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Principal Machine Learning Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

POS-31344 Principal Machine Learning Engineer HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and service software platform that helps businesses grow and succeed. With a user-friendly interface and ...

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Denver, CO ยท On-site

$228K - $253K/yr

Ibotta is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to join our Core Data & Analytics team and contribute to our mission to Make Every Purchase Rewarding. We're looking for someone who has a ...

About the Role We are seeking an exceptional Principal Machine Learning Engineer to lead the design and development of the next generation of our AI-driven fraud detection platform . You will ...

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Redmond, WA ยท On-site

$188K - $304K/yr

We are seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to accelerate our training of generative models in close collaboration with Maching Learning (ML) researchers, software engineers, and domain ...

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Principal Machine Learning Engineer information

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$74K

$147.2K

$212.5K

How much do principal machine learning engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Jul 11, 2026, the average yearly pay for principal machine learning engineer in the United States is $147,220.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $118,500.00 and $173,000.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What types of projects and responsibilities can a Principal Machine Learning Engineer typically expect in this role?

Principal Machine Learning Engineers are often tasked with leading the design, development, and deployment of large-scale machine learning models and systems that address key business challenges. In this role, you will collaborate closely with data scientists, engineers, and product managers to define project requirements, architect solutions, and ensure high-quality delivery. You may also guide research initiatives, oversee code and model reviews, and mentor junior engineers, helping to shape the technical direction of the team. Typical responsibilities can range from prototyping and optimizing algorithms to ensuring models are scalable, reliable, and aligned with organizational goals.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive in the Principal Machine Learning Engineer position, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Principal Machine Learning Engineer, you need advanced expertise in machine learning algorithms, statistical analysis, software engineering, and a strong background in computer science or related fields, often supported by a master's or PhD degree. Familiarity with tools such as Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), and relevant certifications strengthens technical capability. Leadership, strategic thinking, effective communication, and mentorship are vital soft skills for guiding teams and collaborating across departments. These competencies are essential for driving innovation, ensuring technical excellence, and influencing organizational AI initiatives.

Will MLE be replaced by AI?

Principal Machine Learning Engineers design, develop, and oversee AI and machine learning systems, and their roles involve understanding complex algorithms, data management, and model deployment. While AI automates certain tasks, MLE roles focus on building and maintaining AI infrastructure, which requires human expertise, critical thinking, and ongoing innovation that AI cannot fully replace. The role is expected to evolve alongside advancements in AI technology but remains essential for guiding AI development and ensuring ethical, effective implementation.

What does a Principal Machine Learning Engineer do?

A Principal Machine Learning Engineer leads the design, development, and deployment of machine learning models and systems. They set technical strategy, mentor engineers, and collaborate with cross-functional teams to solve complex AI challenges. Their role often includes researching new algorithms, optimizing model performance, and ensuring scalability in production environments. Additionally, they work closely with data scientists, software engineers, and product managers to align ML initiatives with business objectives.

How much do principal AI engineers make?

Principal AI engineers typically earn between $130,000 and $200,000 annually, with salaries varying based on experience, location, and industry. They often have advanced skills in machine learning, deep learning, and data science, and may receive bonuses or stock options as part of compensation packages.

What engineers make $300,000 a year?

Principal Machine Learning Engineers and senior data scientists in the tech industry often earn $300,000 or more annually, especially with extensive experience, advanced skills in deep learning and AI, and working at large technology companies or startups with competitive compensation packages. High salaries may also include bonuses, stock options, and other benefits.

What engineer makes $500,000 a year?

A Principal Machine Learning Engineer can earn $500,000 or more annually, especially with extensive experience, advanced skills in deep learning and data science, and working at large tech companies or in high-demand industries. Compensation often includes base salary, bonuses, and stock options, reflecting their seniority and expertise.
More about Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs
What cities are hiring for Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs? Cities with the most Principal Machine Learning Engineer job openings:
What states have the most Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs? States with the most job openings for Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs include:
Infographic showing various Principal Machine Learning Engineer job openings in the United States as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 95% Full Time, 2% Part Time, and 3% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 4% Hybrid, and 9% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $147,220 per year, or $70.8 per hour.
Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

HubSpot

Cambridge, MA โ€ข On-site, Remote

Other

Posted 14 days ago


Job description

POS-31344


Principal Machine Learning Engineer

HubSpot is an all-in-one marketing, sales, and service software platform that helps businesses grow and succeed. With a user-friendly interface and powerful tools, HubSpot enables businesses to attract, engage, and delight customers, ultimately driving growth and increasing revenue. From marketing automation to CRM, HubSpot offers a comprehensive solution that empowers businesses to succeed in the digital age.

The AI Platform Group at HubSpot delivers the ML and AI foundations that enable product teams across the company to create easy, accurate, and consistent AI features for our millions of customers and their customers. This Principal Machine Learning Engineer role will focus on AI Context: building the systems that help HubSpot's AI understand customer, company, activity, and workflow data across the CRM platform.

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer at HubSpot, you'll help define the technical direction for applied ML and AI systems that transform complex data into customer value. You will work across product, engineering, data, and ML teams to take ambiguous 0-to-1 opportunities through model development, evaluation, productionization, experimentation, and measurable customer or business impact.

We are looking for people who:

  • Have a long track record of delivering high-value, high-impact, cross-team and cross-product projects. Principal MLEs are among the most senior individual contributors at HubSpot; they continually raise the technical bar for the engineering and ML organizations, help shape product vision, and build shared technical direction through strong collaboration and hands-on execution.
  • Wish to stay hands-on in technical design, model development, production systems, and code while leading by example through collaboration with cross-functional and internal stakeholders.
  • Have a history of developing solutions to ambiguous problems that have had an outsized impact on a large organization's customer experience, product strategy, or business goals.
  • Provide strategic direction and architectural leadership for major ML and AI projects across multiple teams, systems, or product surfaces.
  • Regularly mentor, coach, and teach engineers in their areas of expertise, including helping senior ICs grow through complex technical projects.
  • Demonstrate pragmatic decision-making and problem-solving abilities, including strong judgment around when to use ML, LLMs, retrieval, rules, platform changes, or product changes.
  • Have expert understanding of a range of ML techniques, such as deep learning, optimization, regression, transformers, large language models, transfer learning, retrieval, ranking, recommendations, classification, NLP, and personalization, as well as tools and frameworks such as scikit-learn, PyTorch, TensorFlow, and modern model-serving and evaluation systems.
  • Are expert in crafting the right architecture for a variety of ML and AI Context problems from business requirements, often identifying where ML solutions can be effective in adjacent product areas.
  • Expand analysis beyond offline and online metrics by evaluating privacy, bias, security, reliability, cost, maintainability, model quality, and data governance concerns across the ML lifecycle.
  • Exhibit enthusiasm for building reliable, scalable systems for data processing, feature generation, context retrieval, model training, inference, experimentation, monitoring, and feedback loops.
  • Can guide teams beyond the status quo; we need engineers who lead us beyond what we have and toward what we can build, while creating a shared notion of how to get there.
  • Bring deep expertise in the machine learning concepts behind Applied and Predictive AI, such as recommendation algorithms and systems, binary and multiclass classification, ranking and relevance, semantic retrieval, embeddings, entity understanding, and experimentation.
  • Have experience turning messy, incomplete, or heterogeneous data into useful AI context for customer-facing products, such as customer, company, activity, workflow, conversation, behavioral, CRM, or unstructured document data.
  • Embody our engineering team values.

If you are passionate about leveraging machine learning and AI to transform the way businesses interact with their customers in a collaborative work environment, come join us in the HubSpot AI Group!