OPT ML Engineer Jobs
ML Engineer jobs are among the most OPT-friendly roles in tech. Most positions require a master's or PhD in computer science, machine learning, or a related field, which aligns well with STEM OPT extension eligibility and gives you up to 36 months of authorized work experience to secure H-1B visa sponsorship.
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Get Access To All JobsSalary Range: $125,000 - $145,000 per year
Note: This is an ongoing role that we hire for regularly, so some postings may appear to have been open for a while. If you see this job posted, we are actively hiring and encourage you to apply.
This is a Boston based opportunity with a 3 day in office expectation (Tuesday - Thursday) with 2 days remote (Monday and Friday).
Wayfair is continuing to expand our commitment to hiring and supporting talent early in their careers, focusing on filling opportunities with recent graduates who have 0-3 years of work experience. We are continually recruiting candidates for this position on a rolling basis as we have a high volume of openings that become available.
Who We Are:
Wayfair is on a mission to find the most talented engineers entering the tech world! Do you love innovating and creating new tools from scratch? We’re looking for engineers who love Wayfair is looking for candidates who are passionate about programming, and have strong core fundamentals. If you feel confident in your knowledge of object oriented design, data structures, & algorithms and your ability to grow your skills over time, please apply! We want to connect with developers who are eager to work in a highly collaborative team and add to Wayfair’s culture. You will have the opportunity to work on one of the following teams: sharing ideas, collaborating to improve them, and being a part of the full software development process. Our engineers are enthusiastic problem solvers and our teams are highly collaborative.
What You’ll Do:
- Own the full Data Science/Machine Learning lifecycle from conception to prototyping, testing, deploying, and measuring its overall business value
- Develop and scale state-of-the-art machine learning methods and quantitative models to address core business problems
- Integrate your algorithmic solutions into our technical platforms to run at scale and directly change the experiences of customers on our site
- Drive measurable business value collaborating with business teams to change the course of Wayfair
- Pilot projects using new open source tools and packages to enable novel machine learning techniques across the company
- Uncover deep insights hidden in our vast repository of raw data and provide tactical guidance on how to act on findings
- Use data to improve the decision-making of our employees, and ultimately, to enhance the experience of our customers and our suppliers
- Work with a team of friendly and motivated scientists working together to build novel solutions to business problems
- Collaborate with ML Scientists and software engineers to create maintainable, scalable and debuggable code by bringing strong software development practices
- Drive any potential scientific publications based on the results in major Data Science and Machine Learning conferences or workshops
What You’ll Need:
Basic Qualifications
- 1-3 years of transferable experience in a corporate environment, including internship and co-op experience
- Masters degree in a quantitative field (Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Computer Science, Statistics/Biostatistics, Economics, Physics, Robotics, Operations Research, etc.)
- Proficient knowledge of structured programming language(s) (e.g. Python)
- Experience with languages and tools relevant to data science, including Pytorch/TF, Github, Pyspark, Docker, SQL, GCP
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex AI concepts to non-technical stakeholders while collaborating across teams
- Demonstrated ability to quickly learn new tools and techniques in a fast-paced, evolving environment, while managing multiple priorities with a high level of attention to detail and staying current with the latest ML research
Preferred Qualifications:
- Familiarity with regression and machine learning techniques, such as supervised/unsupervised learning, recommendation systems, reinforcement learning, deep learning, etc.
- An affinity for data along with experience leveraging statistics and regression analysis
- Intuitive sense of how quantitative and technical work aligns closely with business priorities and business value
- Familiarity with data structures, algorithms, OOP, and programming in a team environment
- Quick learner with an analytical approach to solving problems as part of a team who has strong communication skills
- Ability to thrive in a dynamic environment where there can be degrees of ambiguity
- Ability to effectively work with technical leads: ability to synthesize conclusions for non-experts and desire to influence technical decision
- Hands-on experience with large language models (e.g., GPT, BERT, Transformers) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques, and fine-tuning LLM models to address specific business challenges
- Solid understanding of natural language processing methods and traditional machine learning techniques to effectively tackle diverse problems
- Professional coding expertise in languages like Python and R, proficiency in SQL, and experience with data visualization tools; skilled in using ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and implementing CI/CD, containerization, and version control best practices
- Proven track record of delivering successful machine learning projects from conception to production, demonstrating strong deployment, problem-solving, and maintenance skills
- Deep understanding of data engineering concepts with experience in building scalable data pipelines for collecting, processing, and transforming data
Why You’ll Love Wayfair:
Benefits & Perks
- Full health benefits available (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA) on day one for eligible employees
- 24/7 access to mental, financial, physical and emotional wellbeing support, plus an enhanced offering of therapy and coaching
- Automatic enrollment into Basic Life and Accidental Death & Disability Insurance
- 401(k) matching with immediate vesting
- Paid Parental Leave, Surrogacy & Adoption Reimbursement and Caregiver Services
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Wayfair Employee Discount
- Gym/Fitness Discounts
- Exclusive access to thousands of perks & discounts through BenefitHub
- Yearly match up to $500 for personal donations made by employees to registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits
Purpose & Inclusion at Wayfair:
At Wayfair, we pride ourselves on fostering an environment where every individual experiences a fair and equitable employee journey. We are committed to developing targeted resources that raise awareness around inclusion and eliminate barriers, ensuring Wayfair provides a fair and inclusive workplace experience for everyone.
