My experience is that it’s a winner take all field. A small minority of candidates receive huge compensation. They have good degrees and publications. Generally they make 25-50% more than a similar level vanilla software engineer. This is especially the case at top tech companies.
If you aren’t one of those, being a regular swe is much better. A lot of ml roles are using canned models, and increasingly so. Many data science insights are ignored by the business, or the statistics don’t work on such a biased sample.
If you aren’t one of those, being a regular swe is much better. A lot of ml roles are using canned models, and increasingly so. Many data science insights are ignored by the business, or the statistics don’t work on such a biased sample.