From my experience, there are plenty of teams in FANG that will hire you as a backend developer in a ML team assuming you can pass their interviews. 90% of the work in these teams is not core ML and is more mundane work supporting these models, such as data piping, cleaning, feature generation, experimentation, and real-time serving. You'll get plenty of experience in working directly with ML systems.
The jump to core ML is a bit trickier. Competing with people with PhD's is a drag. Wish people could also give me some tips there.
The jump to core ML is a bit trickier. Competing with people with PhD's is a drag. Wish people could also give me some tips there.