Geographic pay adjustments, remote-friendly companies, and what working remotely actually costs your salary.
| Location Type | Salary Range |
|---|---|
| San Francisco / NYC (in-office) | $195K – $230K |
| Remote: Tier 1 cities (LA, Boston, Seattle) | $185K – $220K |
| Remote: Secondary cities (Austin, Denver, Chicago) | $165K – $200K |
| Remote: Lower COL (Southeast, Midwest) | $145K – $180K |
| Remote: International (EU, Canada) | $110K – $140K |
Global team, strong open-source culture
Strong MLOps platform focus
AI data labeling and frontier work
Enterprise LLM platform
Significant remote reduction post-2024
Strict RTO policy enforced
In-person culture for research teams
Strict return-to-office mandate
Most companies apply geographic pay adjustments of 5-25% for remote workers outside major tech hubs. However, companies like Hugging Face, Cohere, and many AI startups offer competitive location-adjusted packages. The best remote salaries are at companies with mature remote-first cultures rather than companies that retrofitted remote work.
A fully remote senior ML engineer in the US earns $155,000-$200,000 base salary depending on location and employer. Top remote-first companies may match or approach SF-market rates. At Meta or Google, remote senior MLE roles are capped by geographic bands, typically 10-15% below SF peers.
Major tech companies have been pushing return-to-office since 2024. Amazon mandated 5 days/week, Google and Meta require 3+ days, and Apple requires regular in-person attendance. AI-first companies like Hugging Face, Cohere, and many startups remain remote-first. This divide is becoming a key talent competition differentiator.