Social Impact & Responsibility:
At Wayfair, we focus on helping people on their journey to home - specifically those who have lost their way from home. We do this by leveraging our best assets, such as collaborating with leading nonprofit organizations, coordinating in-kind product donations, empowering our employees to get involved through paid volunteer time off programs, and encouraging our customers to donate. This multi-faceted approach allows us to support communities in need in authentic ways that align with Wayfair's broader mission of helping everyone, anywhere create their sense of home.
Salary Range: $125,000 - $145,000 per year
Note: This is an ongoing role that we hire for regularly, so some postings may appear to have been open for a while. If you see this job posted, we are actively hiring and encourage you to apply.
This is a Boston based opportunity with a 3 day in office expectation (Tuesday - Thursday) with 2 days remote (Monday and Friday).
Wayfair is continuing to expand our commitment to hiring and supporting talent early in their careers, focusing on filling opportunities with recent graduates who have 0-3 years of work experience. We are continually recruiting candidates for this position on a rolling basis as we have a high volume of openings that become available.
Who We Are:
Wayfair is on a mission to find the most talented engineers entering the tech world! Do you love innovating and creating new tools from scratch? We’re looking for engineers who love Wayfair is looking for candidates who are passionate about programming, and have strong core fundamentals. If you feel confident in your knowledge of object oriented design, data structures, & algorithms and your ability to grow your skills over time, please apply! We want to connect with developers who are eager to work in a highly collaborative team and add to Wayfair’s culture. You will have the opportunity to work on one of the following teams: sharing ideas, collaborating to improve them, and being a part of the full software development process. Our engineers are enthusiastic problem solvers and our teams are highly collaborative.
What You’ll Do:
- Own the full Data Science/Machine Learning lifecycle from conception to prototyping, testing, deploying, and measuring its overall business value
- Develop and scale state-of-the-art machine learning methods and quantitative models to address core business problems
- Integrate your algorithmic solutions into our technical platforms to run at scale and directly change the experiences of customers on our site
- Drive measurable business value collaborating with business teams to change the course of Wayfair
- Pilot projects using new open source tools and packages to enable novel machine learning techniques across the company
- Uncover deep insights hidden in our vast repository of raw data and provide tactical guidance on how to act on findings
- Use data to improve the decision-making of our employees, and ultimately, to enhance the experience of our customers and our suppliers
- Work with a team of friendly and motivated scientists working together to build novel solutions to business problems
- Collaborate with ML Scientists and software engineers to create maintainable, scalable and debuggable code by bringing strong software development practices
- Drive any potential scientific publications based on the results in major Data Science and Machine Learning conferences or workshops
What You’ll Need:
Basic Qualifications
- 1-3 years of transferable experience in a corporate environment, including internship and co-op experience
- Masters degree in a quantitative field (Mathematics, Science, Engineering, Computer Science, Statistics/Biostatistics, Economics, Physics, Robotics, Operations Research, etc.)
- Proficient knowledge of structured programming language(s) (e.g. Python)
- Experience with languages and tools relevant to data science, including Pytorch/TF, Github, Pyspark, Docker, SQL, GCP
- Excellent communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate complex AI concepts to non-technical stakeholders while collaborating across teams
- Demonstrated ability to quickly learn new tools and techniques in a fast-paced, evolving environment, while managing multiple priorities with a high level of attention to detail and staying current with the latest ML research
Preferred Qualifications:
- Familiarity with regression and machine learning techniques, such as supervised/unsupervised learning, recommendation systems, reinforcement learning, deep learning, etc.
