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Freelance Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in Colorado

AppFolio

CO

Who We Are Looking For We're seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to help define and lead the next generation of AI systems within Realm-X, and to drive AppFolio's long-term autonomous Real ...

True Anomaly

Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Denver, CO · On-site

$155K - $260K/yr

Bachelor's degree in computer science, machine learning, data science, electrical engineering, or a similar discipline * Proficient in Python * Solid understanding of statistics, probability, and ...

SynergisticIT

AI & Machine Learning Engineer

Denver, CO

$117K - $141K/yr

... presented by AI, Machine Learning, IoT, and Data Science, this job opportunity can be the right career path for you. Candidate's Outcome : Best Programmers in USA | Best Coding Bootcamp ...

Signifyd

Senior Machine Learning Engineer I // II

Denver, CO · On-site +1

$107K - $147K/yr

The Senior Machine Learning Engineer will join our ML team. This team is responsible for building, maintaining, and monitoring the production ML models and offline experimentation frameworks that are ...

AppFolio

Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Denver, CO

Who We Are Looking For We're hiring a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to help move forward the ML platform that every AI initiative at AppFolio depends on -- training, fine-tuning, inference, RAG ...

AppFolio

CO

Who We Are Looking For We're hiring a Staff Machine Learning Engineer to help move forward the ML platform that every AI initiative at AppFolio depends on -- training, fine-tuning, inference, RAG ...

AppFolio

CO

$107K - $147K/yr

Who We Are Looking For We're hiring a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to design and ship the next generation of voice and conversational AI agents within Realm-X. This role helps define AppFolio ...

AppFolio

Sr. Machine Learning Engineer

Denver, CO

$107K - $147K/yr

Who We Are Looking For We're hiring a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to design and ship the next generation of voice and conversational AI agents within Realm-X. This role helps define AppFolio ...

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Freelance Machine Learning Engineer information

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$15

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$139

How much do freelance machine learning engineer jobs pay per hour?

As of Jun 12, 2026, the average hourly pay for freelance machine learning engineer in Colorado is $50.16, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $25.53 and $64.95 per hour, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a Freelance Machine Learning Engineer do?

A Freelance Machine Learning Engineer designs, develops, and implements machine learning models and algorithms for clients on a project basis. They work independently to analyze data, build predictive models, and help businesses solve complex problems using AI and machine learning techniques. Their responsibilities may also include data preprocessing, model evaluation, and deploying solutions into production environments. Freelance Machine Learning Engineers often collaborate remotely with teams and must manage their own schedules and client relationships.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a Freelance Machine Learning Engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Freelance Machine Learning Engineer, you need expertise in programming (especially Python), a solid grasp of machine learning algorithms, and a relevant academic background such as a degree in computer science, mathematics, or engineering. Familiarity with frameworks like TensorFlow or PyTorch, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), and experience with version control systems are typically required. Strong problem-solving, self-management, and client communication skills help set successful freelancers apart. These competencies are crucial for delivering effective solutions, managing projects independently, and building client trust in a competitive market.

How do freelance machine learning engineers typically manage client expectations and project scopes?

Freelance machine learning engineers often work with clients who may not have a deep technical understanding of AI or data science. A common challenge is clearly defining the project scope and deliverables at the outset, ensuring both parties understand what is feasible given the data, time, and budget constraints. Successful freelancers use regular progress updates, milestone-based deliverables, and transparent communication to manage expectations and avoid scope creep. Building trust through clear documentation and setting realistic timelines also helps foster long-term client relationships.

What is the difference between Freelance Machine Learning Engineer vs Data Scientist?

AspectFreelance Machine Learning EngineerData Scientist
CredentialsTypically requires a degree in computer science, data science, or related fields; certifications in machine learning or AI are a plusUsually holds a degree in statistics, data science, or related areas; certifications in data analysis or visualization are common
Work EnvironmentIndependent, project-based work often remotely for various clientsOften employed full-time in organizations or consulting roles, sometimes freelance
Industry UsageUsed across tech, finance, healthcare, and startups for deploying ML modelsApplied in research, analytics, and strategic decision-making across industries

Freelance Machine Learning Engineers focus on developing and deploying ML models independently for diverse clients, while Data Scientists analyze data to extract insights, often working within organizations. Both roles require strong technical skills, but their work scope and environment differ significantly.

What are the most commonly searched types of Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Colorado? The most popular types of Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Colorado are:
What are popular job titles related to Freelance Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Colorado? For Freelance Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Colorado, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Freelance Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Colorado look for? The top searched job categories for Freelance Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Colorado are:
Freelance Machine Learning Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Freelance Machine Learning Engineer job openings in Colorado as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 100% Full Time. Highlights an 71% In-person, and 29% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $104,342 per year, or $50.2 per hour.

