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Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in Santa Barbara, CA

AppFolio

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Goleta, CA · On-site

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 ...

AppFolio

Sr. Machine Learning Engineer

Goleta, CA · On-site

$112K - $154K/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, Inc.

Sr. Machine Learning Engineer

Santa Barbara, CA · On-site +1

$116K - $159K/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

Santa Barbara, CA

$112K - $154K/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

Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Goleta, CA · On-site

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 ...

Toyon

Deep Learning Algorithm Developer

Goleta, CA · On-site

$120K - $200K/yr

Toyon has openings for researchers and developers to solve challenging real-world problems using Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) techniques. Experience in Computer Vision is ...

Toyon

AI/ML Software Engineer

Goleta, CA

$120K - $200K/yr

Toyon is seeking highly qualified AI/ML Software Engineer candidates to develop software in the Python or C++ languages in support of Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) applications.

DataAnnotation

SDLC Engineer - AI Trainer

Ventura, CA · Remote

$50 - $100/hr

As a DataAnnotation's coder, you'll be part of a growing community of over 100,000 professionals -- including front-end, back-end, full-stack, machine learning, and other engineers -- who are driving ...

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All JobsMachine Learning Engineer JobsMachine Learning Engineer Jobs in Santa Barbara, CA

Machine Learning Engineer information

See Santa Barbara, CA salary details

$35K

$143.3K

$215.3K

How much do machine learning engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jun 17, 2026, the average yearly pay for machine learning engineer in Santa Barbara, CA is $143,278.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $112,900.00 and $172,500.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

Is ML full of coding?

Machine Learning Engineers typically do a significant amount of coding, especially in languages like Python or R, to develop algorithms, preprocess data, and build models. Strong programming skills are essential, along with knowledge of frameworks such as TensorFlow or PyTorch, but the role also involves data analysis, model evaluation, and collaboration with teams. Coding is a core component of the job, though some tasks may involve model deployment and optimization that require different skills.

What engineers make $500,000?

Senior machine learning engineers with extensive experience, advanced skills in deep learning and data science, and often working in high-paying industries such as finance or technology can earn $500,000 or more annually. Compensation typically includes base salary, bonuses, and stock options, especially at large tech companies or startups with significant funding.

What do machine learning engineers do?

Machine learning engineers develop algorithms and models that enable computers to learn from data and make predictions or decisions. They often work with large datasets, use programming languages like Python or Java, and utilize tools such as TensorFlow or PyTorch to build, test, and deploy machine learning systems in production environments.

What are Machine Learning Engineers?

Machine Learning Engineers are specialized software engineers who design, build, and deploy machine learning models and systems. They work at the intersection of software engineering and data science, transforming data-driven prototypes into scalable, production-ready solutions. Their responsibilities include data preprocessing, model selection, algorithm implementation, and optimizing models for performance and efficiency. Machine Learning Engineers often collaborate with data scientists, software developers, and other stakeholders to integrate AI technologies into products and services.

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

To thrive as a Machine Learning Engineer, you need strong programming skills (particularly in Python), a solid background in mathematics and statistics, and a degree in computer science or a related field. Experience with machine learning frameworks (such as TensorFlow or PyTorch), data processing tools, and cloud platforms is typically required. Problem-solving ability, effective communication, and adaptability are crucial soft skills for collaborating with teams and translating complex models into practical solutions. These competencies ensure the development, deployment, and continual improvement of machine learning systems that drive business value.

Which 5 jobs will survive AI?

Machine Learning Engineers are likely to continue to be in demand as they develop, implement, and maintain AI systems, requiring specialized skills in programming, data analysis, and model optimization. Roles that involve complex problem-solving, creativity, and human interaction—such as healthcare professionals, educators, skilled tradespeople, and certain managerial positions—are also expected to persist despite AI advancements. These jobs typically require emotional intelligence, adaptability, and domain expertise that AI cannot easily replicate.

What Does a Machine Learning Engineer Do?

A machine learning engineer maintains production systems and often works with other engineers. In this career, you work with software development methodology, use modern software development tools, and use agile practices. You also play a role in software design and architecture, so you may occasionally work with a programmer. An engineer may help to predict how a model should perform or seek out regression issues by using different test types and algorithms. To fulfill your duties and responsibilities, you work on a computer and use an array of skills and programs to carry out these tests.

What are some common challenges faced by Machine Learning Engineers when deploying models to production?

Machine Learning Engineers often encounter challenges such as ensuring model scalability, maintaining data consistency between training and production environments, and monitoring model performance over time. Integrating models into existing software infrastructure may require collaboration with DevOps and software engineering teams to address issues like latency, version control, and resource allocation. Additionally, ongoing model maintenance is crucial to prevent model drift and ensure that predictions remain accurate as new data becomes available.

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

AspectMachine Learning EngineerData Scientist
CredentialsBachelor's or Master's in CS, Data Science, or related; experience with ML frameworksBachelor's or Master's in Statistics, Data Science, or related; strong analytical skills
Work EnvironmentDevelops scalable ML models, deploys algorithms into productionAnalyzes data, builds models, interprets data insights
Industry UsageTech companies, startups, AI-focused firmsFinance, healthcare, marketing, research organizations

While both roles work with data and machine learning, Machine Learning Engineers focus on building and deploying scalable ML models in production environments. Data Scientists primarily analyze data, create models, and generate insights. The roles often overlap but differ in their core responsibilities and focus areas.

More about Machine Learning Engineer jobs
What are the most commonly searched types of Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Santa Barbara, CA? The most popular types of Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Santa Barbara, CA are:
What are popular job titles related to Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Santa Barbara, CA? For Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Santa Barbara, CA, the most frequently searched job titles are:
What job categories do people searching Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Santa Barbara, CA look for? The top searched job categories for Machine Learning Engineer jobs in Santa Barbara, CA are:
What cities near Santa Barbara, CA are hiring for Machine Learning Engineer jobs? Cities near Santa Barbara, CA with the most Machine Learning Engineer job openings:
Machine Learning Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Machine Learning Engineer job openings in Santa Barbara, CA as of June 2026, with employment types broken down into 96% Full Time, and 4% Part Time. Highlights an 87% Physical, 5% Hybrid, and 8% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $143,278 per year, or $68.9 per hour.

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

AppFolio

Santa Barbara, CA

Full-time

Posted 18 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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