- An affinity for data along with experience leveraging statistics and regression analysis
- Intuitive sense of how quantitative and technical work aligns closely with business priorities and business value
- Familiarity with data structures, algorithms, OOP, and programming in a team environment
- Quick learner with an analytical approach to solving problems as part of a team who has strong communication skills
- Ability to thrive in a dynamic environment where there can be degrees of ambiguity
- Ability to effectively work with technical leads: ability to synthesize conclusions for non-experts and desire to influence technical decision
- Hands-on experience with large language models (e.g., GPT, BERT, Transformers) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) techniques, and fine-tuning LLM models to address specific business challenges
- Solid understanding of natural language processing methods and traditional machine learning techniques to effectively tackle diverse problems
- Professional coding expertise in languages like Python and R, proficiency in SQL, and experience with data visualization tools; skilled in using ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch) and implementing CI/CD, containerization, and version control best practices
- Proven track record of delivering successful machine learning projects from conception to production, demonstrating strong deployment, problem-solving, and maintenance skills
- Deep understanding of data engineering concepts with experience in building scalable data pipelines for collecting, processing, and transforming data
Why You’ll Love Wayfair:
Benefits & Perks
- Full health benefits available (Medical, Dental, Vision, HSA/FSA) on day one for eligible employees
- 24/7 access to mental, financial, physical and emotional wellbeing support, plus an enhanced offering of therapy and coaching
- Automatic enrollment into Basic Life and Accidental Death & Disability Insurance
- 401(k) matching with immediate vesting
- Paid Parental Leave, Surrogacy & Adoption Reimbursement and Caregiver Services
- Tuition Reimbursement
- Wayfair Employee Discount
- Gym/Fitness Discounts
- Exclusive access to thousands of perks & discounts through BenefitHub
- Yearly match up to $500 for personal donations made by employees to registered 501(c)(3) nonprofits
Purpose & Inclusion at Wayfair:
At Wayfair, we pride ourselves on fostering an environment where every individual experiences a fair and equitable employee journey. We are committed to developing targeted resources that raise awareness around inclusion and eliminate barriers, ensuring Wayfair provides a fair and inclusive workplace experience for everyone.
Social Impact & Responsibility:
At Wayfair, we focus on helping people on their journey to home - specifically those who have lost their way from home. We do this by leveraging our best assets, such as collaborating with leading nonprofit organizations, coordinating in-kind product donations, empowering our employees to get involved through paid volunteer time off programs, and encouraging our customers to donate. This multi-faceted approach allows us to support communities in need in authentic ways that align with Wayfair's broader mission of helping everyone, anywhere create their sense of home.
See all 758+ OPT ML Engineer Jobs
Sign up for free to unlock all listings, filter by visa type, and get alerts for new OPT ML Engineer Jobs.
Get Access To All JobsTips for Finding OPT Sponsorship as a ML Engineer
Target STEM-designated programs from the start
Confirm your degree program carries a STEM designation before applying. ML Engineer roles almost universally qualify for the 24-month STEM OPT extension, giving you three years total to build experience and secure H-1B visa sponsorship.
Prioritize companies with an active H-1B filing history
Search USCIS and DOL disclosure data for employers who have sponsored ML Engineers before. A company with zero prior H-1B filings in technical roles is a real risk when your OPT clock is running.
Raise sponsorship in the offer negotiation stage, not earlier
Wait until you have an offer in hand before discussing H-1B sponsorship. Raising it during screening signals uncertainty and can eliminate you early, especially when competing against candidates who don't need authorization.
Frame your ML research as direct production value
Recruiters at sponsoring companies care about deployment, not just experimentation. Connect your thesis work, research projects, or academic publications to real-world applications like recommendation systems, NLP pipelines, or computer vision at scale.
Apply to Series B and later startups, not just large tech firms
Growth-stage companies often sponsor ML Engineers because the talent pool is thin and the visa cost is a small fraction of the role's value. Many OPT students overlook this tier and limit themselves to big tech.
File your STEM OPT extension well before your initial OPT expires
USCIS recommends filing at least 90 days before expiration. A timely filing preserves your work authorization automatically during processing. Missing the window creates gaps that can disqualify you from roles mid-interview process.
ML Engineer OPT: Frequently Asked Questions
Can I work as an ML Engineer on OPT without H-1B sponsorship?
Yes. OPT authorizes full-time employment in a role directly related to your degree, so you can work as an ML Engineer immediately after graduation. The H-1B becomes relevant once your OPT period ends. If your degree is STEM-designated, you have up to 36 months total before needing a different visa status.
Do ML Engineer roles typically qualify for the STEM OPT extension?
Almost all ML Engineer positions qualify, because the role requires applied knowledge from a STEM field and the work is directly tied to that degree. The key requirement is that your academic program holds a STEM designation, not the job title itself. Degrees in computer science, electrical engineering, statistics, and data science all commonly qualify.
Where can I find ML Engineer jobs that are open to OPT students?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for F-1 OPT and visa-sponsored candidates. You can browse ML Engineer listings filtered by sponsorship willingness, which saves significant time compared to applying broadly and discovering late in the process that a company won't sponsor. It's the most direct way to focus your search on employers who are already open to hiring international talent.
Does my ML Engineer role need to match my degree field exactly to count toward OPT?
It needs to be directly related to your degree, but an exact title match isn't required. A computer science graduate working as an ML Engineer satisfies the requirement clearly. If your degree is in a neighboring field like applied mathematics or statistics, you'll want to document how the role draws on that academic background in case your DSO or USCIS asks.
What happens to my OPT if my ML Engineer job ends before I find a new one?
You have a cumulative 90-day unemployment allowance during your OPT period, and an additional 60 days during the STEM extension, for a total of 150 days. These periods don't reset between jobs. You must report any employment gap to your DSO promptly, and your next role still needs to be directly related to your degree field.