Top 10 AI/ML Jobs in San Jose for 2025

Introduction

San Jose is rapidly emerging as one of the most exciting hubs for AI and machine learning innovation in 2025. With world-class research institutions, a booming tech ecosystem, and deep roots in hardware and semiconductor development, the city is uniquely positioned at the intersection of AI software and cutting-edge infrastructure. Startups, cloud companies, and research labs are scaling fast — creating massive demand for AI/ML talent across industries like autonomous vehicles, healthcare, fintech, and enterprise AI.

Below are the Top 10 in-demand AI/ML roles in San Jose for 2025, along with salary insights and the key companies hiring for these positions.

1. Machine Learning Engineer

Machine Learning Engineers build and deploy algorithms that allow machines to learn and improve without explicit programming. They focus on model development, training pipelines, and real-world deployment. In San Jose, they’re crucial to AI teams working on autonomous driving, recommendation systems, and predictive analytics.

• Salary Range: $160,000–$210,000+

• Hiring: Adobe, PayPal, Waymo, AI startups

2. AI Research Scientist

AI Research Scientists push the boundaries of what’s possible through novel algorithms, architectures, and academic research. Many split their time between labs and industry applications, often working on foundation models or cutting-edge AI frameworks. San Jose’s research community makes this role particularly influential.

• Salary Range: $180,000–$250,000+

• Hiring: NVIDIA Research, Stanford-affiliated labs, DeepMind, Meta AI

3. Data Scientist (AI Focus)

Data Scientists specializing in AI turn raw data into actionable insights and train models that power decision-making. They clean, structure, and analyze massive datasets, bridging analytics and ML development. Their work supports everything from product strategy to personalization engines.

• Salary Range: $140,000–$195,000

• Hiring: Cisco, LinkedIn, biotech AI firms

4. Computer Vision Engineer

Computer Vision Engineers develop systems that can “see” and interpret visual data, powering applications in robotics, AR/VR, and autonomous navigation. San Jose’s thriving autonomous vehicle and hardware scene make this one of the most strategically important roles in 2025.

• Salary Range: $150,000–$210,000+

• Hiring: Zoox, Waymo, AR/VR startups, drone companies

5. NLP / Conversational AI Engineer

NLP Engineers focus on building natural language understanding and generation systems, including chatbots, speech models, and LLM-based products. With the explosion of generative AI, San Jose companies are racing to hire NLP talent for everything from enterprise tools to voice assistants.

• Salary Range: $160,000–$220,000

• Hiring: Apple Siri team, voice AI startups, enterprise AI platforms

6. AI Infrastructure / MLOps Engineer

AI Infrastructure Engineers build the pipelines, orchestration layers, and tools that make large-scale model training and deployment efficient. They bridge data engineering, cloud architecture, and DevOps. In San Jose, this role is vital due to the scale of AI R&D projects.

• Salary Range: $160,000–$210,000

• Hiring: Google Cloud, AWS, Databricks, AI platform startups

7. AI Platform Engineer

AI Platform Engineers focus on creating internal frameworks, SDKs, and tooling that accelerate ML development for other teams. They ensure models can be trained, tested, and deployed consistently across a company’s ecosystem.

• Salary Range: $155,000–$205,000

• Hiring: Intel AI Labs, enterprise AI firms, cloud service providers

8. AI Safety / Robustness Engineer

As AI systems become more powerful, the need for trustworthy, explainable, and safe models grows. AI Safety Engineers stress-test systems, look for biases, and design robust frameworks to ensure ethical deployment.

• Salary Range: $180,000–$230,000+

• Hiring: Anthropic (Bay Area), AI safety startups, regulatory tech firms

9. Reinforcement Learning Engineer

Reinforcement Learning Engineers work on systems that learn from interaction and feedback loops, often in robotics, gaming, and simulation-heavy industries. This is one of the most specialized and high-demand AI fields in San Jose’s robotics scene.

• Salary Range: $170,000–$220,000+

• Hiring: Robotics companies, simulation startups, autonomous vehicle labs

10. Generative AI / Prompt Engineer

Generative AI Engineers design, tune, and build applications around large language models and generative systems. They specialize in prompt engineering, fine-tuning, and integrating LLM capabilities into products. As AI apps explode, this role is becoming essential.

• Salary Range: $150,000–$230,000+

• Hiring: OpenAI partners, AI API platforms, content-tech startups

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