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Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in California

Intuit

Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Mountain View, CA · On-site

$202K - $274K/yr

Come join Intuit as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer! In this role, you'll work alongside AI scientists and machine learning engineers to create AI-powered experiences. You'll be expected to help ...

Intuit

Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Mountain View, CA · On-site

$202K - $274K/yr

Come join Intuit as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer! In this role, you'll work alongside AI scientists and machine learning engineers to create AI-powered experiences. You'll be expected to help ...

Intuit

Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Mountain View, CA · On-site

$202K - $274K/yr

Overview Come join Intuit as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer! In this role, you'll work alongside AI scientists and machine learning engineers to create AI-powered experiences. You'll be expected ...

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Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer information

See California salary details

$58.7K

$124.9K

$181.1K

How much do senior staff machine learning engineer jobs pay per year?

As of Aug 29, 2026, the average yearly pay for senior staff machine learning engineer in California is $124,900.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $103,100.00 and $141,600.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a senior staff machine learning engineer do?

A Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer leads the design, development, and deployment of complex machine learning systems within an organization. They work closely with cross-functional teams to identify business challenges that can be addressed with machine learning and guide the technical strategy for implementing solutions. Their responsibilities often include mentoring junior engineers, setting best practices, overseeing large-scale projects, and ensuring models are robust, scalable, and ethically implemented. Additionally, they may contribute to research and development, staying up-to-date with the latest advancements in the field.

What are the primary challenges a senior staff machine learning engineer faces when leading large-scale ML projects?

Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineers often navigate complex challenges such as aligning cross-functional teams, ensuring model scalability, and maintaining data integrity across evolving pipelines. They are responsible for setting technical direction, mentoring junior engineers, and driving collaboration between data scientists, software engineers, and product managers. Balancing hands-on technical work with high-level architectural decisions, while also keeping up with rapid advancements in the field, is key to success in this role.

What are the key skills and qualifications needed to thrive as a senior staff machine learning engineer, and why are they important?

To thrive as a Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer, you need deep expertise in machine learning algorithms, statistical analysis, software engineering, and a relevant advanced degree (often MS or PhD). Mastery of tools such as Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, distributed computing frameworks, and experience with cloud platforms is typically required. Strong leadership, communication, and project management skills distinguish top performers in this role. These abilities are crucial for designing scalable ML solutions, leading teams, and driving impactful business outcomes.

What is the difference between Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer vs Machine Learning Engineer?

AspectSenior Staff Machine Learning EngineerMachine Learning Engineer
CredentialsBachelor's/Master's/PhD in CS, AI, or related; experience in ML frameworksBachelor's/Master's in CS, AI, or related; some experience in ML
Work EnvironmentLeadership roles, cross-team collaboration, strategic planningImplementation, model development, experimentation
Industry UsageTech companies, research labs, large enterprisesStartups, tech firms, research projects

The Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer typically holds a more senior, strategic role with leadership responsibilities, while the Machine Learning Engineer focuses on developing and deploying ML models. Both roles require strong technical skills, but the senior position involves guiding projects and mentoring teams.

What are popular job titles related to Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California?

For Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California, the most frequently searched job titles are:

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

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

What cities in California are hiring for Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs?

Cities in California with the most Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer job openings:

Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs near you
Infographic showing various Senior Staff Machine Learning Engineer job openings in California as of August 2026, with employment types broken down into 1% As Needed, 74% Full Time, 18% Part Time, 1% Temporary, and 6% Contract. Highlights an 93% Physical, 1% Hybrid, and 6% Remote job distribution, with an average salary of $124,900 per year, or $60 per hour.

Senior/Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Agent Simulation

San Francisco, CA • On-site

jobs.frontdoordefense.com - Jobboard
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$200 - $300/hr

Other

Medical, Life, PTO

Posted 10 days ago

Job description

Senior/Staff Machine Learning Engineer, Agent Simulation

Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Compensation: $200,000 - 300,000 USD / year

About The Role

The Agent Simulation group at Zoox is searching for machine learning engineers to play a crucial role in enhancing agent behaviors, assessing performance, and developing tools to prioritize simulation results. Your contributions will be key in creating diverse and innovative agent behaviors using real-world driving data and our infrastructure for testing and validating algorithms.

In this role, you will:
  • Research, implement, and optimize state-of-the-art machine learning approaches to improve plausible agent behaviors
  • Find innovative solutions for agent behaviors and simulation analysis
  • Prove machine-learned algorithms have better performance than heuristics
  • Leverage our large-scale machine-learning infrastructure to discover new solutions
  • Analyze the difference between behaviors in simulation and real-world
  • Work cross-functionally with our safety and autonomy engineers
  • Build scalable, usable cloud pipelines for machine learning solutions for simulation
Qualifications
  • BS, MS, or PhD degree in Computer Science or a related field
  • Experience with training and deploying deep learning models
  • Experience with production machine-learning pipelines: dataset creation, training frameworks, metrics pipelines
  • Fluency in Python and a basic understanding of C++
  • Fluency with Numpy and PyTorch, TensorFlow or JAX
  • Strong mathematics skills
Bonus Qualifications
  • Experience with LLMs, reinforcement learning, imitation learning
  • Conference or journal publications in machine learning or robotics
  • Prior experience with agent behaviors, prediction, autonomous vehicles, or robotics
Compensation

Salary ranges from $200,000 to $300,000. Compensation also includes Amazon Restricted Stock Units (RSUs) and Zoox Stock Appreciation Rights. Signing bonuses may be part of the package. Compensation varies by location, experience, and related job knowledge.

Benefits include paid time off (sick leave, vacation, bereavement), unpaid time off, health insurance, long-term care insurance, long-term and short-term disability insurance, and life insurance.

Accommodations

If you need an accommodation to participate in the application or interview process, please reach out to accommodations@zoox.com or your assigned recruiter.

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