Jobs for machine learning engineers are growing fast, according to an analysis by LinkedIn.
What’s new: Machine learning engineer ranks fourth among the 25 fastest-growing job titles in the United States, according to the professional social network’s annual Jobs on the Rise report. (The top three were vaccine specialist, diversity and inclusion manager, and customer marketing manager.)
What the data says: LinkedIn analyzed job openings listed on its site between January 2017 and July 2021 and ranked those that showed consistent growth over the entire period. The analysis counted open positions at different levels of seniority as a single position. It didn’t count positions occupied by interns, volunteers, or students.
- Salaries for machine learning engineers generally ranged from $72,600 to $170,000.
- Applicants were expected to have a median of four years of prior experience. Skills requested most often included deep learning, natural language processing, and TensorFlow.
- Most jobs were located in San Francisco, Seattle, and Los Angeles, and nearly 20 percent of them allowed remote work.
- Of machine learning engineers who previously held a different title, most had been software engineers, data scientists, or AI specialists.
- Of machine learning engineers whose gender was known, 22.3 percent were women.
Behind the news: While LinkedIn’s analysis was confined to the U.S., evidence suggests that machine learning jobs are growing worldwide.
- In the Philippines, where automation is replacing call center jobs, the outsourcing industry has launched a massive effort to train professionals in machine learning and data analytics.
- A survey by MIT Technology Review found that 96 percent of Asian executives and 82 percent of executives in Africa and the Middle East said their companies had deployed at least one machine learning algorithm as of 2019.
Why it matters: North America is the world’s largest AI market, accounting for around 40 percent of AI revenue globally. The fact that remote work is an option for one in five U.S. machine learning jobs suggests a huge opportunity for applicants located in other parts of the world.
We’re thinking: The world needs more AI practitioners! If you’re wondering whether to pursue a career in the field, this is a good time to jump in.