ML Engineer Jobs in Illinois

ML Engineer jobs in Illinois are in strong and consistent demand, concentrated in fintech, healthcare AI, enterprise software, and logistics optimization, with openings ranging from entry-level to principal and staff-level roles. Chicago drives the majority of hiring, with secondary activity in the Champaign-Urbana corridor and the north suburban technology belt around Deerfield and Lake County. Established Illinois employers such as Morningstar, Zebra Technologies, and Allstate have maintained long-term machine learning teams here, with particular demand in natural language processing, recommendation systems, and MLOps infrastructure. Find a role that fits below and apply directly.

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Overview

Open roles26
Top employerCapital One
Top cityChicago, IL
Cities hiring6
Work type53% Hybrid
Top industryTechnology

Showing 5 of 26+ ML Engineer jobs

Senior Manager - Machine Learning
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Added 4d ago
Senior Manager - Machine Learning
CCC Intelligent Solutions
Chicago, Illinois
Software Engineering
Technical Product & Program Management
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
ML (Machine Learning)
Technical Program Management
$137k - $215k/yr
On-Site
None
1,001-5,000

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Senior Machine Learning Engineer - GUS
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Added 6d ago
Senior Machine Learning Engineer - GUS
Grainger
Chicago, Illinois
Engineering (Non-Software)
Product Management
Technical Product & Program Management
$134k - $224k/yr
Hybrid
Master's degree
10,000+

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Machine Learning Ops Engineer
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Added 1w ago
Machine Learning Ops Engineer
PAR Technology
Illinois
Customer Support
Solutions Engineering & Architecture
Technical Product & Program Management
$125k - $160k/yr
Hybrid
Bachelor's degree
1,001-5,000

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Director, AI and Machine Learning Engineering
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Added 1w ago
Director, AI and Machine Learning Engineering
Bain & Company
Chicago, Illinois
Data Analytics
Data Science
$236k - $271k/yr
10,000+

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Staff ML Engineer
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Added 2w ago
Staff ML Engineer
State Farm
Bloomington, Illinois
AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Cloud Engineering
Solutions Engineering & Architecture
$150k - $198k/yr
Hybrid
10,000+

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See All 26 ML Engineer Jobs in Illinois

Find roles in Illinois that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.

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ML Engineer Jobs by City in Illinois

Where Illinois roles are concentrated, by current openings.

Bloomington
2 jobs
Lisle
1 job
Lemont
1 job
Tremont
1 job
Downers Grove
1 job

ML Engineer Job Market in Illinois

A snapshot from current Illinois openings, updated as new roles post.

Who's Hiring

Capital One3 open roles
Information Technology Senior Management Forum3 open roles
UST1 open role

Top Industries Hiring

  • Technology & Software
  • Investment & Asset Management
  • Fintech
  • Agriculture & Farming
  • Banking & Financial Services

What Illinois Employers Look For

The qualifications that appear most often in ML engineer jobs across Illinois.

  • Bachelor's or master's degree in computer science, statistics, or a closely related technical field
  • Proficiency in Python and experience with ML frameworks such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or scikit-learn
  • Hands-on experience building, deploying, and monitoring production machine learning models
  • Familiarity with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud for ML pipeline deployment
  • Experience with SQL and large-scale data processing tools such as Spark or Databricks
  • Strong communication skills to translate model outputs and limitations to non-technical stakeholders

ML Engineer Jobs in Illinois: Frequently Asked Questions

How do you become a ml engineer in Illinois?

There is no state-issued license required to work as an ml engineer in Illinois, so the path runs through education and demonstrated technical skill. Most Illinois employers expect at minimum a bachelor's degree in computer science, mathematics, or a related field, with a master's degree strongly preferred at mid and senior levels. Candidates who build a portfolio of end-to-end projects, contribute to open-source work, or complete graduate programs at Illinois institutions such as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign or Northwestern are consistently competitive.

Which companies hire ml engineers in Illinois?

Employers hiring ml engineers in Illinois right now include Capital One, Information Technology Senior Management Forum, and UST, based on current listings on Migrate Mate as of November 2026. Illinois's deep concentration of financial services firms, insurance companies, and healthcare systems means consistent demand for ml engineers who can work with structured enterprise data and regulated industries.

Which Illinois cities have the most ml engineer jobs?

Chicago, Illinois, and Bloomington have the most ml engineer openings in Illinois. Chicago dominates because of its dense fintech, insurance, and enterprise technology sectors, while Champaign-Urbana draws from the University of Illinois research ecosystem and its affiliated tech spinouts, and the north suburban corridor around Deerfield and Libertyville reflects the ml hiring footprint of large technology and healthcare companies headquartered there.

Are there remote ml engineer jobs in Illinois?

Yes, and more than most fields. About 73% of ml engineer openings tied to Illinois are remote or hybrid as of November 2026, reflecting how well-suited the work is to distributed environments. Roles focused on model development, experimentation, and research tend to be the most remote-friendly, while positions requiring close collaboration with data engineering or platform infrastructure teams are more likely to require regular on-site presence in Chicago or the suburbs.

How can I get hired as a ml engineer in Illinois with little or no experience?

The most realistic entry path is through a strong portfolio of personal or academic projects that demonstrate end-to-end model building, ideally covering data preparation, training, evaluation, and deployment. Illinois employers such as Allstate, Zebra Technologies, and large Chicago-area hospital systems run new-graduate and associate data scientist programs that serve as structured entry points for candidates without professional ML experience. Lateral moves from roles such as data analyst, business intelligence developer, or software engineer with data-heavy responsibilities are common, and candidates who hold a relevant degree from the University of Illinois or Illinois Tech are regularly recruited directly for these junior tracks.

Where can I find and apply to ml engineer jobs in Illinois?

You can find and apply to ml engineer jobs in Illinois on Migrate Mate, which lists current Illinois openings across Chicago, the north suburbs, Champaign-Urbana, and remote roles tied to Illinois employers. Find the roles that fit your experience and specialization and apply directly from the listings.

See All 26 ML Engineer Jobs in Illinois

Find roles in Illinois that match your experience and apply in just a few clicks.

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