Do ML software engineers get paid more than other software engineers?
Seems that Machine Learning is a very hot topic and not many people can do both - 1) prepare data, train models, and then 2) deploy models into production Do they get paid more in comparison with other types of software devs in your company? Thanks TC:135k
The problem with ML at the engineering level is that so many want to do it. It's a bit like the video game industry, where many engineers are willing to take a pay cut for their passion. Transitioning a SWE into an ML Eng role is also not difficult. The researchers are making exponentially more than the engineers, but these guys tend to be the heavily cited PhDs in the field.
At Zillow they do, if you’re an MLE. But it’s usually only a marginal bump ~10%, I think. There are still SWE in ML who don’t get any bump. It’s because MLEs have the same expectations set in terms of software engineering performance, with added ML perf expectations. Only makes sense to pay a bit more if you’re expecting more out of them.
Yes they do most ML engrs have a PhD so idk if the pay bump is because of ML or if it’s just because they got a PhD and are coming in as an eng1 (or maybe eng2 if they are lucky).