Staff Machine Learning Engineer H-1B wages

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

Employers filed 127 wage applications for Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs from July 2025 to June 2026, across 65 employers. The median offered wage was $230,000, 13.6% above the government's prevailing wage for the job. PayPal, Inc. filed the most (15, median $235,000).

Filings: 127
Positions covered: 1,247
Employers: 65
Median offered: $230,000
Median prevailing wage: $187,825
Filings since FY2020: 410
Median offer change since FY2020: +69%

Staff Machine Learning Engineer, all employers127 filings, July 2025 to June 2026

$230,000Median wage employers told the government they would pay

$197,686 to $260,000Where the middle half of the filings fall

$187,825Prevailing wage: the legal minimum for these jobs

Offered wage since 2020

The median wage offered for Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs rose 69%, from $136,200 in fiscal 2020 to $230,000 in fiscal 2026 so far. In fiscal 2026 it was 13.8% above the prevailing wage. Filings peaked in fiscal 2025, with 117 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.

Staff Machine Learning Engineer by fiscal year

Fiscal year	Filings	Median offered	vs year before	Median prevailing	vs prevailing
2026 (Oct to Jun)	102	$230,000	+11.5%	$189,592	+13.8%
2025	117	$206,315	+5.8%	$180,960	+4.2%
2024	62	$195,010	+1.1%	$181,024	at the minimum
2023	45	$192,941	+3.8%	$158,080	+11.7%
2022	41	$185,790	+8.5%	$144,726	+23.4%
2021	23	$171,163	+25.7%	$145,725	+16.4%
2020	20	$136,200	n/a	$121,576	+16.4%

Employers that file for this title

Middle half of offered wagesMedian offered wageMedian prevailing wage

Employer	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
PayPal, Inc.	15	$235,000	+18.7%
Qualcomm Technologies, Inc.	10	$158,400	+0.5%
Pinterest, Inc.	8	$212,202	at the minimum
Coupang Global LLC	8	$219,170	at the minimum
Government Employee Insurance Company (GEICO)	6	$260,000	+31.3%
Unity Technologies SF	5	$245,000	+21.9%
ServiceNow, Inc.	4	$221,747	at the minimum
Uber Technologies, Inc.	4	$270,150	+9.9%
Palo Alto Networks, Inc.	3	$104,500	at the minimum
Home Depot Management Company LLC	2	$182,415	+19.4%
Reka AI, Inc.	2	$327,500	+53.4%
Xmotors.Ai, Inc.	2	$315,000	+19.1%
Airbnb, Inc.	2	$204,000	+12.9%
TORC Robotics, Inc.	2	$266,695	+65.3%
Aetna Resources LLC	2	$179,204	+16.5%
Waymo LLC	2	$227,500	+13.3%
Zendesk, Inc.	2	$250,000	+149.5%
Maplebear Inc.	1	$285,000	+54.4%
Attentive Mobile, Inc.	1	$300,000	+39.4%
The RealReal, Inc.	1	$248,776	+39.9%
Robinhood Markets, Inc.	1	$217,000	+11.4%
Hippocratic AI, Inc	1	$260,000	+16.5%
Wispr AI, Inc.	1	$350,000	+160.9%
RIOS Intelligent Machines, Inc.	1	$180,000	+13.5%
Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC	1	$241,900	+17.2%

Showing the 25 employers with the most filings of 65. Employers with fewer than 5 filings in total are counted but not named.

Where Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs are filed

Worksite	Filings	Median offered	vs prevailing
San Jose, CA	13	$234,750	+3.8%
Mountain View, CA	11	$264,514	+5.1%
New York, NY	11	$235,000	+42.0%
Santa Clara, CA	11	$250,000	at the minimum
San Diego, CA	10	$158,400	+0.5%
San Francisco, CA	9	$245,000	+39.4%
Seattle, WA	9	$204,000	at the minimum
Palo Alto, CA	6	$260,000	+7.5%
Bellevue, WA	5	$260,000	+22.5%
San Mateo, CA	4	$263,450	+31.7%
Sunnyvale, CA	4	$270,150	+9.9%
Austin, TX	2	$148,776	+6.9%
Boston, MA	2	$212,950	+19.6%
Kirkland, WA	2	$233,601	+10.1%
Marina Del Rey, CA	2	$300,000	+140.1%
Menlo Park, CA	2	$198,500	+12.4%
Plano, TX	2	$100,009	+4.7%
Atlanta, GA	1	$184,230	+21.1%
Bothell, WA	1	$235,000	+23.4%
Buffalo Grove, IL	1	$168,031	+28.6%
Chicago, IL	1	$235,000	+96.6%
East Palo Alto, CA	1	$276,000	+29.3%
Evanston, IL	1	$180,600	+17.8%
Fremont, CA	1	$160,620	+15.3%
Hartford, CT	1	$180,857	+22.7%

Seniority of the jobs filed

Level I, entry1%

Level II, qualified9%

Level III, experienced36%

Level IV, fully competent53%

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.

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