heavily as technical depth.

Base salary

$144k–$194k

Locations

Seattle · Bellevue · NYC · Sunnyvale · Santa Clara

Work setup

In office 5 days a week for corporate staff since January 2, 2025; req text does not restate it

Experience

Applied Scientist II: a PhD, or a master’s plus 4+ years of CS or ML experience, plus 3+ years building models. MLE: 3+ years of professional software development and a bachelor’s. The entry path is internships only.

Worth knowing: On December 17, 2025 Andy Jassy put Peter DeSantis over one org spanning Nova and AGI models, Trainium and Graviton silicon and quantum, with Pieter Abbeel leading frontier model research.

180 Applied Scientist-titled US reqs below Senior and Principal on amazon.jobs as of Oct 11, 2026 (64 posted in the last 30 days, 35 titled Applied Scientist II) plus 13 ML-engineer-titled reqs (six MLE, five Senior MLE, two AI/ML Engineer), led by Seattle (77 Applied Scientist reqs), New York, Bellevue and Sunnyvale; the AGI org alone lists 24 US reqs

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Amazon ML Engineer page →Amazon interview guide →

Netflix ML engineers build ads, personalization and AI-platform systems as senior individual contributors with high autonomy. Hiring is rolling and per team, pay is all cash, and the only early-career ML route is a single PhD internship.

Base salary

$466k–$750k

Locations

Los Gatos · LA · NYC · Seattle · US remote

Work setup

Per-req work type — three of the four MLE 5 reqs are tagged Onsite and one (Ads Signals & Targeting) Remote US; Netflix publishes no days per week

Experience

No years or degree bar is printed on the MLE 5 reqs; they ask for production ML at scale, backend skills and Java, Python or Scala. L5 is Senior, no L3 or L4 MLE req is open, and the only early-career route is a PhD-only ML/AI Infrastructure Engineering internship for Winter 2027.

Worth knowing: On October 11, 2026 all four open Netflix MLE 5 reqs post the same $466,000–$750,000 salary-only range, and the only ML intern req is a PhD-only Winter 2027 internship posted September 30, 2026.

Four Machine Learning Engineer 5 reqs on Netflix’s careers API (457 global roles) as of Oct 11, 2026 — Ads Measurement, Ads Platform Engineering, Ads Signals & Targeting, and Decisioning & Optimization — plus ten ML Scientist 4–6, four AI Research and one Staff ML Software Engineer (L6) req, counted by title across the full paged API

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Netflix ML Engineer page →Netflix interview guide →

Waymo ML engineers build the perception, prediction and planning, simulation and foundation-model (VLM, LLM and world model) systems behind the Waymo Driver. Hiring is req by req through Greenhouse with rolling applications, and early-career talent mostly enters through summer internships.

Base salary

$175k–$215k

Locations

Mountain View · SF · Pittsburgh

Work setup

Hybrid — reqs say ‘In this hybrid role’ and interns are ‘hybrid onsite’; days per week are not published

Experience

Mid-level reqs: a BS in CS, ML or robotics (or equivalent) plus 2–4+ years of ML (2+ for Prediction & Planning, 3+ for Perception and Maneuvering, 4+ for Marketplace), MS or PhD preferred; the L5 Simulation Realism req asks 5–7+. Entry path: an ‘MLE Perception LLM/VLM (PhD, New Grad)’ req and BS, MS and PhD internships.

Worth knowing: Waymo published its Waymo World Model, built on Google DeepMind’s Genie 3, on February 6, 2026 — and as of October 11, 2026 it has a Research Scientist, World Model Post-Training req and a World Action Model intern req open.

39 US reqs titled Machine Learning Engineer or ML Engineer live in Waymo’s Greenhouse feed (372 jobs) as of Oct 11, 2026 — 10 mid-level, 12 Senior and 17 Staff+ — with mid-level seats on Perception, Planner and Maneuvering, Simulation Realism and Marketplace in Mountain View, San Francisco and Pittsburgh

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Waymo ML Engineer page →Waymo interview guide →

Pinterest ML engineers build the recommendation, ads ranking, search, shopping and visual models behind 640M+ users. Hiring is rolling per req through a recruiter, hiring-manager and team-interview sequence, plus a fall-opening University Grad and ML internship program.

Base salary

$139k–$286k

Locations

SF · Palo Alto · Seattle · US remote

Work setup

Remote-eligible — the MLE II reqs say in office one to two times a quarter from anywhere in the US; the Ads req is tagged hybrid with no days stated, and the University Grad reqs are hybrid near an office

Experience

Core MLE and Ads reqs: 2+ years of industry ML plus a bachelor’s in CS, ML or statistics or equivalent; the MLE II reqs (Responsible AI, Visual AI) ask for 2+ years plus an MS or PhD. Entry path: master’s and PhD University Grad MLE 2027 reqs, plus ML internships.

