Role-Specific

ML Engineer Resume Guide

Showcase your machine learning expertise, model development skills, and ability to deploy ML at scale. Build a resume that lands AI/ML roles.

Markus Fink

Markus Fink

Senior Technical Recruiter, Ex - Google, Airbnb

Last updated: January 2026 10 min read

ML Role Types

ML roles vary significantly. Know which you're targeting:

🔬 Research Scientist

Novel algorithms, publications, theoretical contributions

⚙️ ML Engineer

Production systems, model deployment, MLOps

📊 Applied Scientist

Business problems, product features, A/B testing

🤖 AI Engineer

LLM integration, prompt engineering, AI applications

ML-Specific Metrics

ML resumes need specialized metrics:

  • Model performance — 'Improved accuracy from 85% to 94%'
  • Business impact — 'Increased CTR by 25% through personalization'
  • Scale — 'Model serving 1M predictions/day with <50ms latency'
  • Cost — 'Reduced inference cost by 60% through model optimization'
  • Data — 'Trained on 10B token dataset'

Always connect model metrics to business outcomes when possible.

Technical Skills

Languages

Python (required), SQL, C++ (for optimization)

ML Frameworks

PyTorch, TensorFlow, JAX, scikit-learn, Hugging Face

MLOps

MLflow, Kubeflow, SageMaker, Vertex AI, Weights & Biases

Data

Spark, Ray, Dask, feature stores

Research vs Industry

Tailor your resume based on the role type:

🔬 Research Positions

  • Lead with publications
  • Focus on novel contributions
  • Include conference talks, citations

💼 Industry Positions

  • Lead with production impact
  • Emphasize deployment experience
  • Show business metrics, not just model metrics

Bullet Point Examples

✅ Strong (Production)

"Deployed recommendation model serving 10M users, increasing engagement by 35% and generating $5M incremental annual revenue."

✅ Strong (Optimization)

"Reduced LLM inference costs by 70% through quantization and batching optimizations while maintaining 95% of original quality."

✅ Strong (Research)

"First-authored paper on efficient transformers accepted at NeurIPS, with open-source implementation achieving 100+ GitHub stars."

Optimize Your ML Resume

Upload your resume for AI-powered ML engineering suggestions

Drop your resume here

or click to upload (PDF only, max 10MB)

We'll analyze your resume and show you how to improve it

Frequently Asked Questions

Common ML resume questions

Do I need a PhD for ML roles?

Not for ML Engineer or Applied Scientist roles. Strong production ML experience and ability to learn quickly matter more. PhD is preferred for Research Scientist positions.

Should I include Kaggle competitions?

Yes, if you placed well (top 5%). Medal placements are great signals for new grads. For experienced engineers, production ML experience matters more.

How do I transition from SWE to ML?

Highlight any ML-adjacent work (data pipelines, A/B testing, feature engineering), relevant coursework, and side projects deploying models. The SWE skills are valued in ML Engineering.

Build Your ML Resume

Use our AI-powered builder for ML engineering roles

Build Your Resume Now

Free to start • ML-focused

</> SWE Resume
Or continue with email