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Staff Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in California

As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer (MLE 50), you will design, build, and deploy semantic matching and ranking models that understand text, images, documents, and other content modalities at Adobe ...

As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer, you will be responsible for driving the design, development, and deployment of novel machine learning solutions for pathology image analysis. You will work with ...

As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer, you will be responsible for driving the design, development, and deployment of novel machine learning solutions for pathology image analysis. You will work with ...

As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer , you will design, build, and deploy machine learning systems that power predictive analytics, personalization, automation, and intelligent platform behaviors.You ...

Provide technical leadership and mentorship to machine learning engineers and contribute to organization-wide modeling standards, best practices, and long-term technical strategy. Shape the long-term ...

Provide technical leadership and mentorship to machine learning engineers and contribute to organization-wide modeling standards, best practices, and long-term technical strategy. Shape the long-term ...

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Staff Machine Learning Engineer information

See California salary details

$22.7K

$98K

$190K

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

As of Jul 19, 2026, the average yearly pay for staff machine learning engineer in California is $98,029.00, according to ZipRecruiter salary data. Most workers in this role earn between $68,100.00 and $123,400.00 per year, depending on experience, location, and employer.

What does a staff ML engineer do?

A staff machine learning engineer leads the design, development, and deployment of complex machine learning models and systems. They often mentor team members, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and ensure scalable, efficient solutions using tools like Python, TensorFlow, or PyTorch. This role typically requires advanced knowledge of algorithms, data structures, and production environment considerations.

What are the typical collaboration and leadership responsibilities for a Staff Machine Learning Engineer?

As a Staff Machine Learning Engineer, you often serve as a technical leader, partnering with cross-functional teams including data scientists, product managers, and software engineers to develop and deploy machine learning solutions. You will mentor junior engineers, conduct code reviews, and help establish best practices for model development and deployment. In addition to hands-on technical work, you may be responsible for evaluating new tools, contributing to the broader ML strategy, and facilitating knowledge sharing sessions. This collaborative and leadership-focused approach helps ensure consistency, quality, and innovation across machine learning projects.

What engineer makes $500,000 a year?

Senior staff machine learning engineers at large tech companies or specialized AI firms can earn $500,000 or more annually, often including bonuses and stock options. These roles typically require advanced skills in deep learning, data engineering, and experience with cloud platforms, along with a strong track record of impactful projects.

Will MLE be replaced by AI?

Staff Machine Learning Engineers design, develop, and deploy AI models, and their role involves understanding complex algorithms and data systems. While AI automation can handle certain tasks, MLEs are essential for creating, tuning, and maintaining AI systems, making complete replacement unlikely in the near term. Continuous learning and expertise in tools like Python, TensorFlow, or PyTorch are important for the role.

What is a $900000 AI job?

A $900,000 AI job typically refers to a high-level position in artificial intelligence, such as a senior machine learning engineer or AI research director, often involving advanced skills in deep learning, data science, and software engineering. These roles usually require extensive experience, specialized knowledge, and may include leadership responsibilities, with compensation reflecting the seniority and impact of the role.

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

To thrive as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer, you need deep expertise in machine learning algorithms, software engineering, data analysis, and typically a strong academic background in computer science or related fields. Experience with Python, TensorFlow, PyTorch, cloud platforms, and a track record of delivering production-level ML systems are crucial, as are advanced degrees or relevant certifications. Strong leadership, communication, and mentoring skills help you effectively guide teams and collaborate across departments. These competencies are essential for designing robust ML solutions, leading technical initiatives, and ensuring successful project delivery in complex organizational environments.

What is a Staff Machine Learning Engineer job?

A Staff Machine Learning Engineer is a senior-level technical role responsible for designing, deploying, and optimizing machine learning models at scale. They provide technical leadership, mentor other engineers, and drive best practices in ML system architecture. This role often involves collaborating with cross-functional teams, improving model performance, and ensuring the reliability of machine learning solutions in production. Staff ML Engineers typically have deep expertise in algorithms, data infrastructure, and engineering processes. Their work focuses on solving complex problems and influencing the broader ML strategy within an organization.

