Machine Learning Engineer H-1B wages

Filings decided July 2025 to June 2026. Most are classified as Software Developers (SOC 15-1252).

Employers filed 1,007 wage applications for Machine Learning Engineer jobs from July 2025 to June 2026, across 336 employers. The median offered wage was $172,866, 6.1% above the government's prevailing wage for the job. Adobe Inc. filed the most (143, median $187,741).

Filings: 1,007
Positions covered: 2,692
Employers: 336
Median offered: $172,866
Median prevailing wage: $149,365
Filings since FY2020: 4,846
Median offer change since FY2020: +25%

Machine Learning Engineer, all employers1,007 filings, July 2025 to June 2026

$172,866Median wage employers told the government they would pay

$138,570 to $212,000Where the middle half of the filings fall

$149,365Prevailing wage: the legal minimum for these jobs

Offered wage since 2020

The median wage offered for Machine Learning Engineer jobs rose 25%, from $136,000 in fiscal 2020 to $170,000 in fiscal 2026 so far. In fiscal 2026 it was 6.4% above the prevailing wage. Filings peaked in fiscal 2025, with 1,023 filings.

Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wageFilings per year

Fiscal years run October to September. Fiscal 2026 is still running: these figures cover October 2025 to June 2026.

Machine Learning Engineer by fiscal year

Fiscal year	Filings	Median offered	vs year before	Median prevailing	vs prevailing
2026 (Oct to Jun)	865	$170,000	+3.4%	$149,240	+6.4%
2025	1,023	$164,360	−3.4%	$148,699	+7.6%
2024	779	$170,186	+6.4%	$148,699	+1.8%
2023	597	$160,000	+1.6%	$135,304	+10.1%
2022	718	$157,477	+8.1%	$134,296	+12.9%
2021	476	$145,725	+7.2%	$122,637	+12.9%
2020	388	$136,000	n/a	$117,021	+12.0%

Employers that file for this title

Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wage

Employer	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
Adobe Inc.	143	$187,741	+1.0%
Apple Inc.	55	$199,107	at the minimum
Meta Platforms, Inc	38	$214,032	+13.3%
TikTok Inc.	37	$210,000	+16.6%
ByteDance Inc.	34	$260,000	+42.0%
Netflix, Inc.	20	$237,786	at the minimum
Cisco Systems, Inc.	17	$165,300	+10.5%
Reddit, Inc.	17	$260,000	+58.9%
Zoom Communications, Inc.	16	$180,710	at the minimum
PayPal, Inc.	15	$138,123	+2.4%
Bloomberg L.P.	14	$160,805	at the minimum
DoorDash, Inc.	14	$177,152	+12.0%
Expedia, Inc.	14	$150,045	at the minimum
Waymo LLC	12	$240,000	+9.9%
Red Hat, LLC	11	$178,131	+42.2%
Wayve Technologies, Inc	10	$282,500	+18.1%
TikTok USDS Joint Venture LLC	9	$176,000	+42.5%
Uber Technologies, Inc.	9	$193,600	+15.5%
Pinterest, Inc.	9	$142,470	at the minimum
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.	8	$130,187	at the minimum
Airbnb, Inc.	8	$204,000	+21.0%
Tesla, Inc.	7	$172,600	+30.9%
Quantiphi, Inc.	6	$118,397	+2.3%
Maplebear Inc.	6	$175,000	+5.4%
Stripe, LLC	6	$180,355	+4.4%

Showing the 25 employers with the most filings of 336. Employers with fewer than 5 filings in total are counted but not named.

Where Machine Learning Engineer jobs are filed

Worksite	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
San Jose, CA	200	$187,741	+3.1%
San Francisco, CA	80	$187,658	+11.3%
New York, NY	77	$161,310	+10.5%
Seattle, WA	65	$177,152	at the minimum
Sunnyvale, CA	49	$199,200	+6.9%
Bellevue, WA	47	$185,000	+14.8%
Cupertino, CA	34	$193,978	at the minimum
Mountain View, CA	32	$202,500	+6.5%
Menlo Park, CA	25	$190,000	+9.9%
Santa Clara, CA	24	$224,418	at the minimum
Chicago, IL	17	$130,000	+20.3%
Boston, MA	14	$169,533	+33.5%
Palo Alto, CA	14	$189,871	+9.7%
Austin, TX	13	$148,741	+13.9%
San Diego, CA	12	$130,187	+4.5%
Los Gatos, CA	11	$264,514	at the minimum
Fremont, CA	9	$172,600	+36.2%
San Mateo, CA	9	$197,500	+12.1%
Atlanta, GA	8	$141,100	+13.7%
Irving, TX	8	$124,459	+9.8%
Waltham, MA	7	$152,000	+6.0%
Foster City, CA	6	$161,637	at the minimum
Jersey City, NJ	6	$160,500	+16.1%
Los Angeles, CA	6	$182,279	+6.7%
Cambridge, MA	5	$181,000	+20.7%

Seniority of the jobs filed

Level I, entry19%

Level II, qualified41%

Level III, experienced23%

Level IV, fully competent17%

The government assigns each job one of four wage levels. A higher level means a higher legal minimum.

What these numbers are

They are wages employers attested to on Labor Condition Applications (Form ETA-9035), not paychecks. Bonuses and stock are not included.
A filing is not a visa or a hire. One filing can cover several positions, and some are later withdrawn. Wage figures use certified filings only.
The prevailing wage is the minimum the employer must pay for that job in that area, set from government wage surveys.
9 filings are for part-time work. Hourly wages are shown as full-time equivalents (2,080 hours a year).

Source: U.S. Department of Labor, OFLC disclosure data. How we clean and count it.