Worth knowing: Pinterest’s January 27, 2026 8-K says it will cut under 15% of staff while ‘reallocating resources to AI-focused roles’ by September 30, 2026 — and its 2027 University Grad MLE reqs opened on October 1, 2026.

12 US individual-contributor reqs titled Machine Learning Engineer live in Pinterest’s Greenhouse feed (180 jobs) as of Oct 11, 2026 — four mid-level (MLE and MLE II), three Senior, four Staff, one Principal — on Core Engineering, Ads, Responsible AI and Visual AI, in San Francisco, Palo Alto, Seattle and remote US

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Pinterest ML Engineer page →Pinterest interview guide →

Microsoft ML engineers and applied scientists build models and agent systems for Copilot, Security, Ads, Edge and CoreAI, usually hired as Applied Scientist or Software Engineer II rather than under an ML Engineer title. Hiring is rolling per req, with US pay bands posted in each description.

Base salary

$102k–$202k

Locations

Redmond · Mountain View · NYC · Boston

Work setup

Hybrid, set per req — the Applied ML Engineer req says 3 days a week in office; of 13 ML and AI reqs read, eight say 3 days, two 4 days, two remote and one fully on-site

Experience

Applied ML Engineer and Applied Scientist II (IC3): a bachelor’s plus 2+ years, or a master’s plus 1+ year, or a doctorate with no experience bar. Software Engineer II (AI): a bachelor’s plus 2+ years. Entry path: IC2 Software Engineer reqs, internships and Aspire.

Worth knowing: Microsoft’s feed on October 11, 2026 held 1,171 US postings but only one with Machine Learning Engineer in the title (a Senior req in Cambridge, MA, posted October 6) — ML hiring runs through Applied Scientist and Software Engineer II AI titles.

Seven mid-level (IC3) ML and AI reqs among 1,171 US postings on Microsoft’s careers feed as of Oct 11, 2026 — Applied ML Engineer, Applied Scientist II, Applied Researcher 2 and four Software Engineer II reqs with AI scope — plus about 20 senior ones, mostly in Redmond and Mountain View; only one posting carries Machine Learning Engineer in its title (a Senior req in Cambridge, MA)

Prep with Aced View open roles

Salary band, hiring status & score breakdown — see the full Microsoft ML Engineer page →Microsoft interview guide →

Common questions

With a dedicated req: Pinterest (2027 University Grad MLE, master’s and PhD), Google (PhD Early Career AI/ML, 2027 start), NVIDIA (New College Grad reqs posted September 29–October 9, 2026), Waymo (MLE Perception LLM/VLM, PhD new grad) and Apple (an ICT2 ML engineer req posted October 9). Meta accepts a degree in progress on two ML reqs. OpenAI, Anthropic, Amazon and Microsoft have no new-grad ML req; their routes are the OpenAI Residency, Anthropic Fellows, Amazon’s 2027 applied-science internships and Microsoft’s applied-science internships and Aspire program. Netflix’s only route is a PhD-only ML infrastructure internship for Winter 2027, and Reddit has nothing below Senior.

Posted junior bands: Apple ICT2 $129,300–$194,700, NVIDIA Level 2 $124,000–$195,500, Google SWE III AI/ML (the level its PhD early-career hires land at) $147,000–$210,000 plus a 15% bonus, and Meta’s lowest ML band for degree-in-progress hires. Anthropic Fellows pays $3,850 a week for four months, and the OpenAI Residency paid about $18,300 a month in its last cohort. Pinterest’s and Waymo’s new-grad reqs post the same bands as their mid-level reqs ($138,905–$285,982 and $175,000–$215,000).

Through a residency, a new-grad req or an internship — and the labs say what they want: OpenAI’s Residency takes any background, Anthropic tells applicants to lead with independent research or open-source work and says publications are not required, and Apple’s AIML Residency targets master’s graduates and recent PhDs. Otherwise the mid-level reqs count adjacent years — Google’s SWE III wants two years of coding and one of ML, Meta’s RecSys req two years of programming and one of ML, Amazon’s MLE three years of software development — which is how many ML engineers at these companies moved over from software roles.

Land the offer, not just the interview.

Practice machine learning interview questions, mock interview with peers, and learn the frameworks hiring managers actually score you on.

Take the ML Engineering course Practice interview questions

Entry-level machine learning engineer jobs

Common questions

Browse ML engineer jobs

Salary & hiring by company

Interview guides

More job lists

Land the offer, not just the interview.

Follow Us