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AI & ML Career Trends: Machine Learning Engineer Salary and Job Growth in 2025

We live in a world where AI (artificial intelligence) and ML (machine learning) are no longer fancy buzzwords. They are changing the global industries and creating opportunities and demands for skilled professionals. As the years pass by, global companies continue to invest heavily in AI and ML, highlighting it as one of the fastest-growing career paths.

In the middle of these trends, the demand for engineers is increasing with competitive machine learning engineer salary brackets and growth opportunities. But what does it take for them to excel in this field?  Let’s get started with the role of ML engineers in IT. 

Machine Learning Engineer Roles in IT

The role of a machine learning engineer in the modern IT landscape is very crucial, as it possesses a series of critical and uncommon technical skills. These skills are a part of AI & ML, two fields that are gaining more and more hype these days. Machine learning engineers have expertise in computers and maths, with an in-depth knowledge of:

• Probability
• Programming
• Algorithms
• Computer architecture
• Statistics
• Data structures 

But these skills are not so common and are challenging to excel in. In fact, machine learning engineers require at least a master’s degree in computer science or a relevant field. Machine learning engineers with high skills mostly study tasks people perform and try to figure out how to automate those tasks. Such an undertaking demands an understanding of programming, analytics, tools, and mathematical modeling to execute ML practices in real-life activities. 

The responsibilities of a machine learning engineer also include learning, designing, and creating the AI that can drive ML, and maintaining and upgrading current AI systems. Additionally, an ML engineer’s role is to act as a frequent collaborator between data scientists who design AI systems and people who develop and run them. 

Let’s have a look at the most common roles of an ML engineer:

• Conducting an in-depth statistical data analysis
• Applying ML algorithms
• Designing and developing ML systems
• Testing and experimenting with AI systems

You would be surprised to know that ML engineers are now playing various roles in other industries as well. That is why their demand is growing beyond IT boundaries all across the globe. This is what the next section of the blog is all about. 

The Growing Demand for Machine Learning Engineers

With the rise of more complex and advanced technologies, effective operations in software development have become more necessary than ever. Such operations require greater technical skill sets combined with a great potential for rapid optimization of results. This is exactly what machine learning engineers offer. 

The demand for ML engineers extends beyond the IT sector. Various other industries realize how valuable AI & ML engineers are. They are actively in search of such engineers and hire them to enhance their operations. Read the following table to learn how these engineers are fulfilling the demands in each industry. 

Industry	Demand
Finance	To enhance analysis and decision-making.
Entertainment	To customize content according to individual preference and increase user satisfaction and engagement.
E-Commerce	To customize customer experiences and enhance the supply chain.
Transportation	To manage logistics and optimize routes.

This table reflects the fact that diversity not only stretches the scope of AI & ML applications, but also ensures that AI engineers enjoy evolving and dynamic career opportunities. 

AI and Machine Learning Engineer Salary

As a fresh graduate or a beginner in AI & ML, you might be planning to pursue an engineering career in this field. So, you might be thinking, “How much do engineers make”? The answer is simple: The machine learning and AI engineer salary varies according to experience, industry, and location.

Like other professionals, individuals with more experience earn more due to greater knowledge and skills. With greater knowledge, your time and value increase in the eyes of employers. Additionally, when it is time for your annual performance review, you are more likely to receive high increments. 

Speaking of a machine learning engineer's salary in different industries, some pay more than others. From real estate to media and communication, IT, healthcare, retail, and wholesale, each industry treats an ML engineer differently. 

The ML engineer's salary also varies depending on the location of the job. The following table depicts the worth of machine learning engineer jobs country-wise.

Country	Average Salary	Average National Annual Salary
United States	$161,321	$59,428
United Kingdom	£57,830	£29,669
Singapore	$129,929	$70,000
Australia	$151,132	$98,000
Canada	$116,235	$72,000

AI & ML Tech Jobs Market in 2025

AI ethics, machine learning engineering, MLOps, and LLM fine-tuning are among the most demanding and compensating jobs in 2025. Additionally, companies have increased their hiring for niche positions, including

• AI prompt engineers
• Trust and safety specialists
• Model evaluators 

This trend indicates the diversifying speed of this field. Nextbridge is keeping up with the trends through AI transformation services and AI/ML technologies. It is contributing to the future of AI & ML by actively working on new projects. This way, it is creating more job opportunities for ML engineers. 

As of 2025, a machine learning job remains in high demand due to its growing roles, including computer vision engineering and generative AI engineering. This reflects how critically the world needs professionals with skills like ML system building and repetitive tasks automation. Many companies prefer hiring engineers with AWS machine learning certification due to higher credibility. 

Talking about the tech job market of the USA, cities like San Fransico have robust tech ecosystems. Such cities attract a huge pool of top talent while offering higher senior machine learning engineer salary structures. 

Now, you are well aware of the fact that why ML engineer is one of the most in-demand job titles. This reflects that machine learning is one of the most valued critical skills that cannot only build machine learning systems but also automate repetitive tasks. The popularity of senior Machine Learning Engineers, Computer Vision Engineers, and Generative AI Engineers also comes under this umbrella.

AI & ML Evolving the Data Scientists 

AL & ML engineers and data scientists work side by side. Machine learning engineers enable the machine to generalize knowledge from data. In the absence of this data, machines cannot learn much. The increasing usage of ML in various industries acts as a facilitator and pushes data scientists to increase relevance. 

The quality and performance of machine learning depend on the data it is given and how much the algorithms are able to consume it. As we progress, the data scientists will face a standard requirement of basic levels of machine learning knowledge. In short, the evaluation ability of machine learning will be one of the most relevant skills of data scientists.

Final Thoughts

In 2025, AI & ML together continue to reform the industry and shape career paths. This field keeps providing innovation and growth opportunities for skilled individuals. With increasing demands, machine learning engineer salary packages are becoming more competitive across industries. These changes are helping ML engineers contribute to the advancement of technology. This way, AI and ML prove to be a promising career and future of work for the individuals who are ready to take this challenge!