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

AppFolio

Denver, CO

Full-time

Posted 13 days ago

Job description

Hi, We're AppFolio
We're innovators, changemakers, and collaborators. We're more than just a software company — we're building the AI-native platform where the real estate industry comes to do business. We're transforming Property Management; how property managers operate, how residents live, and how intelligence flows across an entire industry.
Realm-X is AppFolio's AI-native platform powering this transformation. It enables a new generation of intelligent capabilities across our products, including Realm-X Assistant (copilot), Flows (AI Agentic workflows) and Performers (autonomous AI Agents). Realm-X serves as both a foundation for internal teams to build and scale AI-powered products, and a core layer delivering intelligent, high-impact experiences directly to our customers.
At its core, Realm-X is built on a structured domain ontology and a set of shared business primitives—such as transactions, actions, reports, metrics, and skills—that enable AI systems to deeply understand and operate across the full context of property management workflows. This foundation allows us to build context-aware, action-oriented AI systems that go beyond simple assistance to power real automation and decision-making.
Who We Are Looking For
We're seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to help define and lead the next generation of AI systems within Realm-X, and to drive AppFolio's long-term autonomous Real Estate Performance Management (RPM) platform — autonomous AI agents that can deliver property management performance.
This is a company-impact role. You will own mission-critical AI capabilities, shape long-term technical strategy, and act as a technical visionary and advisor across teams and leadership.
You'll operate at the intersection of traditional machine learning, deep learning, and generative AI, building systems that go beyond AI assistance into execution, automation, and optimization.
This role is for someone who doesn't just build systems — but redefines how they should be built.
Your Impact
  • Architect & Lead: Help define the technical vision and architecture for AI systems across Realm-X in partnership with senior leadership.
  • Scale Intelligent AI Agents: Design and deploy advanced AI Agentic systems that combine reasoning, planning, and execution, including multi-agent orchestration across specialist agents (e.g., maintenance, leasing, accounting, collections).
  • Improve the Foundation: Establish platform primitives and abstractions to enable context-aware, action-oriented AI that goes beyond simple assistance to true automation. Improve the standards for end-to-end ML systems: data collection, model training, evaluation, deployment, and inference infrastructure.
  • Production Excellence: Architect and build scalable, multi-modal, and real-time AI applications, ensuring high-quality deployment standards.
  • ML for Autonomous Property Management: Drive AppFolio's transition toward autonomous property management operations. Use existing LLMs today and instrument the proprietary data collection now that will let us selectively train, fine-tune, and RL-optimize open source LLM and SLM for the RPM domain — optimizing performance, latency, and cost.
  • Reinforcement Learning for Agent Policies: Build the data and feedback loops needed to enable Reinforcement Learning over agent action policies in the partially observable, high-stakes property management environment.
Qualifications
  • Systems thinker: You think in terms of systems, platforms, and long-term leverage, not just features.
  • Production builder: You've built and scaled ML/AI systems in production with meaningful business impact.
  • Ambiguity: You operate effectively in high ambiguity, turning unclear problems into a clear direction.
  • Influence: You've led or influenced large, cross-team technical initiatives.
  • Originality: You introduce new ideas, architectures, or paradigms — not just implement existing ones.
  • Owner-operator: You bring a founder / owner-operator mindset: you take ownership, act with urgency, and focus on outcomes.
  • Pace: You have a strong desire to move fast and deliver impact, while maintaining sound engineering judgment.
  • Collaboration: You are humble, collaborative, and low-ego, and you elevate those around you.
  • Sustainability: You value work-life balance as a foundation for sustained high performance.
  • Vertical conviction: You bring genuine interest in winning a specific industry vertical (real estate) rather than chasing horizontal AI hype.
Must Have
  • Master's or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Machine Learning, or a related field (required).
  • 10+ years of experience building software systems, with significant focus on ML/AI (or equivalent impact).
  • Combined academic and industry track record: Published research and shipped production systems.
  • Deep ML expertise: Traditional Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Generative AI / LLMs (prompting, fine-tuning, RAG, agents, tool and skills use).
  • LLM post-training: Direct, hands-on experience with LLM post-training — SFT, RLHF, DPO, and/or RL — at non-trivial scale.
  • Full ML lifecycle: Strong understanding of data extraction, model training, evaluation, deployment, and integration into production software.
  • Core stack: Expert in Python, PyTorch, NumPy, AWS, Docker, SQL, embeddings, and RAG.
  • Agent tooling: Experience with LangChain, LangGraph, and LLM observability tools (LangSmith).
  • Production ML at scale: Experience designing and operating production-grade ML systems at scale.
  • Ontology & knowledge graphs: Applied experience with ontology-driven systems, knowledge graphs, or semantic layers used to model business domains for AI systems.
  • AI-native engineering: Proficiency with AI coding tools and workflows (e.g., Copilot, ChatGPT, code generation tools).
Nice to Have
  • Reinforcement Learning depth: Deep RL expertise applied to sequential decision-making under partial observability.
  • Experience designing evaluation and benchmarking systems for AI.
  • Background in distributed systems and real-time architectures.
  • Experience building platforms used by multiple engineering teams.
  • Contributions to industry thought leadership (publications, talks, open source, etc.).
Location
Find out more about our locations by visiting our site. 
Compensation & Benefits
The compensation that we reasonably expect to pay for this role is: $264,000 - $330,000 base pay. The actual compensation for this role will be determined by a variety of factors, including but not limited to the candidate’s skills, education, experience, and internal equity.
Please note that compensation is just one aspect of a comprehensive Total Rewards package. The compensation range listed here does not include additional benefits or any discretionary bonuses you may be eligible for based on your role and/or employment type.
Regular full-time employees are eligible for benefits - see here.

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