1

Principal Machine Learning Engineer Jobs (NOW HIRING)

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer on the Agentic AI team, you will: * Leverage frameworks like AgentSDK, and LangChain/LangGraph to design, prototype, and develop multi-agent systems that are ...

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer on the Agentic AI team, you will: * Leverage frameworks like AgentSDK, and LangChain/LangGraph to design, prototype, and develop multi-agent systems that are ...

Showing results 41-60

Principal Machine Learning Engineer information

See salary details

$74K

$147.2K

$212.5K

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

As of Sep 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 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.
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:

Who are the top companies hiring for Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs?

The top employers for Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs are:

What states have the most Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs?

States with the most job openings for Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs include:

What are popular job titles related to Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs?

For Principal Machine Learning Engineer jobs, the most frequently searched job titles are:

Infographic showing various Principal Machine Learning Engineer job openings in the United States as of September 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% Internship, 1% As Needed, 74% Full Time, 22% Part Time, and 2% Contract. Highlights an 83% Physical, 2% Hybrid, and 15% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $147,220 per year, or $70.8 per hour.

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Seattle, WA โ€ข On-site, Remote

Atlassian
Computer and Computer Peripheral Equipment and Software Wholesalersย โ€ขย 501 - 1,000 employees

Full-time

Posted 16 days ago


Key responsibilities

  • Architect and build production ML and evaluation systems that operate at scale, including datasets, simulations, automated judges, regression suites, experimentation platforms, and online quality signals.

  • Set the technical vision for how Atlassian measures and improves Rovo Chat, translating qualities such as helpfulness, correctness, judgment, and reliability into rigorous evaluation strategies.

  • Lead ambitious, cross-organizational initiatives with ML, engineering, product, analytics, research, and design partners, creating clarity and momentum where neither the problem nor the solution is well defined.


Job description

Overview:

Working at Atlassian

Atlassians can choose where they work โ€“ whether in an office, from home, or a combination of the two. That way, Atlassians have more control over supporting their family, personal goals, and other priorities. We can hire people in any country where we have a legal entity.

Responsibilities:

As a Principal ML Engineer in the Rovo & AI Engineering org, you will contribute to Atlassianโ€™s biggest bet and fastest area of growth, Rovo Chat. You will bring the latest bleeding edge innovations to the product and build agent harnesses that deliver a step function improvement in quality, reliability and latency.

You will have the opportunity to lead other engineers to drive involved projects from technical design to launch. You will also collaborate with other teams and internal customers to set expectations, gather input and communicate results. Your role is pivotal, stretching beyond these tasks, ensuring AI's transformative potential is realized across our offerings.

What youโ€™ll do

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer, youโ€™ll tackle the open-ended technical problems that determine whether customers trust Rovo with increasingly complex and consequential work. Youโ€™ll remain deeply hands-on while setting direction across teams: driving advances in models, agents, and evaluation and turning them into measurable improvements for millions of active users.

  • Set the technical vision for how Atlassian measures and improves Rovo Chat, translating qualities such as helpfulness, correctness, judgment, and reliability into rigorous evaluation strategies.

  • Architect and build production ML and evaluation systems that operate at scale, including datasets, simulations, automated judges, regression suites, experimentation platforms, and online quality signals.

  • Advance the state of Rovoโ€™s agentic capabilities across reasoning, planning, tool selection and use, action correctness, retrieval, memory, and long-horizon execution.

  • Close the loop between evaluation and product impact: identify systemic failure modes, develop interventions, ship them to production, and establish whether they improved customer outcomes.

  • Make high-leverage technical decisions across model choice, prompting, fine-tuning, data strategy, system architecture, and inference; balancing quality with latency, reliability, safety, and cost.

  • Lead ambitious, cross-organizational initiatives with ML, engineering, product, analytics, research, and design partners, creating clarity and momentum where neither the problem nor the solution is well defined.

  • Establish reusable methods, systems, and quality standards that raise the bar not only for Rovo Chat, but for AI-powered experiences across Atlassian.

  • Multiply the impact of other engineers through technical leadership, design reviews, mentorship, and a compelling long-term vision for how we build and evaluate world-class AI products.

Your Background
  • A track record of architecting and shipping large-scale ML or AI systems that deliver measurable customer and business impact.

  • Deep experience with LLM-powered products, agentic systems, model evaluation, experimentation, and dataset development.

  • Strong production engineering skills and the ability to remain hands-on in a modern ML stack.

  • Principal-level technical leadership: setting direction, influencing across teams, and leading complex initiatives from ambiguity to production.

  • Excellent product and technical judgment, including balancing quality, speed, reliability, safety, latency, and cost.

  • The ability to communicate complex ideas clearly and raise the effectiveness of engineers around you through mentorship and technical leadership.

Compensation:

At Atlassian, we strive to design equitable, explainable, and competitive compensation programs. We follow consistent hiring practices and account for each candidate's skills, knowledge, and experience when setting base pay within the range.

Please visit go.atlassian.com/payzones for more information on which locations are included in each of our geographic pay zones. However, please confirm the zone for your specific location with your recruiter.

This role may also be eligible for benefits, bonuses, commissions, and equity.

Pay Ranges:

In The United States, we have three geographic pay zones. For this role, our current base pay ranges for new hires in each zone are:

Zone A: $236,700 - $309,025

Zone B: $213,030 - $278,123

Zone C: $196,461 - $256,491

Qualifications: On your first day, weโ€™ll expect you to have
  • 7+ years of experience as a software developer

  • Experience building customer facing Gen AI Applications at scale

  • Experience pushing the state of the art to achieve breakthrough quality and reliability

  • Deep understanding of Machine Learning projects lifecycle

  • Experience leading and supporting senior engineers and working cross functionally

Benefits & Perks

Atlassian offers a wide range of perks and benefits designed to support you, your family and to help you engage with your local community. Our offerings include health and wellbeing resources, paid volunteer days, and so much more. To learn more, visit go.atlassian.com/perksandbenefits.

About Atlassian

At Atlassian, we're motivated by a common goal: to unleash the potential of every team. Our software products help teams all over the planet and our solutions are designed for all types of work. Team collaboration through our tools makes what may be impossible alone, possible together.

We believe that the unique contributions of all Atlassians create our success. To ensure that our products and culture continue to incorporate everyone's perspectives and experience, we never discriminate based on race, religion, national origin, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, age, or marital, veteran, or disability status. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

To provide you the best experience, we can support with accommodations or adjustments at any stage of the recruitment process. Simply inform our Recruitment team during your conversation with them.

To learn more about our culture and hiring process, visit go.atlassian.com/crh.

In line with local law, identity verification (which may include use of biometric data) is a condition of employment with Atlassian for employment fraud purposes.