Principal Machine Learning Engineer Visa Sponsorship Jobs in Washington
Principal machine learning engineer visa sponsorship jobs in Washington are concentrated in Seattle's tech corridor, where companies like Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Meta operate large AI research divisions. Bellevue and Redmond also host active ML teams. Washington's dense concentration of hyperscale tech employers makes it one of the most active states for senior ML engineering sponsorship.
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Get Access To All JobsINTRODUCTION
Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.
The Company operates Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world, and Specs Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to making computing more human, in addition to Bitmoji, Saturn, and other digital services.
Snap Engineering teams build fun and technically sophisticated products that reach hundreds of millions of Snapchatters around the world, every day. We’re deeply committed to the well-being of everyone in our global community, which is why our values are at the root of everything we do. We move fast, with precision, and always execute with privacy at the forefront.
We’re looking for a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to join the Platform Integrity Engineering team at Snap!
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
What you’ll do:
- Design, implement, and scale critical machine learning models and systems to protect Snapchatters around the globe from harmful content and bad actors, promote a healthy content ecosystem through effective moderation, and ensure regulatory compliance
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to set and align on machine learning strategies to meet company objectives
- Stay up-to-date with the latest technology in machine learning and apply this knowledge to tackle complex problems in innovative ways
- Collaborate with leadership to up-level the ML tech stack and improve the performance of the organization
- Work across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver the solutions needed to build innovative products or services
- Advocate for and apply best practices when it comes to availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management
- Provide technical direction that influences the entire ML community
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES
- Strong understanding of machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and LLMs/VLMs approaches and algorithms, and their applications to Trust and Safety, Content Moderation, and Content Quality domains
- Experience setting the direction for a team whose primary output is online machine learning models to proactively detect harmful content and bad actors, moderate content supply to promote a healthy content ecosystem, and automate moderation tasks with high precision
- Ability to design, train, and optimize advanced machine learning models
- Excellent programming and software design skills
- Ability to proactively learn new concepts and technology and apply them at work
- Skilled at solving ambiguous problems and leading and executing complex technical initiatives
- Strong collaboration and mentorship skills
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's in a technical field such as computer science, mathematics, statistics or equivalent years of experience
- 9+ years of post-Bachelor’s machine learning experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field + 8+ years of post-grad ML experience; or a PhD in a related technical field + 5+ years of post-grad ML experience
- 2+ years of experience with technical leadership or acting as the domain-expert to a technical organization
- Experience developing and shipping performant and scalable machine learning models
- Experience with TensorFlow, PyTorch, or related deep learning frameworks
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in online safety and integrity, including Trust and Safety, Content Moderation, and Content Quality
- Experience in developing multimodal models and LLMs/VLMs in harmful content detection, and utilizing the state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to detect bad actors with features such as social, time sequence, and user behavioral signals
- Advanced degree in a related field such as machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, or mathematics
- Experience partnering with cross-functional executives and management across a globally distributed organization and exercising sound judgment
- Track record of delivery in rapidly changing, highly collaborative, multi-site, multi-stakeholder environments
- Experience working with a diverse group of engineers
- Experience contributing to AI publications
"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a “default together” approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week.
At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, where applicable).
OUR BENEFITS
Snap Inc. is its own community, so we’ve got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!
COMPENSATION
In the United States, work locations are assigned a pay zone which determines the salary range for the position. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. The starting pay may be negotiable within the salary range for the position. These pay zones may be modified in the future.
Zone A (CA, WA, NYC):
The base salary range for this position is $276,000-$414,000 annually.
Zone B:
The base salary range for this position is $262,000-$393,000 annually.
Zone C:
The base salary range for this position is $235,000-$352,000 annually.
This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.
INTRODUCTION
Snap Inc is a technology company. We believe the camera presents the greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. Snap contributes to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together.
The Company operates Snapchat, a visual messaging app that enhances your relationships with friends, family, and the world, and Specs Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary dedicated to making computing more human, in addition to Bitmoji, Saturn, and other digital services.
Snap Engineering teams build fun and technically sophisticated products that reach hundreds of millions of Snapchatters around the world, every day. We’re deeply committed to the well-being of everyone in our global community, which is why our values are at the root of everything we do. We move fast, with precision, and always execute with privacy at the forefront.
We’re looking for a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to join the Platform Integrity Engineering team at Snap!
ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES
What you’ll do:
- Design, implement, and scale critical machine learning models and systems to protect Snapchatters around the globe from harmful content and bad actors, promote a healthy content ecosystem through effective moderation, and ensure regulatory compliance
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to set and align on machine learning strategies to meet company objectives
- Stay up-to-date with the latest technology in machine learning and apply this knowledge to tackle complex problems in innovative ways
- Collaborate with leadership to up-level the ML tech stack and improve the performance of the organization
- Work across teams to understand product requirements, evaluate trade-offs, and deliver the solutions needed to build innovative products or services
- Advocate for and apply best practices when it comes to availability, scalability, operational excellence, and cost management
- Provide technical direction that influences the entire ML community
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS & ABILITIES
- Strong understanding of machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, natural language processing, and LLMs/VLMs approaches and algorithms, and their applications to Trust and Safety, Content Moderation, and Content Quality domains
- Experience setting the direction for a team whose primary output is online machine learning models to proactively detect harmful content and bad actors, moderate content supply to promote a healthy content ecosystem, and automate moderation tasks with high precision
- Ability to design, train, and optimize advanced machine learning models
- Excellent programming and software design skills
- Ability to proactively learn new concepts and technology and apply them at work
- Skilled at solving ambiguous problems and leading and executing complex technical initiatives
- Strong collaboration and mentorship skills
MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
- Bachelor's in a technical field such as computer science, mathematics, statistics or equivalent years of experience
- 9+ years of post-Bachelor’s machine learning experience; or a Master’s degree in a technical field + 8+ years of post-grad ML experience; or a PhD in a related technical field + 5+ years of post-grad ML experience
- 2+ years of experience with technical leadership or acting as the domain-expert to a technical organization
- Experience developing and shipping performant and scalable machine learning models
- Experience with TensorFlow, PyTorch, or related deep learning frameworks
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
- Experience in online safety and integrity, including Trust and Safety, Content Moderation, and Content Quality
- Experience in developing multimodal models and LLMs/VLMs in harmful content detection, and utilizing the state-of-the-art machine learning techniques to detect bad actors with features such as social, time sequence, and user behavioral signals
- Advanced degree in a related field such as machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, or mathematics
- Experience partnering with cross-functional executives and management across a globally distributed organization and exercising sound judgment
- Track record of delivery in rapidly changing, highly collaborative, multi-site, multi-stakeholder environments
- Experience working with a diverse group of engineers
- Experience contributing to AI publications
"Default Together" Policy at Snap: At Snap Inc. we believe that being together in person helps us build our culture faster, reinforce our values, and serve our community, customers and partners better through dynamic collaboration. To reflect this, we practice a “default together” approach and expect our team members to work in an office 4+ days per week.