What are the most commonly searched types of Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California? The most popular types of Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California are:
What job categories do people searching Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California look for? The top searched job categories for Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs in California are:
What cities in California are hiring for Staff Machine Learning Engineer jobs? Cities in California with the most Staff Machine Learning Engineer job openings:
Infographic showing various Staff Machine Learning Engineer job openings in California as of July 2026, with employment types broken down into 100% Full Time. Highlights an 100% In-person job distribution, with an average salary of $98,029 per year, or $47.1 per hour.
Staff Machine Learning Engineer

Staff Machine Learning Engineer

EvenUp Inc

San Francisco, CA • On-site, Remote

$212K - $301K/yr

Full-time

Medical, Dental, Vision, Life, Retirement, PTO

Posted 10 days ago


Job description

EvenUp is on a mission to close the justice gap using technology and AI. We empower personal injury lawyers and victims to get the justice they deserve. Our products enable law firms to secure faster settlements, higher payouts, and better outcomes for victims injured through no fault of their own in vehicle collisions, accidents, natural disasters, and more.
We are one of the fastest-growing vertical SaaS companies in history, and we are just getting started. EvenUp is backed by top VCs, including Bessemer Venture Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, SignalFire, and Lightspeed. We are looking to expand our team with talented, driven, and collaborative individuals who seek to have a lasting impact. Learn more at www.evenuplaw.com.
Join EvenUp as a Staff Machine Learning Engineer and help set the technical direction for how machine learning powers Piai™, our proprietary claims-intelligence platform. This is a technical leadership role - you'll shape modeling strategy across a broad problem space, turning raw legal and medical data into production systems that improve outcomes for personal-injury clients.
You'll partner closely with Product, Research, and Engineering leaders to set strategy, and you'll be a technical anchor for the broader ML team - setting standards, mentoring senior engineers, and driving decisions that shape both product outcomes and company growth.
What You'll Do
  • Set technical strategy for a broad area of the ML roadmap, translating ambiguous business and research goals into scoped, production-ready systems.
  • Tackle the hardest modeling problems in the org - complex reasoning, long-context and multi-document understanding, or other frontier challenges as they come up.
  • Apply advanced ML techniques - fine-tuning, reinforcement learning, retrieval, or others - and know when a technique is the right tool versus over-engineering.
  • Establish rigorous evaluation standards, reducing hallucinations, improving factual consistency, and defining what "good" looks like for a given system.
  • Drive data excellence through hands-on analysis of training and evaluation data, managing noise, edge cases, and drift at scale.
  • Provide technical leadership and mentorship across the ML team, raising the bar for experimentation, benchmarking, and engineering rigor.
  • Act as the bridge between research and production - ensuring new techniques get integrated into shippable systems, not just proofs of concept.
  • Partner cross-functionally with product, engineering, and legal subject-matter experts to set technical direction.
  • Cost effectively scale practical machine learning systems in a hyper-growth environment, ensuring they remain grounded in real business and customer needs.
What You Bring
  • 7+ years of hands-on ML engineering experience, with multiple models shipped and running in production.
  • Deep expertise in ML and NLP, including LLMs, with a track record of solving hard modeling problems - not just applying existing recipes.
  • High proficiency in Python and strong command of modern ML/NLP frameworks.
  • Demonstrated ability to set technical strategy and drive execution in ambiguous, fast-moving environments.
  • A track record of mentoring engineers and raising technical standards beyond your own output.
  • Experience partnering directly with Product and Engineering leadership, not just executing their asks.
Nice to Have
  • PhD in Machine Learning, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
  • Experience with document understanding, entity/relationship extraction, or structured extraction from unstructured text.
  • Experience with LLM fine-tuning techniques (LoRA, QLoRA, RLHF/RLVR) or advanced prompt engineering.
  • Experience in a high-growth startup environment.
  • Open to remote candidates or 3 days a week hybrid from our Toronto or San Francisco hubs.

Notice to Candidates:
EvenUp has been made aware of fraudulent job postings and unaffiliated third parties posing as our recruiting team - please know that we have no affiliation or connection to these situations. We only post open roles on our career page (evenuplaw.com/careers) or reputable job boards like our official LinkedIn or Indeed pages, and all official EvenUp recruitment emails will come from the domains @evenuplaw.com, @evenup.ai, @ext-evenuplaw.com, no-reply@ashbyhq.com or no‑reply@canditech.io email addresses.
To ensure fairness and proper consideration, we do not accept resumes or expressions of interest via email or social media messages. If you're interested in a role, please submit your application directly through our careers page.
If you receive communication from someone you believe is impersonating EvenUp, please report it to us at talent-ops-team@evenuplaw.com. Examples of fraudulent domains include "careers-evenuplaw.com" and "careers-evenuplaws.com".
Benefits & Perks:
As part of our total rewards package, we offer attractive benefits and perks to our employees, including:
  • Choice of medical, dental, and vision insurance plans for you and your family.
  • Additional insurance coverage options for life, accident, or critical illness.
  • Flexible paid time off, sick leave, short-term and long-term disability.
  • 10 US observed holidays, and Canadian statutory holidays by province.
  • A home office stipend.
  • 401(k) for US-based employees and RRSP for Canada-based employees.
  • Paid parental leave.
  • A local in-person meet-up program.
  • Hubs in San Francisco and Toronto.

Please note the above benefits & perks are for full-time employees
EvenUp is an equal opportunity employer. We are committed to diversity and inclusion in our company. We do not discriminate based on race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.