Salary comparison
Data Engineer vs Machine Learning Engineer salary
Data Engineers and Machine Learning Engineers earn about the same at the national median. Here is the full side-by-side breakdown.
Data Engineers and Machine Learning Engineers earn about the same at the national median — roughly $133,080 per year. Both figures are national benchmarks (one or both mapped from the nearest tracked occupation).
Data Engineer
Mapped est.$133,080
Median annual wage
- Entry (10th pct)
- $79,850
- Top 10%
- $211,450
- Discipline
- Emerging
Machine Learning Engineer
Mapped est.$133,080
Median annual wage
- Entry (10th pct)
- $79,850
- Top 10%
- $211,450
- Discipline
- Emerging
Data Engineer vs Machine Learning Engineer — pay distribution
Percentile-by-percentile comparison of national annual wages.
| Percentile | Annual wage |
|---|---|
| 10th percentileData Engineer | $79,850 |
| MedianData Engineer | $133,080 |
| 90th percentileData Engineer | $211,450 |
| 10th percentileMachine Learning Engineer | $79,850 |
| MedianMachine Learning Engineer | $133,080 |
| 90th percentileMachine Learning Engineer | $211,450 |
Pay by experience
Modeled progression from entry to principal level for each role (estimated from the national percentile curve).
Data Engineer
Machine Learning Engineer
Which should you choose?
On pay alone, the two are close at the median, so the decision comes down to the work itself.
Pick data engineer if…
Data engineers build and maintain the pipelines and infrastructure that move and transform data at scale, powering analytics and machine learning across a company.
- ▹Cloud and big-data stack depth (Spark, Snowflake, dbt)
- ▹Company type (Big Tech vs. enterprise)
- ▹Years of experience and seniority
Pick machine learning engineer if…
Machine learning engineers design, train, and deploy ML models inside production systems, owning everything from data pipelines to live model monitoring.
- ▹Research vs. production ML focus
- ▹Company type (Big Tech and AI labs pay a premium)
- ▹Years of experience
Data Engineer vs Machine Learning Engineer — frequently asked
Who earns more, data engineers or machine learning engineers?
What is the salary range for data engineers vs machine learning engineers?
Should I become a data engineer or a machine learning engineer?
Source details
Data Engineer is not a BLS-tracked title. BLS does not publish a separate wage for this title, so the figures shown are the published wage for BLS SOC 15-1252 Software Developers — the closest tracked occupation. Actual pay for this specialization can sit above or below it.
Benchmarks come from published government wage data via BLS OEWS. Local and emerging-role figures are labeled estimates. Full methodology →