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Principal Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in California

We are hiring a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to serve as the technical lead for our GenAI Services area. This is not a model-training or research role - it is the senior-most hands-on ...

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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 ...

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Principal Machine Learning Engineer information

See California salary details

$73K

$145.3K

$209.7K

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

As of Aug 19, 2026, the average yearly pay for principal machine learning engineer in California is $145,292.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $116,900.00 and $170,700.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

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.

What skills and qualifications are needed to thrive as a principal machine learning engineer?

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.

What types of projects and responsibilities can a principal machine learning engineer typically expect?

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.

Is a principal machine learning engineer a high paying job?

A principal machine learning engineer is typically a high-level role with a competitive salary that reflects advanced expertise in machine learning, data science, and software engineering. Salaries often vary based on industry, location, and company size but generally exceed those of mid-level roles due to the experience and leadership responsibilities involved.

What job categories do people searching Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California look for?

The top searched job categories for Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California are:

Infographic showing various Principal Machine Learning Engineer job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 80% Full Time, 18% Part Time, and 1% Contract. Highlights an 87% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 11% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $145,292 per year, or $69.9 per hour.

Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Required, Work From Home

Ginas Tech Jobs

San Francisco, CA โ€ข Remote

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, PTO

Re-posted 10 days ago


Job description

Job Description

Principal Machine Learning Engineer, Artificial Intelligence (AI) Required, Work From Home

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer, you are a deep technical authority responsible for designing and evolving the most critical ML systems in the company.  The Principal Machine Learning Engineer will operate across training, inference, evaluation, and infrastructure, solving the hardest architectural and performance problems.  While Technical Leads may own execution at the team level, you set the technical standard and shape how ML systems are built across the organization.  This is a hands-on, high-impact role focused on depth.  This position is 100% Remote.

Principal Machine Learning Engineer Responsibilities:

- Architect and build large-scale ML systems spanning data, training, evaluation, inference, and deployment.

- Design reproducible, high-performance training pipelines across GPU infrastructure.

- Architect inference systems that balance latency, throughput, cost, and reliability at scale.

- Design and maintain data systems for high-quality synthetic and real-world training data.

- Implement evaluation pipelines covering performance, robustness, safety, and bias, in partnership with research leadership.

- Own production deployment, including GPU optimization, memory efficiency, latency reduction, and scaling policies.

- Collaborate closely with application engineering to integrate ML systems cleanly into backend, mobile, and desktop products.

- Make pragmatic trade-offs and ship improvements quickly, learning from real usage.

- Work under real production constraints: latency, cost, reliability, and safety

Principal Machine Learning Engineer Outcomes:

- ML systems (training, inference, evaluation) are reliable, scalable, and meet defined performance targets.

- Models deployed to production achieve measurable quality improvements and meet user-impact goals.

- Production issues are proactively monitored, debugged, and resolved with clear root-cause analysis.

- Team and cross-functional collaborators benefit from clear guidance, best practices, and scalable ML solutions.

- Research-to-production cycles are efficient, safe, and continuously improve the product experience.

Qualifications

Principal Machine Learning Engineer Qualifications:

- Strong background in deep learning and transformer-based architectures.

- Artificial Intelligence (AI) experience required.

- Hands-on experience training, fine-tuning, or deploying large-scale ML models in production.

- Proficiency with at least one modern ML framework (e.g. PyTorch, JAX), and ability to learn others quickly.

- Experience with distributed training and inference frameworks (e.g. DeepSpeed, FSDP, Megatron, ZeRO, Ray).

- Strong software engineering fundamentals; you write robust, maintainable, production-grade systems.

- Experience with GPU optimization, including memory efficiency, quantization, and mixed precision.

- Comfort owning ambiguous, zero-to-one ML systems end-to-end.

- A bias toward shipping, learning fast, and improving systems through iteration.

- Experience with LLM inference frameworks such as vLLM, TensorRT-LLM, or FasterTransformer.

- Contributions to open-source ML or systems libraries.

- Background in scientific computing, compilers, or GPU kernels.

- Experience with RLHF pipelines (PPO, DPO, ORPO).

- Experience training or deploying multimodal or diffusion models.

- Experience with large-scale data processing (Apache Arrow, Spark, Ray).

Benefits include medical insurance, Dental, Vision, Savings Plan Options, PTO, etc.

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