At Snap, we believe that having a team of diverse backgrounds and voices working together will enable us to create innovative products that improve the way people live and communicate. Snap is proud to be an equal opportunity employer, and committed to providing employment opportunities regardless of race, religious creed, color, national origin, ancestry, physical disability, mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, marital status, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding, age, sexual orientation, military or veteran status, or any other protected classification, in accordance with applicable federal, state, and local laws. EOE, including disability/vets.
We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with applicable law (by example, the requirements of the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance and the Los Angeles Fair Chance Initiative for Hiring, where applicable).
OUR BENEFITS
Snap Inc. is its own community, so we’ve got your back! We do our best to make sure you and your loved ones have everything you need to be happy and healthy, on your own terms. Our benefits are built around your needs and include paid parental leave, comprehensive medical coverage, emotional and mental health support programs, and compensation packages that let you share in Snap’s long-term success!
COMPENSATION
In the United States, work locations are assigned a pay zone which determines the salary range for the position. The successful candidate’s starting pay will be determined based on job-related skills, experience, qualifications, work location, and market conditions. The starting pay may be negotiable within the salary range for the position. These pay zones may be modified in the future.
Zone A (CA, WA, NYC):
The base salary range for this position is $276,000-$414,000 annually.
Zone B:
The base salary range for this position is $262,000-$393,000 annually.
Zone C:
The base salary range for this position is $235,000-$352,000 annually.
This position is eligible for equity in the form of RSUs.
Principal Machine Learning Engineer Job Roles in Washington
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Search Principal Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in WashingtonPrincipal Machine Learning Engineer Jobs in Washington: Frequently Asked Questions
Which companies in Washington sponsor visas for principal machine learning engineers?
Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Apple maintain substantial ML engineering teams in the Seattle metro area and actively sponsor visas for senior roles. Beyond hyperscalers, companies like Expedia, Zillow, Tableau, and F5 Networks also file for ML engineering positions. AI-focused startups in Seattle's South Lake Union and Bellevue corridors are increasingly active sponsors as their research teams scale.
Which visa types realistically apply to principal machine learning engineers in Washington?
The H-1B visa is the most common path, covering principal machine learning engineer roles as a specialty occupation requiring a directly related bachelor's degree or higher. The H-1B1 visa applies to Chilean and Singaporean nationals. E-3 visa covers Australian nationals in the same specialty occupation category. TN visa applies to Canadian and Mexican nationals whose duties fit the Engineer profession under USMCA. EB-2 and EB-3 green card paths are also available through PERM labor certification for permanent roles.
How to find principal machine learning engineer visa sponsorship jobs in Washington?
Migrate Mate is built specifically for this search: it lists Washington employers with verified sponsorship history for ML engineering roles, so you can focus on companies already familiar with the process. Because principal ML engineer positions are senior and often filled through targeted outreach, filtering by verified sponsors in Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond significantly narrows the field to realistic opportunities rather than roles where sponsorship is an afterthought.
Which cities in Washington have the most principal machine learning engineer sponsorship jobs?
Seattle accounts for the largest share, anchored by Amazon's South Lake Union campus and Google's Kirkland and Seattle offices. Redmond is home to Microsoft's main campus, which houses some of its largest ML and AI teams. Bellevue has grown considerably as Amazon and other tech firms expanded eastside operations. Outside the Seattle metro, Spokane has a smaller but emerging tech presence, though the overwhelming majority of senior ML sponsorship activity remains in King County.
Are there state-specific factors that affect visa sponsorship for principal machine learning engineers in Washington?
Washington's lack of a state income tax is a draw for high-earning ML engineers and can make total compensation comparisons more favorable than in California. The University of Washington's Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering produces graduate talent that feeds directly into local ML teams, creating established pipelines between academia and industry sponsors. Washington's concentration of cloud infrastructure employers also means many principal ML roles involve distributed systems work, which strengthens specialty occupation documentation for visa petitions.
What is the prevailing wage for sponsored principal machine learning engineer jobs in Washington?
U.S. employers sponsoring a visa must pay at least the prevailing wage, which is what workers in the same role, area, and experience level typically earn. The Department of Labor sets this rate to make sure companies aren't hiring foreign workers simply because they'd accept lower pay than a U.S. worker. It varies by job title, location, and experience. You can look up current prevailing wage rates for any occupation and location using the OFLC Wage Search page.