Hire machine learning engineers
Engineers who take a model from a notebook to something that serves traffic and can be retrained.
- Indicative rate
- $38–52/hour
- Shortlist
- 3 CVs in 48 hours
- Overlap
- 4–8 hours daily, contracted
- We accept
- 1 engineer in 12
What this engineer does
The hard part is rarely the model. It is the feature pipeline, the training/serving skew, the evaluation that reflects the business metric, and the monitoring that tells you the model has quietly degraded. We screen on deployment and measurement, not on Kaggle rank.
If your brief is really about using someone else's model through an API, ask for an AI engineer instead — it is a different skill and a lower rate.
Briefs we see most often
- A model in a notebook that needs to serve production traffic
- Feature pipelines and a retraining schedule
- Monitoring for drift and degradation
- Forecasting, ranking, classification or recommendation work with real evaluation
Rates across markets
What this costs, wherever you are buying from
| Experience | United States | United Kingdom | Australia | United Arab Emirates | Canada |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| build2–4 years | $20–28/hour$3,200–4,480/month | £150–210/day£3,000–4,200/month | A$28–38/hourA$4,480–6,080/month | AED 95–135/hourAED 15,200–21,600/month | C$30–40/hourC$4,800–6,400/month |
| senior5–8 years | $28–38/hour$4,480–6,080/month | £210–300/day£4,200–6,000/month | A$38–52/hourA$6,080–8,320/month | AED 135–185/hourAED 21,600–29,600/month | C$40–54/hourC$6,400–8,640/month |
| lead9+ years, or tech lead | $38–52/hour$6,080–8,320/month | £300–450/day£6,000–9,000/month | A$52–70/hourA$8,320–11,200/month | AED 185–250/hourAED 29,600–40,000/month | C$54–72/hourC$8,640–11,520/month |
All-inclusive and indicative, shown so you can compare us against a local hire. Monthly figures assume 160 hours a month and the same for the day-rate markets, so the two always reconcile. Engagements are contracted as a monthly capacity fee or a fixed-scope deliverable, with our own delivery lead accountable for the outcome — see engagement models. There is no setup fee, no recruitment fee and no management surcharge.
Questions
Hiring machine learning engineers
- How much does it cost to hire machine learning engineers in India?
- $38–52/hour all-inclusive through Skydream Digital, which is $6,080–8,320/month for a full-time engineer at 160 hours a month. That covers salary, employer costs, equipment, security tooling and management — there is no setup fee, recruitment fee or management surcharge on top. UK buyers pay £300–450/day, Australian buyers A$52–70/hour and UAE buyers AED 185–250/hour.
- ML engineer or data scientist?
- A data scientist tells you what to build and whether it works. An ML engineer makes it run reliably. Many briefs need the second, having already had the first.
- Do we need a data platform first?
- Usually some of one. If there are no reliable feature pipelines, ML work stalls, and a data engineer is the better first hire. We will say that rather than bill for the stall.
Brief us on your machine learning engineer role
One page is enough: the stack, the seniority, the first month of work and the hours you need covered. Three shortlisted CVs come back within 48 hours, with the rate band and notice period attached.